Phone's Ringin' Dude

MARK 1:14-20

¹⁴Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, ¹⁵and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

¹⁶As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea — for they were fishermen. ¹⁷And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” ¹⁸And immediately they left their nets and followed him. ¹⁹As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. ²⁰Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

The ringing phone in the movie The Big Lebowski drives me nuts. It rings and rings and The Dude and his friends ignore it. Usually when a phone rings, we stop everything to answer it--or at least see who it is calling. Phones have this mysterious power to get our attention and compel us to action. We've all seen someone frantically searching through their bag to retrieve a ringing phone. If you're old enough, you probably remember everyone in the house stopping what they were doing or hollering "I'll get it" and running to the ringing phone on the wall. I'm sure there's some Pavlovian stimulus-reward thing that happens in our brain to make us want to interrupt what we are doing to answer the phone.

In the story, the disciples don't ignore the call. In fact, they drop everything to follow Jesus. When we read this passage, this is what we focus upon, the disciples answering the call. We usually frame it as obedience. We tend to skip over the first part of the passage. 

After all, we've heard Jesus opening sermon a bunch of times. We know Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” 

But I wonder, is this call story intended to be an illustration of that gospel message? Could it be that the disciples are showing us that repentance is part of being called?  To answer Jesus' call we have to turn away from what we are doing? Is it possible that Simon (Peter) and Andrew, and James and John are acting out Jesus sermon? After all Jesus "comes near" and the four men change everything about their lives. They repent or turn from what they were doing and follow Christ.

When most of us hear that we need to repent, we think that we need to feel sad and sorry for the things we have done. And sometimes we should. But repentance can also mean having a change of mind or a change of heart. It can mean turning away from something good and toward something better. We can repent without having to beat ourselves up.

At a recent presbytery meeting, we were sitting at a table talking about what formed our faith. There was a 85-year-old-man named Ed who sat across from me. Ed has been the clerk of session at his church for 45 years.

I thought that maybe I hadn’t heard him right and so I asked, “Did you say 4 or 5 or did you say forty-five?”

And he indeed said 45.

But, he said, the real thing that formed his faith happened when he had trouble catching his breath about 20 years ago. Before he knew it, he was in the hospital, on life support as a 65-year-old man. He needed a heart transplant. He spent day after day being kept alive by machines. His wife rented a hotel room to be close to him as his time wound down.  Then it happened. They found a donor. At that point the doctors weren’t sure the surgery and the new heart would be enough to save him.  But it was.

Ed had a change of heart. He had the heart of an 18-year-old put in his chest and with it a new appreciation of God.

God came near him, he felt, and literally changed his heart. It drew him closer to God and gave his service to the church new meaning.

In light of our gospel story today, we can see this is a kind of repentance. It’s a change of heart, a change of mind, a change of outlook. It’s turning toward God, discovering the kingdom of God that has come near and seeking to live into it.

This doesn’t mean we don’t sin. We do. But, it does mean that we spend our time looking forward in hope instead of to the past with regret.  We don’t let our past mistakes define us, but rather the new world of the gospel into which Jesus calls us. 

Jesus said repent and believe the good news. That’s exactly what the disciples did. They turned away from the life that they knew and turned toward Jesus. They turned away from the things that they understood to things they did not know. They turn from the things that separate them from Jesus and turn toward Jesus.

What are the things that were keeping them from Christ? Horrible sins? Shame? Dark secrets?

Maybe. But the Bible doesn’t tell us that. The Bible simply tells us they turn away from their jobs and families to follow Jesus.

Is this because jobs and families are bad?  No.  But Jesus wants to show the disciples there is more to life and love than they might be experiencing where they were. As the disciples walk with Jesus they learn what that good news is about.

In her devotional book Jesus Calling, Sarah Young gives Jesus’ call a modern voice:

“Come to me with a teachable spirit eager to be changed,” Jesus is saying in the opening of the book. “A close walk with Me is a life of continual newness. Do not cling to old ways as you step into this New Year. Instead seek My Face with an open mind…As you focus your thoughts on Me, be aware that I am fully attentive to you. I see you with a steady eye because My attention span is infinite. My thoughts embrace you in everlasting love.”

The phone’s ringin’. Jesus is calling you. 

I suspect it might be Good News.

Just Jesus?

JOHN 1:43-51

⁴³The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” ⁴⁴Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. ⁴⁵Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” ⁴⁶Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” ⁴⁷When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” ⁴⁸Nathanael asked him, “Where did you come to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” ⁴⁹Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” ⁵⁰Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” ⁵¹And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

In the beginning of his ministry, Jesus gathers up some people to accompany him. He finds Philip in Galilee and invites him along. Philip then goes off and finds Nathanael and tells him that he found the Messiah. But Nathanael is skeptical. He doesn’t even pretend to believe Philip. No way the messiah would come from a Podunk town like Nazareth. Nathanael asks:

“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

Philip’s reaction isn’t to debate him on the merits of Nazareth. He doesn’t launch into some scriptural explanation or prove something by quoting the words of the prophets. Philip knows that the only way to understand Jesus is to experience Jesus first hand.

