Mark 1:14-20 preached at CPC, Jan 25,2015
Do any of you fish?
Fishing and stories go hand and hand.
Fishing stories are how legends are born
In the 2003 movie, Big Fish, IMAGE,
a boy grew up with a father, Ed bloom
an archetypal story-telling fisherman,
the day Ed bloom was was born as the story goes he flew out of his mothers womb and slid 30 feet across the slippery hospital floor through a doctor’s legs like a hockey puck across ice, until he was finally stopped by a nurse!
Ed bloom told his boy fanciful stories of life, and love, and fishing.
At his story-telling father’s deathbed, his son sat and wondered who his father really was because he couldn’t separate fact from fiction...the man from the myth.
When he pressed his father, his father said,
what do you want son--who do you want me to be?
The stories, were what made the father, who he was...
The stories we tell about ourselves may not be quite as tall, But our stories are what make us who we are....
Apart from our story, and the way we tell it,
the way others tell it, the way it is remembered; who are we?.
Who we are,
how we understand ourselves comes from the stories we tell.
The stories told may not be entirely accurate;
our memories fade, details get confused.
The way we tell the events of our lives,
no matter what really happened, is what really happened, because that is how it becomes engrained in memory.
The gospel according to St. Mark IMAGE is Mark’s version of the story about Jesus.
Mark’s story tells us who Jesus was and is....
and when I say it is a story,
I in no way want to diminish the sacredness of who Jesus is, how it is a divinely inspired account.
But, it is a story.....
This year, 2015, we will be looking at how
Mark tells Jesus’ story.
We believe it was the first of the four gospels to be written;
written in its earliest form around 60 AD--
after decades of oral transmission, of communities telling the stories of Jesus to one another time and again.
Mark’s story of Jesus shaped the way Matthew told his story of Jesus, and how Luke told his story of Jesus; about 76% of Mark’s story can be found in Matthew and Luke's stories almost word for word.
[We call Mark, Matthew and Luke, the synoptic gospels, meaning to be seen together, as there are so many similarities, quite different from John’s story of Jesus which came much later and from a separate community than the others.]
Mark has been described as Crudely written:
Short snappy sentences...
everything has “immediacy”, everything begins with AND. as if Mark had a 6 year old beside him as he was writing heavy... And then and then, and then.
Mark says nothing of Jesus’ birth or childhood.
He simply starts: ” The beginning of the gospel.
And then he throws us into the wilderness with John,
dunks us in the baptismal waters of the Jordon river:
The sky splits, the holy spirit descends, a voice speaks, a cosmic event takes place in a sentence.
Jesus is rushed to be tempted, and then immediately calls disciples...which is where we pick up the action today:
- John’s arrested,
- Jesus preaches a short and sweet sermon:
‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’
It is a bold proclamation! Notice, he did not say,
"Keep doing what you're doing, the kingdom of God is a ways off yet" or "the kingdom of God is what you will experience after you die."
It is a call to the here and now.
Now, Back to the there way back when:
Jesus sees Simon and Andrew fishing IMAGE:
‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’
immediately they left their nets and followed him.
Immediately, he goes a little up the shore, sees John and James:
He calls them; "come on!"
they leave their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and follow.
And that’s how the story of the most influential world changing movement begins...
We know very little about who those first followers were or what motivated them to follow:
Did they know Jesus before hand?
What kind of influence did they have in their villages?
What compelled them to follow?
What was the tone of Jesus voice?
Follow me! I will make you fish for people!
Hey guys, Follow me....I’ll make you fish for people:)
And then thinking about the fishermen telling their stories years later, years after Jesus had called them and changed their lives forever…
How do you think Simon or Andrew told their story?
"Hey Simon, you remember when Jesus came up…
you were so shocked you got caught up in the net and nearly fell out of the boat...HA!"
Think about James and John telling their story to their old man, their dad, Zebedee years after the experience?
"I can’t believe you boys just up and left me out there with a full catch...honor thy father, remember!?
Ease up Dad...we were young, being a fishermen, eh;
, following Jesus promised so much, and I was ready for a change…
a real change we could believe in...
we gave up everything...
but, you know somehow we gained everything.
How did they tell their stories?
They had to have told them, otherwise we wouldn't be sitting here today.
What about you?
How do you tell your story of being called?
Your story of fishing and then following? IMAGE
Do you tell a fishing story with vivid imagination!
How do you tell your story of Jesus coming into your life?
Sometimes we presbyterians aren’t so good about telling our story.
Do you think it’s hard to tell your story?
Why?
Too fantastical?
Do you tell people your story of how Jesus called you?
Why not?
Too boring?
Well, my parents went to church, and i was in the youth group, there was this really cute girl. She didn’t date me. Later i got a job, and settled down, wanted to raise my family; and htought church would be good for my kids…
Wait, was this supposed to be a story about an encounter with Jesus?
Do you tell your story?
Is that not what we are called by Jesus to do?
Kind of like Jonah there in Ninevah, God is always calling upon people to tell of who God is in the world.
Weren't you called?
What was it like?
A couple of Sunday’s ago I told some memorable baptism stories,
I asked that we consider our own baptism experience.
I was attempting to suggest that even if you didn’t nearly drown in your baptism,
even if you were a baby and don’t remember a thing, the important part was that you were baptized, claimed by God, God’s own child.
In a similar way, our stories vary in drama and detail.
Your story of being called by Jesus may be full of adventure, struggle, rebellion, and dramatic conversion;
or it may be more like that of CS Lewis who said:
“I was driven to Whipsnade one sunny morning.
When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did.
Yet I had not exactly spent the journey in thought.
Nor in great emotion….
It was more like when a man, after a long sleep, still lying motionless in bed, becomes aware that he is now awake.”
― C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life
No matter how it happened, what is important is that we all recognize, remember, and celebrate that we have been called, we are being called to follow:
Jesus, in some way, came or
is standing there right now on the lakeshore
calling each of us.
By calling disciples to follow him then,
and by calling disciples to follow him now Jesus starts a movement...
a movement which at its core is the telling of a new story for the world:
And the movement doesn't happen unless we tell our fishing stories
A fishing story: of excitement about a new adventure.
A fishing story: about radical forgiveness and self-giving love.
A fishing story: in which he or she who is greatest among you, shall be your servant...
A fishing story: where the interests of the poor and oppressed are pursued instead of the pursuit of wealth and power.
A fishing story in which thy will, not my will be done.
What is your story of Jesus calling you?
How do you tell it?
I’d like for us to try….
Time to get introspective!
Turn to someone sitting near to you,
doens’t matter how well or not well you know this person..
and tell some of your story
the time when Jesus called you.
decide who will share first,
and I will give each person 2 and a half minutes.
tell your story when Jesus invited you to go fishing for people?
...
I'm a little bashful about telling my own story...I've been here for 6 months now, and how many of you have heard it?
But maybe it's time to tell our stories more often.
Maybe we need the frequent reminder to Let go of our nets and follow.
The invitation of Jesus to follow is still always before us:
- It is absolute and disruptive, drop your nets!
- It’s uncompromising in declaring a “break with business as usual.” Follow me
- it is to a life of a new kind of fishing:
I will make you fish for people.
We’re telling a new story... of God’s kingdom,
A story of fishing adventures. [Meyers:1992:133]
Tell your story,
: write it, blog it, call a friend... Whatever!
it is who you are!
your story is one of legend...
in which the great fisher of men and women and story teller like you and me take center stage...
You may be surprised how many who hear your story come to believe.
Affirm our belief ...Apostles creed