Follow Me

January 21, 2018 Mark 1:14-20 Follow Me Third Sunday of Epiphany Year B Come with me, and I will teach you to catch men (people). (v. 17, TEV) Object: a fishing pole Lesson: Good morning, boys and girls. (Hold uppole.) How many of you have seen this before? (Wait for show of hands.) It's a fishing pole, isn't it? I brought it because I wanted to see how much you know about fishing. How many of you have been fishing before? (Let them respond.) What do you need for fishing? (Let them respond.) You might need a boat, the fishing pole, a hook on the end, some bait or worms, a net and lots of patience while you are waiting for the fish. What's the hardest part about fishing? (Let them respond.) For some of you it might be putting the worm on the hook. But for some of you who like to talk a lot it might be the waiting part, because usually you have to be quiet or you might scare the fish away. Why do you think people fish? (Let them respond.) Some people fish for food. They use the fish to eat. Some people fish for fun and to relax. They like to fish because it's quiet and peaceful. Sometimes they catch fish and throw them right back in the water. People fish for lots of reasons. Our lesson today is about fishing. Jesus was finding friends to help him do his work. Some of the friends were fishing. They caught fish for their everyday job. Jesus wanted these friends to stop fishing so he told them, "I will make you fishers of men (or people)." Do you think there are any lakes with people in them to catch on the hook on the end of the fishing pole? (Let them respond.) No, of course not! Did you know that another word for Jesus' friends is disciple? Do you know what the word disciple means? (Let them respond.) Disciple means learner. Jesus' friends were learners. What Jesus was going to teach them was to go fishing in a new way. They would learn by watching Jesus, just like you learn to fish by watching someone else who knows how to fish. They would not catch people with worms and hooks and fishing poles, but with love and kindness. But the one thing about fishing for fish and fishing for people that is the same is the long time of waiting. Jesus was going to teach his friends how to wait and love. As we come to church we learn how to wait and we learn how to love, too. CSS Publishing Co. Mark 1:14-20Common English Bible (CEB) Jesus’ message 14 After John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee announcing God’s good news, 15 saying, “Now is the time! Here comes God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!” Jesus calls disciples 16 As Jesus passed alongside the Galilee Sea, he saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew, throwing fishing nets into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” he said, “and I’ll show you how to fish for people.” 18 Right away, they left their nets and followed him. 19 After going a little farther, he saw James and John, Zebedee’s sons, in their boat repairing the fishing nets. 20 At that very moment he called them. They followed him, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired workers. Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible This story is told every year in every gospel because it is the most important part of the story. The day Jesus approached his disciples and invited them to follow me. I love the way Mark tells this story, because it comes very early in Mark’s gospel – in the first chapter. Jesus is inspired by John the Baptist in telling the people to repent. But before he can travel to tell others about the reign of God, he must create a team – a team of followers. This is the story of how he encourages his first 4 followers. The sea of Galilee is a small lake, you can see the other side. But it was a popular lake for the locals. Everyone who wanted to make a living fishing, could be found there with their boats. They would be there everyday, just doing the same thing. Jesus didn’t go the to seminary looking for followers, he went to the common people, doing a common job. He invites them to come and follow me. I always like the way Mark tells a story, because Mark does not beat around the bush – he gets to the point in just a few words. This scripture contains the whole message of the gospel in two sentences. Jesus came into Galilee announcing God’s good news. Now is the time, here comes God’s kingdom, change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news. The whole gospel message. God is near, there is hope that things will get better but in order for you to be a part of God’s kingdom you have to repent and believe. That is a message that everyone in the world can benefit from. But Jesus realized early on that he needed help, he needed others the be trained to tell the message also. He comes to them in their ordinary lives, and invites them to follow me. We should notice that different gospel-writers use a different word for "call" inasmuch as they wish to highlight a different aspect of our Lord's call. Mark uses a Greek word which has the force of "invite"; Luke, a word which has the force of "summon". Mark tells us there is a winsomeness, a