Mark 1:21-28

I am a firm believer in miracles. I have seen miracles happen first hand. Those of us who are Boston sports fans have seen many miracles, and perhaps we will see one next Sunday night. But miracles do happen. But the temptation with the miracle is to focus on the miracle itself and not on the person or the thing, and by that, I mean the illness or problem. But sometimes, I think we think miracles have to be about healings but what about the small miracles like the person who does not know where their next meal is going to come from and suddenly the find some cash. Little things, as well as large things, can be miracles.

The writer of the Gospel of Mark was all about miracles. There are eighteen recorded miracles in the Gospel of Mark, more than any other Gospel. Thirteen of those miracles have to do with healing while four of those thirteen have to do with exorcisms or casting out of things. Mark is setting the stage that miracles can happen but his emphasis not necessarily on the miracle itself but instead on the story of what happened.

Today we have one such story. We see Jesus, very early on in his ministry, in the temple in Capernaum. He is teaching, and scripture tells us “they were astounded” at his teaching. They were astounded because he was not one of the scribes, he was not one of the educated, in the classical sense of the word, and it was not necessarily his teaching that astounded them but the authority by which he taught. I always say that if you tell someone something in such a way that it looks like you know what you are talking about, they will believe you. Say it with authority and stand by it. This speaking with authority is what Jesus always did.

After he finished teaching a man “with an unclean spirit” comes up and cries out “what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” Now we do not know what this “unclean spirit” is, but apparently, it knows who Jesus is, where he has come from, and what he is there to do. A man asks if he is there to destroy them and calls Jesus the “holy one of God.”

Jesus tells the man to be quiet. Now I find this interesting and I have to ask a couple of questions. Did Jesus say to the man to be quiet because he was causing a disturbance? Did Jesus tell the man to be quiet so he could think about what to do next? Or, did Jesus say to the man to be quiet because he had called him “the holy one of God?”  Perhaps it is all three, but I am leaning towards the last possibility. Keep in mind, this is early on in the ministry of Jesus and calling someone the “holy one of God” would draw unnecessary attention to Jesus and perhaps get him in trouble.

But there is also a fourth possibility, and that is he wanted the man to be silent so he could hear what his heart was telling him. We will come back to that in a minute.

Regardless of what the reason was Jesus told him to be quiet and the unclean spirit came out of him and left the man. Again, we do not know what this spirit was just that it was unclean so it could be anything. It could be a demon, or it could be something else.

For the better part of a decade, I have been doing battle with depression and PTSD. After many hours spent in therapy, I nor have it under control, well as much control as one ever has over this type of thing. I know, or at least I think I do, what triggers episodes and so I am ever vigilant when I get into those situations. I am, however, susceptible to depression and PTSD and all that comes with it, so it is important that I keep a close watch.

I am a firm believer in the fact that we are made up of body, mind, and spirit and that all three of these have to be functioning for us to be at our best. If anyone of these is out of kilter, then we are out of sorts. I know this in my own life and strive to have the balance necessary between the three, I need to work more on the body part, but I am a work in progress.  And when I am not at my best them I do not follow as best as I should.

The man with the “unclean spirit” was able to recognize that Jesus was the “holy one of God” but whatever it was he had, was holding him back and the question that we all have to ask ourselves is what is the thing, what is that item, that thought, that feeling, that desire that keeps us from genuinely giving our all to Jesus and following him and the life he wants us to lead.

I mentioned earlier about Jesus telling the “unclean spirit” to be quiet and proposed a few possible reasons for it, and I added a fourth possibility and that Jesus wanted the “spirit” to be quiet so the man could hear what was in his heart. There is so much noise in our world, and we are pulled in many different directions always and, all of that noise keeps us from hearing and from listening.

A few weeks back I spoke about the comma and that God is still speaking and I asked if we were listening. For us to listen all of our selves, body, mind, and spirit, have to be able to hear, and so we need to have balance in our lives. What is that noise that is keeping us from hearing God’s voice? What is that distraction that is keeping us from saying here I am Lord? What is it that is keeping us from truly being able to say here I am Lord I come to do your will? Maybe, just maybe we need to tell ourselves to “be quiet” and just spend some time listening to that still small voice.

