Rector's Sermon - Sunday, January 26, 2003

First Reading	Psalm	Epistle	Gospel
Jonah 3:1-5; 10	62:8-14	1 Corinthians 7:29_31	Mark 1:14_20

 

 
    At first, the story of Jesus' call to Andrew and Simon, and later to James and John serves to annoy me. What responsible person would immediately agree to drop everything, leaving one's job and letting one's father clean up all the nets. Being the father of two sons, the Gospel passage this morning really pushes my button. How irresponsible, to expect one to go with Jesus, from town to town, and completely change one's life to follow as a disciple without ever consulting one's larger family. It seems to me that if discipleship is taken seriously, then one needs to think about it and take some time to ponder all the implications.

     But that is not what Mark is trying to communicate in his Gospel. Mark is not giving us the history of how the two first disciples found Jesus, rather he is saying to us here on January 26th, "all the gifts of the Gospel are for us immediately, right now, not long ago or not far in the future. God's love is available to us as we sit here."

     This lesson is paired with a passage from the Book of Jonah. Jonah you will remember did not wish to go to Ninevah. He tried to avoid it and, in the process of running away, found himself in a very bad place, the belly of a whale. That is what so often happens when we try to avoid, or bury or pretend we can ignore the reality that needs to be faced. Yet invariably, the result of all our pretending is finding ourselves lost or trapped in a far worse place. Jonah was finally disgorged on a beach, on the shore of Nineveh, the very place he was trying to avoid. This time, he accepted his responsibility to speak to the people of Ninevah. That rings so true also. After all the excuses, rationalizations, and denial, we discover none have them have worked, and we are in the very place we had sought to avoid.

     &The Gospel insists we face our fears immediately rather than pushing them off or trying to cover them up deeper. Jesus told all who would listen, that God seeks to offer us forgiveness and courage to face the things that need to be admitted today. That is why in the call of the disciples, Jesus did not offer all sorts of promises tied to the future, if they would follow him. Jesus never spoke of future benefits when he urged Simon and Andrew or James and John to sign on. Rather Jesus said to them ,in effect, "I want you to know that God's presence seeks to come upon you today." Jesus never said," Follow me and you will be greater than the disciples of another rabbi down the street or in the next town." Rather Jesus gave the disciples strength to face their real lives. Jesus offered the disciples and us a refreshing freedom to confront our fears.

     In some circles it has become very popular to ask, "What would Jesus do?" It is not necessarily a question that is particularly helpful, because for people of faith a far better question is "What would Jesus have us do?" For example, I don't know if Jesus ever played an early form of poker with his disciples, but I don't think Jesus would expect us to give unqualified support to The New York State lottery, not merely because it takes advantage of mathematically impaired, but because its slogan is "Hey, you never know." Hey you never know is a very popular and dominant theme of the world. In other words, keep buying more and more, and maybe, maybe sometime in the future, you will win. You never know. Jesus is telling us, "I want you to always know that God seeks to be with you today." You never know about God's love, so you had better keeping doing this or doing that or else, is hardly a theme of the Gospel.

     I have no idea whether Jesus would use a digital or analog alarm clock, but I think Jesus would warn that we should be very cautious about that great symbol of the contemporary world, the snooze alarm. Our alarm goes off, waking us from sleep, announcing a new day, and we press the button, silencing the alarm for another ten minutes and we return to sleep. But the snooze alarm doesn't give us more time. Indeed it does quite the opposite. When it wakes us again, there is even less time to shower or eat breakfast and prepare for the day. Yet snooze alarm mentality is rampant in public life today. Alarms of security, terrorism, hunger, war — just to name a few, are going off, and the response is to push the snooze bar and go on sleeping. However,when we don't face these fears, we don't face the reality of what is really there.

     After an initial annoyance, I think I understand why the writer of Mark puts the call of Jesus in terms of immediacy. Jesus offers us no snooze alarms, no empty promises of tantalizing future benefits in which 'you never know', no trips of avoidance into false shelters of half truths or easy excuses couched in selfish rationalizations. Instead, Jesus invites us today to accept God's presence among us, and to think, ponder, and act on the Gospel, immediately, today!

     And I offer this to you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen