Mark 1:21-28 "Authority"

Have you ever heard someone speak or teach and realized that what they had to say was specifically for you? Have you ever realized that God was using someone to speak his word to your heart? I honestly have to say that it has been a while since I’ve had that happen to me. Now, part of the problem for me is that on Sunday mornings I am the one speaking and not the one being spoken to. At the same time, I do have to admit that God often speaks quite clearly to me as I am preparing a message and I find myself changed by what it is that he has to say to me.

But the real problem I have is that I often don’t go into a lesson or a message that I am about to hear with a listening heart. Instead, I take the tools I learned in seminary with me and my own biases and thoughts about how someone should speak, and I find myself critiquing how they say something instead of listening to what it is that they have to say.

This is a real loss for me, something that I believe holds me back. Because I am not going in with a teachable heart, God isn’t as able to teach me. And unfortunately, this is a common problem among pastors. We see preaching in terms of competition instead of trying to hear what God has to say to us. Now, it is funny, because when I go to a conference like the one I am going to this week in Chicago, I am usually able to turn that critical mind off. Maybe it is because they get big-name speakers who I know I am not in the same league as. Maybe it is because I am able to see myself in a different context, as a learner instead of as a fellow teacher. Either way, I do find that I am able to grow when I turn off the negative expectation. Maybe it’s just that the speakers we have at Midwinter Conference don’t manipulate their audiences in the same way that many pastors I hear seem to do.

But, in spite of the reason, I wonder if we truly prepare ourselves to hear God speak through each other. Or do we all make the mistake of letting our thoughts about the one who is speaking get in the way of the message that we need to hear? So, this morning, let us ask God to make all of our hearts teachable. Let us ask God to speak to us through his word and with authority.

I. Mark’s first Miracle

Jesus began his ministry in a surprisingly normal way. He had been baptized by John, he had spent forty days in the wilderness and he had been tempted by the devil. He then called his first disciples to follow him. After all this, Jesus went to synagogue on the Sabbath and began to teach.

It is always interesting to look at the structure of the gospels. You know, that in the gospel of John we are told that Jesus’ first miracle was turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana. But Mark doesn’t mention that miracle. Mark, instead chooses to focus on a different aspect of Jesus’ life. The first miracle that Mark records, after having been baptized, having been tempted, having chosen the first of his disciples, was a miracle that happened on the Sabbath in the midst of Jesus’ teaching.

So Jesus was teaching in the synagogue, in the place of worship, and we are told that there was a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit. Now it has been common in modern times to dismiss evil spirits as superstition and say that the people of Jesus’ day blamed real, physical problems on evil spirits. Those who hold this view argue that many psychological problems were misunderstood as demon possession. The argument isn’t that Jesus didn’t heal these people. They will say that he did. But they will also say that evil spirits had nothing really to do with the situation. It is an interesting argument, but one that in the end I find to come up lacking, particularly in this case.

You see, this man possessed by an evil spirit doesn’t show some mental disorder, rather what we see is a man who seems to know a bit more about Jesus than the others around him. Instead, what we see is someone who has inside information that there is something special about Jesus. The evil spirit that possessed this man recognized Jesus for who and what he was; and this is obviously not some mental disease that Jesus healed, this is obviously something else. And so, if we truly accept that the Bible is telling us the truth in this story, then we need to accept that Jesus caste an evil spirit out of a man while he was teaching at the synagogue.

But again, I wonder why it is that Mark chooses to talk about this exorcism as the first miracle he mentions that Jesus does. We know that Jesus had probably done a few miracles before this, he had at least done the water to wine bit, but Mark chooses to set this one apart and make a big deal about it by mentioning it first.

I think there is actually a fairly simple explanation as to why Mark starts with this miracle. He is showing that Jesus’ miracles in and of themselves aren’t what is important. Instead he is tying Jesus’ first miracle to what is really important in Jesus’ life: his teaching.

II. Teaching with Authority

This miracle does show something about Jesus. It is something that is very clear to those who are present. It is so clear that they comment on it among themselves. They realize that there is authority in Jesus’ words. They realize that Jesus’ teachings mean something. They see that Jesus can even command evil spirits and they must obey. This miracle forces the people around Jesus to pay attention to his words because his words so obviously have power.

Do we acknowledge the power that is in the words and teachings of Jesus? I’m afraid we don’t always give them the authority they’re due. We focus on the fact that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead and sometimes tend to ignore his life up to that point. This is somewhat understandable. After all, what Jesus did on the cross for us is huge. But Mark wants to make it clear to us here that Jesus was more than just a sacrifice. Jesus spoke with an authority that was unlike the authority of those around him. Jesus performed miracles to show that he had power and authority over the things of this earth. And Mark, as well as the other gospel writers, spends a lot of space telling us what it is that Jesus had to say.

So, if we, like those who saw Jesus caste out an evil spirit on that Sabbath morning, accept that Jesus spoke and taught with authority, then we need to take the teachings of Jesus quite seriously. This is honestly something that is quite hard to do. You see, Jesus’ teachings are often hard. When someone looks at the Sermon on the Mount, one thinks that Jesus is calling for something that is impossible. Many Bible scholars believe that through Jesus’ teachings on righteousness, he is showing that it is impossible for us to be righteous on our own, so that we will understand the need for salvation.

