Our Savior Lutheran, Pastor Eberhart
Third sunday after epiphany
8 Sun 23, 2005, 10:30.
Col 1:13-20
Image of the invisible God.
Is 9:1-4-Parallels Matt 4:12-23
1 Cor 1:10-17-No divisions. Chloe. Apollos.
Matthew 4:12-23
Meet=fitting, proper.
Childrens' sermon:
Sometimes cheap fishing methods work better than hi tech, fancy fishing equipment. A kid can fish with a piece of rope and catch a fish when adults fumble with it.
Sermon:
The disciples left their nets. Did they know what was coming? It's that kind of text. Follow me. They immediately followed Jesus. Guilt complex, easy. Fireball preachers would say `they just followed him. Why can't you?' You can't procrastinate with your relationship with Christ. Jesus is a man of decisive action. Not talk, but action. Be active. John and Luke help us out. Andrew was a disciple of John the baptist. Lamb of God. Andrew interviewed the man, called his brothers, two disciples. Second disciple is john, so not mentioned. John was an egotist until after the resurrection. Didn't change until he walked and talked with Jesus. Jesus borrowed his boat and used it as a pulpit. Go fishing. "Not worthy" when they got the big haul. "Make fishers of men." Amazing they fished at all, especially in the dark, and in the dark of men's lives. Isaiah came up with the quote "the people in darkness sat." Christians take the light out. Repent. If you go and tell someone to repent, you'll be unliked. Not easy. Pastor Bill was stranded in an airport, and a person started talking to him, complaining about how life was going wrong. "Broke, no job, can't get a break, etc." Listened for awhile, asked questions. "Were you a good husband?" Nope. "Good father?" "Too busy, let mother be the parent." "How about your job? Were you the best worker?" "I told the boss to shove it too many times." "How did you spend your money?" "I often lived beyond my means." He blamed anyone but himself. He had control over the situation. He needed to repent. Kilmer was teaching sunday school and asked the kids what the meaning of repentence is. A girl said, "When you're sorry enough to quit." Repentence is when you want to be free and not in bondage. Want to be free. See the cross and resurrection. Want the light in our darkness. Can't take the light until you take responsibilty for what's wrong in our lives. A man had a spiritual experience. "I'm really going to be different." he said. "be at church every sunday." He was an unscrupulous business person, and people lost money because of him. A pastor asked him if he'd give the money back. "We're not talking religion now, we're talking business." There's lots of darkness out there that needs Christ. Middle class church and untouchables. Some people don't want to connect. Commuter churches. New Jersey pastor-congregation reached out into the community. Some people were in gangs. Rough people. Big Mark met Ella, the matriarch of the church. Mark called her names. She told the pastor. "He's gotta go, and the people with them. We won't have that in our church." Pastor told her a story. Mark watched her dad murder his mom and dismember her. So he's hurt and sick with sorrow that he reaches out in anger. She thought about it and said, "I guess I'll just get cussed then." One of those stories where you ask, "how does it end?" But pastor doesn't know. Jesus said it wasn't going to be easy to fish in the dark. We have to take responsibility for our own lives. We have the light of his forgiveness. The disciples trained with Jesus three years. Dawsett, a doctor, experienced a Japanese prison camp. The men were dying from dehydration or disease from contaminated water. Dawsett remembered reading that water inside upright coconut is sterile. He put coconut water in IV's and healed them. The root systems of the tree can convert water. To clean water. Water of life(like in dune). Jesus makes us part of that. "Don't have gift of evangelism." "I'm not good at that." Those are excuses. An old farmboy went to his basement for postatoes. Potatoes in the dark don't sprout. His wife apparently hung a kettle from a beam, and the kettle reflected the sun to the dark corner of the basement to make the potatoes sprout. You may not be a great light, but you reflect the light of christ to any dark corner of the world.