Sermon - January 21st, 2024 - The Rev. Emily Collette

I speak the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Please be seated.

So our readings today are a continuation of a theme that we've been on for the past few

weeks, God's calling in our life and what we're supposed to do when we hear that calling

from God.

And that's really no surprise because we are in the season of epiphany, the season where

we focus more intently on the multitude of ways in which God is revealed in the world

and in our own hearts.

The Bible is just sort of nonstop, cover-to-cover stories of people being called into fantastic

and unexpected things by God.

And the stories of how those brave and daring and faithful people learn to say yes becomes

a lesson for us in our own time as we too learn how to say yes to God.

Last week's Gospel reading gave us John's version of Jesus calling his first few disciples,

and this week we get Mark's version of that story.

And though the names are just a little bit different, the story is very similar.

Mark's version gives us Jesus at the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

He is beginning his Galilean ministry.

And as he's passing along the shore, he spots Andrew and Simon Peter, two brothers and

fishermen, and they're casting their nets into the sea.

Next Jesus spots James and John, another pair of brothers who are also fishermen.

They are in the boat mending the nets with their father.

Jesus then calls to each of these pairs of brothers telling them to stop what they're

doing and follow, and they do.

They drop everything.

They leave their vocations.

They leave their homes.

They leave their very families and go after Jesus.

What's so striking about this encounter with Andrew and Peter and James and John is the

haste with which they go after Jesus.

Mark's Gospel, the entire thing, is very short.

If you pick up a Bible and compare it to the other Gospels, it's exceedingly short.

It's only 16 chapters, and they're short chapters.

Short is, for lack of a better word, sort of weaponizes brevity.

He is short, and to the point, because he has good news to tell us, and nothing is going

to get in the way.

There's no room for a preamble or a flowery language.

It's just the message of what Jesus has done for us.

So when you look at this Gospel reading for today, if you look at it in your bulletin,

you'll see how short this is.

Four people, four of the 12 apostles are called into ministry in just these few sentences.

And what we talked about in our Bible study class on Thursday, what we sort of hit on

was how fast these men go with Jesus.

Our Bible, our Gospel uses the word immediately, or two times, to talk about how quickly Jesus

called and how quickly these people go with him.

What they might have heard, what Jesus might have told these men, is also in our Gospel

reading for today.

It's just one sentence, verses 14 and 15, at the very beginning.

This sort of thesis for all of Jesus' Galilee and ministry is laid out for us right there.

The time of God is fulfilled.

Time of God is fulfilled.

The kingdom of God is at hand in this very moment, repent and believe in the good news.

The time of God is fulfilled.

The kingdom is at hand.

Repent and believe in the good news.

One sentence, that's all Mark gives us to sum up the entirety of Jesus' ministry in

Galilee.

The time that God has promised that we are going to be saved, that we will be redeemed,

that the world will be caught up, renewed, healed, whole again.

That time is now.

Turn towards God, turn away from the things the world promises you, and believe in this

good news.

That's what we're supposed to do.

That's how we're supposed to receive this news now, even 2,000 years in the future.

Immediately, leaving everything behind just like those first few apostles did.

So what are we supposed to do today in our own lives now, right?

How are we supposed to get rid of the things that we've been doing, the things that are

empty and soul-crushing that the world promises us, the things that we've been told to want

and to go after, like money and power and prestige and all these wonderful things that

the world tells us are good and that we should fill our lives with?

That's what we're supposed to turn away from, to repent from and to turn back to Jesus,

to believe in that good news that seems almost too good to be true.

This is that message that the first few disciples heard, the message of God's kingdom drawing

near, and they become models for us of how we are responding, dropping our families,

our friends, our vocations, our safety, our very security, and going with God.

Of course, if you feel tension in that, if you feel like that might be impossible for

you to do, please know that you're not alone.

There is a reason that these men become paradigms of faith for us.

They drop everything and follow Jesus.

So what are we supposed to do with that?

Because very few of us are about to leave our homes and our families and our own safety

to go after Jesus right now.

There's a lot to be learned from them.

If you were here last Sunday, you heard from Mycermen then as well that God is always calling

you into something.

God is always calling you into new things, big things, and small things, and life-changing

things, and life-long things, and seasonal things.

God is always calling you into something.

That if we live the kind of life that orients ourselves around that calling, the kind of

life that cuts out the clutter and listens to God more fully, more dearly, more nearly,

if we can listen to that and believe in that good news, then we'll have the courage to

say yes to the things that God is calling us into, just like those first few disciples.

When we are present enough with God, when we are focused enough on God and trusting

enough on God, we can say yes to those things and walk away from the things that we've filled

our life with.

I won't lie to you.

Discipleship has a cost.

It has cost people through the centuries.

Look at what it cost God.

It cost God the life of God's own Son.

Discipleship has a cost, and the cost is saying no to the things that we think we want, the

things that aren't really going to give us or this world new life, and saying yes to

the things that God wants.

And I'll tell you, these apostles, one of the commentaries I read this week said that

the apostles will very rarely live up to the amount of wonderful faith that they exemplify

in today's Gospel reading.

Very rarely are they going to live up to this ability to say yes.

They're going to mess it up again and again and again, and we're going to hear those stories

over the next few weeks and months.

So that's good news for us too.

We can mess it up as many times as we want, again and again and again, and God will still

be there to work with us, still be there over a life of faith, of learning to follow God

and to say no to the things of the world and yes to God.

Just like those first faithful followers, Andrew, Peter, James, and John.

Amen.

Thank you.