Podcast for "Now and What Happens Next (MP3)
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Psalm 62:5-12
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Mark 1:14-20
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts
be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
I have mentioned that all
translation is interpretation, and from time to time I believe that the
phrasing of one of our many English translations has an edge over the others. Sometimes
the difference is an important translation issue, where one word or phrase has
a significant difference over another. But there are other times when the
difference is just, well, a flavor issue. I like the way one translation sounds
over another. It could be just the way the words flow. Sometimes it has to do
with language that gets modernized that just doesn’t sound right compared to
how we’ve heard it all our lives.
Our reading from the New
International Version begins “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee , proclaiming the good news of God.” The New
Revised Standard Version begins saying, “Now after John was arrested, Jesus
came to Galilee , proclaiming the good news of
God.”
There is a real difference between
being arrested and being put in prison; it’s a chicken-and-egg thing. You don’t
get “put in prison” until after you get “arrested.” As far as the original
manuscripts go, the NRSV’s “arrested” is textually correct while the NIV’s “put
in prison” gives us insight that “being arrested” doesn’t. Saying that he was
put in prison tells the reader that John was not allowed the comfort of house
arrest. He was locked up. This revelation helps us understand his plight in a
way “arrested” doesn’t. This is a real and important difference, but it isn’t
the main issue to me.
No, my issue is with the one word
left missing from the NIV, “now.” That’s right, I’m taking issue with a conjunction.
Textually speaking the word “now” is in the original manuscript so there’s no
reason to leave it out, but that’s not my issue. In this case, the word “now” gives
us a transition, a much needed transition and as the old song goes, “and, but,
and or can get you pretty far.”[1]
So far, Mark’s gospel has given us
the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It begins with
John’s proclamation, the declaration of his purpose in the gospel story. The
Baptism of the Lord comes next and is immediately followed by the wilderness
temptations. After these humble beginnings, Jesus is ready for his ministry. It
is time for our Lord to take his place in proclaiming the good news of God.
That little word “now” is the
literary signal that Jesus gets himself up and dusts himself off. It is the
moment Jesus steels his eyes toward the horizon and sets his jaw toward the
work he came to do. I love the word “now” because it separates Jesus from the
time that came before and puts him in the time that is to follow. It’s about
now and what happens next.
So what happens next? Jesus
declares the time has come[2]
and the kingdom
of God
Jesus makes his way to the Sea of Galilee where he begins to call his first
disciples. Seeing Simon and Andrew he calls them from their boat to join him to
be fishers of men.[3]
They leave with Jesus immediately.
Further down the shore, they see James and John on their father’s boat and
Jesus calls them to follow. They follow without delay.
That’s what happened next. They
came. Together they have left boats, nets, catch, family, and business. They
left everything that connected them with the society they knew. They left their
family and friends. And they did this by nothing more than the word “come.”
Of course, not everyone is such an
easy sell.
The reading from Jonah is another
example of someone who has been called and prepared for ministry. What’s
missing from our reading is how and why Jonah was so reluctant to undertake
what God commanded. Of course as we all know how Jonah’s reluctance manifested
itself, he ran the other direction and eventually ended up in the belly of the great
fish. In truth, Jonah never really got over his reluctance, he just did what he
was called to do.
Finally, at the Lord’s command, Jonah
reaches Nineveh
Then, something miraculous
happened. The people repented. The people declared a fast and everyone wore
sackcloth. The Ninevites believed God, scripture tells us so. What scripture
does not tell us is whether anything would happen if Nineveh
The city of Nineveh
Jesus tells the world to repent and
believe the good news. Nineveh
Henry Blackaby is the author of
“Experiencing God, Knowing and Doing the Will of God.”[4] In
this study, Blackaby says one of the keys to experiencing God is having what he
calls a “crisis of belief.”[5]
Don’t let this phrase upset you. Blackaby does not mean that we are destined to
have times in our lives when we will believe and when we will not. This isn’t
what he’s saying.
Blackaby’s crisis of belief is
“God’s invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of
belief that requires faith and action.”[6]
The crisis has nothing to do with believing in your head. It has nothing to do
with believing in your heart. If fact Blackaby’s take on faith is in line with
the Hebrew word for believe and belief. Belief is nothing without action. Now
if that upsets you…
To Blackaby, you can say, “I
believe” all you want, it’s what happens next, where the rubber meets the road
that it begins to matter. Blackaby and the Hebrew tongue are very comfortable
with James words that faith without works is dead.
In a recent survey from the Barna
Group, a trusted name in church research, almost half of churchgoing Americans
say their life has not changed a bit because of their time in the pews.[7] Less
than half say they sense the presence of God in worship weekly where one-fifth
say they have that experience monthly at most.
They report that people see the
benefits of church. People know the benefits of connecting with others in the
pews and with others in other congregations. People know the benefits of
connecting with in the denomination too. People know the benefits of faith and
the church, they just don’t experience it. To them, the rubber doesn’t meet the
road.
