Bishop Craig Schweitzer

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Mark 1:14-20 • January 22, 2012 • “What’s in Your Net?”

Brothers and sisters in Christ grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.

So how many of us would have been like these first four disciples – Peter, Andrew, James, and John? This guy Jesus walks by, you’ve never met him before. From what we know at the surface of our text today, you’ve never read about him in the papers, heard his voice on a radio or television, or watched any of his movies or YouTube videos. Would you have been confident enough, or maybe foolish enough, to say, “OK, Jesus. I’ve never met you before right now, but that doesn’t really matter. I’ll drop everything. Leave my business and family and employees behind and follow you into the future even though I have no clue as to what that may be. By the way, where are we eating dinner tonight?”

If Jesus walked by me while I was sitting at my desk writing liturgy for an upcoming worship service and said to me, “Let’s go.” I think I may have said, “What? Are you kidding me?” I think it’s entirely true and probably a bit hard for you and I to admit – that – most of us admire what the first disciples do in fact do, but few, if any of us, are actually willing to do the same.

One thing is for sure when reading the gospel of Mark. You better buckle your seat belts and hang on for the ride. Mark wastes no time getting to the point of this Jesus and what his mission and ministry is all about. Mark is not like Matthew’s gospel with a beautiful birth story complete with detailed genealogy and wise men and adventures to Egypt. Mark is not like Luke’s gospel where we encounter the drama of Jesus’ dedication at the Temple and a party at Aunt Elizabeth’s house and a bit of political intrigue with King Herod. Mark is not like John’s gospel, an eloquent poetic and theological journey of God becoming flesh through this one Jesus and literally moving in.

Mark doesn’t waste any time. Mark wants those who hear these words to know that the time is now. Ready or not, here we go. Put down your nets – it’s time! Let’s go! With the arrival of Jesus, the world has changed forever and will never be the same again. One of Mark’s favorite words throughout his gospel is the word – “immediately.” It’s a word that Mark uses over and over in his gospel. What’s the hurry Mark? Why the urgency?

Methodist Pastor Ted Smith said that “Mark begins like an alarm clock, persistently declaring the time and demanding some response.” The response of the first disciples is to leave everything behind and follow. Go. Now!

But Barbara Brown Taylor suggests that we are missing the point of this story if our focus is on what the disciples gave up and whether we are in fact able to do the same today. In her sermon “Miracle on the Beach” Taylor claims that this story is really about God, not the disciples or us.

The “miracle story,” as Barbara Brown Taylor calls it, is really about “the power of God – to walk right up to a quartet of fishermen and work a miracle, creating faith where there was no faith, creating disciples where there were none just a moment before.”

I don’t think Jesus was asking the first disciples to just add something to the list of things they already had to do. Jesus doesn’t give them a new list. Instead he’s offers them a new identity. A new way of doing. A new way of being.

I’m not afraid to tell others that I love the church. I am passionate about being part of a church that is deeply and intimately connected to strange folks like Peter, Andrew, James, and John. These men weren’t people of extraordinary talent or wealth, yet Jesus saw them as they were, doing what they did as ordinary people trying to make a living and care for their families and the community in which they lived. Jesus called out to them and asked them to follow.

I’m also not afraid to tell others that I don’t believe everything about the church is perfect either, just look at us. You and I have nets just like Peter, Andrew, James, and John. And most of us have far more than fish caught in our nets. That’s what makes it so very hard for us to let go of them and follow this Jesus.

Back to Barbara Brown Taylor. She thinks that “What we may have lost along the way is a full sense of the power of God – to recruit people who have made terrible choices, to invade the most hapless lives and fill them with light, to sneak up on people who are thinking about lunch, not God, and smack them upside the head with glory.”

I think that may be the reason why the gospel writer of Mark seems to be in such a hurry with his abundant use of the word “immediately” in his story of Jesus. He’s afraid that we’ve either become so concerned with looking at what someone else has in their nets or that we’ve become so complacent with what the power of God is doing in our lives that we really don’t care anymore.

I remember reading a short story in a pastoral care class about a young boy who asked his older sister a question about God. He asked her this, “Do you think anybody can really see God?”

“Of course not.” was her quick response. “God is way far up in heaven so that no one can see God.”

A few days later, the boy was still thinking about that question and thought maybe his mother would have a different answer, so he asked her “Mom, can anybody really see God?”

More gently than his sister had answered, but with a similar response, his mother said “No, not really. God is a spirit and lives in our hearts, but we really can’t see God.”

His mother’s answer helped a little, but still didn’t satisfy his search. A few days later he was fishing with his grandpa. The fishing wasn’t really all that good, so he posed the same question to him, “Grandpa, I wasn’t going to ask anyone else, but I can’t stop thinking about this, so I need to hear what you think. Do you think anyone can really see God?”
His grandpa looked at his wise young grandson and simply said, “Son, it’s getting so I can’t anything else.”

In Jesus, the disciples saw God and for whatever reason believed that nothing would ever be the same again. Stay with their nets or go with Jesus – it really didn’t matter anymore which choice they made – God had come to them. Nets and all.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. It’s time to put down our nets and follow. Amen.

