Get Up and Go
In the old westerns on TV, there were at times scenes of the salesman rolling into town on his horse-drawn medicine wagon. He would make his pitch for the latest and greatest tonic that would do many great things for the lucky purchaser. It would chase away your ailments, clear your skin, and brighten your eyes. If your get-up-and-go plum got up and went, it would supply you with pep and energy.
I am a product of the TV generation, can you tell? Let me give several other examples of pep in a bottle. The Lucy Show has an iconic episode where the inimitable Lucy Ricardo character does one take after another to produce an advertisement for the product, Vitameatavegamin. In addition to all the ingredients, it contained some alcohol, because she gets quite tipsy. After many takes of filming, poor Lucy’s speech starts to slur, hilariously making the product name quite unpronounceable. An actual commercial in those days was the ad for Geritol, which targeted the senior citizen market, and promised a boost from vitamin complexes and iron. The product first appeared in 1885, but with TV promotion it was so prominent in the awareness of the culture that seniors were nicknamed the Geritol Generation.
Let’s not forget, Dr. Pepper. Wasn’t it right out of Waco, Texas? It was billed as the soda beverage that could pep you up. Sugar and caffeine can do that. The recommendation was 10 – 2 – 4, that is, have a little at 10 AM, 2 PM, and 4 PM, but wait, there are more…products and claims go on and on, as we fight fatigue and slow-downs in hopes of boosting our energy. Even today, there are mini plastic bottles, on impulse item shelves, filled with chemicals with long names, for a boost.
I was going somewhere with this, and I had better spill it now before I forget. Setting aside all pep-promising supplements, nothing boosts us quite like having a passion for our mission in life. To believe in an initiative gets us moving. Inspiration energizes. If our nutrition, emotions, and psyche are basically in healthy ranges, we still need to believe.
In the season after the Epiphany, we highlight how Jesus called people to follow. They came to see and receive signs of the kingdom, the miracles that point to the reign of God. They came to learn and to absorb the hope he offered. He called disciples to himself, to learn his holy way. Twelve of them he appointed as ones he would especially cultivate as followers. These he later sent out as apostles. In the Sundays after the Epiphany, we should also listen for how, through the Holy Spirit, we are called by Jesus, here and now. Detect, if you will, that you are sent by God. This reality is our own encounter of epiphany: God getting through to us. Epiphany is not a concept or religious word only. It is an encounter with God for you. It comes not by your own bidding; it is God’s way of showing you something. God self-reveals, and lets you know you are loved, strengthened, and sent in mission.
When Simon and Andrew heard Jesus call them, when the other fisherman brothers James and John, heard him, they dropped all at once and followed. After that, there were plenty of serious ups and downs. All in all, they were captivated by his call, and bolstered by his divine energy, witnessing with their very lives. Naturally, until this captivation takes hold, there is reluctance.
In the sixth century, Pope Gregory the Great sent a group of monks led by their prior, Augustine, to southern England. It was a frightening mission, because when Roman forces left the isles, Anglos and Saxons moved in with their forces, causing Celtic and Roman Christians to flee into the hills of Wales and Scotland. When Augustine and his monks reached southern Gaul, people warned them there was great danger there. They turned back and did not follow through until Pope Gregory urged them afresh. It reminds me of Jesus’s parable in Matthew 21 of the two sons whom the father asked to go and work: one of them said, “I will not.” but later he changed his mind and went.
God called the prophet Jonah and he ran away, setting out to flee the presence of the Lord and boarding a ship to Tarshish. After horrific peril and adventure, he finally turned to receive God’s commission:
The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. —Jonah 3:1-3
God told Jonah, “Get up, go!” God gave him the get-up-and-go, so he went. So now, what about you? Without the benefit of snake oil, Geritol, Vitameatavegamin, Dr. Pepper, or 5-Hour Energy Shot, YOU are called by God. With nothing but divine revelation, epiphany, grace, you are called to follow Jesus, to be sent to the mission. It may not make your skin shine or get rid of athlete’s foot; it may not prevent scurvy or headaches, but it will bring joy and energy for God’s work. There is work for you.
This is real. To borrow from the language of Isaiah 60 and Luke 1, canticles from the Daily Office: “God’s glory will appear upon you…the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory”…“You will go before the Lord to prepare his way…the dawn from on high shall break upon us.” Is that enough for you? Are you feeling the epiphany, the get-up-and-go because God is calling: “Get up, go!” Go into the part of the world that you will reach; feel the gift of grace surging through you—Proclaim the Good News!” You can proclaim it like no one else to people who’ll receive it from no one else but you. So, go!
Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.