Barna tells the church that it
cannot take for granted that just because people are in the pews that they will
reap the benefits of congregating. Pastors and Sessions and everyone who leads the
congregation must be intentional about making worship and the Christian life
worthy of Christ. We are to lead, not just show up and hope everyone follows,
we need to lead. There is a group within the Presbyterian Church that feels
this pull strongly, and they met last week in Orlando
For more than thirty years, the Presbyterian
Church (USA) has been arguing with itself over just about everything you can
imagine. We have weathered the “worship wars” and every sort of music from
organ to piano to guitar to orchestras and bands both acoustic and electric. We
have argued over modern music verses new music verses the hymns “we all know
and love.” We have argued over the liturgy and whether it is better to be “high
church” or “let the Spirit roll.” We have argued over who should be eligible to
be considered as Elders and Deacons. We have argued over whether being
missional means local or global. We have argued over what evangelism means and
what it means to be evangelical. We have argued over the very word evangelical!
The group that met in Orlando
Leslie Scanlan, a reporter for the
Presbyterian Outlook magazine made this report from the Orlando
It was of a bold
church unafraid to take risks; one that makes disciples; one that takes the
best of Presbyterian history and tradition and points it in new directions.
“I’m not really sure we have really dreamed for a long time,” said Ortberg, an
author and pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in California
To this I say “Amen!” We must
dream. We must seek where the church is being called in every time and age. In
fact, Henry Blackaby says “Amen!” to this too. Blackaby wants the church to follow
the very specific example Jesus set. As Jesus watched to see where the Father
was at work and joined Him, Blackaby encourages the church to watch and see
where Jesus is working and follow.[9]
Jesus doesn’t want us to sit in
meetings all day long, read demographic reports, consider action plans, and so
on and so forth. First and foremost Jesus wants us to look for him. Jesus wants
us to see what he is doing. Jesus wants us to see where he is going. And Jesus
wants us to follow.
Jesus said to Simon and Andrew,
“Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Jesus called out to
James and John. All four followed immediately. They knew it would not be easy.
They knew they were leaving important obligations at the wayside, and they
turned (another way to say “repent”) and they believed the good news.
It didn’t make their lives easier. In
the end it made their deaths harder. Yet they followed. They did not always
know where Jesus was leading and he led them in places and ways that they did
not understand. Throughout the gospel Simon Peter specifically put in his
two-cents about the way things should be done after Jesus says “Come, follow
me.” So this isn’t news when we do this today.
Like the disciples, we are called
as partners in Christ’s service. We are called as partners of Christ and called
as partners one to another within the congregation. We are called to be
partners in Christ’s service with other believers in the denomination and with
other believers who are not our variety of believer. We are called as partners
with those who agree with us completely and with those whose only similarity is
that they too are called as partners in Christ’s service.
Called as we are, we are called to
be partners. In service to God we are the junior partners to the Lord our God,
but as partners in Christ’s service and not as slaves. We are to seek where God
is working and we are to follow. We sing, “Lead On, O King Eternal.” We are
called to sing in worship and respond to the call and vocation the King leads
us to follow.
I believe we are called to do this
together as a denomination, not as a bunch of special interest groups that seem
not just willing to split but actively seeking a fissure to cause a schism. I
believe we are better together than we are apart. I believe we are better when
the entire denomination does not look like me. I’m enough me; I need people who
are not like me to show me things I wouldn’t see otherwise. As the theologian
once said, “I cannot be an ‘I’ without a ‘Thou.’”[10]
It is up to us, individually, as the
Session, as the congregation, as the denomination, and as the Body of Christ to
seek where Jesus is working and follow. Like Jonah we may still be reluctant,
Jesus expects this. Yet we are called to follow.
Jesus has already said come. It is
up to us to see the places he leads us to follow. It is up to us as the body to
be a part of what happens next. It is up to us to believe the good news of God,
join the Christ, and follow making fishers of men.
[1] Yes,
I’ve invoked “Conjunction Junction” in the Name of the Lord.
[2] This is
another instance of “translation anxiety.” I prefer the NRSV’s “has been
fulfilled” over the NIV’s “has come.” Been fulfilled is more mysterious as the
work of God is mysterious.
[3] This is
another instance of “translation anxiety.” “Fishers of men” has been around
since the King James and is continued into the NIV and the New American
Standard Bible where the NRSV uses the gender neutral phrase “fish for people.”
Fishers of men is more accurate word-for-word and frankly missing with one of
the greatest phrases in the English language is a shame.
[4]
Bkackaby, Henry T., King, Claude V. “Experiencing God, Knowing and Doing the
Will of God.” Nashville , TN
[5] Ibid,
pages 19, 20, 22-25, 108-125.
[6] Ibid,
page 20.
[7] “urvey:
Half of Churchgoers Lives Not Affected by Time in Pews”, http://ethicsdaily.com/survey-half-of-churchgoers-lives-not-affected-by-time-in-pews-cms-19114,
retrieved January 18, 2012
[8]
Presbyterian Outlook, “A Bold Church Unafraid; Fellowship Casts Vision.” http://www.pres-outlook.com/component/content/article/44-breaking-news/12150-a-bold-church-unafraid-fellowship-casts-vision.html,
retrieved January 19, 2012.
[9] Ibid.
Blackaby, page13.
[10] Karl
Barth channeling Martin Buber.
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