And the Christian faith is Jesus Christ calling out to you. Yes, you. Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. https://soundcloud/tony-pittenger/epiphany-315 Epiphany 3.15 25 January, 2015 WELS-B P: CW 579, 409:1, (422, 430) R: 410:3-4 Mark 1:14–20 (ESV) 14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” 16 Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. And so we have this text before us again, Jesus calling His first disciples. Many of you have seen this before, heard sermons on it before, read it yourselves in your own Bible before. For some of you though, this may be new… Imagine though, that instead of walking up to Simon and James and John; imagine instead that Jesus posted these job openings in the paper or on a website… (I know, the whole idea is silly, they didn’t have daily newspapers and they didn’t have websites but just bear with here…) So imagine that Jesus ran an advertisement for this job of disciple… Omnipresent Local Deity seeks followers… (Omnipresent Local Deity means that He is true God and that He is present everywhere, but He is also local—He was actually standing there by the shore of the Sea of Galilee.) Oh! And because never lies and always tells the truth, and because lawyers existed even back then, the advertisement would have to be an honest and fair representation of the position which is open… Omnipresent Local Deity seeks followers who will be taught and who will then teach The Kingdom of God. Follower must be willing to deny himself or herself, must be ready to be hated by some in the surrounding culture. Some followers will likely be rejected by friends and family. Some are likely to face hardships such as prison and persecution. Followers even face the possibility of a violent death. Applicants should apply in person to Jesus of Nazareth; references not needed as Jesus is all-knowing. Let me unpack that for you… Must be willing to deny himself/herself. It is only fair to inform you that He considers your natural state to be out of harmony with Him, His purposes, His Kingdom; and so to follow Him will mean learning—re-training—yourself to think differently and then act differently. Your life will no longer be primarily about you, it will be lived for Him and for others. Others you’d probably consider less important than yourself… Must be willing to deny self. Must be ready to be hated by some in surrounding culture. In the interest of full disclosure it is only fair that He tell you that the culture doesn’t matter; it could be the most scientifically advanced or the most primitive, Western or Eastern. Because you will be denying your sinful nature you will be living in contrast to any and all surrounding values. This will arouse suspicion in some, confusion in others, and even hatred. That leads to the next point: Some followers likely to be rejected, even by friends and family. I wish this weren’t true but sadly it is and will continue to be. You’ll mess lots of things up, come across as self-righteous, judgmental, and so on; but even if you did everything perfectly still some family and friends will sever their ties with you. It’s all part of following Him, denying yourself, living and behaving in a way that is sure to be counter-cultural. This Omnipresent Local Deity says that in a way, our sinful nature unites us, binds us together with other sinners. When you begin to try and part from that yourself; well…some will see it as a threat and will respond as if threatened. Oh! Don’t get the wrong idea and think you’re supposed to make people hate you—Oh No!! No, that’ll happen on its own, even though another part of this job description is for you to live at peace with everyone. Anyway, where were we? Oh yes: Some likely to face hardships such as prison and persecution. I think we’ve pretty well covered and explained that, haven’t we? Even this section began by telling us that John the Baptist was now in prison. Let’s move on… Followers even face the possibility of a violent death. I suppose that’s just a natural result of all we’ve talked about so far. Living contrary to culture, rejected by society and even by family, imprisonment may end in death. Not a very attractive job posting, is it? In fact, when you see or hear it fully disclosed like this, you might wonder why anyone would answer that call. Might even wonder about your own answer… More on that in just a bit, but… Well… what other options are out there? What other lives and lifestyles? At first it would seem that the other options are innumerable. Not following Jesus seems like it frees you to follow a billion different possibilities. But is it really a billion, is it a million, is it even ten other options? No matter which alternate path a person follows, don’t they all lead down toward the same place? Scientist can’t invent life and doctors can’t preserve it; we are all going to die! And then what? Eternity with God? Well, not for the person who refused to follow God’s own Son who suffered hell and death to save them. No, if they don’t want that, if they refuse God’s substitute then they’ll have to face eternity alone. All alone… All the other paths lead to that same place. And there aren’t really a billion of them, no. While they may be dressed or decorated in a million different ways; in the end they’ll be revealed to be the same: Lives without Christ. These lives without Him are lives for one’s self. Gorging—binging—on self, a life lived with the man in mirror as the reason and purpose for all you do. Like the Prodigal Son who ran from his family, lives spent not following the Savior are lives in which we are loved by those who’ve also chosen that wide and broad path… Which means you’re loved only by those who can get something from you; only as long as you’re buying the drinks and you’re picking up the tab. Like the Prodigal Son. Loved only as long as you’re giving something they want: your money, your efforts, your body… Loved by those who share a hatred for God and for the things of God… Shared hatred of things noble, things honorable, things sacrificial… This fate sounds familiar, doesn’t it? We’ve lived these lives. Like an addict we struggle with returning to these lives everyday, wrestle with these demons sometimes every hour. Dead-end, self-absorbed, self-obsessed, self-serving, reckless, carefree, empty, burned-out hollow shells of lives. We’ve all lived them, still live them. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way. Isaiah 53:6 (ESV) This is the truth. Time to stop hiding from it, dodging it. Time to confess our sin, confess that we have disobeyed God in our thoughts, words, and deeds. Time to turn from that sin. Not just say some perfunctory words and move on; that is not what the Christian faith is. The Christian faith is you recognizing your sin and turning from it. And the Christian faith is Jesus Christ calling out to you. Yes, you. Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Confessing our sin means we are admitting we don’t deserve Him; don’t deserve His love, don’t deserve any compassion. I wouldn’t do it, nor would you! You wouldn’t reach out to someone like yourself, someone so self-centered, someone so rebellious. Sooner or later you’d look out for number-one. But the good news is that we’re not the ones calling the shots and the good news is also: “Deserves” has got nothing to do with it. “Grace” has got everything to do with it. Grace: Undeserved Love, Undeserved Forgiveness. Undeserved call saying “Come, follow Me. Come out of your gutters, come out of your self, come out of your loneliness, your emptiness, your condemnation. I will wash you, I will lead you, I will love you.” I wouldn’t call you and you wouldn’t call me—we’re just not that gracious by nature. Though we can learn to be, try to imitate what we’ve seen and experienced. Take My yoke upon you, says Jesus, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:29 (ESV) The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel. Follow Me. These are your Savior’s words to you. Calling you out of darkness and lost-ness, loneliness and damnation. Calling you to rest, to peace, to love and to life. God bless and keep you. AMEN. Soli Deo Gloria
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 01:23:47 +0000
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