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John 1:43-51 • January 15, 2012

Brothers and sisters in Christ grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.

I’ll admit it. I like Facebook . I also admit that I watch YouTube videos on occasion and even post a video or two once in a while. I admit that I feel a little lost if my phone is not connected directly to my body in some way. I’ll admit that I enjoy posting random thoughts and sermon manuscripts on my website. I actually feel that its part of how I live out the ministry I’m called to serve. On my Facebook and Youtube pages, I have no problem with being identified as someone from North Dakota. And as I post things to my website, I have no anxiety about what someone who reads my thoughts in another part of the world might think when they find out that my family and I call this city on the prairie – Bismarck – our home.

In the time of Jesus’ encounter with Philip and Nathanael from our gospel reading in John today, where you were from was important and a significant part of your identity. Saying that you were from Nazareth on your Facebook page or in a text message or posted on your website would not have been a good idea. Nazareth was not a place to be identified with. It was kind of a dump. Nazareth was nothing. Nazareth was nowhere.

Jesus was from Nazareth.

In today’s text, Philip comes to Nathanael and says that he has found the one whom Moses wrote about. Jesus of Nazareth. Our text doesn’t give us a clear picture of what Nathanael’s facial expression may have been, but I can almost see the sneer that his statement seems to reveal, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

Can you relate to that? Aren’t we all like that from time to time? We sit back in the shadows of our individually created self image with a sneer on our face and say, “Can anything good come from ______?” You can fill in the blank. I know for myself, it’s pretty easy to fill it in at times. Nathanael’s take on people from Nazareth isn’t much different from our own thoughts today, is it?

I’m an Oakland Raider fan, it’s easy to say, “Can anything good come from a Denver Broncos fan?” I have a job and think I work pretty hard to do the best I can in my vocation, it’s easy to say, “Can anything good come from that unemployed person who I don’t think wants to work anyway?” If I’m a Republican, it’s easy to say, “Can anything good come from a Democrat?”

Many of you have probably heard this story before. I know it’s an old and overused story, but I think there is a lot for us to think about in it today, so I want to share it with you. There are four men who were neighbors that all went to the same church. Fred Everybody, Thomas Somebody, Peter Anybody, and Joe Nobody.

Fred Everybody went fishing on Sundays or chose to stay home and sleep in since it was his only day to do so during the week. Peter Anybody wanted to go to church and worship, but he was afraid that Thomas Somebody would talk to him. So, guess who went to church and worshiped on Sunday – that’s right – Nobody. Actually, Nobody was the most engaged neighbor in this group.

One day in the church bulletin there was a call for help with an upcoming Vacation Bible School event. Everybody thought Anybody would answer the call; Anybody thought Somebody would answer the call. So, guess who answered the call to assist with teaching the youth of this congregation about their faith at Vacation Bible School? Yep – Nobody.

In his book Finding God in Unexpected Places, author Philip Yancy tells a story about a time when his family visited Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park. They were having lunch at the Old Faithful Inn, watching the digital clock count down the minutes until the reliable geyser would do its magical water dance again. When the clock reached one minute, everyone quickly left their table and rushed toward the windows of the Inn to see the big event. As Old Faithful erupted and all of the tourists were ooohing and aahing, Yancy couldn’t help but notice that the busboys and waitresses were descending upon the tables to refill water glasses and clear the area of garbage and dirty dishes. He was struck that not a single employee who worked there made any effort to look out the windows with the tourists. They had become so used to this spectacular display of God’s good creation, that it no longer impressed them. It no longer held their attention.

These stories that I’ve shared – are they reflections of how we receive the invitation to “come and see”? Do we sit in the shadow everything that consumes us and say, “Can anything good come from this?” Do we see ourselves more often like Fred Everybody, Thomas Somebody, or Peter Anybody – instead of Joe Nobody? Or has the presence of Jesus in our life become so boring and so routine that we no longer care enough to stop and look around at the amazing things that God is doing right in front of us?

When Philip invites Nathanael, he doesn’t try to defend his claim about what he has seen or found. He doesn’t make sure that Nathanael has passed all the right theological tests or asked Jesus into his heart. He just says to his friend, “Come and see.”

Nathanael sees Jesus for himself. And he is changed forever. Nathanael now knows that something good can come from Nazareth; Nathanael now knows that life in Christ is not about waiting around hoping someone else will do what needs to be done; Nathanael now believes that life in Christ is never boring or routine.

In a reflection this week on this gospel, Pastor Alyce McKenzie wrote this, “Jesus already knows us, even if we have no recollection of many of our prior encounters with him, even if we do not name or recognize his presence and efforts at the depths of our lives.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus already knows you. And thankfully Jesus never gives up on any of us. After all, it’s Jesus who offers us words of assurance today in verse 30 that we will “see greater things than these.”

As you and I seek to follow this Jesus in the days and months that lie ahead – we are not called to be children of God who are waiting around for somebody else to show up and serve our neighbors for us; we are not called to be apathetic in our faith to the point that we no longer see the great things that God is doing in our lives. You and I are being invited each and every day to “Come and see.” Take time this week to do just that. And while you’re doing that, maybe you can even extend that same invitation to someone else just like Philip did. Amen.