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Third Sunday after the Epiphany Sunday, January 25, 2009 St. David’s Episcopal Church, DeWitt NY The Rev. James C. Bresnahan, Interim Rector “Following” Mark 1:14-20 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea--for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.
There was a park near my childhood home that was a play area for all the youth and children in our Bronx neighborhood. There were hills of craggy rock, grassy mounds, and gravelly inclines, elevated concrete slabs to stand up on, playground swings and monkey bars, winding paths, and jumping off places, more than enough variety to keep young minds and bodies busy all day long.
The best of all times there was when, as a group, we played ‘Follow the Leader.’ One would take the lead, usually the most daring and adventurous, and others would follow in a line behind – all over the park, climbing, jumping, rolling, hanging, walking, crawling, skipping, running. Wherever the leader went, whatever the leader did, the rest would follow.
The Gospel accounts of our New Testament display that pattern. They are not collections of sayings, or essays on matters religious or philosophical. They tell the story of a leader, who calls people to follow him and live as he lived.
Today’s Gospel reading is the story of how Jesus called the first of many disciples to follow him. Here we are first introduced to Simon and Andrew, and James and John, each of whom is called to follow Jesus.
At this point these four young men don’t have the slightest inkling of what it will mean for them to follow Jesus. But they commit themselves to the journey with him. And because of it, they will soon be living their life very differently.
In what way differently? Will they be spared disappointment? No! Will they be spared hardship? No. Will they not get sick, or not one day die? No. It is not that their life will be different in those regards from the life of any other. It’s this: They will be living differently by responding to life differently.
When experiencing loss, they will be learning from Jesus not to despair, but to hope. When persecuted, they will be learning not to retaliate, but to pray for the strength to forgive. When blessed they will learn not congratulate themselves, but to be grateful and thankful. And when they fail, they will learn not to curse or wallow in shame, but to repent and to trust in the Lord’s mercy.
Our journey with Jesus, of course, is not one of seeing him with our eyes, and following his tracks in the soil, as theirs was. But it is one of similar learning as we gather each Sunday to listen and learn, to pray and to ask, and to eat and to drink at the table of the Lord. Here is where we are learning to follow him.
The story of our following Jesus began in our Baptism, when we were named a child of God, marked with the cross of Christ, and incorporated into Christian community. Within Christian community, we were taught to pray our Lord’s Prayer, as the disciples were, to know and say the 23rd Psalm, and to listen to other testimonies of Scripture. We have learned to sing songs of faith, hope, and love. We have heard the powerful and freeing word that sins are forgiven. We have learned to share the peace of reconciliation. We were taught the humility of kneeling before God and seeing others as our equals before God. And we have been assured that nothing in life or death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So when you are here each Sunday know that you are being formed and shaped here as a follower of Jesus, as much as Peter, Andrew, James and John were in their walk with him. In word and sacrament you are meeting the same Lord, and learning, no less than they, what it is to follow him.
I want to share with you stories about two people, now dead for decades, whose memory lingers in my heart, who in their way were following Jesus. One of them I know; the other I heard about. Both illustrate for me what I meant by saying: When we follow Jesus, it is not that what life throws at us is different; it’s that we learn to respond to life differently.
She was about fifty when I first met her. No more that four and a half feet high. For a decade already she had been living on meager resources, earning money by ironing other people’s clothing, while staying at home caring for her incapacitated husband who had suffered a stroke. But on Sundays she left him to come to church. She had a terrible singing voice, off tune and screeching, but she sang anyway as loud as she could. She was in love with God. Years before she had not sung so loud, she told me, until one day someone complained about her terrible voice and asked her too sing softly. She made up her mind, then, to sing even louder.
She lived with a broken-heart. She had an adopted son, from his early days. He was never told he had been adopted, as was often the case long ago. But at the age of twenty he somehow found out, was devastated, left home, and she and her husband never heard from him again.
She never had money to go away on vacation or to do much of anything that cost money. But she found delight in writing every day and sending off cards to others and for turning seashells into ornaments to give away at Christmas. A day never went by in which one or more sick people, lonely people, or grieving people, did not receive a card or call from her.
Years after her husband died, her health deteriorated. She went into a nursing home. And what did she do there? She made and wrote cards every day for other residents and visited them in their rooms. She went on making ornaments for those she knew outside and for those inside - and always with a heart full of joy and an enthusiasm that was contagious.
Was her life different as a follower of Jesus? Not when you consider adversity, hardship, health, need, and other matters of circumstance. But she responded and lived differently, because she had learned to live differently in her walk with her Lord.
The other story I have to tell is shorter.
I never knew the man but heard about him, how he had been hospitalized for more than two weeks, how in all that time no one had ever visited him. No friend, no relative, no neighbor no pastor, no chaplain, no one. He felt terribly hurt. When released from the hospital, he decided not to cling to his hurt, not to remain resentful, but to respond to that lonely circumstance differently. He made up his mind that from that day forward, as long as he lived and remained physically able, he would everyday spend hours in the hospital knocking on every patient’s door on every floor and speaking with any and everyone who welcomed his company.
And this he did for years and years - the friendly visitor who brought good cheer with a lending ear and ensured that nobody there would experience the sense of abandonment he had painfully felt.
No, he had not been spared hurt, as everyone else at one time or another is not spared hurt. But he responded to hurt with blessing for others. He blessed and did not curse.
There was a park near my childhood home that was a play area for all the youth and children in our Bronx neighborhood. There were hills of craggy rock, grassy mounds, and gravelly inclines, elevated concrete slabs to stand on, playground swings and monkey bars, winding paths, and jumping off places, more than enough variety to keep young minds and bodies busy all day long.
But we have put away childish things and childhood games, but not the following that is the life-long following of Jesus, in which we keep learning from him how to live our life in God with faith, hope, and love.
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