First Lutheran Church + September 6, 2020
Exodus 3:1-12; Mark 4:14-20
“Holy Distractions”
Exodus 3:1-12
Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
7 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10 So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”
Mark 4:14-20
14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
16 As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.
“Holy Distractions”
A number of years ago I was at a clergy event listening to the Rev. Mark Hansen, who at the time was the Presiding Bishop of the ELCA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, the church body to which we - First Lutheran Church - belong. At one point he said something that really got everyone’s attention, he urged us to never proclaim that God has a plan for someone. Those words kind of took some of us by surprise. Surely God has a plan for our lives. That’s something we hear rather often, and something we’ve been taught to trust and believe. Hearing those curious words, we all shifted in our seats, leaned forward, and began to listen more carefully. Bishop Hansen continued, “Never proclaim that God has a plan, - that is a ‘specific’ plan; a plan with the details all worked out; a plan that is easy to follow; a plan, a destiny, that can’t be avoided.”
Bishop Hansen went on to remind us that God created each of us in a great freedom, even an uncertain freedom; for a life filled with choices, options, and different ways that each of us might live out our calling, live out our vocation to love and serve others, find our place in the Kingdom. Hansen declared, “Our God is a God of improvisation, not a God with specific plans.”
You see, God has ideas for each of us, God has uniquely gifted each of us, God has hopes and dreams for each of us; but to that end God is not a puppet master; pulling on the strings, moving us around the stage, orchestrating all of life. Instead, the “God of Improvisation” waits patiently for opportunities to grab our attention, to catch our eye, for that moment of synchronicity, maybe even serendipity, and perhaps even “holy distraction.” And in those holy moments, those moments when everything falls into place, God is ready to capture our imaginations, turn us aside from our intention, and coax us off that well beaten path and down that path that is less traveled. And once we begin wandering down this road, things begin to happen, God things, Gospel things, things that change everything, things that awaken our calling, things that call us, not necessarily into our destiny, but into the destiny of the Kingdom.
That’s certainly true of the stories that are before us today, the story of the calling of Moses as found in Exodus, and the story of the calling of the first disciples as told in the Gospel of Mark.
Let’s begin by taking a closer look at the calling of Moses. Moses is walking along, tending his sheep, when something off the beaten path catches his eye, out of the corner of his eye he sees this bush, “and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.” And this causes Moses to “turn aside,” and once he “turns aside,” God speaks, “Moses, Moses!” It’s interesting to note that it’s not until Moses “turns aside” that God speaks. It’s not until he leaves the beaten path, it’s not until he changes directions, it’s not until he alters his plan, that God calls out to him. It’s not until something catches his eye, it’s not until something “distracts” him, it’s not until then, and only then, that Moses receives his great calling in life.
In fact, you might say Moses’ whole life begins with a distraction of the eye. Moses was born at a time when the Egyptians killed every Hebrew male child by throwing them into the Nile. Moses’ mother hid her newborn child as long as she could, and then perhaps in a desperate act of improvisation, instead of throwing him into the Nile she placed him in a basket and set him afloat down the mighty river, hoping against hope, that his fate might be different. And thankfully the daughter of Pharaoh came down to the river to bathe that day and in the midst of her bathing she was distracted, perhaps it was out of the corner of her eye that she saw a basket floating in the river, a curious site, something worth investigating, and when she opened it, she saw the child. The child was crying, and she took pity on the child, brought him into her home and family, made him her own.
What if she would have never looked up? What if the basket never caught her eye? What if she had not been curious? What if she was in a hurry, her mind filled with everything she had to do that day?
In today’s Gospel Jesus is passing along the sea of Galilee, he is passing by all the fishermen, hard at work in their boats, bringing in the catch for the day. Jesus is fresh out of the wilderness, filled with a vision, suddenly on a mission from God. I can’t help but imagine that as he walked along, he was in deep thought, staring down at the path and wondering to himself, “How am I supposed to do this great and overwhelming thing that God has asked of me?” And then as he passes by the Sea of Galilee, something catches his eyes, he looks up from the road, his thoughts take a moment of rest; as he begins to notice all these guys hard at work on their fishing boats, working with their nets pulling in the catch, gathering up all the fish. And so it is that he has a crazy idea, maybe they can help?
As Jesus passed by, I wonder how many different people were at work that day, how many people were fishing, how many boats were in the water, how many nets were being cast. And as Jesus looks out upon them, I wonder how many of those folks just ignored him, how many were just too busy to even notice him, how many never looked up from their work. Eventually, Simon Peter makes the mistake of looking up and catching the eye of this man who just emerged from the desert full of the spirit. And then, as each took notice of the other, perhaps in a twinkling of an eye, Simon Peter was distracted from his work long enough, to stumble upon the kingdom of God and his great calling life; when in a moment of “brilliance” Jesus came up with that great line, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” There’s something about being in the right place at the right time, being awake and aware in the right place at the right time.
Today we are reminded that the old adage is true, “Life is ultimately not about the destination, it’s about the interruptions, the distractions, and the detours along the way.” Today we are all reminded to avoid always keeping our heads down remaining solely focused on the road ahead of us, the well beaten path that has become our goal, the route that has defined our expectations, the temptation to avoid distractions that might lead us off the main road. And instead to remain open to the God who likes to improvise, the work of the Spirit that is always unexpected, and the Christ who is waiting to catch us out of the corner of our eye; that we might be led astray, led off that main road, and into that place where God awaits us. For that may be the place where the Gospel will really take hold and lead us into the good work that God would have us do with our one great life.
I imagine that nearly all of us had some plans when this year 2020 began. Some of the plans were probably ordinary, and some of the plans might have been extraordinary. And I’m quite sure that none of us planned to go into quarantine sometime around March and remain there for months. The dictionary defines distraction as “a thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else.” I believe we can say that the Coronavirus has definitely distracted us from nearly all the things we had planned to do this year. So, we’ve been distracted, pulled off the main road, and turned away from our planned destinations. I can’t help but wonder … how might God use this opportunity to suddenly catch our eye and find a new way into our life, find a new way into our life with the Kingdom; creating opportunities for us to renew our faith, re-form our life, and repurpose our service.
May we all be made awake to the God who is improvising even now. May we be blessed with eyes that are open to distractions, and ears that hear a great calling. And may we be filled with “the courage” necessary to “turn aside,” and go in a new direction with a different plan.
Be distracted, learn to improvise, and in all these things, continue to love as you have been loved. Amen.