Meaning in the Mundane

The following video transcript has been lightly edited

   So last Thursday was my birthday. I don't know about you, but as an adult, birthdays are, mm, they're a little bit less exciting. Certainly a year older, you're hoping you're perhaps a year wiser. But the day itself just feels like a normal day, for the most part. You know, you get some encouraging messages, and that's It's helpful, but you go to work and you come home and you've got the dog to take care of and the car to drop off at the mechanics and you know, your wife might ask you to disconnect the sink in the upstairs bathroom because she wants to paint it.

And as you're doing that, first one goes nice and then the second one, when you turn it, the shutoff valve comes off in your hand and you realize, oh, I guess for my birthday today, I get to do a plumbing project. So you go off to Ace Hardware and you get the parts and pieces, you come home and then finally you get to call it a day.

And a lot of our life is like this, we get up every day, and we get ready, and we go off to work or school, and we come home, we make some dinner, then maybe after dinner, you either get a chance to rest, or do some homework, or work work, uh, maybe you numb out a little bit, and then you get up and you do it all over again, and in the midst of that, I think sometimes, in the mundane of the everyday, there's a grayness that can set in on us and we begin to wonder like what's the point of this all. And here's the encouraging news we've been in this series of tidings of comfort and joy and what Christ offers us is meaning and purpose in the midst of the mundane of every day as Jesus is beginning his ministry as Luke tells us he calls the disciples together. And he calls a bunch of fishermen and says, Hey, you're gonna help me be fishers of men.

And what we see in the midst of that story are several things that I think are helpful to us as we figure out how do we fight against that grayness that settles in and help us find meaning and purpose in the mundane of every day. Because three things are revealed. One is that God's kingdom is for all. God calls everyone. Second, God arrives in the midst of the everyday, opposed to some sort of special circumstances. And finally, our role, no matter where we are, is to be people who catch other people. Let me tell you about each one a little bit more.

So when Jesus gathers a group of people, he's on a lake and he sets out in the boat and he teaches. And then he essentially says, Hey, this is God's kingdom and it's for everyone. And that's representative of the fact that he chooses a bunch of fishermen, everyday workers, to be his leaders. And the message to everyone is that this is all occurring in the midst of their regular lives. And that's what we watch in Jesus ministry. He doesn't ask people to go do some other thing. Most of the time it's, hey, come follow me, but do it in the midst of your everyday life.

And when we think about that, I think often what we forget is that our everyday life has Purpose and meaning and we're all invited in. And so for us, we want to think about, in the midst of the mundane, that we are in the very place we are supposed to be. So wherever you are at work, or school, or home, that God has you in that place. And in the midst of the everyday, you can pick that up, and you can participate in God's kingdom, because God invites all of us in.

I was up in, at Syracuse University this week and there was this helpful picture of a potluck. Ibu Patel was talking about interfaith dialogue and the importance of it and the value, the treasure that diversity is. But this concept of potluck stuck with me because I think that's what God's kingdom is like. He asks all of us to just show up, bring our favorite dish. And provide what we have, everyone participates and everyone gets a chance to play because God's kingdom is for all and all are invited to participate.

And so whatever you're doing this week, embrace your place and show up with whatever you have and, and bring it in this sense of hey, God, I know that you have called me to participate in this world. Because Christ has restored us to be people who reflect love to God and to the world. So second, it's this idea that God arrives in the midst of the everyday.

So in the ancient world, to experience God, it was often done in some type of temple, some type of cultic ritual mediated by a priest and your position in society mattered a lot in terms of what position you were in within that system and your quote unquote experience of God. What's amazing here and throughout all of Jesus ministry is that Jesus shows up in the midst of everyday life.

So fish are caught by Peter and his friends and in that sense it's a very ordinary but extraordinary miracle. Because what are they? Well, they're fishermen. And so they throw the nets out during the day, after spending all night fishing, and they have this incredible catch. I think for us that sometimes what happens is we forget that God is arriving all the time.

And so we're out there, as this morning, maybe snow blowing, and all we're thinking about is executing, trying to get this thing done to move on to the next thing. And if we pause and we maybe then can sort of connect with a little bit of the magic that goes on in the world and the wonder. And we see that God has brought life to all things and creation is beautiful and glorious and twinkly like the snow.

And so for you and I, what we want to do is we want to train ourselves. We want to look around and say, okay, where is God arriving? In the midst of my every day, and how do I connect and participate with that? Lastly, Jesus calls the disciples and says, You will now be fishers of men. You will go and you will catch people.

You won't be catching fish anymore. And of course, Jesus models this for us. And what we see, repeatedly, is that Jesus engages The everyday person, the person who feels like maybe they shouldn't be engaged, Jesus engages them. And what does he do? Well, he first sees them and makes them feel seen. He engages them in such a way where they feel more human.

And the second thing he does is he loves them. This is, this happens repeatedly in the story. He looks at them and he loves them. And you and I can do the same thing. We can see people and make them feel seen and then we can love them. We can encourage them, we can challenge them, we can joke with them. We can reassure them. We can be grateful for them.

And then lastly, Jesus says, Come on. Come follow me. Come participate in the kingdom. And we can do that in a couple of ways. Yes, sometimes it's, hey, come with me as I follow Christ. And that's maybe a formal opportunity for someone to grow in their faith. Or engage faith in a new way.

But it's also just sometimes inviting them near the Kingdom of God. Okay, let's go serve together. Let's go take care of others together. Let's go pursue kindness and gentleness and self control and humility. And so whatever we're doing, we can do that wherever we are. So if you're thinking about it through the lens of parenting, you can do that with your kids.

You can see them, and you can make them feel seen. You can love them, and you can say, Hey, come join me as I follow God in the midst of the everyday. We can do this at work and at school and wherever we are, and so no longer does our daily routine and rhythm just become monotonous and pointless, but rather, we've been invited in.

To participate in God's kingdom right where we are, we get to be people who catch people who say, come on, come and experience the transcendent, the good, the beauty, the wonder.

I hope that that's helpful for you. And so this week, as you go through your mundane, remind yourself that God's kingdom is for everybody. And that includes you. He arrives in the midst of the everyday and that you're in the business of catching people by seeing them, helping them be seen, loving them and inviting them along on the journey. Have a great week. Talk to you next time.