Unfortunately, I find this to be the easy way out. This belief allows us to ignore Jesus’ commandments. It allows us to be comfortable with the fact that we aren’t able to stand up to the measure that Jesus has put before us. It’s true that we cannot stand up to that measure, but we should never be comfortable with this. When Jesus tells us that when we are lusting after someone who we are not married to, we are in our heart committing adultery against them, we need to take this seriously. When Jesus tells us that when we are angry with our brother, we are as good as killing them in our mind, we need to take this seriously. When Jesus tells us that we are to follow the Old Testament practice of tithing 10% of our income, we need to take this seriously. When Jesus tells us that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, we need to take this seriously. When Jesus tells us that we need to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, instead of seeking after the things of this world, we need to take this seriously.

Jesus’ teaching, his word has power to it. When Jesus commands the evil spirits, they find that they must obey him. And yet, Jesus has given us commands that we feel fine disobeying. When this happens, are we being less faithful than demons? Now that is a scary thought.

So we need to allow Jesus’ authority to speak to us. We need to read and hear Jesus’ words and act on them. We need to be faithful to the teachings that Jesus has given us. God spoke through Jesus. God taught his people about what he wanted his followers to live like in Jesus’ words. We cannot turn our backs on Jesus’ teachings, on his words. We need to acknowledge Jesus’ authority. We talk about having Jesus as our Lord and Savior. If we really want Jesus to have this role in our lives, we need to follow his teachings, and the only way to follow his teachings is to spend time with them, getting to know them. Learn the words of Jesus. Make yourself intimately familiar with his teachings. Then you will see that he speaks with a true authority that even you can follow.

III. In the Synagogue

There is something disturbing and jarring about this scripture, though. It is something that isn’t readily noticeable, but it is worth noting. Here we have Jesus in a synagogue preaching and an evil spirit shows itself. The question that disturbs me about this is what is a possessed man doing going to synagogue. You would think that in a place of worship, people would be protected from the influence of the devil. And yet, here in scripture, we see that there was a man under the influence of the devil, gathering with the faithful to worship God.

Now I’m not about to talk about demon possession today, for I believe that the devil has learned to be much more subtle in his approach, especially in a society that is so scientifically minded. But at the same time, I do believe that we allow Satan into our lives more than we realize.

When we do not accept the authority of Jesus’ teachings, when we choose to do our own thing and follow our own path, we are opening a door to the devil. When we allow addictions into our lives, we are opening a door to the devil. When we give into hate, pornography, violence, deceit, we are opening a door to the devil. And unfortunately, we have all opened those doors, or doors like them. It is a part of our sinful nature that we choose the things we think we want rather than the things that are good for us, the things God wants for us.

But we cannot let our sinful nature become an excuse for us to live in sin. No, we need to allow Jesus to speak to us with authority and caste the evil out of us. We need to allow Jesus’ teachings to dwell in our lives so that we can move past our own sinfulness. We need to be faithful to our Lord and Savior.

So let Jesus speak to you. Listen closely to his words. Find the power and authority that only he has. And follow his commands faithfully. This is our call as followers of Christ. This is the life we have chosen as Christians. It is not an easy life, and we often fail. The good news is that God loves us no matter what and will be with us no matter what. But we are still called to be faithful and live under the authority that Jesus’ words hold. Even the evil spirit in today’s scripture obeyed Jesus. And because of this, the people in that synagogue, who heard Jesus teach, realized that there was power in Jesus and his teaching. May we see this same thing and respond with faithfulness to what Jesus teaches us. Amen.

Psalm 62:5-12 "Refuge"

One custom in churches throughout the ages is that the church was a place of refuge; it was a place of sanctuary. It was a place where someone was safe. If someone needed to be protected from the law, from those in charge, from people who were unfairly using their power, they would flee to the church for protection. I think of Quazimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, running into the cathedral crying out “Sanctuary, Sanctuary,” looking for protection for his very life. Of course, that is a fictional story, but it is something that did play out in different ways throughout Europe the last two thousand years.

This practice of sanctuary came from an earlier practice that was set up in Old Testament law for there to be cities of sanctuary, where people could go to be safe. But I think having the church be a place of sanctuary is really something where we got it right. Are our churches today places of sanctuary? Legally, no. Someone can be arrested in a church just as easily as any other place. We have set up other ways to try to keep people safe by giving all people the right to trial and by reigning in what those in power are allowed to do. The criminal system is not perfect, but it is a whole lot better than it ever has been in the past, and churches aren’t needed as places of sanctuary for the falsely accused anymore.

But hopefully, churches are still places of sanctuary; hopefully they are still places of refuge. Hopefully when someone enters a church they feel safe, they feel protected. If our churches aren’t this, then we need to do something to make them safer. But in the end it isn’t the church itself that should be the refuge we seek, either. Rather it is the God that is worshipped in this church that gives all people refuge; it is the God that is worshipped in this church that offers all people salvation. So this morning we are going to look at the God of sanctuary and remember that he is the one to turn to in all things, he is the one who gives us rest.

I. Waiting in Silence

The NRSV translation of the Bible begins this Psalm a bit differently than the NIV. It begins by saying that for God alone my soul waits in silence. I really like that imagery of waiting for God in silence. I think it has something to say to us. The NIV takes a different approach, saying that my soul finds rest in God alone. So finding rest and waiting in silence are tied to each other, and they are tied to each other in a powerful way. But what does it mean to wait for God in silence? In today’s scripture we see God described as a rock, a fortress, a refuge. We are told that we can trust in God, we are told that we will find deliverance and honor through him. And the writer of this psalm waits on these things, waits for God in silence. This is an odd way to wait for God.