courtesy, a gentleness to an invitation; Luke tells us there is an urgency, an imperative, even an ultimatum to a summons. Put together, that call by which our Lord still calls men and women into his company is a winsome invitation which is also urgent, as well as a summons which is yet gentle. Victor A. Shepherd When we invite, we often think that we have to not just ask , but we have to be responsible for the answer, and then make sure that they have a good time when they come. We are hesitant to ask people to come to church, because we are not sure if they will get anything out of it. An invitation is just that – just asking for them to try it out. How does Jesus invite his first four disciples – he says come follow me. Come be with me. The most powerful invitation included a testimony of why it is important to you to come to church. The disciples gave up their lives, because Jesus said come follow me. They saw something in that invitation for themselves. Sometimes it is not what we say, it is who we are that gets people interested. Christ’s Aroma in Our Lives A mother tells how her daughter used to work for a pizzeria, and Mom had the job of picking her up from work every evening. When her daughter would get into the car she'd smell so much like pizza that often times Mom would go back into the store and buy a pizza. When we give our lives to Christ, when we spend time with Christ and seek to live for him; when we let His love, grace and forgiveness cover us, then we'll have Christ's aroma in our lives. His love will spread and shine through us for others to see and breathe in. And when we live like that, our lives become an invitation. And when our lives are an invitation, others will be compelled to seek him and ask questions about our faith. Billy D. Strayhorn, From the Pulpit, CSS Publishing Company, Inc. Unfortunately, it seems that we have gotten out of the habit of inviting people to be a part of the kingdom. Saving the Shipwrecked On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur there was once a crude little life-saving station. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea, and with no thought for themselves went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost. Some of those who were saved, and various others in the surrounding area, wanted to become associated with the station and give of their time and money and effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought and new crews trained. The little life-saving station grew. Some of the members of the life-saving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. They replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building. Now, the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they decorated it beautifully and furnished it exquisitely, because they used it as a sort of club. Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on lifesaving missions, so they hired life-boat crews to do this work. The life-saving motif still prevailed in this club's decoration, and there was a symbolic life-boat in the room where the club initiations were held. About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in boat loads of cold, wet and half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick and some of them had black skin and some had yellow skin. The beautiful new club was in chaos. So the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where victims of shipwreck could be cleaned up before coming inside. At the next meeting, there was a split in the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club's life-saving activities as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. Some members insisted upon life-saving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a life-saving station. But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own life-saving station down the coast. They did. As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old. It evolved into a club, and yet another life-saving station was founded. History continued to repeat itself, and if you visit that sea coast today, you will find a number of exclusive clubs along that shore. Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown. That's a pretty graphic tale of some folks who forgot what they were supposed to be about. Sometimes I think we are like those folks. It's as if we think Jesus didn't really mean it when he said, "Go fish." We think other things he said are surely important, but not reaching out and bringing people to Jesus Christ. Mickey Anders, Go Fish I remember the two women who visited one Sunday and got very upset at this sermon on inviting others. They did not feel comfortable insisting that others come to church. Fisher's Of Men, Witnessing Most of our witnessing is likely to happen in passing moments of conversation--those occasions when we show, in relatively minor ways, who we are and to whom we belong. I think of a suburban woman who was playing tennis with her good but quite secular friends. In a conversation break between sets she began referring to something she had read that morning. It would have been easy to say, "I read something this