Episcopal Church of the
Incarnation
The Third Sunday after the Epiphany (B)
Jonah
3.1-5, 10 Psalm
62.6-14 1 Corinthians 7.29-31 Mark 1.14-20
May the Lord be in my mind, on my lips, and in my heart, that
I may rightly and truly proclaim His holy Word. Amen.
Outline of a
Sermon Delivered Extemporaneously
1) Imagine for a minute that
you are at work or sitting at home and the telephone rings.
a) The caller is someone you
know very well.
i) Someone who has been through
a lot with you, and proved himself or herself to be not only utterly honest and
reliable, but wise, giving ,insightful, and maybe even lucky.
ii) This person has the talent
or the Midas touch to succeed in whatever they do.
iii) And now they are on the
phone, saying that they have found the most remarkable opportunity for success
they have ever seen.
(1) They’re saying for you to
drop what you are doing, quit your job, move with them to where the opportunity
exists.
(2) And they’re saying that they
are putting all their money into the idea.
b) Would you do it? Have you ever known someone like that?
c) OK. Now imagine that someone walks into your
place of business or home, describes a fantastic opportunity, and tells you to
drop what you are doing, quit your job, move with them to where the opportunity
exists.
i) And you don’t know them.
ii) And the opportunity isn’t
really described; they just ask that you come with them.
iii) And you have a real
investment in where you are.
(1) An investment in equipment
like boats and nets.
(2) An investment in relationships
with employees and family.
d) Is it likely that you’re
going to follow?
2) We can’t really understand
the disciples just dropping everything and following Jesus. We might follow someone we know very
well, who has earned our trust.
a) But they have never met Him.
i) We have to assume that His
presence and charisma were overwhelming, except that we later encounter the
rich young man who goes away sorrowing because he finds the price of following
Jesus to be too high (Luke 18.23).
(1) So not everybody found His
presence and charisma compelling.
ii) It seems we have to take
Jesus at His word when He tells the disciples that He chose them (John 15.16).
(a) And we have to assume that
God moved them to follow, even before the Holy Spirit was given them.
3) What about us? Do we actually want to drop everything
to follow Jesus.
a) We’re attracted to
Jesus. That’s why we’re here and why we
call ourselves Christians.
i) But being here may in fact
be a safer option, the safer option of being in a larger group, like the group
of less committed people who tag along after Jesus in the Gospels, the group
called the “crowd” or “multitude”, or even the “people”.
b) Those who tag along can be
thought of as fellow travelers and spectators, even fans.
i) People who are bound up in
the excitement of Jesus’ ministry and presence.
ii) Maybe people who tag along
in the hope of seeing a miracle, or–even better–being fed with loaves and
fishes again.
c) “People” who are able to get
close, but not too close.
4) What about those who did
follow, the original disciples?
a) If we do the math we see
that of the original twelve, one betrayed Jesus and hanged himself.
i) One died as an old man, of
natural causes, but he was in exile.
ii) And the other ten? The other ten all died as a result of some
sharp object being stuck into their bodies, often after torture, such as being
crucified upside down.
b) It becomes easier to
understand how it might seem better to stay one of the people, a fellow
traveler.
c) But it was the real
followers, the disciples and not the tag-alongs, who after the resurrection
became the apostles.
i) The apostles used by the
Holy Spirit to virtually take over the
ii) The apostles responsible for
how and why we know the word of life in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
(1) The Gospel we know because
men and women were willing to follow Jesus.
(a) Willing to say, “I have
decided to follow Jesus” even in the face of persecution, the doubts and
pleading of family and friends, and even their own doubts.
(b) Even children were willing
to say “I have decided to follow Jesus”, and to keep on following Jesus in the
face of persecution.
(i) Witness St. Agnes, the
twelve year-old girl burned at the stake in
5) What did Jesus tell the
disciples? He told them that they would
be fishers of men.
a) He told them they would be
instrumental in calling men and women into a life-giving relationship with God.
i) To proclaim that the kingdom
is near.
b) He tells us that. If we are to follow Jesus our mission is the
same.
i) And, because nothing Jesus
says or does has any meaning apart from the cross, if we want to follow Jesus
our mission includes taking up our cross.
6) What is the cross that you
will take up to proclaim the Good News of God in Christ Jesus?
a) A proclamation to be made
most eloquently in who we are and how we live, rather than in words only.
b) Will it be in how you are
seen to gather in worship, and to make worship not just one of a number of
competing priorities for your attention on a Sunday?
c) Will it be in how you serve
and whom you serve? Those in need; those
who are lost; those who despair.
d) Will it be in giving to
build up the Church and to make a material difference in the lives of those who
lack?
e) Will it be in how you work
to bring all people into reconciliation in Jesus?
f) However you follow, remember
that you are called to follow, not just to tag along.
i) And remember something else
in following: Your Captain goes before
you. The trail is blazed by Jesus.
7) Speaking of captains: Last week I spoke about the essence of Jesus’
call and command being “Follow me,” and one parishioner told me how he was
struck by the fact that this call and command is the same as the motto of the
infantry in the U.S. Army.
a) The infantry, as in foot
soldiers, as in boots-on-the-ground.
b) Again and again and again
the history of combat tells us that no matter how quickly armor may penetrate
enemy lines, no matter how completely air power may disable enemy
infrastructure, there is no victory absent boots-on-the-ground.
i) Unless your foot soldiers
are standing within the enemy’s citadel the battle has just shifted to another
phase, despite the myth of blitzkrieg.
c) And it’s the same in
spiritual struggle.
i) Our Captain goes before to
proclaim that the kingdom is near.
ii) He calls to us “Follow me”
that we might be the foot soldiers who secure territory for this kingdom.
(1) Knowing that each time we
proclaim that the kingdom has come near, it comes nearer.
(2) Nearer because those to whom
we minister can see some little glimpse of the glory to which all are called.
(a) That they too may say, “Thy
kingdom come, thy will be done, one earth as it is in heaven”.
In
the Name of the Father, and of the Son,
and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen.