By Dr. Lani Wilson
Good Morning, loyal prayer partners! Let us keep praying for the cessation of wildfires burning around us and the safety of first responders and residents in the paths of these fires. Watching them on television news and even on the national news brings to mind James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time. With the renewed focus on the reality of American racism, Baldwin’s book, and the burning, scarlet-orange night-sky in rural California, it is more than just an interesting time to be alive.
May we consider the word “in” as we pray for our little oasis and the church of The Christ? Such a tiny word. Frankly, I tried to scoot away from it as the choice this week; it just…didn’t move me (not that it matters). And of course by itself, it is relatively meaningless. In English its function as a preposition is straightforward.
A preposition describes a relationship between other words in a sentence. In itself, a word like "in" or "after" is rather meaningless and hard to define in mere words. For instance, when you do try to define a preposition like "in" or "between" or "on," you invariably use your hands to show how something is situated in relationship to something else. Prepositions are nearly always combined with other words in structures called prepositional phrases.
Prepositions: Locators in Time and Space Capital Community College FoundationHartford, Connecticut http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/prepositions.htm
It has no relevance unless it is attached to other words and its purpose is to give meaning to other words in that phrase or sentence. The determiner follows a preposition and serves to describe or modify the noun. Thus, the “big deal” is apparently the noun, supposedly everything points to that noun or pronoun. “Determiners are said to ‘mark’ nouns. That is to say, you know a determiner will be followed by a noun”(Ibid). We focus on the noun in the sentence, right? That is what we are supposed to be considering. However, these smaller parts of speech have profound impact on the entire phrase or sent. Consider the difference:
The boat is in the water.
The boat is under the water.
The boat is under the water.
Prepositional phrases can be made up of a million different words, but they tend to be built the same: a preposition followed by a determiner and an adjective or two, followed by a pronoun or noun (called the object of the preposition). This whole phrase, in turn, takes on a modifying role, acting as an adjective or an adverb, locating something in time and space, modifying a noun, or telling when or where or under what conditions something happened. Ibid.
The difference in meanings is clear, isn’t it? The noun is still relevant but only in the way the preposition and determiner allow. By itself, in is pretty useless but combined with the article or determiner, it has meaning for the noun. Is that true for people? Is that true for our significant relationships? Is that true for our relationship with our church? Can we even have a “relationship with” our church?
We go to church. We meet at the church. We work in the church. We worship at church. In these four phrases the prepositional words tell us what we are doing in relation to the church: We are going to meet to do something – there, in or at the church. It gives us a place, a location in relation to the church: On our way there, being there, doing something there. In other words, these prepositions define our position to the amorphous church. There are many ways to look at our relation to the church. What and who is the church?
This is the standard model that most churches use when they think of how their church functions. The Deacons have their own box because it is the only other called position in the church besides the Preacher. A few years ago Allen Temple reorganized the leadership into clusters into which all the ministries fit. Notice anything missing in these diagrams?
It seems to have made more sense to have these different groups of people organized into overlapping groups since many of the same people served in many groups. And that is where our preposition in comes in, so to speak. What is missing in diagrams?
One can have an opinion about whether much has changed or not; whether the clusters made a difference in functioning or not. But the difference is the word in. Are we in or not? And what are we in and where? Figure out what or Who’s missing yet?
Growing up on an island in the Pacific Ocean affects the way one thinks forever, regardless of whether you move away or not. It is different from growing up on a continent, solid ground everywhere the eye can see. What is second nature to you is that your endless sight is moving water, endless ocean that breathes and pulses with waves out to a line that is the horizon. It has different temperaments, moods, colors, and shades. As we know, the ocean appears to be colored all those shades of blue and green because it reflects the sky above. You could say that it’s a mirror that’s alive with gargantuan forces thousands of miles out and thousands of miles deep over which we have no control. You can alter a landscape: Move dirt, bore holes through rock for tunnels, dig down and create valleys or pile high up and build mountains. But you can’t alter the ocean: You are very decisively and unequivocally in it and you learn very early on that you are pretty much always at its mercy.