Earlier in the service, we sang the great song “Just as I am.” This is an old song, but it came to fame because it was used as part of the Billy Graham Crusade as the hymn that was sung during the altar call, that time in the service when Rev. Graham would ask people to dedicate or rededicate their lives to Christ. It is a song about coming to Jesus just as we are. We bring it all with us when we come, but hopefully, we leave different.

The second verse speaks volumes to me. Just as I am though tossed about with many a conflict, many a doubt, fighting and fears within, without, O Lamb of God, I come I come. We all have something that keeps us from truly following God, and we have to figure out what that is. The man is the story recognized Jesus for who and what he was but he could not follow him. Jesus told him to be quiet, and when he became quiet his heart opened, and he was ready. Spend some time this week being quiet and listening to that still small voice of God.

Sometimes sermons write themselves. Sometimes the message just leaps off the page, and the story is clear, and then there are times like today. Most weeks begin the same way. I look at the calendar to see what the lectionary has for readings. I read all four selections and then narrow it down pretty quickly to the passage that I will use on Sunday morning. I then pray over that passage. I then read what others have written about that passage and pray again. I spend the better part of the week with the passage making notes and reading.

The other challenge is making the particular passage relevant in today’s world, so I have to be in tune what is going on all around us here in the church, the community outside of the walls of the church and in the world. Preaching a message without any mention of current events is tantamount to malpractice. The preacher’s job is to link the 2,000-year-old writings to our life today and commenting on what is happening in the world, and ow we should react, is part of that.

But sometimes we preachers overreach, and we take the simple and turn it into the complex. In many ways the church does this as well, we take a simple problem, study it death, come up with a proposed solution and by that time the issue has either resolved itself or our attention is on something else altogether.

The Gospel passage we heard from Mark’s Gospel this morning is one such passage. This passage is about many things, time, incarceration, repentance, fishing, and discipleship. I could go on about any one or all of these topics, but discipleship is the primary focus this morning. What does it mean to make disciples and more important what does it mean to be a disciple?

There is an old saying, “give a man a fish feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish feed him for a lifetime.” This passage is often attributed to the Bible by those who do not want to help their neighbors but in fact, it is a Chinese proverb, and it is less about not giving people stuff and more about teaching people life skills and helping them learn them. For us to make disciples we first have to be disciples.

Jesus left us with two mandates one that was an individual mandate and one that was a corporate mandate. The individual one you hear me mention most of the time, Love God, Love Neighbor. The corporate or church mandate if you will come to us from the 28th chapter of the Matthew’s Gospel, “therefore make disciples of all the nations….” We are given the mandate, the job, the task, to make disciples. Not make members, not make donors, not make converts, not make people believe the way we think, nope, make disciples, followers of Jesus Christ. That is what being a disciple is all about, following Jesus Christ.

So let’s go back to the story we hear this morning. The stage is set by Mark it is the time after the arrest of John the Baptist and Jesus comes to Galilee, proclaiming the good news and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.” The time is fulfilled, we hear Jesus mention this again when he says that in him has come the fulfillment of all the law and the prophets. The kingdom of God has come near, the kingdom of God is himself, and it is here, not some far distant place, but right here and right now. Repent, in other words, confess. These would be familiar words to those who were followers of John since he was calling people to confess, not just once but continuously. And, he finishes by telling them to believe in the good news which, we will see later on, is Jesus himself.

So things sound kinda simple so far all we have to do is confess and believe and we are on the right track. Keep in mind religion had become very complicated with thousands of rules and regulations to determine who was and is in the club, Jesus just stood that all on its head with the clear message of confessing and believe.

He then goes off and encounters Simon and Andrew. Simon, who later becomes Peter and his brother are fishermen, and they are tending to their nets. This is their livelihood and provides for their family. We are unsure if Andrew has a family, but we know Peter does because Jesus heals his mother-in-law in another story. Jesus comes upon them and says, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”

Now what happens next is extraordinary. Scripture tells us that “and immediately they left their nets and followed him.” They did not even go home and consult with their families, not something I would suggest we do, but they did not form a committee and discuss it. They did not check to see how much money they had at the Galilean First National Bank. They did not even ask any questions, they “immediately followed him.” They had no idea who this was, had never seen him before, but the left everything and followed him.

Now notice, Jesus did not ask them to add one more thing to their long list of things they had to do. Jesus calls them to a new way of being. When Simon and Andrew left their nets, they leave a way of life, everything they have known, and take a step of faith, more than a step of faith a leap of faith into the unknown. Jesus has led them to the edge of a cliff and said jump, and they did.

