This Ole World Is Passing

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Mark 1:14-20; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31

A long time ago in a country not that far away a singer/songwriter by the name Bob Dylan wrote this little ditty about change:

Come gather ’round people wherever you roam
And admit that the waters around you have grown
And accept it that soon you’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’

Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide the chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon for the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’
For the loser now will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’

Come senators, congressmen please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’

Come mothers and fathers throughout the land
And don’t criticize what you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’

The line it is drawn, the curse it is cast
The slow one now will later be fast
As the present now will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin’
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’

 

Dylan wrote The Times They Are a-Changing in the Fall of 1963 just before American President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  The song skyrocketed to popularity as the younger generation was rising up against the perceived crony-ism of the older, established generation.  They were crying out for civil rights, an end to the Vietnam War.  They wanted a world of peace, love, and understanding.  

The Times They Are a-Changing is now sixty years old and we just might want to ask has anything really changed.  The young people the song was meant to give voice to and to rally up, well, they were the front end of that demographic affectionately known as the Baby Boomers.  Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964 and are the largest and wealthiest demographic in North America today.  If you are between the of 62 and 80, well, “Hey, Boomer.”  Did the Boomers change the things they so idealistically set out to change?  I would answer that question by quoting Pete Townsend of classic Rock band The Who who in the last line of their iconic song “Won’t Get Fooled again” which is about Third World revolutions, he said, “Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.”  You hear the answer in the hurt and sarcasm of the voices of their children, the Gen X-ers, and their narcissistic grandchildren, the Millennials, when they affectionately say, “Thanks, Boomer.”  Their great grandchildren, Gen Z’s, are as tuned out as tuned out gets due to device addiction, devices which are handed out in public schools where the focus of their education is “Be all you can be”.  

As things stand today, the Climatic stability of this planet is in jeopardy.  It’s nearly impossible to get young people involved in government mostly because it involves “politics”.  Western democracies are facing a significant threat from populist authoritarian movements.  The press, the Media, is so agenda-ed on all sides that one can’t expect them to serve the prophetic purpose Dylan imagined it should.  But, the prophetic office is one that belongs to the church but let’s certainly not talk about what’s become of the church in the last 60 years (there’s brutal sarcasm in my voice for those who are reading rather than hearing this).  The times they were a-changing but nothing really changed.

Well, I guess if we’re going to eat Dylan for breakfast maybe we should take a look at the Apostle Paul who roughly 1,970 years ago, “the appointed time has grown short” and “the present form of this world is passing away”.  We could ask Paul what has changed and then come up with a myriad list of atrocities committed by the Church, the institution of which Paul could have and would have never imagined.  I can only answer that line of thinking by saying that if attacking a Church that has merited quite a bit of the attack is the way you want to go, you’ve missed the point.   

I apologize for jumping right into a Greek lesson, but the word for “appointed time” is an interesting one.  Jesus says, “The time (Kairos) is fulfilled; the Reigning of God is at hand”.  Paul writes, “The appointed time has grown short.”  That word for “time” there in Greek is kairos.  It is not the word for the tic-toc of time nor is it so much the word for meaning the times of the Old Testament of the times of the Middle Ages.  Kairos is different.  It means a decisive moment in time.  It’s a time for something specific to happen; a time in which the events of history have obviously come together in such a way that people need to rise to the occasion and do the right thing because the impact of the decisions made at this time will profoundly shape history from there on out. 

As an example, marriages can have kairos times, be they difficult times or good times but usually difficult, where spouses can say that the way we handle this moment, these weeks, these months, even years will make or break us.  We will either come out with a stronger relationship, a deeper friendship, or we’ll just set up boundaries we know not to cross.  That’s kairos – a period of time in which important decisions need to be made and proactive actions taken.

 With respect to God.  Kairos is a decisive period of time when people of faith need to get off their laurels and be faithful.  A period of time to stand up and be counted.  At the time Paul wrote this, he was expecting the imminent return of Jesus to establish the Reign of God which would put an end to the world as we do it.  So, he advised the Corinthians to put their allegiance to Jesus first, even before their marriages.  Quit grieving, Quit rejoicing.  Quit acting like possessions make any difference.  Quit being so businessy for the way this world works will soon not be the way this world works anymore.  The form, the rubric, of this world is passing away.  Obviously, Jesus hasn’t returned yet and life goes on.  We cannot act in such an abrupt way as Paul is prescribing here that would cause the world to end.  (To the reader that was meant to be humourous.)