morning ." Instead, with no attempt at piosity, she simply introduced one word: "In my devotional reading this morning." It was not a major soul-winning engagement. It was, however, a true sowing of seed. By a word, she had opened the door for some further conversation. Perhaps our greatest problem in becoming Christ's fishermen is that we are not enough in earnest to grasp the opportunities that come to us; or we are so possessed of the idea that we must say something dramatic and far reaching that we fail to say the small, immediate and potentially significant thing. To put it in the language of our lesson for the day, most of us really don't act as if we even have a call to "fish." We're out in the waters of human need every day, but we don't seem to know it. The issue is not that we should become more aggressive about sharing our faith. It is that we should be more sensitive to the needs of the world around us, and more sensitive to the subtle prodding of the Holy Spirit. The two sensitivities are wonderfully intertwined. To be sensitive to the Holy Spirit must mean that we will be more sensitive to people and their pain; to be more sensitive to people ought to make us more open to God and his purposes. J. Ellsworth Kalas, Reading the Signs, "From Empty Nets to Full Lives," CSS Publishing Company How Do You Know You Are Called? How do we know we are called? How do we know to what we are called? An age-old question to which a wise minister and author has given us an answer worth pondering. Frederick Buechner, in his book, "Wishful Thinking," says it well. He says that a good rule for finding one's vocation is this: Our special mission in our life is usually A. That which we'd love most to do and B. It is work that the world most needs to have done. Buechner says that if we really get a kick out of our work, we have probably met requirement A, but if that work is writing TV deodorant commercials, chances are we haven't met requirement B. If our work is being a doctor in a leper colony, we probably have met requirement B, but if most of the time we are bored and depressed by doctoring, the chances are we have not only bypassed A, we probably aren't helping our patients much, either. Buechner concludes: "The place God calls us to, is the place where our deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." Brent Porterfield and Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com Jesus didn’t go to the seminary to get specially trained people, we went where the people were, he approached them in their everyday lives. And he just invited them to come and follow me. To become disciples of Christ- to do what Christ would do in your situation, to get to know God, by having a relationship with Christ. His First and Last Words to Peter Jesus lived three years with his disciples. They went everywhere together and did everything together. They ate, slept, and breathed the life of Jesus and yet it was difficult for them to make the transition in their minds from a Messiah who would be a mighty King of Jews to a Messiah that would die for the sins of mankind. But Jesus never wavered in his mission. Throughout his entire ministry among the people and his training of the disciples he held in his heart this hope: That Peter along with the rest of his disciples would lose their earthly ambitions and become feeders of sheep--fishers of men. The very first words of Jesus when he and Peter met at the waters was, "Follow me, and I will make you a fisher of men." His very last words to Peter, again down at the waters of the Sea of Galilee, and after his resurrection, were, "Feed my sheep, Follow me." From beginning to end this is the mission of the Church. Brett Blair,www.eSermons.com Are you ready to follow Jesus? Additional illustrations…… A Job and A Ministry Do you have a job in this church and this community . . . or do you have a ministry? There is a difference! + If you are doing it because no one else will, it's a job. If you're doing it to serve the Lord, it's a ministry. + If you're doing it just well enough to get by, it's a job. If you're doing it to the best of your ability, it's a ministry. + If you'll do it only so long as it doesn't interfere with other activities, it's a job. If you're committed to staying with it even when it means letting go of other things, it's a ministry. + If you quit because no one praised you or thanked you, it was a job. If you stay with it even though no one seems to notice, it's a ministry. + If you do it because someone else said that it needs to be done, it's a job. If you are doing it because you are convinced it needs to be done, it's a ministry. + It's hard to get excited about a job. It's almost impossible not to get excited about a ministry. + If your concern is success, it's a job. If your concern is faithfulness, it's a ministry. + People may say "well done" when you do your job. The Lord will say "well done" when you complete your ministry. + An average church is filled with people doing jobs. A great church is filled with people involved in ministry! + If God calls you to a ministry, for heaven's sake (literally) don't treat