So Philip takes Nathanael to Jesus. Remember, Jesus does not yet have a bunch of devoted disciples. He’s not yet a superstar preacher and healer. He’s just Jesus—a guy from Nazareth—out finding disciples.

Reading this, I wonder why did people follow him? Why did those first disciples drop everything and go? Was there something so magnetic about his presence that they felt like they just wanted to be near him? Did the Holy Spirit stage an intervention and suddenly Philip and Nathanael knew they had to go? Or was it was predestination and they had no choice?

However it happens, we see that something powerful and unexplainable takes place in the presence of Jesus. To encounter Jesus is to experience something new. For the disciples, this happened literally. They could see him, hear him and even touch him. The reality and the power of Jesus was right there in front of them. They could see it and believe it.

When Jesus calls Philip he uses just two words: Follow me.

Jesus doesn’t say who he is or what he’s doing. He doesn’t promise Philip victory or heaven or prosperity. He just says, follow me.

Jesus knew that there were some things that he just couldn’t explain to people so he didn’t even try (well, not very often). He knew that people were skeptical and stubborn and sure of themselves. He knew they could never understand the whole death and resurrection thing until they experienced it through him.

The disciples are like teenagers who are convinced that they understand everything, the kind of teenagers who know exactly what will happen and are sure their parents are just clueless.

“My friends love me more than you!” My (then) middle school daughter protested though tears. 

“Let’s talk in ten years and see who is still in your life,” I replied with an ill-timed laugh before walking away. Not my best parenting moment. But,  I knew better than she did how her life would unfold.  

“I’ll never deny you!” the disciple Peter protests later in the story as Jesus is about to be arrested and killed.

“Yes, you will, “ Jesus sighs matter-of-factly knowing he’s right and there’s no sense in arguing. Peter had to live through the experience in order to believe it.

One of the most frustrating, annoying and difficult things is watching people you love make mistakes—and not being able to stop them. We see the warning signs of a bad relationship, poor financial choices and we know the consequences of risky behavior, usually because we have made those mistakes! 

But often we have to let others live through their own experiences to learn from them.  They have to see it to believe it. 

This is why the work of the church is so important. It allows people to experience Jesus in the world. We can experience Jesus in the laying on of hands for healing or in the water of baptism or in the feeding of the hungry. 

Philip seemed to know that asking someone to believe in Jesus without experiencing Jesus is pointless. So he invited Nathanael to experience Jesus on his own. 

We can offer this invitation as well. And because he is faithful, Jesus shows up. We can experience Jesus in the hospital room, at the homeless shelter and even at the worship service. We can experience Jesus most anywhere.  

Many years ago, a gray-bearded man in dirty clothes offered the blessing for the meal we had taken to the shelter. He held his hat in his hands and thanked God for getting them all through the day. Today wasn't a good day for most of them, he said, they were at a homeless shelter, after all. But he held out hope that tomorrow would not just be a new day, but a better day. God would see to it. 

Jesus showed up in that man's prayer and invited me to participate in his thanksgiving and hope. That man's experience of faith made it's way into my heart and changed something in me.

Jesus finds Philip and says, Follow me. Philip finds Nathanael and says, Come and see. 

Experiencing Christ shows us that he's more than just Jesus. He's more than a guy from no-good Nazareth. He's our hope in the world. 

Moving Heaven and Earth

Sometimes when we are driving places as a family, the four of us will be talking in the car. My husband and I usually ride in the front seats and our daughters are in the back. As we drive, we’ll be talking away, assuming everyone is involved in the conversation. Until we ask one of our kids a question. Then there is a long silence.

Turns out somewhere along the way one or maybe both have put their ear buds in and tuned us out. So, I’ll wave my arm above my head to let them know we want to talk to them. If the have their eyes closed or are engrossed in texting, I'll have to tap one of them on the leg to get their attention. 

In the story of Jesus’ baptism in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan. As he comes up out of the waters of baptism. He sees the heavens torn apart, the Spirit descending upon him like a dove and he hears the voice of God.

God tears open the heavens and plunges to the earth. This is more than a leaf falling slowly from a tree or a sunbeam stretching from sky to earth. The language implies that it’s a tearing or ripping apart of the cosmic order as the Holy Spirit plunges toward Jesus. Something big is happening. Something new.

We see heaven and Earth intersect as Jesus feels the hands of John guiding him in the river and hears the voice of God from heaven. He’s dripping with water from the earth and overcome with the Spirit from above. He is John’s cousin and God’s Son.

