American Blessing: A Failed Narrative

Brad Sullivan

3 Epiphany, Year A

Sunday, January 26, 2014

St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX

Isaiah 9:1-4
Psalm 27:1, 5-13

1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Matthew 4:12-23

There are really two stories being told in Matthew’s Gospel story this morning.  One is the story of Jesus getting his first disciples and the story of how Matthew chose to tell this story…not simply with the action itself, but through the lens of prophecy and fulfillment.

Jesus called to these young fishermen and told them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”  I wondered, what did they use as a net?  What did they throw out there?  How did they actually go about fishing for people?  Well, we’re told at the end of the passage that, “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.”

That’s a pretty good net, curing every disease and every sickness.  After Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, however, what net did the disciples use?  There were some healings, but they didn’t continue to the same degree with which Jesus was healing people with his own two hands.  So what was the disciples’ net which they fished for people?  My guess is their net was teaching and the proclaiming of good news of the kingdom, which has continued ever since.

So what were they teaching?  What narrative, what story?  This is where the way in which Matthew tells this story is instructive.  Matthew tells us that when Jesus went to the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, that the words of the prophet Isaiah were fulfilled.  The scripture he’s quoting is from Isaiah 9:1-2

The names Zebulun and Naphtali are instructive; they are tribes of Israel, children of Abraham whose names mean “honor” and “wrestle”.  Israel will be honored once more.  They will wrestle with their enemies and win.  This prophecy was fulfilled during the reign of king Hezekiah, hundreds of years before the time of Jesus.  Hezekiah’s reign was a time when Israel became faithful to God again after the atrocities of his father, Ahaz’s reign.  Hezekiah restored covenant faithfulness to God, brought honor back to Israel, and when an Assyrian king tried to invade, Israel wrestled with them and won.

Isaiah 9 was fulfilled with Hezekiah as king, through covenant faithfulness to God and through military victory.  Matthew, when using the Isaiah 9 passage to talk about Jesus, however, knew that Jesus did not bring about any kind of military victory.  As far as driving out the Romans goes, Jesus lost, mightily.  Something other than military victory gave honor to Israel in Matthew’s eyes…covenant faithfulness to God and the presence of God within their midst in the person of Jesus. 

Isaiah 9 was fulfilled through Jesus in a different way than it was fulfilled centuries before.  A different narrative was being told.  In the previous narrative, one could identify blessing by God by seeing obvious outward signs of blessing:  wealth, power, prestige, etc.  Israel had these under the reign of Hezekiah.  As a counter narrative, Matthew (and Jesus before him) was telling the story that covenant faithfulness to God was its own blessing and it would not necessarily bring wealth, power, or prestige.  Rather, covenant faithfulness to God brought blessings of peace amidst suffering, contentment without great wealth, and confidence of eternal life in God even in death.

Outwardly, people may not seem blessed by the narrative Matthew (and Jesus) told.  On the inside, however, if you got to know the people, you would see their blessings…love, hope, faith, peace, confidence, contentment.

I look at the narratives in America, and look at the story of our country, and one of our dominant narratives in America is the narrative of each successive generation being better off than the generation before it.  Each successive generation would have a little more financial prosperity than the preceding generation.  It is a compelling societal narrative, which, ultimately, seeks to alleviate suffering.  The next generation will have what we didn’t so they won’t suffer in ways that we did.

We now have more stuff and more wealth than we know what to do with.  The challenge is, stuff and wealth don’t actually bring us peace and contentment.  They don’t actually alleviate our suffering because we aren’t designed to be soothed by stuff.  We’re made to be in relationship with others, to be soothed and blessed by people. 

As a nation, we have achieved immense wealth, power, and prestige.  From the outside, we look to be immensely blessed.  The immensity of our wealth and the vastness of our treasures have not seemed to bless us inwardly, however, with love, hope, faith, peace, confidence, contentment.  Our wealth, power, and prestige haven’t stamped out suffering or worry, fear or anxiety.  Instead, we have very high levels of anxiety, depression, and violence.  A narrative that brought outward blessings to a nation (wealth, power, prestige) has not seemed to bring inner blessings (peace, contentment, confidence, love, hope, faith).  The narrative of finding blessing and alleviating suffering through more money and more stuff with each generation is a well intentioned narrative, but it is a failed narrative. 

As disciples of Jesus, fishing for people, we have a different narrative to offer, a narrative counter to the narrative of American blessing.  Our narrative tells us that we are blessed not by or because of wealth, power, or prestige, but we are blessed because of covenant faithfulness to Jesus.  We are blessed by a life in which we seek first and foremost to love God and to love others.  We are blessed by a life in which we seek to partner with God in bringing about greater love, peace, justice, and hope in the world.  The signs of our blessing are not wealth, power, and prestige, nor a life without struggle.  Rather, the signs of our blessing are peace, contentment, confidence, love, hope, and faith even amidst the same struggles that all people have. 

As disciples of Jesus, we don’t believe we make our children’s lives better than ours by providing them with more money or things than we had growing up.  As disciples of Jesus, we believe we make our children’s lives better than ours (or possibly just as good as ours) by providing them with love and faith, with rhythm and relationship, with deep roots in God and each other.

In a society and culture continually speeding up, we slow down.  In a society and culture that is increasingly loud and full of distractions, we grow quiet and centered.  We slow down and grow quiet and centered because so little of the speed, noise, and distraction lead us to live lives in which we bring about greater love, peace, justice, and hope in the world.  So little of the speed, noise, and distraction help us to live intentional lives in which we love God and love people. 

That’s our net, or at least a large part of our net.  As disciples of Jesus, we have and live lives of love, hope, faith, peace, confidence, contentment.  We live the story that covenant faithfulness to God is its own blessing and it does not necessarily bring wealth, power, or prestige.  Rather, covenant faithfulness to God brings blessings of peace amidst suffering, contentment without great wealth, and confidence of eternal life in God even in death.  That’s our teaching and preaching that we, as disciples of Jesus, get to go out and give to others and live.  Amen.