Kairos time is a period of time for people of faith to stand up and be faithful because faithful action during this time will affect the faith of others for generations. There have been several moments in the history of the church that have been kairos times.  The Civil Rights Movement of the Sixties, the abolition of slavery, the Reformation, to name a few.  These were times when the disciples of Jesus need to act and people like Rosa Parks did and things changed.  

Let me reframe Kairos time in a way not so literal as Paul did.  Jesus came in the midst of a kairos time bringing with him a kairos time.  The office of Roman Emperor was just over 20 years old when Jesus was born.  The known world was beginning to figure out what it was to bend the knee to one man and call him Lord and Saviour and Son of God.  The Roman Emperors promised peace and prosperity all the while enforcing their whims with the most powerful military the world had ever known.  The world we know would not be the world we know apart from the decisions made by these few powerful men and those surrounding them even though they lived 2,000 years ago.  Imperial Rome is still with us.  We might call it Democracy and have figured out how to limit the powers of want-to-be Emperors, but Western Culture is still Roman Culture.  Like the movie Groundhog Day, we are stuck reliving Rome.

Jesus came into that kairos time bringing with him a moment of decision for each person to make.  He was a Jew, one of those pesky people who wouldn’t bow the knee to any other god than their own God, the one true God.  As truly being the Son of God, Jesus stood in opposition to everything the Roman Emperor stood for.  The Spirit of God rested upon Jesus and empowered him.  Everywhere Jesus went he proclaimed good news to the poor.  He healed people.  He cast out demons.  He raised the dead.  He called people to love God and neighbour.  He called people to forgive each other.  He called people to act and react peaceably.  He called people to share their stuff.  Invited the rich to give to the poor.  He allowed himself to be “bothered” by children.  He regarded women as equal to men.  He listened.  He cared.  He prayed.  He knew the Scriptures and taught them.  He confronted religious hypocrisy.  He fed over 15,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish.  He calmed a storm.  He walked on water.  He was crucified for treason, but God the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit raised him from the dead in vindication starting a New Creation that will come to its fullness when this time is fulfilled and Jesus returns.

Jesus came proclaiming the Gospel.  Let me break it down for you, “The kairos is fulfilled.”  Humanity’s ability to rule itself and solve its problems on its own will never become anything more than a repeat of Imperial Rome.  If you want to know everything Man can be when Man sings “I did it my way”, Imperial Rome and its pathologies is as good as it gets.  The Kairos of Man is fulfilled.  Come to its end.  If humanity wants to move forward, then we truly have to take Jesus seriously.

Jesus the said, “The Kingdom of God is at hand.”  This makes more sense if we say the reigning or ruling of God is upon us.  Everywhere Jesus went through everything he said and did the ruling of God manifested.  It continues today through those who follow him and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and love God and love neighbour unconditionally and even sacrificially.  

“Repent and believe the Gospel.”  The Greek word for repent literally means “Be with-minded.”  Be with-minded with God.  Think on the things of God not the things of Man.  Want the things of God rather than indulge the compulsions of Man.  Humanity has lived according to the lie that God is Almighty Power.  Jesus showed us the love of God when he died on the cross and was raised.  He did not inflict his power upon anyone in any kind of way that was not healing or freeing or empowering.  God’s power is sacrificial, unconditional love that respects persons and heals them.  It is not this survival of the fittest leading to domination by the fittest thing.  The Greek word for believe does not mean “I think these ideas to be true.”  It also goes beyond a simple matter of trusting God.  It is loyalty that arises from being befriended and loved; loyalty which we demonstrate by faithfulness.  To repent and believe the Gospel that the kairos is fulfilled and the Reign of God is at hand is to become a loyal disciple of Jesus.  It is to gather together with a group of Jesus’ friends to prayerfully hash out the question, “Who are you, Lord Jesus?”  He will show up where people gather in his Name in the fullness of the love of God in the power of the Holy Spirit to heal us and make us new.  

