The Jesus Agenda

 MARK 1:29-39

²⁹As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. ³⁰Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. ³¹He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

³²That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. ³³And the whole city was gathered around the door. ³⁴And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

³⁵In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. ³⁶And Simon and his companions hunted for him. ³⁷When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” ³⁸He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” ³⁹And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Have you ever had one of those days where it seems like everyone needs you? The boss gives you a deadline. A kid gets sick or whiny or your adult child needs you to babysit a sick and whiny grandchild. The house is a mess. The car breaks down. The phone keeps ringing. The neighbors show up on your doorstep and you haven’t even brushed your teeth. When we have a day like this, it can be hard to remember what we wanted to accomplish.  Our agenda gets thrown out the window as we respond to the crises around us.

This is the kind of time Jesus was having. It was a stressful day for the Son of God. He’d worked a long day amazing the crowd with his teaching and wowing them with a healing in the synagogue.

The people left synagogue buzzing about this Jesus guy. Friends were telling friends that Jesus could preach with authority and heal. Jesus’ ministry went viral in the town of Galilee. By that night the whole town was outside the door waiting for Jesus to do his thing.

Christ Healing the Sick by Washington Allston, 1813.

They were probably jostling to get to the front line, bringing their sick and diseased relatives along, pushing them toward the front. Shouting for Jesus to help them.

Jesus, heal my daughter!

Jesus, restore my sight!

Jesus, cast the demon out of my father!

Jesus, help me to walk again.

And there was Jesus, healing person after person, but there were more, always more.  By the time he quit, the gospel writer Mark tells us he healed many of them, but interestingly he did not heal all of them. There were still people who wanted Jesus—who needed Jesus— to do more. 

After a late night of work, presumably, Jesus goes to sleep for a bit. Then, very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus gets up, leaves the house and goes to a solitary place where he prays.

But, the disciples find him and Peter comes up to him and says in an accusing voice, “Everyone is looking for you!” It seems there are still people clamoring for Jesus to do his thing. It’s like devoted fans who wait by the back stage door to catch a glimpse of a famous singer or actor. The crowd was waiting for Jesus. Longing for Jesus.

This story, like our own lives, if full of competing agendas—the crowd, the disciples and Jesus each have an agenda.

First, there is the crowd. There are people whose are there for healing. Their agenda is to encounter Jesus and obtain healing for themselves or a loved one. Other people may just be there to see the amazing healing. But healing and miracles were definitely on the top of the crowd’s agenda.

Second are the disciples. The disciples are interesting because they don’t seem to have an agenda of their own. Their agenda is being formed from the outside in.  They are the ones dealing with the crowd. They are the ones who hear the crowd call for Jesus’ help. The crowd is influencing what’s on the disciples’ minds.

They say it’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease and that’s certainly the case in this story. The disciples feel the pressure of the crowd’s expectations and go looking for Jesus.

How often is your life like the disciples on that morning? Many of us spend so much time responding to other people’s needs that we lose track of our own agenda. We run from one thing to the next to the next without stopping to eat and barely remembering to breathe.  There’s just so much we have to do that we forget to check in with God. We move blindly forward letting things on the outside motivate and form us. We have no idea what God's agenda for us might be.

Finally, there is Jesus’ agenda. Jesus is beginning his ministry and his popularity is on the rise. He heals people from the town only to discover there are more and more of them.  Jesus gets up early, heads off alone to pray. The disciples interrupt and try to impose their agenda (or the crowd's agenda) on him. But Jesus says no.

“Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

In this passage, Jesus connects to God in prayer before planning his day.

It’s possible Jesus prayed a prayer that many of us pray. Maybe Jesus was looking at all of the hurt, brokenness and illness and wondering how he could fix it.  How could he possibly heal the whole town? Should he heal the whole town?

Being overwhelmed in the face great need is normal. Talking to a dying person or someone who has been through a serious trauma leaves all of us feeling hopeless and helpless. We want to “fix” things, but we just can’t.