Now a child who waits for something, doesn’t always do so in silence. “Are we there yet?” “Are we there yet?” The child waits quite vocally, letting their impatience be known, thinking that by vocalizing their waiting, things might go faster. And by being vocal in their waiting, they become quite annoying. It is not much different for us. I think that one of the joys of childhood is that you can often get away with doing and saying things that you might not be able to get away with as an adult, but which adults also feel. We all tend to be impatient in our own ways; we all tend to want things to happen sooner rather than later. We have a hard time waiting in general, let alone waiting in silence. We want things now! We have fast food, we have overnight mail, we have instant email. I have sent someone an email in the past and been somewhat upset because it took them over an hour to get back to me. How silly. We could all learn from the Psalmist what it means to wait in silence.

Waiting in silence does have something to do with rest, so the NIV translation isn’t wrong, it is just lacking something. You see, when you learn to wait for God in silence, you will find rest. But it isn’t easy to wait for God in silence. Sometimes it seems that he may have forgotten us. Other times we just want to speak up so that we can hear ourselves. We sometimes think that if we make more noise about what it is that we want, God will hear us better and answer us sooner. But the Psalmist has a different idea. The psalmist knew that he could trust God and therefore he was willing to wait in silence. He was willing to allow God to work in God’s own way and in God’s own time. He would ask God to be with him, he would ask God to guide and care for him, and then he would wait upon the Lord, and then he would rest.

II. Worrying / Trusting the Wrong Things

This is a bit different than what we expect our relationship with God to be. This is a bit different than worrying about the things that we have to deal with. We often tie our prayers together with our worries. We often pray and ask God to work, and then we continue to worry about the things that trouble us. And because of this we find no rest. No, we can learn from the Psalmist. We can learn from how he trusts. We can learn from what he believes. He puts his requests before God and finds rest in the fact that he knows God will work. Finding rest in God isn’t about the fact that God will take your troubles away from you. Finding rest in God is not about life being perfect. Finding rest in God is about allowing God to deal with the things that trouble you and therefore learning not to worry about them.

Now I have mentioned one of the problems we have… we like to put requests before God and then continue to worry about them. I like to define worry as spending time and energy focusing on things that you cannot do anything about. And unfortunately, we tend to spend way too much time doing this very thing. It is made very clear throughout scripture that worrying is not the Christian thing to do; it isn’t the Godly thing to do. Now I wouldn’t necessarily call worry a sin. It isn’t the same as killing or committing adultery or lying. But it is a lack of trust. It is a relationship with God that is not what it is supposed to be. We are told that we are able to cast our cares and our worries on God and trust that he is strong enough to hold them. In Matthew, Jesus tells his disciples not to worry about tomorrow, for it will take care of itself. This seems almost cavalier in its simplicity. It seems like it is too simplistic for the real world. Jesus may not have had to worry, he lived two thousand years ago, but we know better today. But when you look at the world Jesus faced, you realize that they had much to worry about, maybe more than we do. They didn’t have the illusion of control that we have. And when Jesus told them not to worry, he was telling them to do something foreign to the way they lived. He was telling them to trust a God that they could not see. And Jesus modeled this trust in his own life. He traveled around from town to town without having a place to stay. He counted on others and God to provide his food and a place to lay his head each night. He did not gather up riches, he didn’t save for a rainy day. Instead he lived in the present and put all his energy into his mission.

But there is another problem that we can have as well. The first problem is to worry about things instead of trusting in God, the second is to trust in something or someone other than God. Psalm 62:10 tells us that even if our riches increase, we are not to set our hearts on them. In verse 9 it tells us that people are not worth putting trust in, for they will fail you. We spend a lot of time putting our trust in the things of this world. We spend a lot of energy making sure that we are able to take care of ourselves and those we love. Again, this makes sense to a certain degree. If nothing else, we want to be sure that we can count on ourselves. And yet, we discover that we cannot count on the things of this world at all, and we definitely cannot count on ourselves. We have seen people who put their trust in the things of this world have everything taken away from them. I think of the people who worked for Enron or some of these other companies who trusted that their company would take care of them, who trusted that their pensions would be valid, and the company lied and then folded and they were left with nothing. Trusting in this world is trusting in something arbitrary and unreal. It is trusting in something without substance. It is trusting in something that does not have control. The same is true when we trust in ourselves. We think we are in control. We think we can handle everything that is sent our way… but there is so much in this world that is out of our control, there is so much that we do not have the power to affect. Why trust in someone or something without power when you can trust in God who has all power?

III. Power and Love

The psalmist says it in verses 11 and 12: “Power belongs to you, God, and with you, Lord, is unfailing love.” This is why though we cannot trust in the things of this world, we can trust in God. Power belongs to him. God created this world. It is through him that the sun rises each morning, it is through him that the stars shine, it is through him that the rain comes in the spring and the crops grow and even the snow falls. This in itself is somewhat scary, for these things seem somewhat arbitrary.

There are times of drought, there are natural disasters, and there is pain, illness and even death in this world. Where is God in that? Sometimes it is hard to see him. Sometimes it is hard to believe that a good God is truly in control. It is important to realize that though God is in control, we also live in a world of sin. And when sin entered the world so did these things that trouble us. Now this doesn’t mean that we can look at someone who is sick and figure that their sickness comes from some secret sin in their lives. There are some Christians who believe this. There are others who take this to an extreme. But this belief is just not biblical. Jesus was taken to a blind man and his disciples asked him, “Why is this man blind? Is it because of his sin or is it because of his parents sin?” The disciples believed that the man’s blindness must be a result of sin. They were doing him a favor by not just automatically assuming that the sin that caused his blindness was his own. Jesus responded to their question with a resounding, “Neither!” The blindness that this man faced was not his own fault, it wasn’t the fault of his parents. Rather, it was the fact that he lived in a world full of sin. And Jesus went on to say that this man was blind so that God could be glorified. And Jesus then healed this man.