So why did they do it? What prompted them to follow this stranger and leave everything behind? Well, as a Christian, I believe it was the Holy Spirit, but they also had a desire for something different in their lives.

All through history, for good and bad, people follow charismatic people. A leader is someone others want to follow otherwise they are just out taking a walk. But before Jesus approached them he prayed for them, perhaps not by name, but he prayed for them.

Fr. Mychal Judge was a Franciscan priest and fire chaplain to the fire department of the City of New York. On September 11, 2001, Fr. Mychal heard the call and put on his gear and ran to the World Trade Center. Little did he know he would become one of the casualties on that day. As the story goes, Fr. Mychal was killed by falling debris from the towers, while he knelt to pray with a dying person in the street. Fr. Mychal is one of the main reasons I do what I do today. But Fr. Mychal is vital to the story today because of the prayer that he said daily, and now I say daily:

Lord, take me where you want me to go;
Let me meet who you want me to meet;
Tell me what you want me to say
And keep me out of your way.

Jesus prayed for those he would encounter, and the Holy Spirit tilled the soil of their hearts and prepared the way, and all he said was follow me. Jesus made disciples but he was also a disciple, and it was his life that attracted people. Jesus was different and was calling people to a different way of life that was simple, repent and believe, love God, love neighbor. That is it, folks, that is the summation of the Gospel message.

We cannot make disciples until we are disciples. One of the marks of a good leader is that they will never ask the people they lead to do anything they are not willing to do. We cannot “make” disciples unless we are disciples.

Jesus left us with a simple formula; repent, believe, love, and follow. If we do that others will join us.

We have all seen it. Some of us wear it on our lapels. The comma used by the United Church of Christ with the phrase “God is still speaking.” According to proper English usage, we use commas to separate independent clauses when they are joined by any of these seven coordinating conjunctions: and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet. In other words, we use the comma because the thought is not finished, there is more to come. The belief behind the symbol and the saying is that God has not completed his revelation yet, we are an ongoing project, and God’s revelation continues in each generation. But we have to pause here and ask two questions, are we listening? And, who are we listening too?

I was once asked if I had a favorite book in the Bible, and I responded by saying yes but with a qualifier because I have two favorites, the Letter of James and the Gospel of John. James is genuinely my favorite, but I gravitate towards the Gospel of John because of its spiritual message. All of the Gospels have a spiritual message, but John’s Gospel is all about spiritual and not just miracles and names and places.

The image that comes to mind when I think of John is the Divinci panting of the Last Supper. In that painting, right in the center, is Jesus. Reclining on Jesus, with his ear pressed against his chest is John. Now, I have no way of knowing if this is what happened but I do know that the Gospels tell us that John was the Apostle that Jesus loved. This is an intimate position and one of familiarity but what strikes me most about this image is that John has his ear pressed against the chest of Jesus and therefore he can hear Jesus’ heartbeat, the very heartbeat of God.

The ancients believed that the center of our being was our heart. Some thought that our soul resided in the heart and that is what made it the center of our nature. All of our blood passes through our hearts and feeds all of the other parts of our body. The heart, like other organs, is essential to our lives and we need it to be working at full capacity. John pressed his ear against Jesus and listened to his very essence, his very being he heard what was in his soul and that is where John’s message comes from. It is not enough to just listen to the words that “God is still speaking” we need to listen to the essence of the message.

I truly love this passage from 1st Samuel that we heard read to us today. The scene we see before us is almost comical. A young man is sleeping, and he hears a voice, he gets up and runs in the other room because he thinks his teacher is calling him. The teacher tells him that he did not call him and to go back to bed. Three times this takes place until finally; the teacher understands what is going on.

The Lord was calling out to Samuel, but Samuel did not “yet know the Lord” as it says in verse 7 so he did not recognize the voice that was calling to him. Samuel thought the voice was his teacher Eli and so he ran to him. Too many times we run to follow the voice we think we hear or the voice we want to hear because it is easy or because the voice is saying the things that we believe and the things we want to do. Sometimes we run to that voice even when that voice spews some of the vilest hatred a voice can speak, but because we are confused by the voice, we continue to follow it and make excuses for it.

