Outside & Alone: Alone at Night

John 3:1-17

“Alone At Night”

In the weeks between Jesus’s challenge alone in the wilderness and the triumph and tragedy of Jesus’s walks alone through the crowds on days of palms and passion, we find Jesus interacting with others who are alone in some way.

He fully engages outsiders: those who seek God, those at the edges of social acceptability, and those able to hear and heal.
 
This second Sunday of Lent, we follow along with Nicodemus as he visits Jesus at night.

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Trinity. It is January twenty-fifth, twenty twenty six. Our primary reading today is from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter four, verses twelve through twenty three. My daughter's godmother, her aunt, my sister-in-law, was giving my daughter some career advice around the kitchen table after Christmas. No matter what job you have, it all comes down to people. How you treat people is the most important thing. How you include people matters. You might think your job's about making things or spreadsheet calculations or having some specialized knowledge. And hard skills matter, but really everything you do is about people. So focus on how you treat people and work hard to learn the skill of the job you're doing. It was great advice. If we take seriously the idea that every Christian is in ministry, it means that in everything we do, we need to remember to prioritize the beloved child of God in front of us, including the one in the mirror. Hard skills matter, but really everything you do is about people. Our character is revealed by our actions. Our faith is revealed by its fruit. This is our second week considering how Jesus is revealed in his early ministry. We've got these interesting symbols: dove, lamb, and today fish. The Gospels of John and Matthew use the same symbol, the dove, in their descriptions of Jesus' baptism to indicate the presence of the Holy Spirit and the beginning of a new era. John the Baptist describes Jesus as the Lamb of God, referencing the Passover lamb of Exodus, the daily temple sacrifice described in Leviticus, and the suffering servant predicted by Isaiah. Dove, lamb, and today fish. But it's all about the fruits. Jesus gathers his first students, some fishermen, by saying, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people. Jesus gathers people. He himself is fishing for people. The community he creates around him is one of the ways he will be recognized in the world, a fruit of his ministry. Quick note here, because I realize there are some people trying to get their footing in the Bible. People's names can get confusing in the Bible. People's names change due to big life experiences. Abram and Sarah become Abraham and Sarah. Jacob becomes Israel, Saul becomes Paul. Some people have the same name. There are seven different kings named Herod, multiple people named John, wrote parts of the Bible. Also, keep in mind, people would sometimes change a Hebrew or Aramaic name to something easier pronounced at work. So many Simeons went by the Greek name Simon. And then we have nicknames. Thomas is actually a nickname, means the twin. Peter is a nickname, meaning the rock. I mention this because in today's passage we have this guy, Simon, who Jesus calls the rock, Peter. He later says, on this rock I will build my church. Some scholars say Simon was probably called Simeon, but he would be selling his fish to Greek speakers, so it might have been easier for him to go by Simon. There's not consensus, but it's just interesting to note that these names shift. Simon, Andrew's brother, is also called Peter. Today's story of Simon Peter, and guests usually his brother Andrew, leaving behind their nets to follow Jesus is in all four Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. There are some differences. For instance, the Gospel writers tell the story is happening in different places. But the accounts are more similar than different. Today's reading is from Matthew 4, 18 through 20, and it's almost identical to Mark's version in Mark 1, 16 to 18. Jesus says, Follow me. Nets are left behind, and the disciples begin a new life with Jesus. They will become fishers of men. In Luke's version of the story, Luke 5, 1 through 11, Andrew apparently has the day off. He is not mentioned in the story. Perhaps he had to go have some dental work done. And we learn, number one, the sons of Zebedee, James and John, are not just nearby fishermen, but partners of Andrew and Simon Peter. Number two, Jesus knows Peter well enough to use Peter's boat as a mobile stage to preach to people at the water's edge. Three, after preaching, Jesus overflows their nets with fish, a miracle. And four, only then does Jesus say, do not be afraid. From now on you will be catching people. Then there's John's version in chapter one that we read last week. Today's scripture from Matthew especially benefits from verses 35 through 42 in John 1. John says, The next day John, and this is John the Baptist, the next day John again was standing with two of his disciples as he watched Jesus walk by and exclaimed, Look, here is the Lamb of God. The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, What are you looking for? They said to him, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying? He said to them, Come and see. They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was four o'clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah, which is translated anointed. What I would like for you to notice is that John's gospel tells us that Andrew was a follower of John the Baptist. And John the Baptist told Andrew that Jesus was