Category: Sermon

By This They Will Know

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for it is they who will be recognized as sons of God.” – Matthew 5:9 (Weymouth New Testament)

On January the 25th, the WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY began, and here we are as Christians, nearly 2,000 years after Christ gave the Beatitudes to His early followers in the Sermon on the Mount… and as I write this, I wonder:  If I were put on trial today for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict me?  Or you?  Would we be convicted not only by our words, but by our actions?  Are we making peace with our neighbors, with the world, with our fellow Christians?  Around 197 A.D., Tertullian, who has been billed by many as “The Founder of Western Theology”, wrote in his Apologeticus, his work defending Christianity and asking Emperor Septimius Severus to allow Christianity to be treated as a legal religion, just as any other sect that existed within the empire at that time.  The Emperor knew nothing of Christianity, except that he wanted it done away with, and so Tertullian took it upon himself to explain, that is to Apologize, Christianity to Septimius Severus and the other magistrates of Rome.  To me, the most fascinating and telling lines Tertullian wrote are:  “But it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See, they say, how they love one another… how they are ready even to die for one another, for they themselves will sooner put to death.”

Sadly, in today’s world, we live in a time when people outside the church are certainly not saying of Christians “See how they LOVE each other!”  Sadder still, and more apparent than our lack of love for one another in the Church, are our extreme divisions.  Of the Church today, we’re more likely to hear “Can’t they AGREE on ANYTHING?!” It is difficult enough to be a Christian in today’s times with the influence of so many anti-Christian “role-models”- companies, music, books, websites, ad infinitum, infecting and influencing the minds of so many to turn from God and to run toward what is considered “cool” by so many, that the fact that there are those who claim Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and who demonstrate such a lack of love and support for their brothers and sisters that it is truly disheartening.  And, sadder still, there are so many fractures and total breaks within the Body of Christ – His Church Universal – that many multi-denominational gatherings, Facebook pages, blogs, magazines and other media do their best to focus on all the differences between their denomination and the denominations of their brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.  Until recently, I was a member of a particular group on Facebook promoting unity between Catholics and Protestants – however, instead of anyone posting anything celebrating what we hold in common and trying to bring about that unity, nearly every post was an argument, Protestants saying “the problem with Catholics is…” or Catholics saying “the problem with Protestants is…”   WHERE IS THE UNITY?!  WHERE ARE THE PEACEMAKERS?!  Can we say, honestly, of ourselves and the Church as a whole, that we can be recognized as– instantly known to be – sons and daughters of God Almighty?

In John 17, verses 20-24 (NIV) “20My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” – Christ Jesus prays that we be one.  This is God’s desire for his Body, of which Christ Jesus is the Head.  When the Lord looks down upon His people, His Church – he doesn’t want to see dissention, argument and down-right hatred amongst the sheep of His flock.  Can you imagine how sad this makes Our Savior?  He came to set the captives free; and now, many of us have put ourselves in chains of our own making with all of this quarrelling with our brethren.

It is time, not just during this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, but now and evermore for us to put aside our differences and focus on the fact that we all seek to serve the same GOD: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Yes, we may choose to serve and worship in varied and sometimes drastically different ways, but that should not prevent us from, asSaint Paulsays in Philippians 2:2, “…being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.”

Let us remember that our Savior told us “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” – John 13:34,35 (NIV) Let us notice that it is a COMMAND He gives us, not a suggestion or a wish… it is an order from our King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Let us also agree on this, that we are indeed, as Christians, children of the SAME GOD, who should be striving to the SAME purpose:  serving one another, out of love, to glorify the Lord… the rest are, for the most part, our ego-driven, however well meant, differences.  It’s time we lay aside the differences, at least in our minds and in our concerns with one another, and focus on the LOVE OF GOD dwelling within us and flowing THROUGH US, so perhaps, once again, we can be RECOGNIZED as God’s children by our LOVE and desire to MAKE PEACE.   Amen?  Amen!

