01/21/2024 ~ Third Sunday after the Epiphany ~ Known in Some Traditions as the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time; Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Psalm 62:5-12; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20 ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/906067264

They Followed

“…Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ And immediately they left their nets and followed.” — Mark 1:17-18.

Even if you do not have a computer, know nothing about computers, my bet is you’ve heard of Facebook. And yes, I do have a Facebook account. But generally the only thing I post is a link to my sermon blog. O.K. I confess. I also occasionally post a picture of a cat, Tigger.

However, on occasion I do comment on something someone else has posted. Last week a friend posted a picture of someone in a library plowing through a card catalogue. You do remember card catalogues, don’t you? O.K.

The caption on the picture said, “This is what people did to get information before GOOGLE.” Yes, people searched card catalogues before GOOGLE.

And that is one of the rare posts on which I commented. I said, “I used card catalogues once. But that was so long ago when I went to the library to get there I had to ride my dinosaur.”

Of course, the issue with using card catalogues is you have to know how to use them, how they work. Let me translate that: you need to use the right search criteria as you plow though the cards or you will either not find what you need to find or you will find only bad information.

GOOGLE, which I ‘ve already mentioned and just like Facebook I am assuming even if you know nothing about computers but you’ve heard of GOOGLE— GOOGLE has a problem similar to card catalogues. A recent study said the reason so many people get and believe bad information and false information is that when they do a GOOGLE search they use the wrong criteria to execute the search. Using the wrong criteria for a search leads only to bad and/or false information. (Slight pause.)

We find these words in the work commonly known as Mark. “…Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ And immediately they left their nets and followed.” (Slight pause.)

Rudolf Bultmann was one of the great Biblical scholars of the 20th Century. One of my seminary professors, the Rev. Dr. Burton Throckmorton, studied with Bultmann in Germany. Bultmann said there is a tension in the Gospel we know as Mark to which we do not pay enough attention. (Quote:) “The proclaimer becomes the proclaimed.”

That leads to an obvious question which needs to be asked. What did Jesus proclaim? Jesus proclaimed the Dominion of God is at hand.

However and at the same time, that the Christ, the Messiah is Jesus is what we proclaim. Indeed, in telling the story, both Mark and the early church proclaim Jesus as the Messiah.

And yet… and yet… we still need to grapple with this: what did Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ, proclaim? What did Jesus say? Jesus proclaims that the Dominion of God is at hand.

It seems to me (and perhaps to both Throckmorton and Bultmann) we can grapple with the Messiahship of Jesus more easily, more readily, than what the Messiah, Jesus, actually says, actually proclaims— that this Dominion of God at hand. Hence, we need to be looking for and looking at the right thing or we will not get the information we need.

So perhaps a key to this reading is this: rather than concentrate on that fact that Jesus is the Messiah ask what is the Messiah is proclaiming about the Dominion? What’s being said? (Slight pause.)

First things first: Jesus does not point to self. Jesus points to God. The claim Jesus makes is the Good News comes from God.

Next, this reading clearly presents an immediate, present-tense summons. These words are, hence and therefore, a proclamation about a new era— the presence of God as that presence is and can be experienced by humanity is at hand. The passage insists on the reality of that presence and because of that presence insists that a reorientation of one’s own life to that reality is an imperative. (Slight pause.)

So why do the disciples immediately leave their nets, leave their father, follow without delay? They get it. The Dominion of God, with its new era of the reality of the presence of God, is at hand. They must participate… because they get it. (Slight pause.)

I think the term “at hand” is the least understood phrase in Mark, maybe the least understood phrase in the New Testament. The disciples promptly respond because they understand this new era involves them, involves their participation, involves their reorientation. That is what this message that the Dominion of God is at hand means to them.

Also please notice: in the summons Jesus offers, this new era is constantly unfolding, constantly happening. It’s not in the past tense. Neither is it in the future tense.

The new era of the Dominion of God is always in the present tense and, therefore, there is always something to do right now, today in this new era as this new era constantly unfolds. Indeed, I think that is where the challenge to us and for us lies.

And perhaps we do not understand that this new era existed then and this new era exists right now. The new era of the Dominion of God is, you see, not about something the past, not about something which happened two thousand years ago. The new era of the Dominion of God is not about the future, not about something which will happen, not about an afterlife or a second coming.

This new era of the Dominion of God is about that which is constantly happening, unfolding, present, real, available. And if it is unfolding now, if it is present, real, available, perhaps the call of the Messiah, the call of Jesus, is not simply a call to the disciples who dropped their nets and came. Jesus calls us. Jesus calls us in the present tense, now. And so what is the new era, this unfolding era of the Dominion about? (Slight pause.)

The constantly unfolding Dominion asks us how we respond to God. Just like the disciples, the constantly unfolding Dominion is about our participation. That’s because our participation in the constantly unfolding Dominion of God concerns striving to seek and discern the will of God.

Of course, that still leaves the obvious question: ‘what is the will of God?’ This is what I think: the will of God is about freedom and justice and peace and hope and love. And that is freedom, justice, peace, hope and love as God might see freedom, justice, peace, hope and love, not as we might see freedom, justice, peace, hope and love.

And so, how might this era of freedom, justice, peace, hope and love as God sees them happen? We need to remember two things which are proclaimed by Jesus, Who is the Christ, the Messiah.

First, we need to remember the Dominion is happening right now since the Dominion is the constant presence of the reality of God. Second, we need to participate in that reality. Participation— that is what following Jesus means.

And we, therefore, need to remember that freedom, justice, peace, hope and love are not things to be won. When we think of freedom, justice, peace, hope and love as things to be won we are using them as a cudgel, a weapon. Cudgels only create winners and losers. In God’s economy there are no winners or losers. Everyone is included in God’s economy.

So God’s freedom, justice, peace, hope and love are something to be shared— sharing. When God’s freedom, justice, peace, hope and love are shared that is when we participate in the Dominion of God. (Slight pause.)

Well, I think we need to remember what is at the core of the basic message Jesus offers. God will be with us and God is with us, especially when we participate in the Dominion.

And when we participate in the Dominion of God then… then the Dominion of God is truly at hand, now, present, real, available. And then… and then we… we… become disciples… we become disciples who follow. Amen.

01/21/2024
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is a précis of what was said: “As you know, I’m a musician, myself. This is a singing church. I love it. When it comes to the reality of the presence of God theologian Richard Rohr said this: ‘We cannot attain the presence of God because we are already totally in the presence of God. What is absent is our awareness.’”

BENEDICTION: Through God’s grace, by being attentive to God’s will, our deeds and our words will change our world for we will discover ways to proclaim release from the bondage or narrowness. Let us seek the God of Joy whose wisdom is our God. Let us go in peace to love and serve God. Amen.