Mark 1:14-20
February 2, 2003
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
I will be giving my 5th State of the Church report at today’s Annual Meeting. Today will be my 54th Communion service with you. I have been with you for 234 Sundays! Don’t you think that after so many reruns, it will become boring?
When I was growing up at my home church in Boston, I would fall asleep when the pastor was giving his long prayers. Now I’m giving long prayers and people are falling asleep on me!
Our church had these fresco designs high up in the cathedral ceiling that looked like books to me. During the sermon, I would count the number of books up there. But the sure thing that always kept me from being too bored was that I would make a kite out of my Sunday bulletin. See, it looks like this…
Many of us are just plain bored with our normal lives. Consider the church mouse’s wife. She had her bags packed and ready to walk out the door when her husband asked, “Why are you so unhappy? We have a roof over our heads and every day the kind preacher puts his hand into the mouse hole and feeds us cheese and bread crumbs.” “That’s just it,” she cried. “I’m sick of leading a hand-to-mouse existence.”
If we feel bored with our lives, we may have to take a turn on the road, leaving the road where things are pretty predictable and entering a road where things are much less so. On the predictable road, there’s familiarity, security, and guarantees. On the unpredictable road, there may be risks, danger, and unknown outcomes.
Leaving Their Nets
Today’s Scripture tells us that John the Baptist is imprisoned and the disciples are out fishing. They have returned to their normal lives—throwing their nets out to catch fish and mending the nets when they are torn. Even though they had been close to genuine risk, they now have gone back to their normal lives.
Jesus comes back to Galilee—and they may or may not have been happy to see him. His message is clear—“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
If I am trying to get my life back to normal and my friend is in jail, I hardly find this good news. Repenting sounds more like bad news.
Jesus spots a couple of fishermen, Simon Peter and Andrew, casting a net into the sea. Jesus says, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they dropped their nets and followed him. Moving a little farther down the shoreline, Jesus spots another pair of brothers, James and John, and calls to them as well. They, too, leave their work and followed Jesus.
Simon Peter and Andrew probably had a decent occupation as fishermen. They were financially in pretty good shape. They may have owned their own homes and were established members of the local business association. They did quite well by the standards of the day, and making an important contribution to the welfare of their extended families.
Then there were James and John, sons of Zebedee, another fishing family. They were so successful and established that they employed hired hands to assist in the fishing enterprise. Zebedee may have had a certificate from the Chamber of Commerce for his good business practices. They were all making a good living and living a normal life.
But what is extraordinary is for them to break away from their families and their occupation. Perhaps they were bored. When Jesus called them, they dropped their nets and followed him. Clearly they sensed that the call of Jesus was a call from God. They knew that if they didn’t respond to Jesus’ invitation, they might be bored for the rest of their lives. And whenever God calls, it will be wild.
God Calling Us
How about us? How is God calling us to follow him on a new road of deeper meaning and purpose? Are you still dozing off and restless when you are sitting too long? The key to our boredom is always going to be a day in God’s way. Our task is to figure out just what it is that God is calling us to do.
Perhaps we’re being asked to leave our current job and enter some form of professional Christian ministry. Or accept a new volunteer position with the children or youth of the church. Or move to another state for a challenging job opportunity. Or go on a mission trip to Mexicali. Or change our college major. Or move on to another church to share in its ministry. Or choose to be baptized and join the church. Or get married. Or remain single.
When Jesus says, “Follow me,” the roads can take many forms. The best road for one person is not going to be the right road for another. But the road that God is calling you to be on is always God’s way. That way is never boring but wild!
To figure out which way to go is a process of discernment when we enhance our understanding in our participation in the work of God, performed for the glory of God, and for the healing of the world. To discern God’s will or the call of Jesus to “follow me,” involves at least two things: one, a sense of individual call and second, the affirmation of Christ’s Body, the church concerning your call.
Sensing God’s call may involve reflection, prayer, paying attention to feelings of repentance and becoming in tune with the Spirit of God. Discerning God’s call requires a passionate commitment to follow God and a growing indifference toward all other drives and desires. You experience a deepening sensitivity to the ways of God. What it leads you to is the discovery of the right direction for your life and a deeply peaceful feeling that you have done the best you can to follow the way of the Lord.
The process begins right here, and right now. It might last for days, or weeks, or the rest of this year. As you ponder who Jesus is calling you to be in 2003, you’ll try to become aware of the diverse dimensions of what lies before you. You’ll look at many alternatives, positive and negative, and bring these alternatives before God in prayer.
You’ll pay attention to your feelings—feelings of consolation that give rise to life, love, peace, joy, creativity and communion. You’ll also note feelings of desolation, emotions that give rise to despair confusion, alienation, destructiveness, and discord. But during all of these contradicting feelings, you will rely on both your heart and your head to lead you. They lead you to the choice that gives you the deepest feelings of consolation. This will most likely be the choice that you should act on, the choice that brings you closer to the kingdom of God. And there’s nothing boring about this!
