A "Litany of the Called"

Well, it’s been a week… One of those weeks where the weather dictates our activities, a week of cancelling, rescheduling, shovelling, shifting meetings to Zoom, but in the midst of all that, also gratitude. Gratitude for warm shelter, for the people who plow the roads and the ones who show up in emergencies even in a blizzard. The key to winter in Tobermory seems to be flexibility. As I said in a Zoom meeting on Thursday, “Blessed are the flexible.”

We are in the middle of the Season of Epiphany, the season of light, truth and revelation, celebrating the manifestation of Jesus’ ministry in the world. As I have said before, the Gospel has never been more relevant than in these times. As American spiritual writer Kat Armas writes in an article entitled “When Empire Rewrites the Story” (https://churchanew.org/blog/posts/kat-armas-when-empire-rewrites-the-story?blm_aid=41864) :

"Epiphany, in the Christian tradition, is about revelation. It is the season when hidden things are made visible. The Magi see what Herod cannot—or will not: that God’s presence does not align with imperial power, violence, or control. And Herod, threatened by this revelation, responds the way empire always does: with fear, force, and bloodshed. Epiphany exposes not only who God is, but who empire is when it feels its grip slipping."  

On Sunday, we’ll hear the story of the calling of the disciples in Matthew’s version. This is one of the versions where, as fishermen,  the would-be disciples drop their nets, drop everything, and follow Jesus. As I write this, the morning of January 23, over 200 faith leaders – from various denominations and many faiths -- have converged in Minneapolis, and they are out in the freezing streets, with their bodies and what they know to be true, standing as resistance to the injustice and violence being inflicted in that city by ICE agents.  They have heard, have dropped everything, and are following the call.  

So, on Sunday, we’ll celebrate that sense of call, how it manifests in real time and, through a “Litany of the Called” by the brilliant Scottish liturgist Roddy Hamilton, how that call has been heard and acted upon by women and men all through the Gospels.

In the meantime, read Matthew 4:12-23 and ponder the following:

1.What insights are you gleaning from the Gospels in this time?

2.Have you ever ‘dropped everything’ for a cause?

Image: “liminal” Visakhapatnam, pexels.com