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