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Mark Wheeler
Mark 1:14-20
01/14/2024
“Bread, Bapt & Beyond – Sacraments and Worship 3”
Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church
Good morning, good Church! Welcome to this time of worship.
Today is our third Sunday in this between Christmas and Lenten series on Worship and Sacraments – what do we do on Sunday mornings, and why do what we do it, and how that impacts how we live every day! Bread, Bapt and Beyond!
In the last two weeks we talked about Communion – Jesus is the Bread of Life – how we partake of this everlasting-life-bread every time we come to Jesus, every time we start to believe in Him, and we talked about Baptism – the Water of Life – how our recognition of our sin condition and confession and repentance leads to an act of faithful Baptism – demonstrating God’s grace and mercy, and proclaiming our coming to Jesus and belief in His death and resurrection.
And this morning, as a part of discovering what this means for us, we will hear a word from the Rev Katie Stark, our Presbytery’s Missional Expeditor, who interprets this into an invitation to hear God’s Word inviting us into His already-at-work ministries.
Bread, Bapt and Beyond – a look at the Sacraments that demonstrate and perform the grace of God, and the worship that develops from them.
To invite us into that experience, Scott calls us to worship from Psalm 62:
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4-7 And our Prelude of Praise and Worship ––– #227 … Rock of Ages –
8 Good morning Friends! Welcome to worship at Lidgerwood!! Shalom Aleichem! May the PEACE of Christ be with you!
Welcome, friends, from around the world, to this worshipping community!
Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit presence and power, in your homes, through your phones and computers, in this building here, and in your lives. Pray with us … and hear and be transformed by God’s Word.
9 This morning our Chancel Choir leads us in this invitational Sacramental anthem: “Let the Love Shine Through”
10 Children’s Message
11 Scott opens our Prayer time in Confession and Thanksgiving
12 Gloria Patri
13-16 Praises, thanksgivings, adorations, concerns and prays [The Lord’s Prayer]
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18-20 Song of Devotion and Preparation to receive God’s Word – #693 – We Believe in God Almighty – a musical arrangement of the Apostles Creed
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As we continue in this first chapter of the Gospel According to Mark – let me remind you of a couple of important things to point out:
- Mark is the only Gospel that has no Christmas mention. Matthew and Luke tell the stories about the angels and the shepherds and the magi; John doesn’t really give a birth narrative, but he says that the Son of God became flesh and moved in with us. Mark does not say anything like that – Mark’s Gospel concentrates on Jesus as the Servant of God – Isaiah’s Suffering Servant prophecies – and, from that perspective – who cares about a Servant’s birthday? So he just doesn’t mention it. Instead, this Gospel begins simply with a description of the book – which is the second point;
- Mark is the only book in the Bible that announces itself as a “gospel” (Mark 1:1), “the good news, the gospel, about Jesus…” Again, there is no word in Mark about the birth or the youth of Jesus. He starts right in with this “good news” of Jesus’ Baptism as the beginning of His ministry. It is the fulfillment of the “messenger” promised by the prophet Isaiah 40:3; a promise stated again by John the Baptist’s own explanation of Jesus’ Baptism, that his Baptism was with water, but “Jesus will Baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:8).
Let’s hear the Word of God, from Mark 1:14-20 …. —-
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14 Now after John was arrested [John, the cousin of Jesus, the son of Mary’s relative Elizabeth and Zechariah, John the Baptist], 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.” [Let me just pause to point out that in just 15 verses Mark has used the word Gospel, Good News, three times! And Jesus uses the same words that John used in his Baptism – repent and believe]
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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 people, of men and women.” 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
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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.
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Jesus begins His ministry by proclaiming the “Good News” of the Gospel, which is that “the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God has come near” (Mark 1:15).
Jesus’ coming was the “fullness of time,” because He is the messenger promised in the Old Testament. And Jesus repeats the message of John the Baptist, “Repent and believe in the Good News.”
The emphasis of Mark’s Gospel is that Jesus’ coming is the Gospel.
Today’s passage continues the story from last Sunday, that is, the beginning of Jesus’ ministry as He calls His first disciples. In today’s story Jesus calls four fishermen at the Sea of Galilee — Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John.
We don’t really know what there was about Jesus that led Simon, Andrew, James, John, and others to leave their homes and families to follow Jesus. Did they know Him already? Or was this their first contact with Him? Whatever it was, there was something remarkably compelling about Jesus to cause these and others to follow Him into an uncertain, experimental future. The astonishing feature of the story is that they followed Jesus with no idea of where it would lead.