it like a job. If you have a job in the church, give it up and find a ministry! God doesn't want us feeling stuck in a job, but excited, fulfilled, and faithful in a specific ministry. May God bless and empower us as disciples of Jesus Christ, called to be in the ministry of this church and community. Amen. Michael D. Powell _______________________________ Call Can We See God? Some time ago I read the story of a young boy approaching his slightly older sister with a question about God. “Susie, can anybody ever really see God?” “Of course not, silly,” came the response. “God is so far up in heaven that no one can see God.” Some time later the boy approached his mother with the same nagging question, “Mom, can anybody really see God?” More gently his mother answered, “No, not really. God is a spirit and dwells in our hearts, but we can never really see God.” His mother’s answer was somewhat more satisfying, but still the boy wondered. Not long afterwards, the boy’s grandfather took him on a fishing trip, and the two had a great day together. As the day was winding down, the sun began to set with unusual splendor. The grandfather was enrapt by the beauty, and the grandson was aware of a deep peace and contentment etched upon his grandpa’s face. “Granddad,” the boy began, a bit hesitatingly. “I wasn’t going to ask anyone else, but I wonder if you can tell me the answer to something I’ve been wondering about a long time. Can anybody ever really see God?” The grandfather sat in thought for a few moments, then said simply, “Grandson, it’s getting so I can’t see anything else.” Joel D. Kline, Faith Is a Verb

Let's Get up and See the Light

January 7, 2018 Isaiah 60: 1-6 Let’s Get Up Epiphany Sunday Isaiah 60:1-6Common English Bible (CEB) Jerusalem’s coming radiance 60 Arise! Shine! Your light has come; the LORD’s glory has shone upon you. 2 Though darkness covers the earth and gloom the nations, the LORD will shine upon you; God’s glory will appear over you. 3 Nations will come to your light and kings to your dawning radiance. 4 Lift up your eyes and look all around: they are all gathered; they have come to you. Your sons will come from far away, and your daughters on caregivers’ hips. 5 Then you will see and be radiant; your heart will tremble and open wide, because the sea’s abundance will be turned over to you; the nations’ wealth will come to you. 6 Countless camels will cover your land, young camels from Midian and Ephah. They will all come from Sheba, carrying gold and incense, proclaiming the LORD’s praises. Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible Isaiah 60:1-5 "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you." (v. 1) How many of you are afraid of the dark? (Let them answer.) Are you afraid to sleep with the light off? Don’t be embarrassed to admit it! It will be our little secret, just between you and me. What is it that scares you about the dark? (Let them answer.) Maybe it’s the way an ordinary thing in your room like a basketball hoop or a lamp or a large doll can look like a scary monster in the shadows of your vivid imaginations. Maybe it’s the way you lie in the dark and think about something scary you saw on television or in a movie. Maybe it’s the way your house or apartment is quiet when it is dark, which means that you can hear every little noise at night. Maybe you just don’t feel safe because you can’t see, and that is what makes the dark so scary. Well, most people stop being afraid of the dark as they get older, but there is another kind of darkness which scares even grown-ups. I am talking about moral darkness, the darkness of wrong and evil. There is a lot of that darkness in the world, and it is scary because it keeps us from God. Young and old alike, we all must struggle to know and do what is right, to see and follow the light of good amid the darkness of what is bad. Today we celebrate Epiphany and talk about how the light of God appeared in the world when Christ was born and made known to the world. The three wise men who visited the baby Jesus were among the first to see this light, but people had talked about it many centuries before. In fact, an ancient Hebrew prophet named Isaiah had written, "Arise, shine, for your light has come." Elsewhere, he had written, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness - on them light has shined" (9:2). For all people who were lost in darkness and couldn’t find their way to God, Jesus has come to be their light and show us the way. When you wake up from a bad dream in the middle of the night, think of how happy you are when your mother comes into your room and turns on the light. Then, after you have calmed down, she leaves the light on, and you aren’t scared any more. That’s sort of how we all feel now that Jesus is in the world. The light of goodness and salvation has been turned on in our souls, and we who were walking in darkness have seen the light. We aren’t scared anymore. Whenever you are tempted to do or say something you know is wrong, you are getting ready to enter this moral darkness I am talking about. It isn’t a darkness you can see, like the night is dark; instead, it