The Rev. Patricia A. Gillespie
Jeremiah 3:21-42
Psalm 130
1 Corinthians 7:17-23
Mark 1:14-20
What would you do if some stranger walked up to you at your workplace, or in the grocery store, and said, "Follow me!"?
We wouldn't go, would we? It's not safe. It's downright crazy.
But of course, that was then and this is now. And that was Jesus and we don't see much of him today. So then, what if the Living God (however you imagine God) walked up to you at your workplace, or in the grocery store and said, "Follow me!"?
Would you go? That's probably worse than the stranger: it's more dangerous and even crazier. God doesn't do that kind of stuff, does God? God, of course, behaves properly and only approaches us gently and lovingly when we come here for worship.
AAARRNNNGH (or however you spell that rude buzzer sound). WRONG ANSWER!
The God we see in the Bible seldom behaves "properly" at least not by our standards. And God has a odd habit of showing up in the places we least expect to find God. Maybe today God is visiting some guy in a fish house on a frozen Minnesota lake, and saying, "Follow me! .... I'll make you fish for people." That should be easy enough. After all, you can already walk on water here.
Is that the kind of thing that got you here today? -- God showing up in the middle of your life and telling not asking, mind you, but telling you to follow? Probably not for most of us. And yet we're here, somehow maybe expecting to meet God.
Many of us come here hoping to be fed somehow. We're hungry for God. Some are carrying hidden hurts and broken hearts, hoping to be nourished, strengthened, and healed. Some are empty, aching, and lonely inside, hoping to be filled and loved. Some come to celebrate a gift, a loving friend or a joyous event, and hope to feast and give thanks. Some come out of habit, not even sure why.
But just what happens when we come here to worship? "Liturgy" happens. The word "liturgy" comes from two Greek works meaning "work" and "people." Liturgy literally means "the work of the people." Before the church adopted the word it usually meant a public benefactor. "Liturgy" meant what we might call "philanthropy." A giver. Someone who made an offering for the public good.
Today when we talk about "liturgy" we usually mean a service of Word and Sacrament. Our usual Sunday liturgy has two parts: The first part is the "Service of the Word" in which we hear God's word for us, and we respond in prayer. The second part is the sacramental part, the "Holy Eucharist" in which we give thanks and are fed. "Eucharist" is about giving thanks for what is, literally, a "good gift." ("Eu" meaning good, and "charism" meaning gift.")
We talk about the real presence' of Christ in the Eucharist, about how something holy happens to ordinary bread and wine. Those common things become a sacrament "An outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace." While we might use big words like "transubstantiation" or "memorialism," In reality how God's real presence' happens is a mystery. But somehow we know that God is really with us in God's Word as we hear it and respond and at the Communion when God's people gather. That is the liturgy the work of the people. And the two parts Word and Sacrament are united in the middle at the offering.
The offering is the key, the transition, the connection. It is both part of our response to God's word and part of the "outward and visible" sign of the sacrament. The offering is central in our liturgy. And yes, I do mean the money, not just the bread and wine.
In church and everywhere else we use our money to show what is important to us. We work hard to get it. It is a symbol of who we are. That money is an offering of ourselves a sign that we offer "our selves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice." That's why the money goes on the altar as a symbol of our offering of ourselves.
So the liturgy goes like this: We hear the good news. We turn to God. We offer ourselves. God accepts us. (What a miracle!) God feeds us with an offering of God's own self And God transforms us, makes us followers who fish for people. And God sends us out to do as God has just done to feed others, to give ourselves to others.
The liturgy is, then, not so much about being fed as it is about giving. We hear the words "Take, bless, break, and give." That's what happens to the bread. That's what happened to Christ. That's what happens to us. It's about giving, about offering. God give us the Word. We offer ourselves to God. God offers Godself to us.
This offering business of God's is really weird economics. It makes no business sense at all. It's like we put in a dime and get back a dollar. ?? We sit like little kids watching the plate go by and being tempted to grab some, and then this crazy God reaches in and hands us the money to use however we want. Yet if we choose to follow God, and to do as God does, then we take that dollar and give it away, no strings attached. And the offering, the good gift, grows.
That's what kind of fishy business this fishing for people' is. That's what the gift we receive here on Sunday morning is like it's a gift to give away. That's liturgy, the work of God's people.
"Return and I will heal you." God says. When we turn to God and are fed, we receive a gift no strings attached. God gives us new life. Now if you want to, you can take it and run. It's a freebie.
Yet God is still walking onto our lives and telling us, "Follow me." -- "Keep moving. Follow the leader. Do as I do." That means: Hear God's word. Offer your dime. Get your dollar. Give it away. Take, break, bless, give. It's the work of the people, the liturgy. It's the fishy business of fishing for people.
God gives us new life and tells us to pass it on.