Callback to the Future

In seminary I was a part of the LSTC improv troupe. I did it because I thought that trying something like improv, that was outside of my comfort zone and performative, would help me develop my speaking presence as a preacher. And looking back maybe it did move the preaching needle ever so slightly, but I gotta admit, overall I was terrible at improv.

Maybe a more generous way of saying it is that I was much more of a physical comedian than a quick witty thinker with my words. In fact, whenever it was my turn to speak during a scene, I had a terrible habit of freezing up. My mind would just go blank. Needless to say, it usually made for some pretty awkward silent moments for the rest of my troupe as they waited for something from me that usually just came out in the form of a funny face or a spastic movement with my body. It usually did very little to move the story along, but my seminary friends were gracious enough to receive and subsequently “yes and” whatever I was able to offer.

But when I look back on those times doing improv, the most amazing moments were when someone would do a callback during a scene. And a callback is a joke that refers to one previously told in the set. It was always so brilliant to me when someone would find a way to weave an earlier joke back into the scene. It was a full circle moment and I was always in awe whenever someone had the quickness of mind to do a callback.

Well, despite my inability to come up with my own callbacks in the rush of an improv scene, I do have a callback for today’s sermon. It is a callback to a line that I mentioned in last week’s sermon when I quoted the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. saying, “The old order is passing away.”

Almost word for word Paul uses that exact same line this week when he writes in his letter to the Corinthians, “The present form of this world is passing away.”

This callback seemed to me to be too important for me to ignore, so let’s take a moment and dig into it. And before the catastrophic thoughts start flowing through our heads when we hear of the old order, or present form of this world passing away, notice that neither King nor Paul attempt to try to use this phrase to fill us with fear that the world itself is passing away, just the old order and present form are passing away.

That’s an important distinction because often when I think of things changing it feels like the things are dying or disappearing, when really, they are experiencing transformation. Thinking of this in terms of our current American reality, we have heard politicians and pundits talk about how the other politician or party will mean death for America, or worse yet, the world. These fear mongering images they paint convince us that we must fight, sometimes violently, to preserve what we have.

But neither King nor Paul was trying to elicit fear when they spoke of the old order or present form of the world passing away. Instead, their words are an invitation to hope that another order or form of our world is possible beyond the pain and struggle we are currently experiencing.

Connecting King’s words and Paul’s words to the current moment, I heard an echo of their sentiments of possibility in Amanda Gorman’s poem, The Hill We Climb, that she recited at the Presidential Inauguration on Wednesday where she said,

“So while once we asked,
how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?
Now we assert
How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was
but move to what shall be
A country that is bruised but whole,
benevolent but bold,
fierce and free
We will not be turned around
or interrupted by intimidation
because we know our inaction and inertia
will be the inheritance of the next generation
Our blunders become their burdens
But one thing is certain:
If we merge mercy with might,
and might with right,
then love becomes our legacy
and change our children’s birthright”

Wow, those words reverberate to the core of my being and I find myself filled with a new hope, dreaming of the day when mercy will become merged with might, and might with right, and love will become our legacy, and change our children’s birthright. Not stasis, but change! Dear people, the old order and present form of this world are passing away, change is happening, but this is good news!

God is doing this new thing in our midst, and we are co-creators with God. We hear the invitation in our Gospel of Mark today. Jesus invites Simon and Andrew, and James and John to follow him and he will make them fish for people. This line, to become fishers for people has been traditionally understood as our charge to evangelize people and reel them into a life of following Jesus too. And I can roll with that, I want others to experience the grace and love of Jesus too, but there’s more to that invitation than just creating more Christ followers.

In one of my favorite books, “Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus” author Ched Myers says this about Jesus’s invitation to fish for people. He says,

“There is perhaps no expression more traditionally misunderstood than Jesus’ invitation to these workers to become ‘fishers of men’. This metaphor, despite the grand old tradition of missionary interpretation, does not refer to the “saving of souls,” as if Jesus were conferring upon these men instant evangelist status. Rather, the image is carefully chosen from Jeremiah 16:16, where it is used as a symbol of Yahweh’s censure of Israel. Elsewhere the “hooking of fish” is a euphemism for judgment upon the rich (Amos 4:2) and powerful (Ezekiel 29:4). Taking this mandate for his own, Jesus is inviting the common fold to join him in his struggle to overturn the existing order of power and privilege.”

Many today are suffering because of racism, classism, sexism, ableism, and queer-phobia. These are systems of power and privilege that give preference to some at the expense of others. Our scriptures today, combined with the words of contemporary prophets like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman inspire us to hope for the day when these old orders and this present form of our world will pass away. And Jesus then invites us as his disciples to participate in making that dream a reality.

Equipped with our very own fish hooks we are invited to use them to pull down the mighty from their thrones and lift up the lowly. How is God equipping and inviting you and us into this reality? Where is God resurrecting new life from the places in which the old order and current form have already passed away? What is your role in all of it? Let us discern these changes to our current reality with hope.

Our Psalm today reminds us that it is for God alone that we wait in silence, but with our hope in God, our rock and our salvation, we shall not be shaken no matter how much the present form of our world is passing away. Because even at the grave of the old order, we wait for God with trust who is doing a new thing. And we not only trust God, but God trusts us and invites us through Jesus to follow and fish for people. With this charge before us, I leave you with the final lines of Amanda Gorman’s poem,

“When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid
The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be it”

Amen.