Just Keep Swimming
RCL Year C • Sermon • Submitted
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As my family heads off for vacation to experience some Disney fun, I thought it only appropriate to use a Disney film as an illustration. Finding Nemo is one of my favorite films by Pixar becuase of the way that they capture the beauty and vastness of the the ocean. The movie came out in 2003 so if you haven’t seen it yet, and I am giving away parts of the movie you’ve had almost 20 years to watch it so that’s not on me. For me, one of the most defining moments of the film is how cautious and paranoid Nemo’s dad, Marlin, is for a good portion of the film. Obviously losing a loved one in a tragic way will affect you deeply, and we can see how that is played out between Marlin and Nemo’s relationship at the beginning of the film. Marlin is so worried that another tragic event will happen that he forces Nemo to go in and out of the anemone numerous times before leaving the ‘house’ and he has a very hard time dropping him off on his first day of school. He wants to hold and control everything that he doesn’t realize how much he may be holding Nemo back from really enjoying and experiencing his life. He is busy living in the past that he cannot let go and enjoy and experience the journey that the future may bring.
Which is what I feel is at play with these people that are interested in following Jesus. The first person who says he wants to follow Jesus is confronted by the idea that following Jesus means that there are some literally uncomfortable truths about following him. Jesus doesn’t have a home. And Jesus had just been rejected from being able to stay in a Samaritan town so he wouldn’t even be able to stay at an inn. The literally journey of following along with Jesus then meant that you might be rejected and you might have to forgo a pillow, a bed, a washbasin and many of the comforts that people had grown accustomed to both then and now. I know that most of my family will be bringing our own travel pillows and toiletries so that we don’t have to rely on the hotel or anything else for the ‘essentials’ that we may need while we’re gone.
The next two people I feel are definitely things that Jesus said but I don’t believe are quite as literal as the first. It reminds me when Jesus was talking about sin in Matthew 5:29-30 and he tells us that if your eye or hand causes you to sin then you should get rid of that part of your body rather than go to hell. I don’t believe Jesus is advocating for literal dismemberment, but instead is trying to help us understand the importance of keeping ourselves away from sin. Likewise, I don’t believe Jesus is telling this person he cannot bury his father or that someone cannot say farewell to their family who are still back at home, instead Jesus is sharing the urgency of his message and the need to follow. Again, like with the first person, Jesus is telling these people the reality of a life following Jesus is a journey that may not be comfortable literally and figuratively, which includes making tough decisions that may be painful in order to follow where Jesus is leading. Jesus is trying to reframe their minds to help them understand that the life they are living and have lived in the past will not be the same once they take the step and begin the journey of following Jesus.
Once Marlin sets out on his journey, once he leaves the comforts of his home we learn just how much he no longer is the same person he had been for so long. He meets a lovely Blue Tang by the name of Dory who reminds him that when life gets you down you have to ‘just keep swimming’. In other words you need to keep moving forward. Despite all his reservations Marlin does keep swimming and it eventually reunites him with his son and tells him all of the incredible things he did on his journey. He met a sea turtle that was 150 years old, fought away 3 sharks, swam into the depths of the ocean, was swallowed by a whale, yeah Jonah a whale, evaded jelly fish, and more. When Nemo heard about all the things his father had done and was doing to get Nemo back, it brought hope and joy to Nemo. The journey changed Marlin and he was no longer worried or living in the past, and both he and Nemo were able to live into fully being themselves and they were a fuller, better, and happier family.
Whether we have been following Jesus for a long time or a short time we are being called to no longer live in the past but into the future. A commentary by Lutheran pastor Brian Stoffregen offers these words, “We can neither wallow in our past sins nor boast of our past successes if we are to be fit for the kingdom of God.” We should always be looking forward as Jesus points out to the final man who wants to follow him. While looking back can inform us we cannot keep looking back if we are to live into who we are called to be and the things we are called to do. As the quote I gave, that even includes successes. A past success may not translate into a future success for any number of reasons which is why we should always be looking forward to what the Spirit may be saying to us as we discern what we are being called to do in this place.
That includes being able to let go of things that may not have worked even if we thought they were good ideas. The Samaritan village that Jesus passes through does not welcome him and the sons of Thunder James and John want to reign down fire from heaven, which is reminiscent of the prophet Elijah. Jesus rebukes the brothers and simply keeps moving forward. Even for Jesus, he keeps moving forward. The reason for his moving forward in this time is to go to Jerusalem. Jesus primary focus and mission is to go to Jerusalem just as God has called him to do. There is nothing that will distract him from that journey. Just like the journey that Marlin took brought him and Nemo into a good and healthy relationship as father and son, so too at the end of Jesus’ journey we all have the privilege of knowing that the purpose of that journey is to go to the cross to forgive us of our sins and bring us into a right relationship with God. A right relationship between parent and children. This is a journey for all of us to take and be on, so in the wise words of Dory…just keep swimming…and know that the Holy Spirit is with you the whole way. Amen.