God and John the Baptist join together in this event of baptism to create something new. God is moving heaven and Earth in Jesus’ baptism. Bringing them closer together.

Jesus experiences the power of God and hears the voice of heaven saying, “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”

The odd thing about this passage is that Jesus has this dramatic baptism and nobody seems to notice. Not one person trembles as the heavens tear open. No angels say, “Do not be afraid.” People don’t suddenly worship Jesus or ask where the dove came from. In this story, it's pretty much business as usual on the riverbank for everyone except Jesus.

How often are we like kids in the backseat or the people on that riverbank? Do we miss the big stuff that God is doing in the world? How often is God opening the heavens and calling to us and we miss it? We close ourselves off with our work or volunteerism or one preoccupation or another and there is God in Christ, trying to get our attention.

God is moving heaven and earth for you, saying, You are my beloved. Take out your ear buds for a moment and listen for it. I'm confident that you will hear it. 

Great Expectations

ISAIAH 61:1-4, 8-11

¹   The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, 
          because the LORD has anointed me; 
     he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, 
          to bind up the brokenhearted, 
     to proclaim liberty to the captives, 
          and release to the prisoners; 
²   to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, 
          and the day of vengeance of our God; 
          to comfort all who mourn; 
³   to provide for those who mourn in Zion — 
          to give them a garland instead of ashes, 
     the oil of gladness instead of mourning, 
          the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. 
     They will be called oaks of righteousness, 
          the planting of the LORD, to display his glory. 
⁴   They shall build up the ancient ruins, 
          they shall raise up the former devastations; 
     they shall repair the ruined cities,  the devastations of many generations.

LUKE 1:46B-55

^46b My soul magnifies the Lord, 
⁴⁷       and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 
⁴⁸  for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. 
          Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 
⁴⁹  for the Mighty One has done great things for me, 
          and holy is his name. 
⁵⁰  His mercy is for those who fear him 
          from generation to generation. 
⁵¹  He has shown strength with his arm; 
          he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 
⁵²  He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, 
          and lifted up the lowly; 
⁵³  he has filled the hungry with good things, 
          and sent the rich away empty. 
⁵⁴  He has helped his servant Israel, 
          in remembrance of his mercy, 
⁵⁵  according to the promise he made to our ancestors, 
          to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

 

Tis the season for great expectations. The decorations are up.  The last pushes of pre-holiday shopping, baking and shipping are taking place. The baby is almost here and the excitement runs high.

All of us have visions in our minds of a perfect Christmas. My own expectations focus upon Christmas Eve—family together, inspiring worship, a dusting of snow and a quiet cup of tea by the lit up tree. I am all about a silent night and some candles.

Christmas comes as a promise, a reassurance that someday all will be right with the world and in our lives.  We love this. We long for this. We need this. But there is a prophetic aspect to Christmas as well.  The Advent readings from Isaiah are promising and hopeful, but they also show us what is wrong with the world.

Isaiah’s great expectations are for a world of peace, where people turn swords into plowshares, where lambs and lions lie down together, where a child can play over a nest of snakes and not be bitten.  Isaiah tells us we can expect the brokenhearted to be comforted and that good news will come for the oppressed. The captives will be set free and there will be release for the prisoners.

This is all wonderful news. It leads us to expect great things from God. But accompanying all of Isaiah’s great expectations, there is another message—a message that when God judges, someone will be be found lacking.  When we lit the Advent wreath, we heard in Isaiah 35:

Here is your God.
He will come with vengeance,

with terrible recompense.

Yikes. That doesn't sound very Christmasy! Then the Old Testament reading Isaiah 61 reads:

  The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,

          because the LORD has anointed me;

     he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,

          to bind up the brokenhearted,

     to proclaim liberty to the captives,

          and release to the prisoners;

²   to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, 

    and the day of vengeance of our God;

          to comfort all who mourn;

³   to provide for those who mourn in Zion —

Who wants to hear about vengence this close to Christmas?

Isaiah is declaring a day of peace AND the vengeance of our God. There’s good news for the oppressed, brokenhearted, captive and prisoners. Presumably there’s bad news for those who do the oppressing, heartbreaking, and those who take captives and prisoners.

Fast-forward several hundred years to Mary’s song. I’m sure you remember that in the nativity story Mary, a teenager, has become pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Mary, too, has some great expectations. Mary proclaims a message of good news and judgment in Luke 1. Mary expects that God will reverse things. That she and her people will no longer be downtrodden and hungry. Mary’s great expectation is that God will scatter the proud and bring down the rich. She says:

He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;

he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones

but has lifted up the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things

 but has sent the rich away empty.

Isaiah's and Mary's words leave us with the hard question: Where are we in these stories? Are we the oppressed, brokenhearted, captive, humble and hungry? Or are we the oppressors and heartbreakers? Are we the proud and the rich? 