is a darkness inside which tries to take you away from God. But now we have Jesus Christ to be our light. Whenever we wonder what is the right or wrong thing to do, we have the example of Jesus to show us the right. Learn the stories of His life. Learn the stories He told and the lessons He taught; talk to your parents about Him. The thick darkness which has covered the peoples no longer is quite so thick or scary, because now that Jesus Christ is in the world, we see that our light has come. Amen. CSS Publishing Co., Inc., More Urgent Season, A, by Erskine White Everything seems so bare in here without all of the Christmas decorations. It is time to put everything back in the box, it is time to take the lights down, time to go back to life as normal. But actually we have one more Sunday of Christmas. We have just a little bit of unfinished business to take care of. It is important for us not to think of this as an ending but a beginning. I love this poem by Howard Thurman, a united Methodist pastor When the song of the angels is stilled, When the star in the sky is gone, When the kings and the princes are home, When the shepherds are back with their flock, The work of Christmas begins: To find the lost, To heal the broken, To feed the hungry, To release the prisoner, To rebuild the nations, To bring peace among brothers, To make music in the heart. Christmas may be over, but the work of Christmas has just begun. That is why I thought that it was more important for us to honor Epiphany Sunday, than the baptism of our Lord. 12 days of Christmas ended yesterday. January 6th. That is epiphany, today January 7th is actually supposed to be the baptism of our Lord Sunday. For the church epiphany means a manifestation of the holy. The secular definition of epiphany is a revelation. Something that has been standing before you all of the time, but one day it hits you, and it makes sense in a way that you never thought of. Epiphany is a very strange season, a sort of off time between Christmas and lent. I just want to give everyone a heads up – Easter comes early this year. It will be on April 1st. That means that Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten season is February 14th, Valentine’s Day. Until then we are in epiphany season. The time when all of the lights are taken down. The time when the days are cold and dark. A time when not much is going on. Even our Scripture, Isaiah 60:2 says see , darkness covers the earth. A thick darkness covers the people. Sometimes it can seem like the darkness is not just all around us, but the darkness seeps in our soul and gets the best of us. The good news for us as Isaiah continues is that it is only in the darkness that we can truly see the light of God. It is only in the darkness that people are searching for answers, it is only in the darkness – that we have an epiphany – a realization that was not there before. A glimpse of the holy, of the divine. We celebrate January 6th – because it took twelve days for the wise men to find baby Jesus. They saw a star in the darkness and realized that God was sending a message of hope for the future. Even though Jesus was born in a place and a time – his mission would touch not just his family, his neighbors but all of the world. The words of Isaiah 60: 1-6 are important. The first words of the scripture – arise, in the midst of the darkness your light has come. That light is Jesus Christ. Christmas is the time that we acknowledge that Christ has come into the world. Epiphany is the time for us to take it to heart. T o believe it for ourselves. For us to not just look at the lights, but to feel the lights and to be the light for a still very dark world. It is time for us to think about what it means to be a believer. What difference does it make, what difference do I make. The special theme of Epiphany is that God has revealed himself to all people everywhere. This is an important truth. God is the God of all people and all nations. Epiphany does not last very long, it is just a glimpse of realization of the light, and then we are plunged back into darkness. Our task in the darkness is to ask ourselves and to ask all others, where is God in all of this. Where can we find God in the midst of the darkness. We have to find Christ as the answer to the darkness for ourselves. So that we can let our light shine within. There are a couple of things we need to see at the opening of this New year. THE FIRST IS THAT WE ARE KEEPERS OF THE LIGHT. That is what it means to be the church of Jesus Christ. We have seen his light. And it is our job to make certain the light we have seen is kept burning until his return. Back in the 1770s or 1780s, a man named John Morris built a house in Rutherfordton, North Carolina. Using flint and steel, John Morris started a fire in his fireplace. And nobody knows why, but it became a point of pride in the Morris household not to let that fire go out. When John built another cabin for his family later on, coals from the original fire were transplanted to the fireplace of the new house. Members of the Morris family proudly declared that they would keep the fire