When the people of God listen to God and trust God's word, amazing things are possible

Sermon delivered Sunday, April 10, 2016 (3rd Sunday of Easter, Year C), at St. Cuthbert’s Episcopal Church, Oakland, CA.

(Acts 9:1-20, John 21:1-19)



On this third Sunday of Easter, we continue to hear stories of uncertainty, newness, change, and fear. The disciples are still reeling from the events of Jesus’s final week in Jerusalem – arrest, crucifixion, death, and now, these miraculous appearances! In our passage from John today we see Jesus appearing to the disciples while they are out doing what is familiar to them – fishing – and reminding them of their call to go beyond the familiar in order to bring in a successful “catch” for the kingdom. And in Acts, although the story is chronologically a bit later than the first post-Resurrection appearances, we have another powerful story of uncertainty, newness, change, and fear – when Jesus appears to Saul, an adamant persecutor of Christians, and Saul does a complete 180 – transforming from violent enemy to passionate leader in the church.

In both stories, the people of God are asked to trust God’s word, God’s direction, God’s movement in their lives, even when that leads them to do things that are unknown, unfamiliar, uncomfortable, and scary. When Jesus appears to the disciples on the beach and offers them some advice on getting better results with their fishing excursion, they have to trust that he knows what he’s talking about, even though they have been casting their nets all night and catching nothing.

“Cast the net to the right side of the boat,” Jesus says. “Oh, gee, thanks,” the disciples might have thought, “You think we haven’t thought of that one? What difference is casting the net on a different side of the boat going to make? If there aren’t any fish on this side, there aren’t going to be any just a few feet away on the other side! There are no fish! We know; we’ve been out here all night!” So they have, but perhaps they’ve only been casting the net on the left side of the boat because it was easier for them to do it that way. If they were right-handed, casting on the left side would make hauling the fish in easier, since they could use their dominant right arm to lift the heavy loads. They were professional fishermen; they’d probably perfected their technique to where it taxed the body the least so they could sustain longer working hours. They’d always done it this way and it had always worked for them in the past. But Jesus comes along after the Resurrection and asks them to do something slightly different, something that wasn’t the way they’d always done it, something that might have felt uncomfortable and unfamiliar. They’d have to use muscles they weren’t used to using. They’d have to call upon strengths they didn’t know they had. They’d have to modify their actions to adapt to the situation at hand.

And when they did – when they trusted Jesus’s advice and tried something different, they were overwhelmed with an enormous haul of fish – 153, to be exact, the same number as the number of nations known to exist at that particular time. A catch of 153 fish was symbolic of a “catch” of all the nations, foreshadowing the evangelism they would do as they spread the Gospel throughout the world.

And what about Ananias, in our passage from Acts today? Can you imagine God asking you to go voluntarily to meet with one of the chief persecutors of the church, someone who had sworn to kill anyone who was a follower of Jesus?

“Um, are you SURE that’s who you want me to go see?” Ananias asks. “I’ve heard lots of stories about this guy, and none of them are good. Do you KNOW how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem? And you want me to go heal HIM?”

But the Lord answers, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel.”

Imagine the kind of trust it had to take for Ananias to follow through on that command! In our Gospel passage, the disciples had to trust just enough to try a slight change in their professional working habits, but still operating in the realm of something they were used to doing and that wasn’t threatening to them in any way. But Ananias is essentially being asked to walk right into the lion’s den! He has to trust God’s word that Saul is “an instrument God has chosen” – although every self-preservation instinct – and all of his friends who cared about him – would have urged him to stay as far away from Saul as possible.

But somehow, Ananias does it. He takes God at God’s word and does what he is being asked to do. And Saul is converted to the faith and becomes one of its strongest leaders.

When the people of God listen to God and trust God's word, amazing things are possible. Miraculous things are possible. When the people of God listen to God and trust God's word, lives are changed.

What is God asking you, the people of St. Cuthbert’s, to do that might be unfamiliar, uncomfortable, and scary? Fr. John Rawlinson’s sermon last week invited you to consider what the “resurrection” of this congregation might look like. “Resurrection is not the same old, same old,” he said. “Resurrection is not a repeat of what has been. Resurrection is the unknown and new life, but in likely a very different way.” This is the message of our scriptures for today as well. Resurrection means change – subtle change in some cases, radical change in others, but all cases, change.

St. Cuthbert’s is at a crucial moment in its history. In this “liminal space,” as Deacon Pam put it in her sermon the week after the retirement of your previous priest, in this in between time, you are being invited to consider what the future of this community will be. Your task is to listen for where the Holy Spirit is moving in this place – this congregation, this neighborhood, this city – and how God is calling you to respond.

In the short amount of time I have been here, I have seen and felt God’s spirit moving in a number of ways at St. Cuthbert’s. I’ll share a few of my thoughts, which I hope will be the start of a conversation that will engage the whole congregation over the next few weeks and months.

I see the Spirit moving in the passionate and beautiful music we make with one another each week. Quality music can be difficult to come by in small congregations, and St. Cuthbert’s is very fortunate to have the wonderful musicians it has to lead us in our praise of God. 

I see the Spirit in the re-engagement of Lydia Pierce Chong with the congregation. Lydia is a young woman who had been loosely connected to St. Cuthbert’s in the past but now has a fire lit in her to reach out to the neighborhood surrounding the church and find ways we can minister to young parents and families in the area. Deacon Pam told me that after seeing the nursery room in the narthex used on Easter Sunday for the first time in a long time, she felt a nudge from the Spirit for us to do some kind of a blessing for that space, to put the energy out there in the universe that we are setting aside and dedicating that space for the nurture of children whom we have not yet met, but who God intends to bring to us.

I see the Spirit moving in the determination of BJ Gerton and her crew to keep the produce market going, despite the loss of funding from Episcopal Senior Communities, to provide a source of fresh produce in this neighborhood that in many ways is a “food desert,” an urban area where it is difficult to buy affordable or good quality fresh food.

And speaking of produce, I feel a nudge from the Spirit every time I see the farmers standing on the street corner in front of St. Cuthbert’s selling their produce during the week. This parish is blessed in terms of location to be perched on such a busy intersection. These guys wouldn’t choose this spot to sell their produce if it wasn’t a high traffic area with potential to net them good business. We could harness that energy to draw attention to St. Cuthbert’s. I’ve had visions of standing on the corner with them during the week, wearing my collar, holding up signs that say – “Pull over for free prayers” or “God loves you - join us on Sundays” – or whatever other creative ideas you all can come up with! Or, doing something as simple as holding a service outside one Sunday under the big trees in front of the church would make us more visible and show that there is life and energy in this place.

Where do YOU see or feel the Spirit moving at St. Cuthbert’s? What do you feel the Spirit nudging you to do around here? Now is a time for dreaming, for visioning, for considering what might be. No idea is too grandiose or too impractical – let your minds go wild, and share your ideas with Milene Rawlinson, our senior warden, BJ Gerton, our junior warden, or anyone else on the Bishop’s Committee. Diocesan leaders will be coming to St. Cuthbert’s within the next few weeks to begin a conversation about the future of St. Cuthbert’s. If you feel the Spirit moving us toward resurrection, listen. Listen and make it known to the rest of us, because we discern God’s will in community, through hearing and listening to one another. Listen and act on it, because when the people of God listen to God and trust God's word, amazing things are possible.