We are used to hearing the words of good news and have great expectations of what God will do in the world and in our lives. So much so that we tune out the not-so-nice bits. But, embedded in this good news is the message that God has great expectations for us. The Spirit of the Lord came upon Isaiah and upon Mary and called them to participate in the work of God. They responded by being obedient and by preaching the gospel.

The Spirit of the Lord has named and claimed you and me, too, in our baptisms. We are God’s anointed. We are God’s prophets. We are vessels of God’s good news. We are called to live into the great expectations God has for us. We are called to be promoters of peace, preservers of dignity and feeders of the hungry in a world that is frightfully broken.

Isaiah and Mary lived in a broken world like ours. God gave them a word and called them to participate. We are expected to participate in the Kingdom of God that Jesus shows us in his words, ministry and life.

Speaking of expectations, this message of God's expectation and judgment might not meet your expectations of what a sermon should be so close to Christmas. You may have expected to something uplifting, not challenging.

You may prefer to hear only the good news that Jesus came for you and died for you—that by God’s grace you experience salvation. You are saved by God, not by your good works. This is true. Hear and believe this good news.

But, remember before Jesus was born, Isaiah preached good news. Mary preached good news.  Jesus preached good news  before he died and was resurrected and before people thought about what that meant. 

Before Jesus died he taught people how to live the good news. We are called to participate in the gospel that Jesus preached with his words and with his life.  The spirit is upon us. We are anointed. God has great expectations.

I know, I know, our lives are hectic and complicated and we just want a little peace.

We want prophets who speak happy news, a silent night, a baby that doesn’t cry and a savior that doesn’t bleed. Our expectation is that Christmas should be well-lit, well-decorated, and the story well-sanitized.

We create Christmases that are about pretty trees, lovely manger scenes and shiny trappings. But just like in our homes, all that Christmas beauty doesn’t just appear out of thin air.

Somebody has to do the unglamorous job of carrying the tree into the house, sweeping up the pine needles and wrapping the lights around it. Someone has to wash all the bowls and cookie sheets that produced the beautiful tray of cookies.  Christmas, like Christianity, is a participatory act.  

Have you been in a house where  one person expected help at Christmas, but feels like they are doing all the shopping, cooking, decorating and wrapping for Christmas? I can tell you it does not create goodwill toward men! Christmas requires that we all come together to get things done. Christ expected his disciples to participate in ministry.

In our scriptures today, the Jewish community had great expectations. They were expecting a messiah to come and restore their fortune. Many of them were sure that the new King of the Jews would be a literal King like David. He would increase the military might and lead them to independence and prosperity. The mighty arm of God would sweep away the Babylonians or Assyrians or Romans restore Israel. Israel would finally be at peace.

But the messiah didn’t meet their expectations. He wasn’t a warrior.  He didn’t have an army. He didn’t even defeat the Romans. In the gospel of Luke, Jesus’ first recorded teaching begins when he unrolls the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and reads:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
        to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
        to let the oppressed go free,

 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor…

Then Jesus began to say to them, “Today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Note that Jesus “began” to say to them. The fact that he fulfilled the scriptures isn’t the last word, but the first word of his ministry. He created expectations with that reading. His whole life shows what the fulfillment of the scriptures looks like.  It doesn’t look like a warrior king. It doesn’t look like the mighty arm of the LORD sweeping swaths of people out of the way so that the Israelites can feel powerful again.

Instead, that fulfillment looks like a baby born to teenager who feels blessed by God. It looks like a teacher who feeds thousands of people on a hillside or maybe a school teacher who slips $5 to the kid from subsidized housing so that she can eat lunch.

The fulfillment of the scripture looks like a leader who gets over his revulsion and touches lepers or a nurse who works with Ebola patients.  It looks like a man who eats with tax collectors, prostitutes and sinners or helps out at the food bank or takes a casserole to a grieving family or provides medical care to the homeless.

The fulfillment of scripture is a savior who shows us how to live.  It looks like the God of the universe becoming vulnerable as a baby. It looks like the most powerful person on earth being humble, empty and obedient on a cross.  It looks like Jesus calling you and me to participate in the promise of good news.

My husband Matt takes the Parkway East to work every day. After many years of commuting, he says he’s learned an important lesson about traffic. 

You don’t get STUCK in traffic. You ARE the traffic. 

I wonder if the same could be said of us as Christians. 

We aren’t just called to HEAR good news. We ARE good news. 

We are called to the hope of a better world. We are called to the manger to see a baby. We are called away to be the good news of Jesus Christ in a broken and hurting world. The spirit of the Lord is upon us. We have been anointed to bring good news to the poor, healing to the hurting and freedom to the captives. This is a great expectation indeed.