Called Apart

[This is the message which I was going to share with the people of Friendship Church today. But for the second time in twenty-one years, I couldn't lead worship or preach today. The Creeping Crud laid me low. But I'm thankful to the wonderful people of our great congregation for filling in. Pam shared the message you see below and Steve led the worship. It's a blessing to be the pastor of such a great congregation!]

Mark 1:14-20

At this time of year not long ago, a mother and father excitedly told their kids, “We’ve got a chance to spend the summer in Ireland!”

The reaction was less than enthusiastic. The older teenager said the Irish “are creepy people, they talk all the time and they talk funny. Besides I want to spend summer with my friends”

“But, it's a great offer,” the parents insisted. “Airfare is taken care of and so is the rent for the cottage.”

“Cottage?” the younger teen groaned. “I don't want to live in any cottage. Is it air-conditioned in Ireland? Besides, I have early football practice this summer.”

“You don't need air conditioning in Ireland, the parents explained. “And a cottage is really a nice house.”

Even the younger one hung his dejectedly at the thought of leaving familiar haunts behind and spending a whole summer in some foreign country.

No matter what the parents said, the kids were unconvinced. And so, the family passed on their Irish vacation.

I read that true story from Father Andrew Greeley, the best-selling novelist and sociologist the other day, and I could hardly believe it. But as Greeley pointed out when he told this story in a sermon a few years back, “How many opportunities have we wasted in life for reasons that are pretty similar?”

There is, to me, an air of mystery about our Bible lesson today. It begins immediately after Jerusalem and the surrounding Judean territory have gone abuzz with the news that John the Baptizer has been arrested. Eventually of course, John will be executed, a turn of events that most people who learned of his arrest probably would have foreseen. But while everyone is processing the bad news about John, Jesus doesn’t lay low, as you might expect. Instead, He begins His public ministry.

According to the Gospel of Mark, from which our lesson is drawn, Jesus has a simple, three-part message.

• First: The time is right for the Savior to be revealed to the world.
• Second: The Kingdom of God has come near.
• And third: Repent and believe in the good news. More literally, in the Greek, Jesus says, “Start repenting now and keep repenting and start believing now and keep on believing in the good news that all who entrust their lives to Me will live with God forever.”

Jesus had come to bring good news in the middle of bad news. And He’s still doing that.

A man in my former congregation suddenly died, the result of an accident. It was horrible news! On the evening of his death, I went to visit his widow and family. We sat at the kitchen table at which he’d had his morning devotions that very day. Setting there on the checkered table cloth, next to the salt and pepper shakers and the napkin holder, was his well-worn Bible and tucked inside it, marking the passage he’d read, was a devotional booklet like the Our Daily Bread you and I use.

For us, it was good news in the midst of bad news. Why? Because it demonstrated that he had been listening to Jesus’ call: He recognized that in the timing of God, Jesus the King had not only come into the world, but into his own life. This man had done just as Jesus called people in those days after John the Baptizer’s arrest and just as He calls us still today: He had kept on repenting--kept on turning his mind and life over to Christ. And he had kept on believing that the risen Jesus turns our sorrows into endless tomorrows, our dying into our rising.

The Bible on that man’s kitchen table gave silent witness to the fact that because he lived and died with Jesus here, he would surely rise and live with Jesus in His everlasting Kingdom. That's good news even when the world assails you with bad news.

What I love about this passage though, is not so much Jesus’ sermon. It explains what Jesus was about, to be sure. But Jesus does a lot more than articulate some high-sounding words.

Pete and I met this past week to discuss plans for our small group ministry at Friendship. We have several different small groups already. But we’re going to introduce more, particularly associated with Forty Days to Servanthood coming up during the Lenten season, starting on March 1. I explained to Pete that one of the reasons we asked him to be on Church Council is that we noticed how he and Dara handled recruiting people for Sunday morning ministries. They put out their pleas for volunteers during the worship announcements, of course. But then, they personally approached people during fellowship time and asked, “Would you like to help?”