If humanity wants to be anything more than what it was under Imperial Rome, we each need to take Jesus seriously.  This kairos time that we are in is the same kairos time that humanity has been in.  You, the elder church stand as a testimony to the faithfulness of God, of God’s love for you as God has proven himself faithful to you time after time after time after time after time throughout the many years of your lives.  This is Truth.  This God who has been true to you is pouring his reign in love upon the world through Jesus by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.  Have the courage to share this truth with your children and grandchildren pointing to Jesus as the Way forward.  Teach don’t preach Jesus and his ways.  Be disciples who disciple.  To sound like Paul, in this kairos time, Jesus must become our primary loyalty, our primary devotion to him is the way forward for this world stuck in Rome.  Amen.

 

A Time For Decisive Faithfulness

 Mark 1:14-20; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31

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I started this sermon on Wednesday morning January 20, 2021 sitting in front of the television awaiting the swearing in of President Joseph R. Biden and Vice-President Kamala D. Harris.  I could not help but feel a sense of “the time is fulfilled, complete, come to an end; something new is upon us.”  And, “the appointed time has grown short”.  There’s another way of translating that.  It would go, “The appointed time has been wrapped up like a corpse.”  (Both these time references are from our readings, in case you didn’t read them.)  I reflected on how for the last four years I have been giving the now former President of the United States free rent to occupy space in my mind.  I couldn’t help it.  Open my computer, look at the news, and there he was.  Go out and meet people, it didn’t take long for him to become the topic of conversation.  There was just no escaping him. I think the reason he, the real estate mogul, ran for President was that he might have free rent to occupy space in our minds.  The space he got from me was not a good space for me.  As an American living abroad I daily felt shame, anger, disbelief, and disgust at the former President’s behaviour, his decisions, his lying.  I feel like I’ve been bullied.  I have that sense of traumatization that bullies leave us with that will take a while to get over.  Unfortunately, due to the following he has amassed he will continue to appear in our lives like the flashbacks of traumatic events that plague those who suffer Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.  But he’s gone now.  He’s not our neighbour anymore.  His time is over.  It’s time to heal.

I wonder what tomorrow and the next day, week, month, year will be like in a world with a United States once again behaving like an adult, like a responsible world citizen.  I’m cautious.  Being an adult myself, I know we don’t always make good decisions and it sadly becomes our children who suffer for it.  Just ask Greta Thunberg.  She’ll tell it like it is.  But at least I feel as if Uncle Joe and Sister Kamala are competent and listening.  It is now time for some very prudent and decisive action bent towards compassion and empathy.  This world, not just the U.S., needs a time of healing, a moment dedicated to healing, a moment that will shape the course of history.  

I apologize for jumping right into a Greek lesson, but the word for time that popped up in our Scripture readings is an interesting one.  Jesus says, “The time is fulfilled; the Reigning of God is at hand”.  Paul writes, “The appointed time has grown short.”  That word for “time” there in Greek is kairos.  It has different meaning than another word in Greek for time which sounds familiar to us, which is chronos.  We get our word chronology from that one.  Chronos is the tick-tock of time; the putting of things into chronological order kind of time.  Kairos is different.  It means a decisive moment in time.  It’s a time for something specific to happen; a time in which events have obviously come together in such a way that people need to rise to the occasion and do the right thing because the impact of the decisions made at this time will profoundly shape history. 

As an example, marriages can have kairos times, difficult times or good times, where spouses can say that the way we handle this moment, these weeks, these months, even years will make or break us.  We will either come out with a stronger relationship, a deeper friendship, or we’ll just set up boundaries we know not to cross.  That’s kairos – a period of time in which important decisions need to be made and proactive actions taken.

 With respect to God.  Kairos is a decisive period of time when people of faith need to get off their laurels and be faithful.  A period of time to stand up and be counted.  In First Corinthians Paul was expecting the imminent return of Jesus to establish the Reign of God which would put an end to the world as we do it.  So, he advises the Corinthians to put their allegiance to Jesus first, even before their marriage.  Quit grieving, Quit rejoicing.  Quit acting like possessions make any difference.  Quit being so damned political for the way this world works will soon not be the way this world works anymore.  