We also live in a world of pain and suffering, we have things that torment us, and we realize that living through them will just allow our understanding of God and his mercy to be greater when we reach heaven and live in a world without sin, without pain, without loss.

God is a God of power, God is the source of all power. And yet, he allows us to live in a world where we are not always able to see his power clearly. And we hear the good news that the Psalmist shares, that God is also a God of love.

So don’t trust in the things of this world. Don’t trust in money. Don’t trust in the rich and powerful. Don’t trust in the low and weak. Don’t trust in yourself. Instead, trust in the sure refuge that we have. Trust in the Rock and Salvation that is available for all people.

This is where we find our hope. This is where we find peace. Our God is a God of power and love and therefore we can trust in him. Therefore we can rest in him, therefore we can stand with the Psalmist and call God our refuge, our strength, our fortress. Therefore we can wait silently on God.

John 1:43-51 "Chosen"

I went to a Christian High School. This meant that we had religion class at our school. It meant that we discussed the Bible and God as we learned. It also meant that we sometimes got into arguments about how we should understand what the Bible has to say about something. People ask why I’m Covenant having grown up Lutheran and I like to point to my High School experience to explain it. Yes, I went to a Lutheran church, but I also went to a Christian Reformed High School with Baptist and Pentecostal friends. Trying to make these different things come together made me very comfortable in the Covenant.

One of the arguments we would have at our school was often between the Christian Reformed teacher and the Pentecostal students about predestination verses free will. Predestination is the idea that God is in control. It is the belief that God has everything planned out and that God chooses his followers specifically. Predestination acknowledges God’s sovereignty. The Purpose Driven Life is rooted in an understanding of predestination. It believes that God has a plan for you and your life. And there is much in the Bible that supports predestination.

But then there’s the issue of free will. This is the idea that we are given a choice of whether to follow Christ or not. This is the idea that we are not robots following some pre-conceived plan, acting out some play that has already been written. This is an important belief also, and again, there is much in the Bible that supports the concept of free will.

My friends and my teachers would argue over which of these were accurate understandings of the world around us: are we chosen by God or do we choose God? And I realized that I had to say, “Yes!” Yes, we are chosen by God! Yes, we are called to choose God! God is in control and he has given us free will to decide for ourselves. It doesn’t totally make sense, but I have to agree with both predestination and free will.

I. Special Disciples

It is a bit strange to think of being one of the disciples. They were all ordinary people. They all had ordinary lives and ordinary jobs. None of them were too highly educated; they had their preconceived ideas and prejudices. One of them, Nathanael, had a local pride, a territorial idea that caused him to lash out when he hears where Jesus is from, in essence saying, he’s not from around here, what good is he. This is just one of the many idiosyncrasies that we see in the disciples over their three year walk with Jesus. Each of them has their own issues and problems. Each of them has areas of their lives that aren’t fully given to Jesus right away, even though they follow him. Every one of them runs away when Jesus is arrested. Peter, who we remember as the one who denied Jesus three times, did so because he was the only one to follow those who arrested Jesus, and therefore he was the only one who had the opportunity to deny Jesus. The others had all run away and were hiding somewhere.

And yet, even though they were all broken people who lived their own messed up lives, they were the twelve apostles. They were the disciples who we read about, who followed Jesus in his earthly ministry and who began the church after Jesus had left. All but one of them was killed for their faith, with that one, John being exiled to the Greek island of Patmos to live out the end of his days. And so I wonder what it is that made these followers of Christ special. I ask what it is that we can learn from them when we look at their lives. And I realize that what makes them special is that Jesus chose them to follow him, and they did.

II. Chosen by Jesus

Philip and Nathanael, whose call we read about this morning, are not the more famous disciples we read about. They are a pair that blends into the background behind John and Peter. Nathanael doesn’t even show up in the other Gospels and isn’t listed as one of the twelve disciples at all, though perhaps he is one of the others and had multiple names he went by. They weren’t the first that Jesus called and they aren’t the last. And yet they have something to teach us, something powerful. Jesus says two words to Philip that change his life, and change it powerfully: follow me! Now, before we think that Jesus just walked up to Philip out of nowhere and said “follow me” and walked off and Philip just stood and did what he was told, we need to look at this a bit closer. That kind of response wouldn’t be healthy, it would be scary. You would wonder what kind of people Jesus had chosen to be the leaders of his church if all he had to say was two words and they would stop everything and follow him. No, instead we are told at the beginning that Jesus was looking to leave from where he was. He was by the Jordan River or the Sea of Galilee, having spent time with John the Baptist, and had been having discussions with those around him. Jesus was about to leave and he specifically sought out Philip to tell him to follow him. You have to imagine that the day before, Philip was part of the group that Jesus had been spending time with. You have to imagine that Philip had obviously gotten to know Jesus and know what he was about. So, Jesus then came up to him and told him to “follow me” and Philip did. This becomes more clear when Philip goes to his friend, Nathanael and tells him what he thinks of this man he is going to be following, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” How could he have come to this conclusion if he hadn’t spent time with Jesus already? So Philip had gotten to know Jesus, and when Jesus chose him, when Jesus said “follow me”, he dropped everything and followed.

