Come with Me

Jan. 25, 2015                           

Mark 1:14-20

Story: "There will be a meeting of the Board immediately after worship," announced the pastor. After the close of worship, the group gathered at the back of the sanctuary for the announced meeting. But there was a stranger in their midst. He was a visitor who had never attended their church before. "My friend," asked the pastor, did you understand that this is a meeting of the Board?" "Yes," said the visitor, "and after that sermon, I'm about as bored as you can get!"

Prayer

Last week I told you that I would be having a 2 part sermon… last week was about the invitation… “Come and See”.

I left you with 2 questions to ponder.

     What is your favorite thing about Cana and the life we share here?

     Would you be willing to invite someone to come and see this favorite thing about Cana?

Have you considered these questions?  Did you invite anyone?

Our gospel story from Mark is an incredible… 4 guys by all appearances give up everything to go with Jesus. Jesus says, “Come with Me.” Vs 18… “Right then, they dropped everything and went with him.” Some translations say, And immediately they left everything and followed Jesus. With emphasis on the word “Immediately”.

Can you imagine doing this? Leaving everything behind to follow a guy you’ve never met and at best have only heard about. I can tell you… I couldn’t do that. I can tell you when I heard God’s call to become a pastor… it took me 2 years to discern and figure out, and almost another year to get rid of stuff.

Does that mean we are failures because we didn’t drop everything at that moment and followed? Does it mean we are less faithful than Andrew, Peter, James, and John?

Well… in the coming chapters… Mark will show us these guys aren’t all that stellar either.

Each of us must follow Jesus for ourselves. You may never have to face the decision of whether or not to die for your faith, but every day you face the decision of whether or not you will live for it.

A quotation from the book Jesus Freaks

So… when Jesus asks, “Come with Me”

What Does This Mean?

1. Are you interested in the Invitation?

Last week… Philip asked Nathanael to “Come & See” So… I asked “Come and See”  Come and See this Jesus among us. This Jesus who can teach us… comfort us… bring healing to our spirit. Come and See Jesus… talk with Him… Listen to Him… See His work. Begin to put your faith in Him… drop the defenses, un chock the wheels.

2. Listening to the Noise

Jesus proclaimed the kingdom is both “fulfilled” and “Yet” coming. There is always a time and a place that Jesus invites. It’s a spiritual time or “Kairos” time and it’s a chronological or “Chronos” time… and time is not specific to either. Kairos time is more spiraling and undefined… Chronos time is more defined and straight. Life isn’t always linear nor spiraling.

The most powerful straight line winds ever recorded blew across Mt. Washington, NH at 190 mph and recorded cyclone winds in tornado alley have been clocked at 300 mph.

So… we live in the tension of 2 worlds… we can feel the presence of God and the pull of the world. So… there is a time of waiting & listening.

3.Trust and Faith

Jesus’ 1^st followers were just average guys… some might say otherwise… but they were just guys who went to work every day believing God would sustain them through their work. I believe Mark’s depiction of these guys leaving it all behind is inspiring.. not so much as to drop it all and follow… but if they were willing to follow Jesus… then Jesus would somehow take care of their needs.

When I decided to work toward becoming a pastor I needed both college and seminary. I didn’t know how I was going to do that… the time… 8 years… and the cost. On paper it didn’t look like I could do it. But I knew it was the time and I knew I needed to do it. I needed to put my money where my mouth was. If I trusted in God’ provision it would work… and here I am. If we are to follow… we are to trust in Jesus.

4. Gifts and Passions

Jesus’ friends were simple guys doing everyday work. They were fishermen… carpenters… tax accts…. Housewives… etc. They were living out the kind of work they were good at… what they were gifted to do… and maybe not. You don’t have to go to seminary to do God’s work. We Lutheran’s have messed up the priesthood of all believers into thinking you need to be credentialed in something in order to serve.

I believe we can be followers of Jesus by being a teacher… a welder… a construction worker… a nurse… a server at a restaurant. You can follow Jesus by being a volunteer at a senior center. You can follow Jesus by being a police officer… firefighter… a cook or custodian… a medical tech… a lawyer… a business owner… or homemaker.

Maybe you love what you’re doing or maybe not so much… but your contributing towards others well-being. I think you get the point… you don’t need to be a pastor or church worker to follow Jesus. The fact is it’s probably better you’re not… you see you can follow Jesus in any number of ways. The point here is to follow Jesus by imitating Him and to treat others with the same respect, love, patience, and care as he would. And if the work you do is what your gifted at… all the better.

5. A Commitment to Love.

Lastly… to commit to embrace the values of love and forgiveness and inclusiveness as Jesus did. Jesus says in John 13,“we are to love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus demonstrates how we are to love and forgive, and invite. At the heart of following is “Being” a Christian NOT “Becoming” a Christian.

When we make this commitment… we are invited into and promised a faith community by the grace of God, apart from ourselves. And this is something we all live into because it’s not always easy to love and forgive people. The cool thing is… the invitation is always present.

Closing:

In the end… we are invited to “Come & See”  then follow… to go with… to “Come with Me” as Jesus says… So that we might experience and live into his promise and benefit more fully from the identity of Jesus’ life. Not about being better followers… but rather knowing and experiencing Jesus more deeply.