That’s akin to what Jesus does in our lesson today. After announcing what He had come into the world to do and what He calls us to do, He started approaching people. And this brings us to what I consider the most mysterious thing about this whole passage. Jesus approaches two brothers named Andrew and Simon. Then, another set of brothers, James and John. Jesus tells them all, “Follow me.” He does tell the first two men that they will be “fishers of people,” but He doesn’t explain what He means by that.

All these guys--Andrew, Simon, James, John--could have reacted the way those children did when their parents offered them a summer in Ireland. They could have thrown up roadblocks. They could have ignored Jesus’ call. They could have given excuses: “This is a busy time of year.” “We can’t leave our work.” “Where exactly are we going to go if we follow You, Jesus?” But we have no record of any such excuses or questions or roadblocks. They followed.

You see, Jesus’ followers, disciples, are people who are called apart. To me, that means three things.

First: We’re called to repent, to turn away from the world’s usual way of doing things, to be different. Have you noticed how many people are apologizing these days? Any number of public figures are issuing apologies for things they've done or said. But so many of these apologies--not all--seem to have caveats or escape clauses. “Had I known what I know now,” some of them say, “I wouldn’t have done this or said that.” Or, “If I offended anybody, I’m sorry.” Most of these statements can only be described as unapologetic apologies: “I’m sorry...I got caught.”

But the repentance to which Jesus calls us is different. “God,” we may say, “I know that the sin of which I’m guilty”--be it sex outside of marriage, anesthetizing my brain with alcohol, stealing from my employer, taking my family for granted, talking badly about someone behind their back, acting self-righteous and holier-than-thou, stuffing my face full of food even when I’m not hungry, looking down on others because they don’t have money, craving money or power or sex, whatever my sin might be--“And God, I know my sins are wrong. But I can’t control myself. I’m turning to You once again today because I know You can help me control myself. You can help me to live as a human being is meant to live. You can help me to adopt the positive and joyful lifestyle that’s only possible when You’re at the center of a person’s life.” God will answer the prayer of a helpless person who keeps on repenting! God will turn our can'ts into His cans!

Second: We’re called to believe the good news of Jesus and to keep on believing it. This too, is something that we have to keep on asking God to grant. Martin Luther wrote in The Small Catechism about the mystery of faith, “I believe that I cannot by my own understanding or effort believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to Him. But the Holy Spirit...” makes it possible for us to believe that His Good News wins in a bad news world.

Many of us in this community saw how bad the news can get this past week when a young woman from Glen Este took her own life. It’s a heartbreaking thing! It challenges our ability to believe that Jesus is triumphant over sin and death. But if we can also tell Christ honestly, “Lord, I can’t believe, but I want to believe in You,” our faith will surely be built up.

Third: We’re called to be fishers of people. My wife and I went to San Francisco a few weeks ago. On a tour, our guide took us through the Fishermen’s Wharf district and said, “You really need to come back here at about 6:00 tomorrow morning and buy the fresh fish that the fishermen who have been out in their boats all night bring back.”

The fishermen in San Francisco do their work like the fishermen who Jesus called in our Bible lesson did theirs. Each night, they take their boats out and drag their nets through the water. Some mornings, they come back with big hauls. Other days, they have less fish. But the point is, they keep fishing.

You and I are surrounded by people who need Jesus Christ. Our call is to keep offering His embrace, to keep inviting them to follow Christ with us. Sometimes, people will say, “Yes.” Sometimes, they’ll say, “Maybe.” Sometimes, they’ll say, “No.” But we're to keep offering Christ to them, nonetheless.

Babe Ruth was once asked the secret of his success as a hitter in baseball. “I keep on swinging until I hit one,” he said. As fishers for people, you and I are called to keep on fishing. We can’t be successful as a congregation or as individuals if we try to attract others to Christ on our own power. But, with Christ powering us, we can be fishers of people.

When, like those first disciples, we follow Jesus, we can’t be certain of where He may take us. But we can be sure that wherever He takes us, He will be with us, helping us repent, believe, and tell our friends and neighbors that in Christ, there is good news that lasts forever!

[The true story of the family that didn't go to Ireland was told, I'm informed, by Father Greeley in a sermon on this very Biblical text. But I haven't been able to determine exactly when or where.

[The title and theme for the message was once again inspired by the great staff of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Burnsville, Minnesota.]