We know very little of the background of any of the disciples whom Jesus calls. The four in today’s story were fishermen. Matthew was a tax collector. What had the other seven done before Jesus came into their lives? We don’t know.
As far as we can tell, the twelve persons Jesus called to be His companions were just ordinary folk. As far as we can tell, Jesus didn’t do background checks to determine IQ levels, financial expertise, professional skills, or temple education. He picked people probably much like you and me. Furthermore, these disciples were anything but perfect. Many times they misunderstood Him. They often hesitated to follow Him. Judas betrayed Him and Peter denied Him.
But these would be the people who would continue Jesus’ work on earth after He left — ordinary people, like you and me. These were the people Jesus called.
Furthermore, Jesus’ first disciples were “northerners,” from the northern province of Galilee.
The capital of Israel was Jerusalem in the former southern kingdom, the religious center with the Temple.
It is no wonder that Jesus was greeted with such skepticism when he travelled to Jerusalem from His home in Galilee with His Galilean friends. The religious leaders in Jerusalem naturally considered Jesus an “outsider.”
As far as we know, every one of the disciples was chosen and called personally by Jesus.
Our Church believes that God calls each one of us. God not only calls us to follow Jesus, but God also calls us into the fields and careers of our lives, into the neighborhoods in which we live and shop and play.
We often speak of “God’s call” far too narrowly, as if God “calls” people only into ordained ministry. It is true: God does call people to be pastors and church workers. But God’s call is by no means limited to clergy. God calls every single one of us.
In the Middle Ages the clergy was considered a higher status of Christian than laypersons. They had their own regimen of frequent daily worship that laypersons didn’t have. They had church rules to follow, which laypersons didn’t have. They usually lived in communities — monasteries and convents — unlike laypersons.
The Reformation of the 1500s tried to eliminate those distinctions between clergy and lay by affirming that God calls everybody – a priesthood of all believers.
The word for this call to everyone is “vocation,” from Latin vocatio, “calling.” Everyone has a station in life, probably several stations in how society functions, “vocation.” Every job that works to build up and maintain society is a calling — teacher, nurse, car mechanic, grocery store clerk, train engineer, etc. We also have callings within family structures — mother, father, aunt, uncle, child, etc. We serve God in these family callings as well.
Way back in the day when I was first exploring the possibility of ordained ministry, one of my best friends, Kirk, the friend that accidentally introduced me to Jennifer, was also exploring his call to ordained ministry. One of the first steps in that process is to seek your church’s elders to “take you under care”, to endorse your sense of call, to walk alongside you into the call-process. Our Elder Council, for Kirk, recommended some further explorations before they would endorse his sense of call. And as a result – he became a high school teacher! And discovered that that was his call, his vocation.
Lidgerwood church, one Summer, had a Whitworth University Summer intern – we’ve had three different Summer interns – this one, Drew Strait, discovered that his call was to teach theology and ecclesiology in a university setting!
That Elder Council, that student intern, understood what it means to follow God’s call in one’s vocation.
The truth is that God’s call is always into an uncertain future. Abraham, the Founder of the Hebrew people, God’s Chosen people, God’s called people, way back in Genesis 12, is called to a very unknown future.
When we enter into our callings we have no idea how it will all end up. We choose our careers and jobs hoping that we can use the gifts and talents God has given us, but there are no guarantees. We step into experiments. Every day is an experiment in living fasithfully.
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With that – I invite my friend and colleague, Rev Katie Stark, to come up and share a Moment of Experimental Mission Calling with us – after which there will be a short time for Q & A. Katie ….
27 Receive our tithes and offerings as symbols of our very lives and livelihood, given as response to Your life given for us! Bless it, and by it bless the world around us. In Christ’s name, Amen.
Offering (4449 N Nevada St., Spokane, WA, 99207; or Click HERE, or text 833-976-1333, code “Lidgerwood”)
28-31 Expedition Song #712 – The Kingdom of God Is Justice and Joy!
32 Benediction:
May we Grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit. And give glory to God, today, and forever! Amen.
“May the Lord bless you and protect you; may the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.”
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Announcements
- Potluck Lunch & Annual Congregational Meeting – Sunday, January 28, to receive Annual Reports, Elect new Church officers, listen for God’s call on us in 2024
- Furnace Fundraiser
Resources:
Rogness, Michael; https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-after-epiphany-2/commentary-on-mark-114-20-3.
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