An Ordinary Day

A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, Texas.
The Lectionary readings for the second Sunday after Pentecost are here.

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So, what did you do yesterday? If, while you were doing whatever you were doing on a typical early summer day for you, someone whom you didn’t know walked by and said “Follow me,” what would you have done?

Be honest – would you have dropped everything you were doing to see what he wanted you to see? Or would you have told Jesus you were too busy and fuss about the interruption of the important things you had to do?

Being busy is a status symbol in our society. The more we do the more successful we look, the more worthy we feel, the important we think we are. Now, I’m not trying to be PolyAnna-ish here – we all have real and necessary tasks to accomplish every day. And there is no denying that Jesus did a lot! But being busy, even with what we call church work, does not always mean we are doing the right thing or building up God’s Kingdom. Simply being busy isn’t the purpose of following Jesus.

Instead of talking about how busy we are, the important question we need to ask ourselves, the very question Jesus would ask us is why do we do what we do? What is the purpose of our “busy”? Are we trying to build our own kingdom or bring about God’s kingdom on earth as in heaven? Is our purpose for our every day, ordinary tasks to walk in love with God, our neighbor, and ourselves?

All four Gospel books give us story after story of all that Jesus did. In our reading today, Jesus is very busy, moving from one task to another and being interrupted from one thing to take care of another. Jesus is walking through town and invites Matthew to follow him, then they all sit down for a meal and the law keepers get their nose out of joint, because Jesus hangs out with people they don’t like, and so Jesus makes the time to explain to them why he does what he does and gives them a homework assignment: go and learn what this means – “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”

A bit of what comes next is left out of our reading today – the disciples of his cousin John stop by unannounced and Jesus makes time to listen to them and offer some wisdom on fasting. He speaks of the dangers of patching clothes with unshrunk cloth and putting new wine and old wine skins. In other words, Jesus is saying, the invitation to follow him isn’t about fitting Jesus into our busy lives if we have a spare moment or to try and cover up the bad parts. Jesus’ invitation is about living a new life, following him in everything we do, letting his teaching shape our heart so that with our daily activities and tasks we are offering others glimpses of God’s kingdom.

And while he was saying these new life/new way things, a leader of the synagogue comes in and tells Jesus that his daughter has died and could he please come. And so Jesus and the disciples go with him. On their way, a woman who has been sick and banned from public places because of her illness sneaks up and touches Jesus. He makes time to speak with her and assure her she is healed in body and spirit and continues on to the synagogue leader’s house where he takes the girls hand and lifts her up.

Jesus restores both the woman and the young girl to health and community. Life together is the life Jesus teaches us to walk in love through, here and now, where we are, in all that we do.

One of the most valuable pieces of advise I was given when I was newly ordained was to have an open door attitude. Whatever it is I may be doing in my office, when folks come by the church office, my first mentor told me, make the time to say ‘hi’ even if what they need is best taken care of by someone else. This mentor told me ‘the supposed interruptions aren’t interruptions, they are your day.” I’m reminded of this every time someone says to me, “I know you’re so busy, thank you for making time for me.” I always try to respond with “spending time with you is what my day is for.”

And this isn’t just about me being a priest, but a lesson in walking in love, following Jesus as we grow in the wisdom that the purpose of our life is the relationships we are in. All that Jesus said and did was to teach us to be other-focused. Not that we are to deny our own individual needs but that we work together as a community to take care of everyone’s needs.

One of the folks I visit with regularly – I didn’t ask permission to tell this so I won’t give away who – is long retired but in our conversations he shares stories of his career and we speak of my work and the culture, and theory, and theology of work. This very wise man says that regardless of what our title or assigned role may be, everyone’s job is to take care of the customer. Whether you are the CEO, accountant, front office, maintenance, retail, whatever, the purpose of a successful business is the customer – not the widgets that a company produces or the bottom line of the financial spreadsheet, but the people – taking care of those we do business with. I think this is a business model Jesus would agree with and one we can use with whatever we are doing. When we frame our day with the people we encounter and not the tasks we must complete, we are walking in love as Jesus shows us.

Matthew and the other disciples followed Jesus into the ordinary days for Jesus – dinner with sinners, healing, teaching, raising the dead – you know, just a typical day. Do we follow Jesus in our ordinary/typical/even mundane days? Do we let what we do in here on Sundays flow into our Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays? Our Fridays and Saturdays?

What does an ordinary day look like for you? To the world, does it look like you are following Jesus? God wants a relationship with us, each and everyone of us. God gave us the Ten Commandments to teach us how to live in loving relationship with him and each other. Jesus speaks about and shows us in flesh and blood what it looks like to walk in love with God and our neighbor. Our life with God isn’t about earning our way into God’s presence but about recognizing that God is with us always. Our life with God is about showing others who God is and Whose we our in the ordinary events of our every day.

When Jesus offers the invitation “follow me” he’s asking us to order our lives with his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Following Jesus isn’t about going through the motions – making the appointed sacrifices but not walking in love. We honor God by the way we treat our neighbors and ourselves. We show our love for God by letting the Good News that God loves us shape all that we do, think, and say.

We respond to Jesus’ invitation by the way we let what happens in these walls shape how we live outside these walls, by letting Jesus shape and order our lives.

What are your plans for this afternoon? Tomorrow? The day after that? In all that you have planned, follow Jesus in the way of Love and let others experience a bit of heaven on earth through you. Amen.