Leaving a Boring Life
A plane was flying from Seattle to San Francisco. It made a stop in Sacramento so many of the passengers got off to stretch their legs. Everybody got off the plane except one gentleman who was blind. His seeing-eye dog lay quietly underneath the seat in front of him. The man was obviously a regular on the flight because the pilot addressed him by name. “Keith, we’re in Sacramento for almost an hour. Would you like to get off and stretch your legs?” “No thanks, but maybe my dog would.” So now picture this, and picture the reaction of the passengers. The pilot was wearing sunglasses. He came off the airplane, through the boarding lounge, led by a seeing-eye dog.
Some of us may need to turn around from what we are doing and do something else. It’s being aware of what is going on with your life—like those astonished passengers turning around and seeing the pilot with the seeing-eye dog. We are awaken from our naps or distracted from reading the newspaper to realize that something wild can happen to us.
Mark is saying that today, now is God’s time—kairos, the right time for something to happen. At this time, God steps into human history in a unique and decisive way. The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near. Jesus is calling for repentance—to turn away from our sin and turn toward God in faith and obedience.
Over and over again, we find people of faith prompted by God and they turn their lives around in faith and obedience. Noah builds an ark when there’s nothing but blue sky. Abraham and Sarah leave the security of their home in Ur of the Chaldeans and travel to a land that is promised not to them but to their great, great, great, great, great, great grandchildren.
Moses, armed with nothing more than a wooden staff, confronts the most powerful man in the world in order to free a bunch of powerless Hebrew slaves from bondage in Egypt. Deborah becomes a respected judge and military leader at a time when only men held such positions. The list goes on.
Jesus stands in this same tradition. He comes into our world declaring that God is, indeed, with us and that we need to stop being bored and become wild in his ways. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
The time is now to go from boredom to the wild and unlimited possibilities of God’s way!
Called to Be God’s Kingdom
On this first Sunday in February, on this 2003 Church Annual Meeting Sunday, God is calling us into his kingdom. God’s kingdom is both here and is still coming.
The four fishermen are not called to save the world by their heroic individual performances. But they are called to be a group. The fishermen were not out fishing with individual fishing poles and lines, but they were out their net fishing. This is team fishing, not a solo venture. Jesus is calling his followers to work together to catch people for the kingdom.
We are also called to go net fishing as a church. But we must also choose to act. We must choose to follow Jesus and be determined to walk in God’s ways. There was simply no hesitation among those fishermen when they received Christ’s invitation. “Immediately,” Mark reports, “they left their nets and followed him.” And in the end, their radical turning onto a new road, to head in a new direction did not destroy their family relationships, as some might have feared. Simon Peter’s home ended up becoming a center from which Jesus and his followers performed their ministry. They stepped out in faith, and God blessed their boldness.
We all get bored now and then. It may be hard to imagine, but sometimes I am even bored with my own sermons! But if you walked behind Jesus, you feel that your energy comes from him. Following his direction will give you deeper meaning and purpose in life. Instead of being bored you may become tired—tired from doing all of the wild things God has called you to do.
There were some disciples who came to see an old Catholic monk. They said to the monk, “Tell us, when we see brothers dozing off during the prayer, should we pinch them so that they will stay awake?” And the old man said to them, “Actually, if I saw a brother sleeping, I would put his head on my knees and let him rest.”
When we are following Jesus, our lives would be so fulfilled from service and giving kindness that we would be tired instead of being bored. There’s nothing better than working for the Lord that gets our lives going.
Jesus said,
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;
for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Some day I would like to put my head on God’s knees and sleep for awhile.
2003 Annual Meeting
At today’s Annual Luncheon, it won’t be boring because Faye Wong’s love for her husband and David’s faithfulness to the church will surprise us with delicious food.
At today’s Annual Meeting, it won’t be boring because more disciples have heard the call of God to serve as church leaders in the Kingdom of God.
At today’s Annual Meeting, it won’t be boring because you will see the miracles of God that we experienced in 2002 through the church’s ministries and fellowship groups.
At today’s Annual Meeting, it won’t be boring because God has touched your lives and you have responded generously to support the ministry of this church with your resources.
At today’s Annual Meeting, it won’t be boring because God is telling us that we must give more attention to the young adults in our midst.
It won’t be boring because people of faith like you have giving your lives to the Lord. For that, God is very pleased.
Some rock group might have said, “We are born to be wild.” But God is calling us that if we are bored with our lives, he is calling us to follow him, to take another road, and our lives will be wild in Christ’s name!
Let us pray.
Gracious God, we know that it is time to wake from our sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now for the night is far gone, the day is near. Lead us Lord to discern our call to lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Thank you, God for your presence among us in 2002 and we pray for your guidance in our lives in the coming year. Amen.