What makes the apostles special? When Jesus chose them, they chose to follow. Jesus was constantly telling people to follow him, and many did, but many chose not to as well. There was the rich young man who was too tied to his possessions, or the man who wanted to bury his father before he could join Jesus. They both were called by Jesus, and they both chose not to follow. Here is where Philip specifically illustrates my point about predestination and free will. Philip was chosen by God. Jesus specifically came up to Philip and said “follow me”. Obviously, Philip was predestined to be one of the disciples. But Philip also had a part to play in it. He had to decide whether he would follow or not, and he chose to follow. Jesus chose him and he chose Jesus.

We are all put in the place that Philip was put in. Jesus has introduced himself to us. We have seen him in our interactions with other Christians, we have experienced him in worship and prayer. And he calls for each of us to follow him. Jesus has chosen you to be his disciple. You are given a choice of how to respond. You have been chosen by Jesus, what are you going to choose.

But you know what, there’s something even greater that happens next. I’m not going to get into Nathanael’s bigotry or Nathanael’s decision to follow Jesus. It’s powerful. Jesus tells him a bit about himself and he realizes that Jesus is something special. Jesus uses the force he needs to get himself across to Nathanael. And it is such a simple thing, he tells him what he was doing before he saw him. And Nathanael’s response is one of obvious faith, but I’m not going to focus on that today. Instead I’m going to continue to focus on Philip.

III. Come and See

You see, Philip, having chosen to follow Jesus does not leave it at that. He doesn’t just leave everything and run after Jesus. You’d think that is precisely what he should do. There is another place in one of the gospels where Jesus calls a man to follow him and the man says he needs to bury his father, and Jesus tells him that that is not good enough. Jesus wants his full devotion now. This is not the case with Philip. Jesus calls Philip to follow him and Philip is so filled with what it is that he is about to do that he needs to bring others with him. He goes to his friend and tells his friend about Jesus. Philip instantly becomes an evangelist. It’s not good enough for him that Jesus has called him. He needs from the bottom of his heart to share Jesus with those around him. This excitement for sharing Jesus with those around you is something I’m not sure we see so much anymore. I often see the excitement in newborn Christians. They are excited about what Jesus has done for them, they are excited about being chosen, and they want others to experience the love and grace that they have experienced. I have actually found myself put off by the enthusiasm of a newborn Christian who I felt was being too pushy with his faith. And I have asked God for forgiveness for this thought. We all should be that excited about having been chosen by Jesus and we all should be sharing Jesus with everyone we can. Philip even gives us the means to do this. Philip comes to Nathanael and tells him the good news about Jesus, Nathanael scoffs and brushes off what Philip has said. What Philip does next is a lesson to each of us. He doesn’t sit there and argue with Nathanael. He doesn’t give up. He doesn’t go back to the other disciples and talk about how evil a person Nathanael is because he hasn’t accepted Jesus and is not living the life he should. Instead he simply says three wonderful words that should be the center of all evangelism today: Come and see!

Three simple words, filled with meaning, filled with hope. Philip is saying to Nathanael, “Don’t take my word for it. Don’t let my experience be the center of your faith. Instead experience Jesus for yourself.” By bringing Nathanael to Jesus, Philip was giving Nathanael the opportunity to have his own relationship with Jesus. Philip didn’t try to force his own experience of Jesus on his friend, instead he offered Nathanael the chance to see and know the wonder that was the Messiah.

Come and see evangelism is what we need to be about. This doesn’t mean that we are all about having people come and see us. No, we are introducing people to Jesus so they can come to meet the Savior face to face. But to have a come and see evangelism, we need to make sure that our relationships with Jesus are in the right place. Because we don’t have the physical teacher that was Jesus that we can take people to. Instead we have stories about him and his teachings. We can show them him through the Bible. But that is not something that people necessarily are going to really get into. How many of you, honestly, enjoy sitting down and reading through the Bible? For those of you who do it, it sometimes is a bit of a chore, something that you have to push yourself to do. Now, you’re a follower of Christ, and you have difficulty with this, imagine someone who doesn’t know Christ. Are they going to be able to really connect with him through the Bible? Perhaps, if they give it a chance, but it is not the ideal way.

So we have to come up with other things that we ask people to come and see as we encourage them to see Christ. That is a part of what the Church is supposed to be. It is a place where people can come and see Christ. Do people see Christ in our church? Do they meet him when they see us? Do they experience him in our actions and in our words?

How can we be a come and see church? How can we be a place where people come in contact with Jesus and exclaim like Nathanael, “You are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel!”

Your job as a Christian, as someone who has been chosen by God and as someone who has chosen Christ, is to tell those around you to come and see. That doesn’t necessarily mean inviting them to church. And it doesn’t necessarily mean telling them that they need to accept Jesus as their personal savior. What it does mean is that you are to introduce them to Jesus, your Lord and Savior. What it does mean is that you are to find a way that they can experience God the same as you have. Then you are called to leave it between them and God. Philip did not force the issue, he invited Nathanael to come and it was the conversation between Nathanael and Jesus that brought them together. Let us live as Jesus’ chosen followers, and let us live out a call in our lives for those around us to come and see the Jesus that we know. Amen.

Mark 1:4-11 "Preparing the Way"

There’s some weird characters in the Bible. I’m not sure what it is, but some of God’s followers had some strange grooming habits and even stranger idiosyncrasies. There’s Samson who never cut his hair. Can you imagine never cutting your hair? What a mess he must have been. Some of the Old Testament prophets had it bad as well. Some of them sat around for days or even months in old sacks and covered with ash. Then there’s the man whose friends put a hole in a roof to get him a chance to see Jesus. And these friends are rewarded for their act of vandalism. And these also are all people who are following the direction that God leads them in. There are others throughout the Bible, who are not following God, and who find their own crazy ways to deal with what life has to offer them. One example of this would be Balaam, a prophet who ended up having a conversation with a donkey because he didn’t listen to what God told him to do. It’s not every day you get to read about someone talking with a donkey. There’s also the demon possessed man that Jesus heals, who lives out in a graveyard, and is completely incomprehensible until Jesus casts out the demons.