Interestingly, there are approximately forty-five (45) verses in the New Testament (or New Covenant of Jesus Christ, NRSV introduction) where Jesus is speaking or He is being talked about and there are references to lakes, the sea or boats on the lakes or seas: Mathew 17:27, John 6:25, Mathew 21:21, Mark 6:48, John 6:1, Luke 8:37, Mark 6:49, Mathew 16:5, John 21:1, Mathew 4:13, Mathew 13:47, Mathew 18:6, Mark 11:23, Mark 9:42, Luke 17:6, Mathew 8:26, Mathew 14:13, Luke 8:33, Mathew 14:22, Mathew 13:1, Luke 5:1, Mark 6:47, John 6:17, Mark 4:1, John 6:16, Mark 3:7, Mathew 8:18, Mathew 14:25, Luke 8:22, Mark 5:21, John 6:19, Mark 5:13, Mark 1:16, Mathew 16:29, Mark 2:13, Mathew 8:24, Mark 5:1, Mark 7:31, Mathew 8:32, Mathew 9:1, John 6:22, John 6:25, Mark 4:35, Luke 8:23. We know the significance of John the Baptist’s baptizing repentant Jews in the Jordan River as he did his cousin Jesus.
At this time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. The moment he came out of the water, he saw the sky split open and God’s Spirit, looking like a dove, come down on him. Along with the Spirit, a voice: "You are my Son, chosen and marked by my love, pride of my life." Mark 1:9-11 (TMB)
We also know that Jesus used the lakes and seas in the arid lands of Palestine and Judea to teach, to travel, and sometimes to escape.
He went back to teaching by the sea. A crowd built up to such a great size that he had to get into an offshore boat, using the boat as a pulpit as the people pushed to the water’s edge. He taught by using stories, many stories.
Mark 4:1-2 (TMB)
These natural bodies of water were central to His ministry. How interesting it is that Jesus used the lakes and seas as opposed to stone and earth of the natural world. After all, Jesus was a carpenter or a stonemason and didn’t work with or on the water, as far as we know. However, He did retreat to the mountains and hills. There are approximately the same number, forty-two (42), of references to mountains and hills as lakes and seas in the New Testament when Jesus talked or when talking about or referring to Him: John 6:3, Mathew 15:29, Luke 23:30, John 6:15, Mathew 5:1, Luke 9:37, Mathew 24:16, Luke 4:29, Mathew 28:16, Luke 21:37, Luke 8:32, Mathew 8:1, Mark 6:46, Luke 9:28, Mark 9:2, Mathew 17:1, Mark 5:5, John 4:21, Luke 6:13, Mathew 14:23, Mark 3:13, Luke 21:21, Mark 5:11, Mark 13:14, Mark 9:9, Mathew 21:21, Mark 15:22, Mathew 17: 20, Mathew 17:14, Mathew 15:39, Luke 19:29, Mathew 5:14, John 19:17, Math 17:4, Mathew 3:1, Luke 1:39, John 8:1, Luke 1:65, Luke 6:17, Mathew 4:8, John 4:20, Luke 23:33.
One passage in particular is curious, Mathew 17:24-27 (NET).
After they arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Your teacher pays the double drachma tax, doesn’t he?” He said, “Yes.” When Peter came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do earthly kings collect tolls or taxes – from their sons or from foreigners?” After he said, “From foreigners,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. But so that we don’t offend them, go to the lake and throw out a hook. Take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth, you will find a four drachma coin. Take that and give it to them for me and you.”
The Message Bible translation says it this way:
When they arrived at Capernaum, the tax men came to Peter and asked, "Does your teacher pay taxes?" Peter said, "Of course." But as soon as they were in the house, Jesus confronted him. "Simon, what do you think? When a king levies taxes, who pays - his children or his subjects? He answered, "His subjects." But so we don’t upset them needlessly, go down to the lake, cast
a hook, and pull in the first fish that bites. Open its mouth and you’ll find a coin. Take it and give it to the tax men. It will be enough for both of us.”
