This is the message that I gave at the Neon United Methodist Church for the 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany (24 January 1999). The Scriptures for this Sunday are Isaiah 9: 1 – 4, 1 Corinthians 1: 10 – 18, and Matthew 4: 12 –23.
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It has been said that we are in the third great industrial revolution, one involving computers and communication. It seems like everyone today has e-mail and voice mail and a cell phone as well as a regular phone. Communications in the coming years will take place, as it already does, over the computer. It would seem that if you were not in the know where it comes to the new means of communication, you would be left out in the cold.
But these new methods of communication also come with problems. First of all, note everyone has access to such tools. When I was in Austin two weeks ago, one person kept reminding the conference organizers that the party line was still the basic means of communication in his region of southwest Missouri. So that meant that all discussion about the new Internet could not take place until up-to-date means of communication were put into place.
Second, a lot of people don’t know how to use these new communication tools. My brother often points out that one purpose of e-mail is to cut down on the use of paper in the office; yet, when most people get a e-mail the first thing they do is print it out. Certainly not the goal of the paperless office.
Another time, I was asked to submit an abstract on the use of e-mail in the classroom for an upcoming conference. So I wrote it up and sent it to the organizer by e-mail. After the conference was over, the organizer asked me why I had not submitted the abstract. She never read her e-mail.
All this suggests that as we move into the coming century, be it next year or the year 2001, and our society becomes more and more technologically complex, it is going to become more and more important that we know how to communicate. For as the means to communicate become easier, the harder it will become to make our ideas clearly.
To a certain extent, that is what Paul is telling the people of Corinth. In the Epistle reading for today, the people of Corinth are arguing about who baptized them and whose follower’s they are.
I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, “ I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ”.
Lost in all this discussion was the meaning of Christ’s presence in their lives. Paul then reminded them that the issue was not baptism but rather the preaching of the Gospel, the good news of Christ.
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel – not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
The Gospel message that Paul was called to preach, the message of the good news brought to us by Christ came at a time when the people thought that God had stopped talking to them. But, as is often the case, it was not God who had stopped talking to the people, it was the people who had stopped talking to God.
We look around us each day and we see the horrors and injustice of the world; each day we hear of new horrors in Kosovo and we wonder how a man such as Saddam Hussein could still be in power. We look at our own country and we conclude that God has forgotten us. We see the world in darkness and conclude that God has forgotten us. But the prophet Isaiah told the people of Israel that a light would shine in the darkness.
Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan —
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.
You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder.
For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor.
To bring light into the world of darkness, God chose to communicate with us in the most direct way possible, through his Son. By sending his Son to this world, God was giving us a hope for the future. But we, with our human nature, see this hope with a certain degree of fear.
We don’t know what the future holds. We see all the changes around us and we can only think or wonder if we will ever be able to handle them. How can we hold out hope for a better tomorrow when we don’t understand what is happening today. And there is the matter of God’s calling to us.
In this day and age, how can we follow Christ? When Jesus started his ministry, as we read in the Gospel this morning, he asked his disciples to follow him. As was written, they stopped what they were doing and followed him immediately. We say to Christ today, “How can we follow you today? We have so much that has to be done?”
Following Christ is the most difficult task that we have each day. Being in obedience with God takes all of our skills and our courage. We are not the first to grumble about following the path of righteousness. From the day the Israelites were lead out of Egypt, they grumbled about the path God lead them. And whenever the going got tough, the Israelites were ready to throw in the towel and go back into slavery. That is same today.
We know in our hearts that what God has to offer is the one true path of life. Yet our minds wonder if we can make that sacrifice. Are we ready, like Peter and Andrew, to leave our nets and become “fishers of men?” Could we do so immediately or would we hesitate?
Obedience is indispensable. Not a static code, however helpful it may be at times. But obedience to God, who is present with us in every situation and is speaking to us all the time. Every obedience, however small (if any obedience is small) quickens our sensitivity to him and our capacity to understand him and so makes more real our sense of his presence. (From The Captivating Presence by Albert Edward Day)
We live in a world that seems so dark but yet there is a light. That light is Jesus Christ our Savior. To those that followed him, he offered a vision of the future that was greater than anything that they had ever known. So too is it for us this morning. There is a light in the darkness; it is the presence of Christ in our lives. The challenges we face, the difficulties we must overcome become easier when He is the centerpiece of our life. Yet, we often don’t want to accept Christ, to turn over our lives to him fearing that the obedience that He demands will take away our freedom. But this freedom that we don’t want to give up is cast in the darkness of sin and is not really freedom but death. As Paul told the Corinthians,
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Christ offers us the promise of eternal salvation if we would only accept His call. You can hear his call today, as clear as any phone call you might receive at home. It is truly the one call that we have to answer.
