Sunday Sermon - 4 May
If you, and God, don’t mind, I’m going to take a few minutes to whine this morning because I think something is just not fair. You see, the conversion of Paul or Jesus appearing to his disciples and calling them to follow him as ‘fishers of people’ are not unique holy encounters locked in historic times. People are miraculously, physically encountering Jesus to this very day.
I recently heard a story of a former gangbanger named Alexander Pagani. Pagani began committing crimes at the age of 11. He grew into a bad dude who while serving a prison sentence on Rikers Island decided that, “If I’m going to be evil, I’m going to be really evil.” While in prison he stabbed two 17 year olds to make his point. He was put into solitary confinement and while in solitary Jesus miraculously came to him and he was converted. He accepted Christ and became Christian while serving out the remainder of his sentence. When he was released he became a leader for Christ, founding his own church and proclaiming the Gospel on social media. He has written books on his experience, is a specialist in the sacred act of deliverance from evil, and is a bit of a YouTube sensation.
There are hundreds, maybe even thousands of stories like Alexander’s. So here’s my whining for the day - why not me, God? Why haven’t you come to me as Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or any other divine manifestation.
As I mulled over and prayed about this sermon this week (I pray in preparation for all my sermons) this question kept popping into my mind, preoccupying my thoughts. Then, I reminded myself to practice what I preach about prayer:
Stop
Settle my mind and find quiet
Listen with an open mind and heart
Let God come to me
I tried to do this a few times over the course of the week but it wasn’t working out so well. I was having a hard time settling my mind and finding that inner peace that comes when we are mentally, physically, and spiritually calmed. Then it happened, exactly when I didn’t expect it - in the middle of Ern Mansell’s service of Thanksgiving for his life.
During services it’s really hard to settle, to find that calm that I need in order to open the communication lines between me and God, but there was this moment during the playing of Rod Stewart’s “Sailing” (who would have thought that I could find inner peace and feel prayerful to a Rod Stewart tune? God shows up when God wants to, and God did). Here’s what I heard:
Paul’s transformative experience with Christ was big, literally blinding, and turned his life completely around. He was filled with the Holy Spirit and given a new purpose - to be the messenger to the Gentiles, to bring the Good News in Christ to all of those outside of the Jerusalem circle. He knew he would suffer for this good cause and purpose.
Alexander Pagani, like many evangelists, also had a big, significant conversion experience. He, like Paul, was transformed from a violent and evil man to a man of loving purpose and became a messenger for God. The transformative experience of God in these people’s lives and those like them is significant because of their starting point - from evil to goodness, from dark to light - a full 180°. For most of us who already live in the light, our experience with God need not be so drastic for we are already on God’s path, doing God’s work. So our transformative experience with God is usually more subtle, we don’t need a full 180° change, maybe just a few degrees tweaking here and there as we journey through life.
Now, I’m not saying that you haven’t or won’t have divine spiritual encounters with God as Christ or the Holy Spirit. As people of faith, that is always a possibility. But it’s not a necessity. For God comes to us arguably every day, all of the time.
God is present in that moment when we share food with a person in need. Not in the giving of the food, but in the shared experience between two people. The giver and the recipient who come together as mutually caring human beings who appreciate the sheer existence of one another in their lives.
Have you ever just laid out in a grass field, alone on a beautiful warm sunny day, and felt the overwhelming experience of something bigger than yourself? As the sun beams down, you feel for some unknown reason safe and loved? Or maybe when you’ve held a baby and you feel that awesome sense of the miracle and fragility of life. The overwhelming sense of love and protection for this child - that sense of sacrificial purpose. You’d do anything to take care of this child. It is in these moments that we tangibly experience God’s presence.
God is also present in the simple moments of kindness when we greet and chat with a neighbour on the street. Those moments when we ensure a person knows that they are seen and that they matter and they, in kind, do the same for us.
God is present in virtually every moment of our lives because we accept that God is in us. This is why our experience with God may not be drastically overwhelming. We are already followers of Christ. We are already butterflies, believers who have burst from our cocoons, leaving the unknown darkness and living our purpose as messengers of, and for, God.
In the Gospel today, the story of Jesus’ appearance by the Sea of Tiberius is less about his presence as the resurrected Christ. In fact, it is kind of downplayed really, because this is now the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples, so it’s like, “Oh, it’s him again.” The novelty has kind of worn off. The reason Jesus appears to them again is to commission them, particularly Peter. Jesus repeatedly told them to love Him, to tend to his people, to feed his people, even at great risk to themselves. Jesus says, “Follow him.”
Jesus comes to us, today and everyday, giving us purpose; to tend to his people, to feed his people, even when it may appear risky to do so.
Jesus comes to us today and everyday, calling us to, “Follow Him.”
So I get it. It’s time for me to stop whining. In the midst of Rod Stewart’s singing of Sailing (which is about a journey through life towards our Lord) I am reminded to stop whining about not having a grandiose, miraculous, mystical experience of Jesus. For every day, every moment we share - including this very one here today - God is with us, alive and vibrant, calling us to follow Him.
Amen.