And that feels so wrong. What do you say to a man who has lost his beloved wife? How do help a person whose child has committed suicide? What can you do for a 10-year-old whose parents die in a car accident?

In the face of such a broken and hurting world what is our Christian calling? Jesus surely calls us to action, to do something. But there is just so much anger, war, abuse, hunger, sickness, poverty heartbreak…. The list is huge.  And there’s more, always more. 

As Christians we came face to face with this issues of brokenness and fragility all the time. We see the consequence of it in our lives. We also see the results of our collective brokenness and we want to do something about it. 

That’s why many of us are here. We long for healing. We want to change ourselves. We want to change the world.  We have heard the good news of Christ and we are trying to figure out how to apply it to our lives and how to live it in the world. 

We love Jesus and we believe that following the teachings of Jesus will make us better people and the world a better place. We believe that loving our neighbor, praying for our enemies, blessing the poor, healing the sick, strengthening the faint hearted and supporting the weak are what Jesus is calling us to do when he says Repent, the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.

We have felt Jesus touch our lives and change us and we want that change for everyone. Jesus offers this salvation. Jesus is a powerful man who calls us to participate in God's redemption. 

And yet here is Jesus in our story. He's alone in a garden, while a crowd of broken and anxious people gather to see what he will do. He's off praying while a crowd of needy people hope to encounter his healing. The people in the crowd long for the elimination of suffering and the miracle of a happy ending in their lives. 

But then, Jesus leaves. He simply walks away from the crowd and moves on to the next town. This is disturbing. But there is an important lesson in it, and it’s this:

When we focus on the miracles of healing that Jesus performs, we can see Jesus’ power. We can revel in his divinity.

But, when we focus on the fact that he seemed to leave people behind, we can learn something about his faith. We can learn something about our own lives from his humanity.

In this story of Jesus’ early ministry, he learned that at some point he had to trust God to set the agenda. We see that despite his divine healing power, he wasn’t called to do it all at that time.  While he may have wanted to be the one to heal every single person in that town right then and there, God gave him a different agenda. Jesus had to trust that God loved those hurting people and would continue to work for their healing. 

Letting God set the agenda is a great act of faith. If we control events from start to finish who is really in charge? If we plan everything out and know exactly who should do what, then where does God fit in?

Today, we will meet as a congregation to review our past year and try to discern how we are being called to participate in God’s mission. We aren't called to set our own agenda. We are called to participate in God's agenda. 

As the body of Christ, we face a world full of hurting people. God is unquestionably calling us to heal some of them. God has even equipped us to heal some of them.  But, we will never heal all of them. That’s God’s job. Our call is to be in prayer and follow the agenda that God places before us. Our call is to hold on to the hope of healing and wholeness in the face hurt and brokenness. 

Let's fast forward Jesus’ story to the end.  As his death draws close, we see him praying alone yet again, pouring out his heart to God in Gethsemane. Let this cup pass from me, he prays with tears and hurt and heartache. He's asking God to change the agenda. And when that doesn’t happen, Jesus does not fight the circumstances that lead to the cross.

On the cross, it seems hopeless. It looks to everyone like Jesus is leaving behind the hurting and broken world. It appears that Jesus the Messiah is abandoning his work, his friends and the people who were counting on him.  

But really he was trusting God’s agenda to reconcile and redeem all things. Jesus went to the cross in faith, believing that God was at work in the most unlikely of circumstances. Jesus was fulfilling his call and trusting God would do the rest no matter how unlikely the circumstances seemed.

And that is our call as well. As a church we are to pray and discern where God is calling us act and how God is calling us to heal. We are to pour ourselves out for that calling, recognizing that there will always competing agendas and too much for us to accomplish on our own. We are to trust that God is working through us and through Christ's death and resurrection to heal the world and reconcile heaven and earth.

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.