The point is that there are a number of different people found throughout the Bible with their own unique traits. This makes sense. As you look around, you discover that we all are unique, with our own interests and idiosyncrasies. But one of the most idiosyncratic people of the New Testament was John the Baptist. Here was a man who lived in the wilderness, wore strange clothes, ate bugs to keep alive, and yet he preached repentance to the people of Israel and actually had people who would come from the cities and towns to hear him preach and to be baptized by him. So today we are going to look at the idiosyncratic John the Baptist and see what he can teach us, and see that even with our own issues to deal with, God is also able to use us to spread his word and his truth to those around us.

Let us open in prayer.

John the Baptist had an important job. Now normally when you hear of John the Baptist and you think about what it is that John the Baptist did, somehow baptism seems to enter the picture. This makes sense. After all, it is in his name. Not only is it in his name, it is also the main thing we see him doing. John the Baptist is known for hanging out down by the Jordan River and baptizing people as he convinced them to repent from their evil ways and follow God. So, perhaps John the Baptist’s important job was baptism. And then again, perhaps not. You see, there was something else that John did that was even more important than baptizing people. There was something else that John did that was above his call for people to repent from their sinful ways and follow God. What could this be? What possibly could John the Baptist have to offer this world that was more important than a call to repentance from sins and new life following God? We’ll get back to the answer to this a little later.

John the Baptist lived an interesting life. He was a son of a high priest. His father had served in the temple, his father had served in the Holy of Holies. This is something that was only done by a few people. And the priesthood of the day was something that was quite often hereditary. Sons of priests often became priests themselves, it was the natural order of things. But not for John. John seemed to reject the priestly order of things. Instead, John lived out in the wilderness, away from the temple and the religious practices of his people. And he was a bit of a wild man. He wore camel’s hair clothes and a leather belt and he ate insects and honey. His message was controversial, also. In his call for the people of Israel to repent, he was saying that just going to Synagogue and sacrificing at the temple was not enough. He was saying that something more was needed. He was saying that you had to live a righteous life. He was saying you needed to consciously turn from the evil in your life and repent. He was saying that the status quo wasn’t good enough. If you want to be a follower of God, it needs to be followed by a life of holiness and obedience to God. It’s a message that maybe we need to hear today occasionally. Oh, the details have changed a bit, but the message is much the same. There are still those of us who want to believe that we can just go to church and that is all we need to be called believers or Christians. The company I worked for in Chicago with developmentally disabled adults was run by a man who pretty much thought this way. He was on his church board and he was heavily involved in church activities, he even had me come in and bless the office building when we moved into our own building. But when you talked with him about what the purpose of church, what the purpose of religion was, he basically said that the reason for it was to teach people good morals. When it came down to it, he felt that all religions were about the same and their point was to be a place where children learned the difference between right and wrong. This was evident in the building we worked in as his office had a huge Buddha sitting behind his desk and a virgin Mary outside his office. It was an odd collection of different religious artifacts that just weren’t compatible with each other.

And this is where we get to John the Baptist’s real mission, his important job. It wasn’t just to get people to repent of their sins. It wasn’t just to make sure that they knew the difference between right and wrong and chose to do the right. John’s real mission was to point people towards Jesus. John told people about one who was going to come after him who was going to be the Messiah. He told them that he was baptizing with water, but the one who came after him would baptize with the Holy Spirit.

It is interesting to see how each of the gospels follows a narrative story. The Holy Spirit inspired the writers to write the gospels and as we read them we discover that they each told the story of Jesus in a unique way. We can learn something different from each of them and we discover something unique about Jesus as we read each of the gospels. One thing I find interesting about the gospel of Mark is that it doesn’t start with Jesus’ childhood. It instead starts with John the Baptist. It starts by telling of John who goes before Jesus and prepares the way for Jesus. It starts with someone who points people in the right direction. He convinces people to turn their lives around. He tells them to repent and he baptizes them as a way for them to show the change in their lives. And he points them towards Jesus. And then Jesus comes to him and is baptized by him and then the narrator follows Jesus. We hear about John the Baptist again in Mark 6, but only as his death is related to us and again, he is mentioned in relation to Jesus. John is the one who came before. John is the one who points the way in the right direction. John, in and of himself is not important. His importance is in his connection to the one who comes after him, Jesus.

When it all comes together, we discover that we have much in common with John the Baptist. No, none of us are out in the wilderness living on locusts and honey… though honey isn’t the worst thing to live on, if you ask me. In High School, I lived on peanut butter and honey, a great combination. And, though some of us wear leather belts, I’m not sure if camel hair is the thing to be wearing this season. We are also gathering together in the church, in the place of worship, whereas John hung out far from the trappings of religion. But our mission, as a church and as individuals, is the same mission that John had. We are to point those around us to Christ. We definitely don’t need to be eccentric about it like John was, but it is what we are being called to as Christ’s followers.