Sometimes there is so much noise that we cannot hear the voice of God. Sometimes we discount the voice of God because it is calling us to do something we do not want to do or because of where the voice is coming from, perhaps a country that is well…. Less desirable.

After Eli figures out what is going on he tells Samuel to go and lie down again and when the voice calls to his say, “Speak Lord for your servant is listening” and in the end this is what happens and God makes a revelation to Samuel that will change his life and change the course of the history of his people. For us to hear the voice of God, we have to know what the voice of God sounds like, and that takes discernment.

Jesus left us with some simple rules to follow, and you have heard me speak of these many times, love God and love neighbor. Jesus tells us that all of the law and the prophets hang on these to commands of his, his new law if you will. He did not come to replace what was there before but to fulfill it in the command to love God and love neighbor. So we can begin discernment by asking if the voice we hear calls us to love God and love neighbor and if it does not then it is not from God.

If the voice you hear is calling you to hate or discriminate against another, it is not from God. If the voice you hear is telling you it is okay to insult people because they look different then us, it is not from God. If the voice you hear is calling us to violence, it is not from God. If the voice you hear is calling you to deny basic rights to other human beings, it is not from God. Discernment is not easy, but it is vital in the life of a Christian.

With all that said, my experience is the voice of God is not always as clear as we would like it. Samuel had to figure it out, with the help of Eli, his teacher, and that is what we have to do as well. Sometimes the voice will indeed come in a dream, and sometimes that voice comes from and usual place or person.

The lectionary Gospel passage for today comes from John’s Gospel, and it is the story of Jesus calling the first disciples. Jesus finds Philip and says to him, “follow me.” Philip finds Nathaniel and tells him that he has found “him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathaniel replies and says, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nazareth was not a good part of the country, and some might even call a “hole” of a place. It was the back of the back, one of the worst and poorest places on earth but God chose this place, this “hole” of a location to bring forth his Son. So you see, the voice can, and often does, come from some pretty weird places.

It is our job to be aware of the voice that is still speaking. Just as God was calling Samuel to do great things God is calling each of us to do something great but we have to be listening, and we have to know his voice when he speaks. Love God Love neighbor; anything else is not from God.

This sermon is based on an article that originally appeared on the Sojourners Website. Click this link to read the entire article.

I have never been a great one a keeping my New Year resolutions.  Sure, I like to make them but about the 3^rd of 4^th of January the wheels have come off the wagon and by February I cannot even remember what they were. Yes, we all want to be a little lighter than we are and sure, we will try and exercise more but these are things that we should be doing anyway, but somehow making a resolution makes us feel a little better. The desire to change is not a bad thing as change allows growth and growth is a very good thing.

But what resolutions are we making in our spiritual life?

The other day I was reading an article, “10 Resolutions for 2018” which included a few suggestions for a spiritual change for the coming year. I take no credit for any of this, we maybe some of the thoughts are mine.

1. To start each day with a “yes!” to my faith – and to my personal and public morality.

I have said this before, we need to recommit ourselves to our faith journey every day. We need to say yes to God’s love and yes to our allegiance to Jesus Christ. We need to say yes to discipleship and that means acknowledging that Jesus Christ is Lord and no one else. Saying yes to my faith will mean saying yes to being an engaged citizen, practice honest civil discourse, service to what is right, not just what is popular, and courageous witness to what is wrong. I pledge that I will continue to speak out, in a louder voice, against what I perceive as evil as my faith teaches me.

2. To have the courage to say “no!” when that is required, wherever it is required.

This includes all aspects of our lives. This is one of my weakest points, I have trouble saying no and because of that, I get over committed and things don’t get done. But saying no means to go beyond our own personal comfort. We need to be able to say no to people, even in our own family or church family when they defend ideas and actions that are antithetical to the gospel. We need to demand, of ourselves and others, conversations about our gospel values and to hold political discussion in Christian communities and hold each other accountable.

3. To not say “no,” or wait to stand in opposition to wrong and dangerous ideas and actions, until I see how other will respond.

We need to follow the gospel, wherever that will take us, regardless of the political implications of our actions. We should not do something, or not do something because it is popular but all of our actions should come from our understanding of the gospel and because it is right. We need to be the ones who have the voice for the least of these.

4. To hold the bible in one hand and the news in the other as I go through each day.

We should always strive to make decision, public and private, based on our gospel values and what Scripture demands of us and teaches us.