the Lamb of God. So Andrew went chasing after Jesus with another follower of John the Baptist. Those two guys spent the day hanging out at Jesus' house. Can you imagine? Those two guys spent the day hanging out at Jesus' house. About four in the afternoon, Andrew goes to find his brother Simon, who Jesus would rename Peter, and told him, we have found the Messiah. That's last week's reading. These four different stories of Peter being called by Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, especially last week's reading from John, helps paint a more reasonable picture of discipleship than today's reading from Matthew alone. Peter and Andrew are fishermen brothers, expectantly waiting for the Messiah. Andrew and Simon Peter are business partners with James and John, sons of Zebedee. Oh, and speaking of nicknames, uh, Jesus calls John and James sons of thunder, which makes me wonder if Zebedee yelled a lot. Like, it might have been easier to leave dad with the nuts if he was busy chewing you out. So again, pulling together all four Gospels, Peter and Andrew are fishermen brothers expectantly waiting for the Messiah. And Andrew, Simon, Peter, James, and John are all business partners. Andrew, at least, maybe more of them, has visited John the Baptist in the wilderness, though he keeps fishing for a living. John the Baptist points out Jesus to Andrew as Lamb of God. Andrew has been hanging out at Jesus' house. Andrew tells Peter that Jesus is the real deal, and Jesus knows Peter well enough to use his boat as a stage to preach to people alongshore. All of these things happen before Jesus says, follow me, I will make you fishers of people. And Andrew, Peter, John, and James immediately leave their nets to follow him. Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people, is not Jesus' opening line. It is the line that seals the deal. These four disciples may not have fully known that they were leaving the lives that they knew, but they already fully knew Jesus was the Messiah. If we are known by our fruits, if we are known by how we live in and leave this world, what does it mean that the disciples left behind something valuable? A handmade net, a boat, a father, to follow this itinerant preacher Jesus. Is it like leaving really nice furniture behind in an apartment when you move out? Maybe. When people leave really nice furniture behind, you sort of guess they don't know its value. Or they have some other wealth. Maybe Peter, Andrew, James, and John didn't know the value of what they were leaving behind. Or maybe they realized Jesus was worth far more. Like the merchant in Matthew 13, 46, who found one pearl of great value and sold all that he had and bought it. For Simon Peter, Andrew, and probably also for John and James, letting go of all the things they valued, all the things of the life they knew, wasn't a blind leap. God rarely asks us to take blind leaps. Instead, we are asked to keep leaning a bit more and a bit more and a bit more out into faith until we can see the pearl and know exactly that it is so worth it to take the next step. We leave behind all the titles and all the stuff we think makes us, letting our old life die. There is a famous inscription above the door of the monastery of Saint Paul on Mount Athos in Greece. If you die before you die, you will not die when you die. Matthew 16, 24 through 25 says, Then Jesus told his disciples, if any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. It is foolishness to leave all that is valuable behind unless you know following Christ is exactly where your bigger life begins. But even in our reading today, Jesus does not tell these men to leave everything behind. He says, follow me. He is asking them to bring themselves. They are fishermen, and that knowledge will be needed in their new profession, fishers of men. Instead of gathering fish, they will gather people together into communities of mutual care. Peter in Antioch, Andrew around the Black Sea, what would later become Byzantium in Russia, James in Judea and possibly Spain, John in Ephesus. They will each gather people like fish. They learned no matter the job title, it always came down to that. It all comes down to people. How you treat people is the most important thing. They will gather people like fish into communities. That work will be the fruit of their lives. And we know from Paul's letters that some of those early communities were a mess. If they were fruit, maybe they were lemons. Because people are messy. Full stop. People are messy. But even lemons are fruit. Even the disciples' mistakes became valuable fruit, fruit that would seed new Christian expressions. Let go of the life you have lived. Bring all that you are, all that you do, all your mistakes to God, and God will use it all. These last two sermons have been a mashup of metaphors. Thanks for hanging in there. But despite that mashup, I hope that you take seriously the call to cultivate the fruits of faith in your own life. Again this week I ask, what fruit of the spirit most needs your attention this new year? What fruit of the spirit that impacts the beloved children of God around you, and the beloved child of God looking at you in the mirror? Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Have you found a way this last week to cultivate it? I urge you to keep at it. So when you drop everything in this life or the next to embrace wealth beyond measure, the pearl of great price that is waiting for you, you will be satisfied with the life you leave behind, with the condition of the apartment you vacate. Amen. Trinity.org. Rights retained by original copyright holders, all other rights reserved.