Was It That Simple?
Sermon for Epiphany 3
Mark 1:14-20
Yesterday morning I was driving to Colorado Springs to spend the day with our group of confirmation youth at the Synod Youth Gathering. The group left on Friday afternoon, but I couldn't go until Saturday morning. Everything went fine until I got to the Springs. I got just passed the Garden of the God's exit and cars were backed up to a standstill for as far as the eye could see - construction or something! It was one of those I-25 parking lots. I had told the group I would meet them for breakfast and at the rate I was going I would be lucky to meet them for lunch. I was in the left-hand lane. I eyed at the median area and noticed their was no fence or barrier, just smooth level grass. So, impulsively and quite out of character for me actually, I cut across the median and did u-turn on the interstate! As I got going the other way and up to speed, I looked in my rear view mirror, and following my lead there must have been 8 cars that quite suddenly made the same maneuver - they were just waiting for one bold idiot to do it first - and they followed - it was just as easy as that!
Jesus was walking along the beach - and he saw two fishermen, Peter and Andrew, casting their net into the shallow-water. He issued them a simple invitation saying, "Follow Me!" And amazingly they followed, for it says, "Immediately, they left their nets and followed..." IMMEDIATELY! Not, "Maybe, I'll think about it!" Not, "I'll check with the family and see how full my calendar is!" Not, "After I take care of some business matters!" But IMMEDIATELY! And, it was just as easy as that! Or was it?
Was it that simple? Who really knows? I mean who really knows? But you see, the point is, and the point that Mark is making in telling it to us the way he does, is that's what it finally comes down to when it comes to following Jesus! Maybe there was more. Maybe Jesus had talked with Peter and Andrew at great length before this. Maybe he'd had ten conversations with them, and this encounter was but one in a sequence of conversations. Who knows?
But the time came when the invitation was extended and Peter and Andrew had to make a commitment; "fish or cut bait" as the saying goes, and let go of something in order to grab hold of Jesus.
What Mark wants to convey to his readers.... what Mark wants you to know... what Mark wants me to know, is that this matter of following Jesus is urgent and pressing business... the Dominion of God is breaking into the world through this person, somehow and some way... God is exploding into history... bursting into life... and not just any history... and not just any life.... but into your history... into your life... into my history... into my life! So, as far as Mark is concerned, there's no time for dawdling... delay... procrastination... excuses! It's time to "fish or cut bait."
Following Jesus is urgent business, but it's also business that's a little scary! For if you accept the invitation, then everything is suddenly different. Life is no longer simply a matter of messing around with your net and taking fish from the Lake. In other words, life is no longer solely a matter going about just your business... life is no longer solely a matter of doing your own thing whatever your thing might be! But your life is now a matter of attending to God's business which, according to this story, has something or other to do with drawing people up and out of whatever watery chaos they might be swimming in, or perhaps drowning in, and gathering them in the great loving, forgiving, healing, saving NET OF GOD!
And I believe that as sure as Jesus issued the invitation to Peter and Andrew - this morning, in this place, at this time, that ancient invitation renews itself all over again... and it's an invitation that's as alive and as real and as relevant today as it was then. Only this time it's not directed at Andrew and Peter, but it's directed at you and directed at me! Jesus says, "FOLLOW ME!" Do you hear him speaking to you? Do you hear the urgency in his voice? Do you feel some anxiety?
So, the invitation has been extended. The words have been spoken. SO NOW WHAT HAPPENS? What's next? Well, if you're anything like me, probably QUESTIONS! Maybe a whole boatload of questions! Perhaps Peter and Andrew were able to drop everything and follow, but I've got to ask my questions. It's in my nature... my blood... in every fiber of my being! And that's O.K. we can ask our questions.
"FOLLOW ME!" Says Jesus and if we look close, we can see that BURIED within that simple invitation two kinds of questions... FOLLOW QUESTIONS and ME QUESTIONS
FOLLOW QUESTIONS LIKE,
"WHY? Why should I follow? And WHERE? Where are we going, anyway? And WHAT? What can I take along with me? Is it going to cost me anything? And WHAT'S in it for me?
And then there's the ME QUESTIONS, "me" questions like, Who is this "me" that I'm asked to follow? Who is this person that wants to lead me?
Let's take a look at a "ME" question FIRST. Who is this "ME?" You know, we tell our kids never, never, ever accept any kind of invitation from a stranger - no matter who it is! It's one of the first things we teach them! Of course I want to know who he is before I follow him! But you see, there's a problem, and the problem is I don't really get to know a person without spending some time with them. I can know what other people say about them, but not really know them. In fact for me, with the people I've loved, at first I usually love them MORE, and understand and know them LESS. And the understanding and knowing come later. It's from the basis of my love, that I gradually come to know them and understand them and appreciate them.
You see, I believe it was LOVE that set that beach scene on fire that day... and somehow and in some way Peter and Andrew KNEW it... and SENSED it... and UNDERSTOOD it... and that LOVE inspired them to lay down their nets and follow, even against their better judgement and best common sense. Somebody once said, "Faith is the direction our feet start moving when we feel that we are loved, even if our head isn't sure!" Peter and Andrew had no idea where they were going... they had no idea what was in store for them... but somehow they were convicted in their hearts, that they were moving in the direction of a love like they had not known before, and for the moment, that was all they needed.