5. To better answer the biggest challenges of 2018 by acting on my faith, rather than reacting from my emotions.

To respond to genuine outrages with deeper commitment rather than anger and to respond to despair with action rather than cynicism. We need to strive to combat hatred, in all forms, with love, a deep abiding love not just lip service and to counter feelings of hopelessness with hope and optimism.  In 2018 we, as a congregation, will face one of the biggest decisions a congregation can make that of calling a new minister. The choice needs to be influenced only by prayer and not by personal agendas. Start praying now for the person that God has already chosen and pray that the decision we make will be made in that spirit of prayer and guidance from the Holy Spirit.

6. To see evil and injustice as a call to go deeper.

Deeper into the disciplines and practices of our faith; deeper into relationships with allies and friends, especially across racial lines; and deeper into our relationships with those on the margins and who are most vulnerable and targets of injustice.

7. To spend more time with family.

Our children and our grandchildren need to understand what is going on and how to respond to it. We do them no justice by trying to shield them from the realities of this world and, whether we try and protect them or not, they will be exposed to it. We need to find the words to explain it to them and to teach them to pray for the world and what is going on. We protect them by giving them the tools and skills necessary to help them interpret things and by our assurance that we will be together through it all.

8. To pray for particular people who will be playing critical roles in the outcomes of political events in our country and the world.

I will pray earnestly for the press that they will search earnestly and endlessly for the truth and have the courage to print it. I will pray for the judiciary to face the hardest questions with a commitment to the rule of law more than the rule of politics. I will pray for our leaders in congress, regardless of their party affiliation, that they would understand themselves as separate branch of government and to hold to the ideal of checks and balances. And I will continue to pray for the president. Our scriptures instruct us to pray for our political leaders even if we disagree with them, especially if we disagree with them. But we must also pray for our church leaders. As I mentioned we are facing one of the biggest decisions a congregation can make. Pray for all those involved in the process that the Holy Spirit will guide us. And please, pray for me each day as I strive to help to guide this congregation.

9. To work and pray to grow in my trust of God, friends, and community.

I will strive to trust in faith, hope, and love and believe that the greatest of these is love and to be ready, every day, to act by faith, in hope, upon what I believe even if it is not always popular.

For Unto us a Child is Born

What is there to say about the festival we have come to celebrate tonight? We have all heard the story more times than we can count but we can always find something new in the story.

Tonight the fulfillment of a long wait is realized. Tonight our hymns switch from “Come, thou long expected Jesus” to Joy to the world. At the start of the Advent season, the world aches for a Messiah: now those who walked in darkness see a great light, for a child is born.

Christmas is not merely an anniversary celebration of the birth of Jesus but it is the active remembering of what God has already accomplished in Jesus Christ and the promise of the coming completion of the reign of God. At Christmas we proclaim not only the birth of Jesus, but the birth of a new creation. Despite what the newspapers seem to say every day, the way has been made clear; the chasm between God and humanity has been bridged because of the birth of Christ, and God’s reign of justice and peace has already begun.

Tonight we hear the message of a world-transforming reign of righteousness and justice that is a radical prophetic claim. The main actors in this narrative are the shepherds, the unlikely messengers but God does not always do things the way we think he is going too. God chose the shepherds to deliver his message, the lowly were to be the first ones to preach the good news that the savior has been born. God chose to take on humanity and to be born of a woman, not in some palace but in a cave designed for animals. God chose to be born to a race of people in an economically depressed place to reverse the course of history; he has exalted the lowly and removed the powerful from their thrones.

The message of tonight, the message of the Gospel is that God loves each ones of us just the way we are. The birth of Christ ushered in a new way, a new of thinking, a new way of acting, and a new way of believing. Down through the centuries the Church has not always been good at proclaiming the good news but we are getting better at it. The good news is that God loves each of us and forgives us unconditionally.

In a few moments we will dim the lights in the church. During the four preceding weeks we have lite one candle on our advent wreath and tonight we lite the center candle the one we call the Christ candle. From that single flame we will light each candle here in the church and as we begin in the front we will watch the light spread to each person in each row.

Light is a powerful force in the darkness and tonight we are called to take that light with us as we leave this place. We are to take not only the light but the warmth that the small flame gives off, that warmth is the love of God for each and every one of us. We cannot simply take that light with us but we have to take it with us and share it with others so that the light spreads and the warmth of God’s love spreads to everyone.