Now there are a few dangers involved when you attempt to spend your life pointing people towards Jesus. This becomes very clear when we look at the end of John’s life in Mark 6, where we discover that he was beheaded by Herod. But there are other dangers as well. One danger is that people will start to treat you as if you are something special. If someone is standing up and making a difference in this world, specifically a difference that is for the better, people start to take notice. People will begin to tell you that you have something special. People will begin to tell you that you are more holy, better than others. They begin to treat you like a saint instead of a sinner. This is a problem that John faced. People wanted to treat him special. He was making a positive difference in the life of the people of Israel and they knew something special was coming out of him. Some people thought that he was Elijah come back from the dead. Remember Elijah never died, but was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind. And Elijah was known for living in the wilderness and eating locusts and honey. Maybe John was Elijah coming again. Maybe John was the leader that all the people of Israel should be following. Maybe John was the answer to the problems that the people faced. But John spoke up and put an end to this talk. He stood up and gave a message that was clear in keeping him in his place. “I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thongs of the sandals of the one who comes after me. I baptize with water, he will baptize with the Holy Spirit.” John avoided the big mistake that many Christian’s seem to make today, both Christian leaders and Christians living out their daily lives. He makes sure that all the focus is pointed not on himself but on Jesus. He makes sure that Jesus is the one who gets the credit for what he is doing. He makes sure that his goal isn’t to bring fame or glory to himself. This gets back, in a way, to the idea that Christianity is about living a moral life. If our faith is really about living good and only living good, then it is about us. If we live good lives, we have something to boast about. If we refrain from sin, we can stand up above those around us and say, “Look at me, I’m the example of what you want to be if you want to be a good person, a good Christian.” But that is not what John did. Instead, he said, “Don’t look at me, look at the one who will come after me, look at Jesus. He is the example of what you are called to live like. He is the one who will bring you salvation, not yourself.”

Are we going to follow the call of John the Baptist? Are we going to make it our mission, make it our ambition, to point people towards Jesus? Are we going to make a point of giving glory and credit to Jesus instead of keeping it for ourselves. I hope so. I truly do.

Wouldn’t it be neat if someone sat down to begin to write the story of your life and halfway into the first chapter they began to write about what Jesus did instead. They started talking about how God worked in your life, they started talking about what God did in your world. What started out being your story turned into the story of Christ.

John the Baptist had an important mission in this world. And we have that same mission. How are we going to proclaim to the world that what Jesus has to offer it is so worthwhile?

Luke 2:21-40 "Waiting"

There is something about Christmas when you are a child. Those weeks and days and hours leading up to Christmas morning just seem to go on forever. You just cannot wait to open the presents you see under the tree, but you know you have to wait. I remember a couple Christmases where the night before seemed to go on forever. We stayed up for the 11pm church service, then we came home and went to bed. And then I sat in bed and waited and waited and waited until morning. It seemed to take forever for it to come. My parents learned that those last days before Christmas were so hard for me and my sister so they came up with a great solution for our family. They figured they’d wear us out completely so we’d have to sleep well on Christmas Eve. We would go snow-skiing on Christmas Eve. We would drive up to the mountain and spend the day skiing. This would be great because we would also have the opportunity for a white Christmas this way, something I never really grew up with. We would then come home, have dinner, change and go to church. By the time we got home from church we would be exhausted and would sleep right through the night, but then we’d still wake up early on Christmas morning to open presents.

Sometimes the secret to making waiting bearable is keeping busy. And then, sometimes, when we spend all our energy and focus waiting for something to happen, it becomes a bit of a let-down when it does finally happen. We let ourselves get so excited and wonder what is in each box for us, and then when it’s all over it doesn’t even come close to living up to what we were expecting. The presents are opened and the boxes are empty and we are bored because we are all done opening gifts and don’t know what to do with ourselves next.

Simeon and Anna joined all of Israel in waiting for the coming Messiah. And much of Israel was under whelmed when Jesus did come, but not Simeon or Anna. For they had been faithful to God and knew God well, and they recognized Jesus for what he was: the Savior and Messiah who would save all of God’s people.

Today’s scripture tells of two people who have spent their lives waiting: Simeon and Anna. They were both faithful in their lives. Simeon is described as righteous and devout, Anna is described as a prophet. Both of them were elderly. Anna had been widowed for 84 years and married for seven before that. That puts her over 100 years old. They both had experienced full lives with joys and sorrows. And they both followed where the Holy Spirit led them.

Simeon had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he saw the Messiah. This is quite something. To be told that you would meet the Messiah sometime in your life, but not to know what to expect would be an odd thing. I wonder what Simeon’s expectations were. I wonder what happened each year as it passed and he did not meet the Messiah. And then one day, probably while he was praying, the Spirit came to him and told him to go to the temple. Did he know he was looking for a child? Did he first look among the rich and wealthy? Or did he zero right in on Jesus? We don’t exactly get the story from his perspective. Instead we are told that he took Jesus in his arms and praised God and prayed. He told God that his life was now complete because he has seen Jesus, the Messiah. He did not get to experience anything that God did through Jesus. He did not even have to wait to see Jesus grow up and begin to speak with wisdom. He had seen Jesus and he was complete. Now this is faith, and it is so different than what Jesus has to deal with when he gets older. Simeon doesn’t question how Jesus is going to be the savior. Simeon doesn’t try to figure everything out. Instead he holds this baby with so much potential and he thanks God for the opportunity to see him.

What are the things that we are waiting for? You have to be a little careful with waiting, because it leads to the possibility that you are too busy waiting to actually experience life. When you spend all your time waiting for the future you end up missing out on the present.