Isn't that what we need? Is it SIMPLE answers to our COMPLEX questions that we want? Is that the deepest point of our need... and our hurt... and our pain? Will answers really satisfy? I DON'T THINK SO! Even with all the answers to every disturbing and perplexing question we wouldn't be satisfied! For I believe what we are really after, is a love that accepts us as we are... a love that values us for the person we are. A love that says, "Joe, you are important. You are significant. I want you to join in with me in an incredible adventure... because you can make a difference!" I need a love that connects me and links me to other people in ways that I don't have the power, the will, nor the courage to do on my own... a love that fills me and brings purpose and meaning to my life. I need a love that heals me from inner wounds! Who is the "ME" in the "Follow Me?" ...it is God's hand of love inviting me from the KNOWN and the COMFORTABLE and the SECURE (from my fishing nets), into the adventure of the UNKNOWN, and perhaps the UNCOMFORTABLE, and the maybe even the INSECURE, trusting only that I am being l ed by a HAND OF LOVE! And in so trusting and following, the promise is that I will find myself fulfilled in ways that all of my self-constructed comfort and security can never provide.
But then, there are the FOLLOW QUESTIONS... I ask next, "Where will this hand lead me? Where will my following take me?" We like road- maps don't we? Road-maps make us comfortable! We used to drive on I-80 between Rockford, Illinois and Colorado all the time back in the 80's . Now we made that trip on I-80 a whole bunch of times! We knew every bump in the road. We knew the location of every McDonald's. We knew the best gas stations. We knew where they serve hot apple pie with cinnamon ice cream! The surface of that road has the residue of a couple of sets of our tires. But, whenever we drove it, I still insisted on having a road map! It's ridiculous! It's absurd! But I wasn't at peace... I wasn't comfortable... until I had a road map! It's kind of a security blanket, I guess. I want to know where my journey will take me! I want to know where I am at all times in relation to everything else! BUT, you see, GOD DOESN'T GIVE ANY ROAD-MAPS! God only knows where my following will take me! God asks me to let go of my NET, MY security blanket, LET GO of whatever it is in my net to which I am clinging, and begin to trust the one who leads. One thing I can be sure of... My following will take me not to where I want to go necessarily, but my following will take me to where I am needed... to where LOVE is needed... and if I do follow, sooner or later a wonderful miracle is going to occur... an incredible triumph... THAT IS, where I want to go and where I am needed are going to come closer together, and they just might become one and the same... and at that point I m going to discover I have been transformed ... I'm changed! I'm a different person than I used to be... no longer desperately clinging to nets, but rather heeding the invitation of love. You see love takes us to places and to people that we would never go to on our own.
So what can I take along with me? That's always the hardest part of any journey for me, deciding what to take along. I always want to take way too much! Thee are two kinds of packing you know? Contingency packing, where you pack for every possible contingency. Risk packing, where you take the bare minimum and live out there on the ragged edge trusting you'll be able to manage.
So what do I take on this journey with Jesus? The most important thing to take with me on this journey with Jesus is the knowledge of my own ambiguous and mixed motives. It would be nice to be able to say it's my great LOVE FOR GOD that causes me to follow... or my LOVE FOR PEOPLE that causes me to follow... or my LOVE FOR JESUS that causes me to follow... and certainly, I hope love is a big part of it. But not totally. Not always! Not every minute! Not every moment! Not every second. If you are anything like me, your motives for doing anything are not necessarily pure and selfless. There's always a measure of PERSONAL GLORY involved! Yet, I can still follow... as mixed-up... and as confused... and as complex as I can be, with all of my motives, and all of my doubts, and all of my hang-ups, and all of my sins. Jesus didn't say, "Get your life completely together, make sure your motives are absolutely pure, and then come and follow." No! If he did, he wouldn't have had any disciples and not a one of us could follow. He did say, all he needed was the faith in the amount of the size of a speck of mustard seed... and mountains could be moved!
How far do I follow? How far do I go? As far as Love can possibly go.. to a hill where cross-shaped shadows darken the earth... and blood stains the ground... and people are mocking and laughing and gambling... and women are weeping... and a man is dying. That's how far I go! I take up MY cross and I follow... which is to say, that somehow and somewhere on my journey... by some miracle... by some mystery... by some power... that can only be God's and none other... I discover that it's in the giving of myself, it's in the risking of myself, in the LETTING GO of the precious stuff that's in my sacred nets, that's it's in opening the pain of my life to the pain in your life... that I ever, ever really, truly find myself... and become the person God created me to be... and experience what the Bible means by SALVATION!
With what attitude do I go? I want to say I go joyously, with ecstacy, with a smile on my face and a skip in my step, saying, "Isn't this wonderful! Isn't this great!" ...with banners flying, and trumpets blowing... and sometimes that's exactly the way it is! But more often than not, I go, like Jonah went, with my feet dragging, wishing that I had never heard the invitation in the first place, always knowing that the glory BELONGS TO GOD and not to me!
One last thing. If I choose to follow. If you choose to follow, we become, such as we are, the CHURCH, we become the PEOPLE OF JESUS, the BODY OF CHRIST... half-hearted, half-baked, weak, and faithless as we sometimes can be... but it's the only body that God has in this world... the only HANDS... the only FEET... the only EYES... the only EARS... the only MOUTH... the only MIND... the only HEART. You see, God needs you! God is in you! God embraces the world through you! ...every piece of you... even those parts of you that you thought were rather useless and weak and broken! IMAGINE THAT?! By following, You, yes you, can make a difference. But the greatest promise through it all is, that through our following, others will join in and will follow too! Amen.