Going Fishing

The Gospel According to Mark:

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”  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.  And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”   And immediately they left their nets and followed him.  As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending their nets.  Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.  Mark 1:14-20 (NKJV)

The sun was just coming up and the fog was floating gently over the shore and the sea.  It was early in the morning. Few people were out and about at that hour, and the only people really active that early in the morning were the bone-tired fishermen who were just finishing another hard night of fishing on the Sea of Galilee. In one boat, two brothers stand while they cast their nets into the sea and drag them back into the boat, hoping to catch a few more fish to send to market. In another boat nearby, two brothers from a different family sit while they mend their nets, preparing them for the next night of fishing, in the hope that tomorrow night’s haul will be just a little bit better.

Their long night of work coming to an end, all the men are anxious to get their catch to market and then go home to get some badly needed rest. But, as they finish their morning chores that morning, a man walks along the shore, just coming into view through the fog.  He speaks:  “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” They drop their nets, and follow.  He calls out to the men in the boats, and again says, “Follow me.”    They, too, drop their nets, and follow…

Simon, Andrew, James, and John dropped what they were doing, left the life they knew and perhaps loved, to follow Jesus.   Isn’t that what we, as Dominicans, as Christians, are called to do?  What a life-changing experience!  The first four disciples stepped out in faith, not really knowing what they were doing or where they were going, to live their lives in a new way, no longer as fishermen, but fishers of men.  Were they ready for that?  No.  When Jesus called them, he used the future tense:  I WILL make you fishers of men.  Like us when we first become Christians, or Dominicans for that matter, we are not always ready for the tasks that God has set before us.

The fishermen of that time were poor, uneducated, common laborers, and not very high on the social ladder.  Yet Jesus chose them to do great things.  They weren’t ready to be great preachers, great writers, or great churchmen, but God is not bound by who we are.  Jesus looked beyond what and who they were to what they would become. The important principle at work here is that those whom Christ has called He enables and empowers to perform the task to which they have been assigned. Jesus did not simply command His disciples to become fishers of men but he promised to MAKE them fishers of men.  As Saint Basil has taught us, it is “not what thou art, now what thou hast been, but what thou wouldst be.”

So how do we get to that point?  How do we get to the place where we are ready to become “fishers of men?”  And how do we know when we’re ready?  Like James and John, we must mend our nets, and prepare ourselves to be fishers of men.  Most of us never feel that we’re ready enough, or good enough, to consider ourselves ready to be fishers of men, but our father, Saint Dominic, laid down in his rule how to continually prepare for that role by way of two of the four pillars of the Dominican Charism:  those of prayer and study.  In Saint Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, he teaches us that we are to “pray without ceasing.” (1Thessalonians 5:1).  Prayer is communion with God. Those who know God best are those who spend quality time in God’s presence. These are people who know the secrets and the heartbeat of God. It is not possible to know God when we are occasional visitors into God’s presence. It is not possible to know God if we are the type of Christian who just pops in to God’s presence to say “hi” and “goodbye”. We cannot get to know God if we are the type of Christians who treat God as “fire extinguisher”- who just run to God to put out our fires and solve our problems. God reveals Himself to those who really care; to those who are willing to the pay the price of separating themselves often and long from their workaday world in order to seek Him. “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:12-13 (NIV)

Further, through our studies, we learn how to live as Christians, and how God might work through, and be seen in, us.  The Psalmist declared, “I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” Psalm 119:11 (NIV). He understood the importance of studying and knowing God’s word so that he could live according to God’s will and perfect plan. God has revealed Himself to us through the Bible, and calls us to read and know ALL that He has said.   In 1 Timothy 3:14-17, Paul emphasizes to Timothy the importance of staying the course, continuing in what he knows, believes and lives, for it is God alone who provided divine revelation to the writers of the scriptures and the teachers in which Timothy followed. True learning comes from God’s perfect word, the Bible, and must not be abandoned nor seldom looked into; it provides guidance and encouragement regarding eternal life and, more importantly, offers a glimpse to the reader of the magnificence and majesty of God.

Finally, that people may see a difference in our lives, and in order to cast our nets and to start “fishing for men,” we should reflect such a joy and hope in our lives that others will ask about it, opening the door for us to share the Gospel.  Matthew 5:16 says, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Christianity, our faith and our witness, is defined in the eyes of the world by our actions, our attitudes, what we say, and how we say it, as well as the good works that we do.

And so I ask you, are your nets mended?  Have you prepared yourself to be a fisher of men?  What must YOU do in order to simply the call to “Follow me.”?  Let us all continue to prepare ourselves that we may ever cast our nets for our Lord.  Amen.