A view of Capernaeum from the Sea of Galilee
There are many references here that might be worthy of extrapolation: The “tax men” are coming after Jesus for taxes; Peter probably lying about it when he said, “Yes;” Jesus confronting him as soon as Peter walks in after lying; Jesus calling him “Simon” instead of “Peter;” Jesus’ question about who pays taxes to the king, his own children or foreigners/aliens and what it means; why Jesus sent Peter to the lake (other versions such as the NASB say to “the sea”) to fish for just one fish, the first fish that bites, and in its mouth will be a coin (in other translations it is a didrachma, drachma or a shekel, the equivalent of four days of a laborer’s wages); why Jesus said it would be tax enough for just Peter and Himself and not the other disciples. If we focus on one small part of this multi-layered passage, Jesus’ instructions to Peter to go to the lake (or sea) and fish for one fish with just a hook to find enough money to pay two men’s temple taxes, it brings up more questions than answers. Did Jesus confront Peter as soon as Peter entered the house because he may have lied to them about paying taxes? What did He mean when he said that he didn’t want to “needlessly upset them?” Upset them about what? Why did Peter have to go to the sea to get a fish with a coin in its mouth when, if we follow the narratives of His miracles, Jesus could have made a coin materialize right there in the house? As usual The Christ left us with layers of profundity in these three verses. What has any of it to do with the preposition in?
An aerial view of Caperneaum
When we think about our place, our position, our location in relation to the church, the Body of Christ, where do we see ourselves? If the leadership reorganizes the ministries, does that change our work, our service, our devotion? Do we see ourselves on terra firma in our church, the expanse of land as far as the eye can see, with mountains and hills to navigate? Or do we see ourselves as if we were on an island in our church, in our ministries looking out over a blue-ish green horizon immersed in the throes of uncontrollable forces? If we assume for an instant that Jesus knew (as He said would happen) that we were going to be reading this passage millennia into the future, would he have been referring to an actual coin that Peter had to go to the sea’s edge to fish for with a solitary hook rather than a net – or could He have been referring to something or someone else? Who was the hook for? And was Jesus really referring to the temple tax for just two men when He said “the both of us;” “you and me?” Who is you and who is me?
A view of the ocean from Waikiki Beach looking toward the Waianae mountain range
LORD Jesus, we come before You again with more questions than answers. You left so much with us to ponder, especially in this one vignette with Peter whom you for some reason called “Simon” this time. We have to find our bearings: Are we in the ocean or on the sea? Are we on the lake or in the boat? Are we along for the ride or should we be handling an oar? Who’s got the hook and where is the fish, that one fish you told Peter to pull out of the water from the Sea of Galilee and open its mouth? Will we find a coin, a currency big enough to pay our Allen Temple tax? And what is it that is due? Is it enough for You and me? Help us find our way so we know where we are in relation to You, Your church, Your bride. Those same currents and uncontrollable forces that roll over us are nothing to You. Help us follow Your Light as we look up at the night stars to negotiate our way Home to You. Thousands of miles of blue-ish green ocean and sea lay ahead as we make our way to You. Keep us close to You in the boat because we know storms are on the horizon. Keep us warm and sheltered as You effortlessly guide the rudder. And don’t let us drift away without realizing it. We are easily tempted and in You lays our resolve. Whether we feel safe looking out from land over Your seas, oceans, and lakes or whether we feel safe in the water looking back at Your earth-island, don’t let us go, even when we protest because we know You have the vision. It’s our job to align our sight with Yours.
Have mercy.
Keep rowing.
Have mercy.
Keep swimming.
Have mercy. Have mercy. Have mercy.
Keep rowing.
Have mercy.
Keep swimming.
Have mercy. Have mercy. Have mercy.
Amen.
