January 21, 2018

The Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, PA

The Third Sunday after the Epiphany

Sermon: The Ven. Richard I. Cluett

Mark 1:14-20

I was wondering this week is you have ever been confused or disappointed by God, if you have ever been disappointed in God. Or how about the Bible. You ever been confused or disappointed in or by the scriptures? Or have you maybe had some down times when you have been disappointed that your relationship with God didn’t go the way you thought it would or should? Have you had sometimes when your trust and faith became somewhat tenuous? You weren’t so sure any more. There seemed to be no proof in the pudding, as it were? I have!

Take for an example, today’s gospel reading. I find it confusing and disturbing that in these past weeks we have become used to the Power and Glory of God at work in the world. We have heard and read of such things as the miraculous pregnancy of Elizabeth, the announcement that Mary carries the Son of the Most High, Mary’s powerful hymn describing what this means for the powers of the world, as well as the least powerful of the world. The birth of Jesus, the presentation of Jesus to the world represented by the 3 wise visitors, the naming of Jesus, the baptism of Jesus – in all of these the presence and power of God are clear, obvious, and palpable – you can almost feel God near – in your bones and in your spirit.

But today we hear of the death of John the Baptist, and we hear Jesus proclaim the presence of God’s kingdom and his calling a very few disciples to join him. No angelic or archangelic voices, no clear voice of God. No John. Just Jesus and some followers are left. That’s it. One might call it a rather inauspicious beginning of a kingdom, much less a movement.

Something else that is a little out of sync for me is the call of those disciples. Jesus called – and they just picked up a left – everything – immediately. Did you think that was a little extraordinary? Now, I have never been “slain in the Spirit.” Jesus has never appeared before me to invite me, nor has Jesus knocked me off my horse, to ask why I was not following him.

When I was aware of Jesus calling me, I thought both he and I were mistaken. That would never happen, not if you know what I know about me. And when the niggling whisper became an insistent call, my response was not immediate, to say the least.

What I do know is that each of us is here today because we have been called by God to follow Jesus. If your response was an immediate, “Yes, Lord, I believe and I will follow”, what a blessing for you. My years of experience being with followers of Jesus is that Jesus had to pursue most of us. Many of us more than once. He was the Hound of Heaven at our heels, until we were overtaken, overcome, and wanted to willingly, even pleadingly ready to say, “Yes, Lord, I believe and I will follow”.

Theologian Karl Barth once wrote that Simon, Andrew, James, and John are “elected to discipleship simply through the fact that Jesus claims them.” In other words, it was not about them, it was about Jesus. Like it or not, our place is with Jesus. It is in the mind and heart of God to have it so. Jesus claims us therefore we are disciples.

It is kind of like that car dealer who says in his ads, “You may not have known it, but I have always been your car dealer.” You may not have known it, but Jesus had already claimed you as brother, sister, disciple, and more. We had to, at some time, and have to today decide whether or not to claim Jesus.

It is clear from today’s reading that a lot depends on Jesus and his disciples. The powers of the world did their most heinous worst when they killed John, a righteous and good man. It was now up to Jesus and those who are with him to be signs that this is God’s kingdom, here and now in whatever era or generation we have been placed. Clearly the stakes are high.

And it is no wonder that we demur, that we equivocate, that we delay, that we are suddenly distracted by urgent other business. And therefore, Jesus must wait for us to claim him, too, but of course in our own good time.

The first time I left home, I was 14. It was the most difficult thing I had ever had to do. I boarded a train to go to boarding school 100 miles from home. My choice, my desire, but still very, very hard. When our son left home at 18 to go into the army, there were 3 very emotional, anxious people with tears in their eyes. It is always hard to turn from what we have known, loved, counted on, found comforted in and to enter into a new way, a new future, a new purpose.

John Calvin wrote that “God called rough mechanics like Simon, Andrew, James, and John in order to show that none are called by virtue of his or her own talents or excellences. Like those disciples who misunderstood and failed Jesus at every turn, we too are sinners in need of forgiveness… Like them, we sinners, despite our failings, are slowly being formed into followers of Christ. Like them we are called not to the enjoyment of a private salvation but to a public vocation.”

As warm and comforting as those Advent and Christmas readings are, God comes in Jesus into the real world, to claim real people, to give love to real people, to heal a very real world – and all of it in need of repentance, forgiveness, merciful healing and loving Grace. We forget that those readings earlier include the slaughter of innocent children, an escape across the desert into Egypt, and more real world danger, degradation and desperation than we could possibly imagine.

And so here we are, you and I, today called by Jesus, claimed by Jesus as God’s beloved, and presented with this very real world we have been born into that is in sore need of the awareness of God’s presence, the righteousness of God’s judgement, the acceptance of God’s love and mercy, and the repentance that will lead us all deeper into being the Kingdom of God.

That is what Jesus proclaimed after the death of John. That is what he called those fishermen to. Like them, we too are called to trust him, trust his message, leave behind what we must and follow him. And we are called by him to do that today and tomorrow and all our days. He will be with us wherever we go and in whatever we do, and he has given us this wonderful community to be with us.