LEAVING THE ORDINARY BEHIND

Dr. Richard J. Henderson January 25, 2009

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Psalm 62:5-12
Mark 1:14-20

Introduction

I had lunch with an exceptional young woman a few years ago. It was after she graduated from high school where she was the Homecoming Queen and the valedictorian, was in the National Honor Society, and had received innumerable honors and recognitions. I commented to her that she had pretty much made a clean sweep of the awards in her senior year.

She was very humble and gracious in acknowledging the recognitions, but she said she had a haunting feeling: was this the most that we can hope for? As wonderful as all that was, was that as good as it gets?

I told her I didn't think so. I said I thought the most important and most rewarding things we can do in life are not the ones that people acknowledge. Recognition by our peers is important, and all of us need it, but a real sense of contentment and worth comes from knowing we're living for something of value. It comes from knowing the foundation of our lives is solid.

I

After Jesus' baptism he begins to talk about the good news: "The Kingdom of God is near, turn around; believe in the gospel." He goes to see some brothers - Simon and Andrew, James and John. They're fishermen.

As Jesus approaches them, the smell of fish is wafting in the air. Simon and Andrew are standing knee-deep in the water, throwing their nets out as deep in the water as they can. This is hard work. It takes a lot of strength to lift the net, hurl it out into the water, and then draw it back in. They are sweating from the sun and the work. Jesus approaches them and asks them to work with him.

Then he visits another set of brothers - James and John. They are sitting in their boat with their father, Zebedee, and some hired workers. They're mending nets. Jesus approaches them and asks them to follow him. They drop their nets, leave their father and the workers behind, and go off with Jesus.

In Mark's gospel it sounds as if Jesus just walks by, asks these brothers to follow him and they drop everything and go with him. It seems more likely that the brothers had been to hear Jesus speak; they knew about the good news and probably had had some private conversations with Jesus. Maybe they even talked about joining him.

The disciples wouldn't be too impressive if they would just walk off with anybody who walked by and said "come, work with me." Jesus himself said that you need to be sure you have weighed whether you are able to follow through on this commitment before you make it.

It seems to me that Simon (later to be known as Peter), Andrew, James, and John saw an extraordinary person and an extraordinary life, and through that realized that a greater reality had come into their lives. So they went away with Jesus, because they wanted to be part of what he was doing.

II

People have heard this word and their lives have been changed by it from the time Jesus started preaching to today. There is a fascinating book, published several years ago, that tells the conversion stories of people from the earliest days of the Christian church right up to the present day: people like the apostle Paul, Saint Augustine in the fifth century, the Wesley brothers, and many others. They each tell their story in their own words.

We've talked recently about the writers in our time who have come to faith in the most interesting ways - Anne Rice, who is famous for those dark novels about vampires, who now says that the darkness of those books reflected the darkness of her life. Since her dramatic change, she has written novels speculating on the youth of Jesus and the difficult choices he might have faced.

Anne LaMott and Mary Karr both grew up in families where Christianity was either made fun of or considered foolish. They were involved with drugs and alcohol. Now each of them has made a radical change in her life and both are now people of deep spirituality. All of these world-class writers faced ridicule from their colleagues, many of whom thought they have lost their minds.

People like Jane Fonda and the scientist Francis Collins have become Christians through unexplainable radical changes in their lives.

III

As the first disciples were confronted by the extraordinary figure of Jesus and their lives were turned around, so people in our time are having the same experience and their lives are changing for the better. You just can't ignore these kinds of incredible, life-changing experiences in so many intelligent, creative, and diverse lives. They are all saying something great is happening in my life. Some are saying God saved my life.

Some of the goodness that has come into these lives is what the Psalmist wrote about in the Old Testament scripture we read this morning: God, our Rock and Refuge - the most solid foundation a person can have. To live life with God is to be with the founder of the universe. It is to live in hope. Maybe most importantly, "God's steadfast love endures forever." God won't ever drop you. You can't escape from his love.

IV

Of course, God doesn't just call the well-known. Every day ordinary people are turning to God and God is making their lives more and better. The clerk in the grocery store, the teacher, the student, the retired man volunteering at the hospital all can tell their story about how God turned their lives around. For some it was as dramatic as a blazing flash of lightning, for others it was as slow and subtle as the growth of life itself. Jesus asks us all to come follow him. He asks in different ways for each one of us. And he offers us the opportunity of an extraordinary life with God.

Conclusion

One morning while we were in the hospital, actually the first day I ventured out of my hotel room after being in bed for two days with the stomach flu, I went down to the room with the continental breakfast. It was five after nine. A large black woman with a couple of teeth missing was cleaning up the room. I asked if I could have some juice. She said, "Its right there. You know, we closed at nine." The juice was already on her cart, so I reached down and poured a little cranberry juice into a cup. With a little fear I asked, "Is there any toast?"

"It's over there. The hours are six to nine. I can't stay here cleaning up all day; I got other things to do." I put the bread in the toaster. Then I noticed the little containers of jelly. But the knives had been put away. With more than a little fear I said, "I'm sorry, but could I get a knife. I don't have anything to spread this with."

Suddenly a change came over her. She got me a plastic knife and began to explain that she was the supervisor, and one of her crew called in sick, and she had a lot more work to do today. She asked why I was here (I guess the cast was a clue).

She said she was sorry about the accident. She went on to tell me that she had just lost her twin sister to sclerosis of the liver. She told me how she'd been an alcoholic too, and that she had gotten her life turned around. I asked if she had done it through AA. She said yes, and with the help of God. "It was too big of a thing for me to do by myself, but God led me through." She went on to talk about the power of God in her life. At one point she said, "I don't know why I'm telling all this to you, a stranger." I never told her I was a pastor.

Jesus went to the home of an ordinary, heavy-set black woman and said, "Come, follow me." She did. It made all the difference in her life.

Amen

© Richard J. Henderson 2009