going, to honor the wishes of John, who had charged his family, "œThe fire must never be allowed to go out." That fire became the catalyst for passing down family history through the generations. In the 1920s, the care of the fire rested with one man, William Morris --the great-great-grandson of John Morris. William had never married or had children, and he was nearing eighty. He tried to inspire his nieces and nephews with tales of the family fire, but none of them seemed interested in keeping the fire alive after William was gone. The fire was 150 years old by now. It marked a proud family tradition, one that everyone in the area admired. Would that tradition end once William died? William took it upon himself to see that it didn't. From an interview in the Spartanburg Herald, his story spread to newspapers all over North Carolina. William was invited to Washington, D.C., to tell the story over a national radio program. He began getting phone calls and letters from all over the country, many from people with the last name Morris. The National Park Service considered buying William's cabin, fireplace and all, and moving it to one of their national parks, where it could become a tourist attraction and the park rangers could tend to the fire. By now the "œSaluda fire," named after the town where William Morris lived, had sparked the public imagination. Preserving the Saluda fire seemed like a noble undertaking. One day, not long after the publicity stir over the fire had started, one of William's neighbors came to see him. The neighbor, Hamp Alexander Owen, had only one thing to say that day, "œI've come to tell you that I'll keep your fire going." Owens wasn't doing it for the publicity or the glory. He just admired the legacy, and believed that it was worth preserving. We don't know when William Morris died. But when Hamp Alexander Owens died in 1948, his obituary stated that he was "œthe keeper of the Saluda fire." The fire itself had been burning continuously for more than 170 years. But that is the last record anyone has of the Saluda fire. Did it die out? Or is it still burning somewhere, tended by some anonymous soul who believes in what it stands for? We just don't know. (4) We are the keepers of a fire that has been burning for 2,000 years. Arise and Shine – your light has come! Additional illustrations…… Following a long and bitter congregational conflict, a pastor was asked what kept her going until reconciliation and renewal finally resulted. She replied, "The Five P's of ministry: Prayer, Persistence, Prayer, Play, and Prayer." Notice that prayer was at the beginning, middle, and end of her list. Prayer connects us to the true Light. Prayer keeps the vision of the true Light in view as darkness threatens to overcome it. Prayer enables us to place one foot in front of the other in the long and difficult journey through unknown darkness. Reach for the true Light in prayer. Lift up your eyes to see the guiding light of Christ along your life journey. There appear to be several significant factors present in healthy, vital, faithful congregations. Although there are many variables, one principal feature has emerged. This is the eagerness of members to share faith stories, their journey in the Light with one another and in their neighborhoods. Members eagerly share "Where Is God In All This?" stories for themselves and their congregations. They share them as part of committee and choir devotions, in temple talks during worship, in Sunday School classes, and in parish retreats. No, they are not "fanatics." They are just like you and me, struggling against the darkness that threatens to overcome us all. More than today's typical "sideline" Christian, these folks have let God become the subject of more verbs in their vocabularies. They have taken seriously Isaiah's call to arise, and shine, for they know that their Light, our Light, has indeed come. It is like a children’s story that author James Thurber once wrote titled, “The White Deer.” “The White Deer” is about a beautiful princess who had been transformed by a witch into a white deer. A king named King Clode and his three sons (Thag and Gallow, the hunters, and Jorn, the poet) are out hunting game and they come upon this white deer and they raise their bows to slay it. Just before they shoot, however, the deer is changed back into the princess. King Clode and his sons take this beautiful princess home with them but she is unable to remember anything about her past including who she is. It is finally discovered that the only thing that will cause the princess to regain her memory is the unconditional love of a young man. In order to determine who this young man will be--Thag, Gallow and Jorn are each given perilous tasks to perform. It is Jorn the poet who ultimately wins the princess’ hand. He gives her the kind of love that allows her to remember where she came from and who she is. (3) My friends, is this not what God has called us to do for a fallen world? By His grace we are to show the world the unfailing love of God at work in our lives so that the world may truly see where it came from and why it exists.