Call and Response

Introduction

We return to Mark’s Gospel today. One of the first things to notice is that John the Baptist has been arrested. What John said in John 3:30 was beginning to come true— “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, and then faced the devil in the wilderness for forty days and nights. Now it was time for Him to go to work and engage in ministry!

We read this text in the middle of the Epiphany season. If you recall, the word epiphany means “a revelation or manifestation.” During this particular season of the church, we try to discover how God reveals His only Son to us—we listen to our lessons to discover just who Jesus really is! So what does today’s Gospel lesson say about our Lord’s identity? Who is this Jesus?

What we learn in today’s text is:

The content of Jesus’ preaching

He calls two sets of brothers—Andrew, Peter, James & John—as His first disciples.

Jesus preaches, and He calls. That’s the simple version of today’s Gospel reading. But there is more going on than simple preaching and calling people! Let’s dig a little deeper and learn what God reveals to us about Jesus.

Jesus’ Preaching

Following His baptism in the Jordan River and His forty-day encounter with Satan, Jesus begins His ministry by proclaiming to the people "the Gospel of God”: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” (Mark 1:15) The good news is that the kingdom of God really has arrived in human history. This message has been and remains the core of the gospel. God has shown up in Israel to rule; the opposition to God’s rule is real and even effective; but the eventual victory of God is secure. The gospel is the arrival of God’s new order in the world. Long prepared for and eagerly awaited in Israel, it is the good news that God’s rule has arrived. To be sure, this will be bad news for those who want to be in charge of the universe, and they will not stand by and abandon their role of running the world. Yet the truth is simply this: God’s sovereign reign has drawn near in human history, and in the end nothing will prevent its being established. This remains the heart of the gospel for all time.

The promise of God’s Kingdom breaking into the world was first promised to the people of Isarel—God’s chosen people. This promise is also extended to us, those who have been baptized into Jesus Christ. Luther reminds us in his explanation to the Lord’s Prayer, The Second Petition: God’s kingdom certainly comes all by itself, even without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it also come to us. Luther goes on to explain that: God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and live a godly life here in time and hereafter in eternity.

The good news is that God’s Kingdom is here! God’s Kingdom has come near to us through the person of Jesus Christ! But what do we do? How does this message impact our lives? What difference does it make that God’s Kingdom is here?

Our Response

As it has been said many times, we always start with Jesus. We look at what Jesus does. Then we respond. Our Gospel reading demonstrates the two proper responses to Jesus’s preaching of the Gospel, namely that God’s Kingdom is here among us. Let’s examine those two responses!

We Repent

Jesus called His hearers to repent and believe, once they heard the news about God’s Kingdom. Repent. The call to turn around a walk in a “new” direction. The appropriate response to Jesus’ preaching is to repent and believe in the good news. Repentance means a change of mind that leads to a change of behavior. In repentance a person’s intellectual and spiritual horizons are radically reshaped by the arrival of God’s kingdom, so much so that there is a change of heart and behavior. Emotions are entirely secondary; they may or may not be in place; what matters is a change of mind and direction. It is not a matter of looking within ourselves and discovering what we need, what we have done wrong, or where we need comfort and consolation, and then turning to God to take care of our list of particulars. The first order of business is to focus on what God has done in Jesus. We have to get outside our obsession with our problems and ourselves and look upward and backward to these pivotal events on God’s calendar for the world. We have to catch sight of God’s agenda, internalize its priorities, and let God’s agenda become the cornerstone of our thinking. This way we can turn in a new direction and bring our lives into line with what God is doing. We can then resist the temptation to reconstruct God’s agenda so that it fulfills our felt needs or our schemes for the world and ourselves. Think about Luther’s explanation—God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and live a godly life here in time and hereafter in eternity. God’s Kingdom comes wherever God’s Word rules in people’s hearts and minds. May God’s Word take firm root in our lives so that we live according to God’s Will!

We Follow

Last week we heard about Jesus calling Philip and Nathaneal in John 1. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus called Andrew and Simon, James and John as His first disciples. What is a disciple? A disciple is a follower…a student. A disciple learns from the master how to live in the world. Through our baptism, we become life-long followers of Jesus…we become disciples. We follow…we learn…so we may live our lives according to the word of our Master and Savior, Jesus.

The call goes out, the invitation is made, and we are expected to respond. This is driven home in the call of the first disciples. Jesus, passing along the Sea of Galilee, simply calls Simon and Andrew while they’re at work on the shore, and they respond immediately. They constitute the beginnings of Christ’s community, the model for all to follow in their readiness to respond. They are to follow Jesus, not some party, or ideology, or philosophy. Their new vocation is to be fishers of people, suggesting that their work will be demanding for them and radically transforming for those they catch. The same readiness to follow is exemplified in the response of James and John. They walk away from what sounds like a lucrative business—after all, they owned a boat and had hired hands—they left it all to follow Jesus.

Some may be amazed that these men would abandon their livelihoods and families to follow Jesus. But think of it in these terms—God’s Word is powerful. In Genesis 1, all God had to do was speak, and it came to be…light, water, animals, even humans…God gave life by the power of His Word. The same is true for Jesus. When He speaks, things happen. People are healed. Sins are forgiven. Life is restored. Bread becomes His body, and wine becomes His blood…given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

The whole point of today’s sermon is: When Jesus speaks, our lives change. When His Word penetrates our hearts and souls, it takes root and grows. Through His grace, our lives are shaped and molded to conform to God’s Will. Jesus calls…and we respond. May the Holy Spirit guide us to listen for Jesus’s Words and then respond through repentance and discipleship! Amen.