I actually wonder if this is a problem that we sometimes have as Christians. Perhaps we are a bit too much like children waiting for Christmas morning and because of this we let the wonder of what God is doing right now pass us right by. Sometimes we are spending too much time waiting for Christ to come again and therefore are not doing anything that might help our neighbors. When we have it in our heads that Christ is going to return and destroy this world and then create a new heaven and new earth (which Christ does promise to do), we perhaps don’t do everything that we can to take care of this earth around us. When we decide that poverty and pain are going to end when Jesus comes, so we don’t need to do anything today to help them, we are letting the waiting have a bit too much control in our lives. It is very clear throughout scripture that Christ is going to come again. But it is also very clear that we are given a responsibility as his church, as his body, to care for the world around us. We are given stewardship over the land and the animals. We are given the responsibility to care for the people around us who need care, particularly those who are not able to care for themselves… the least of these. This means Christian and non-Christian alike. That’s right, when Jesus tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves, he is including our non-Christian neighbors as well as our Christian ones. So as we wait, what are we doing as God’s people to make this world a better place? How are we changing this world more into what God wants it to be?

So it is dangerous just to sit and wait and forget about the present. But we are still called to wait on the Lord. We are still called to live lives of patience that allow us to see God working. And so, again, I ask, what is it that you are waiting for? Is there something that you are waiting for God to do? Is there something that you are anxious to see, to participate in? Simeon was waiting for the Messiah to come? It’s a pretty big deal that he waited for. And he was one of many who were waiting for that… but he got to see it in a special way because he allowed the Holy Spirit to guide him. We are waiting for the Messiah to return. But we have no promise that he will do so in our lifetime. So we wait for other things, things that are more personal; things that affect us individually. And we trust that God can make these things happen, and we therefore know that these things are worth waiting for. With God’s promises, we aren’t going to be disappointed like we are after Christmas. God’s promises are well worth the wait, they are exciting and when they come about they end up being much greater than what was expected. Look at Jesus. Israel was waiting for a Messiah. They were waiting for someone to come in and save their nation from their enemies and bring a bit of peace to their land. What they were waiting for had nothing to do with their souls, it had nothing to do with eternal life. They just thought they were waiting for a king who would deliver them from Rome. But God did them one better. God sent Jesus who did save his people, but much more than they even thought they needed to be saved. Jesus came to save their souls, Jesus came to rescue them from sin. Jesus came to bring eternal salvation, to put his people back in right relationship with God. And Jesus didn’t just come for the people of Israel, he came for all people who are willing to accept him as their Lord. Wow! Talk about exceeding expectations. But for Simeon it wasn’t important to know all this. All he needed to know is that God was working in the world in a special way through Jesus. He had seen Jesus, the Word made flesh, God with us, and this was enough for him. He knew that God would keep his promise to work through Jesus and he was ready to go home to be with God. But first, he blessed the family; Mary, Joseph and the baby. But his blessing didn’t sound so very great. Let’s hear it: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” What a blessing. Maybe I should end our services by wishing that a sword pierce your soul. “May the Lord bless you and keep you, may a sword pierce your soul.” Then again, maybe not. But then, this is what it means to wait on God’s promises. Our souls will be pierced when we see the pain in the world around us. Our souls will be pierced when God answers our prayers in ways that we don’t necessarily expect. And our souls are pierced when we realize the sacrifice that Jesus made for each of us on the cross.

Has your soul been pierced with the sword? Have you experienced the joy that comes with knowing, trusting and following Jesus? Have you experienced the pain that comes with knowing that you are not all that God would like you to be?

Today we are beginning a new year. It is 2006. There is something somewhat arbitrary about the way we keep time. This is especially true when we realize that they didn’t even get the year of Jesus’ birth right and therefore Jesus was born four to seven years before Christ. It’s even weirder as we had a leap second last night, adding one second to time to get everything lined up properly. I hear this is because the world is slowing down about a second every seven or eight years.

But no matter how arbitrary it is, the New Year is a time where we often look back on what has gone before in our lives and we look forward to what is to come. The year before has ended and now we are starting again. This celebration of the New Year is much like what Jesus promises us. He promises that when we turn to him the old man dies and the new man is born. We can cast away those parts of our lives where we are not following God properly. We can confess our sins to God and put them behind us. God allows us to start afresh. God promises that he will be with us. God tells us that we don’t need to wait for him to come again because he is already here with us, in our lives, in our hearts. Are you ready to put God first this year? You’ve started on the right track by coming to church on the first day of the new year, you are beginning your new year with Christ. Are you going to stay faithful to him throughout the year? Are you going to continue to put him first?

I’m not talking about having a New Year’s Resolution to be a better Christian. What I am talking about is using this New Year as an opportunity to acknowledge that God has made a real difference in your life. And you can spend 2006 as a new creation in Christ. This means you can live a life of service and a life of hope. This means you can follow where God leads you. This means you can work to be a light in the world, shining Jesus to all you come in contact with. This means that being a Christian isn’t just you coming to church, but rather seriously putting Christ first in all you do. Anna, the prophetess seemed to hang out at the Temple in Jerusalem pretty regularly. Simeon was a different story. He went where the Holy Spirit guided him. Let us be like Simeon this coming year.

Let us listen and hear where it is that the Holy Spirit has for us to go, and then we will find ourselves in situations where God can use us to do great things. Then God will be able to speak through us, then God will be able to work through us. We will be God’s hands and feet and the world we live in will never be the same. It is exciting when you let God work through you and you are able to see him do things through you that you didn’t know you were able to do. The truth is that we probably don’t see that happen enough. This isn’t because God doesn’t want to work through us, it is most likely because we aren’t letting him. So let’s make this a year where we do let him work in our lives and make a difference in this world through us. Let’s make this a year where we listen and hear the Holy Spirit in our lives. And Let this be a year where we follow where that Holy Spirit sends us. Amen.