There are lots of paired opposites that characterize the world: darkness and light, good and evil, past and future. One such pair is animate and inanimate. We call something animate when it is alive and does all those things animate creatures do – eat, breathe, reproduce — including buffaloes and bugs, trees and tarantulas, fish and fowl. Something which is inanimate, obviously is the opposite. Inanimate objects don’t eat and breathe and reproduce: rocks, dirt, air. Many inanimate objects are worth a lifetime of study: the sun and moon are inanimate, the ocean, a mountain. Now by definition animate objects, living things, will eventually die. Whales and the wallabies will all pass away. Inanimate objects since they aren’t alive don’t die. Oh, the mountain will eventually wear down and the sun will burn out in five billion years. (“Phew. I thought you said five million years.”) But from the perspective of a human lifetime we imagine inanimate things as lasting. Question: is the church an animate or an inanimate object. Is it just there – more like a mountain than a mouse. BUT if we treat our church like a mountain – that is, just let it be there – instead providing it with the necessities of life then, like a hamster that hasn’t been fed and watered, it will die. You suppose the mountain will always be there and the sun will always shine. So you presume your church will always be there. But current events are proving that is not the case. The church is not an inanimate object but an animate one – a living being. We can’t presume it will last. We need to worry over its care and feeding. The scripture readings describe what an eating, breathing and reproducing – animate and animated – church will look like.
Take chapter one of St. Mark’s gospel. Jesus burst on the scene and began his ministry with a bang: “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe.” These are the initial movements of Jesus laying the groundwork for the church. Notice that the first thing Jesus addresses is growth, is reproduction. He starts off his ministry by gathering others into it. “Come after me.” Right from the beginning, the church of Jesus is about growing. When Jesus says “come after me” he doesn’t say, come after me and you’ll never have problems. He doesn’t say, come after me and you’ll never get the flu. He doesn’t say, come after me and you’re income will rise 10%. No, what Jesus says is come after me and I’ll put you to work! “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” In other words, the church Jesus envisioned was about growth right from the git-go. Jesus was not content with saying, I’ve got my little group together so let’s all sing kum baya. No, he said, if you are one of my followers, if you are part of my movement called church you have to be fishing, you have to be going out after others, you have to bring in those who are lost or feel alone. So the first characteristic of the church as Jesus envisioned it – as an animate, living thing – was that its members would be fishers, would be actively involved in making sure that others were brought into the following of Jesus too.
Second point: Think about the rover on the planet Mars sending back pictures. The pictures show that Mars is filled with some pretty spectacular inanimate objects – mountains and hills, valleys and plains. However, as near as we can tell, the red planet has no animate objects – no plants, animals or little green men. The scientists are trying to discover if there is enough water and air to sustain animate beings. For the church to come alive and not simply exist, it too needs to have enough of the essentials to sustain it. What nourishes and sustains the church – our food and water, if you will – are prayer, the word of God and the sacraments. When Jesus inaugurates the church by saying, “believe in the gospel” he serves notice that we have to know what the gospel is in order to come alive. That is why it is so important to read the Bible, to gather regularly with your fellow believers for prayer and worship, to have your own personal prayer time, to receive communion and confession regularly. When we do these things the church has the nourishment necessary for it to stay alive.
The other word Jesus uses at the basis for the church – we could say the DNA of the body of Christ – is “repent.” “Repent. Believe in the gospel.” Repentance animates the church, makes it come alive. To live is to change and repentance implies change. We certainly must repent of, change from, a sinful way of life. But the story of Jesus calling the first disciples to become church reminds us of another change, another kind of repentance, required of his followers. To follow Jesus, requires that we re-prioritize what matters. Like Peter, Andrew, James and John we see things as Jesus sees them. For a church to be alive its members aren’t so much worried about what kind of car they drive but who they can help out by driving them to church. An alive church isn’t worried about what kind of clothes they are wear but about clothing the naked and helping the needy. An alive church does not feel like it has made it by going to a fancy restaurant but by feeding the hungry and giving drink to the thirsty. It’s only when we’ve repented of the things this world considers valuable – possessions, positions and prestige – that we come alive as the Church of Jesus.
And be aware: anything that is alive is on the clock. Maybe inanimate things like the sun or a mountain doesn’t have a sense of urgency but anything living knows that death is in our future. We have to eat, breathe, reproduce while there is still time. Jesus insisted on that sense of urgency for his church. “THIS is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is AT HAND.” So for an alive church, today is the day to become a fisher. Today is the day to be nourished by God’s word. Today is the day to live by God’s values. St. Paul says, “Time is running out!” AMEN!