Kairos time is a period of time for people of faith to stand up and be faithful because faithful action during this time will affect the faith of others for generations.  I’m reminded of an old Jewish scribe named Eleazer who lived about 160 years before Jesus.  At that time, Israel was occupied by the Greeks.  The head Greek in the area was Antiochus IV Epiphanes or Antiochus IV the Enlightenment (or Enlightened or Enlightener.  His ego was beyond exaggerated).  Antiochus wanted the people that he conquered and ruled to become Greek in culture and faith.  Well. the Jews regarded Greek culture as being a bit randy and had their own God, thank you, and so they did not do well with Antiochus IV Epiphanes.  The Jews’ refusal to worship any other God but their own eventually came to a head when Antiochus IV Epiphanes put a statue of Zeus in the Temple where the Ark of the Covenant stood and sacrificed a pig to it and demanded the Jews worship it.  A revolt ensued, the Maccabean Revolt.  Hanukkah originated from that revolt.  As far as what became of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, he died a painful, disgusting, and humiliating death; some would say the God of the Jews smote him. 

One year during the Festival of Dionysius, the most randy of the Greek festivals, Antiochus started forcing Jews to eat pork at the threat of flogging or worse.  He had an old scribe Eleazer who was 90 years old brought before him and told him to eat the pork.  Eleazer refused.  His soldiers shoved it in Eleazer’s mouth and he spit it out.  Antiochus then had the 90-year-old Eleazer flogged and brought back before him and privately offered Eleazer the option to eat some other form of meat and pretend it to be pork.  This would at least allow Antiochus to appear to have broken the old man’s faith.  Again, Eleazer refused and so Antiochus had him flogged to death – a 90-year-old man. 

Eleazer didn’t stand silent through it all.  His speech to Antiochus was a remarkable statement of “kairos” faith.  After Antiochus made him the offer to eat some other kind of meat, Eleazer said: “Such pretense is not worthy of our time of life, for many of the young might suppose that Eleazer in his ninetieth year had gone over to an alien religion, and through my pretense, for the sake of living a brief moment longer, they would be led astray because of me, while I defile and disgrace my old age.  Even if for the present I would avoid the punishment of mortals, yet whether I live or die I will not escape the hands of the Almighty.  Therefore, by bravely giving up my life now, I will show myself worthy of my old age and leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and nobly for the revered and holy laws” (2 Mac. 6:24-28).

There is something to be said for those people who are in their elder years and continue to stand faithful, who continue to be involved in a congregation and who share their faith with the younger generation even though it seems like a royal waste of time.  In this day and age when “the truth” is such a disputed matter, the wisdom encapsulated by the continued faith and faithfulness of the elder generation is a clear indicator of what Truth really is.  When a 78-year-old Joe Biden (and I realize 78 is the new 58) takes the Oath of Office and says “and so help me God” and says it knowing what it is to have had God’s help in his darkest moments, in his kairos times, and actually want God’s help; that speaks volumes to a nation whose younger generations do not know what it is to bow their heads in prayer to a God who actually cares or sing “Amazing Grace” from the heart but have rather devoted their lives as per the example they’ve been shown to the idols of Wealth, Consumerism, Celebrity, Amusement, Politicians, Power, Sex, Technology…all those Greek gods that still persist yet with another name…and of course the unholy trinity of “me, myself, and I”.  There can be no Truth found when God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not sought.

We are at a kairos time, a moment that calls for drastic action.  As Paul wrote: “The kairos – the appointed moment to act decisively – is growing short.”  We are about to wrap the shroud around it and bury it.  The time is right now for us the people of planet Earth, particularly those who are in power to make the decisions and enact the legislation that will protect the climate, end racism, end sexism, end nationalism, end poverty, end corruption in governments and court systems and do it in the midst of a pandemic that demands immediate action or people will needlessly suffer and die.  We are at a kairos time that is coming to an end and if the appropriate decisions are not made and the appropriate actions not taken the consequence will be grave. 

What role do we people of faith have in this kairos time?  Well, Jesus came in the midst of a kairos time bringing with him a kairos time.  The office of Roman Emperor was just over 20 years old when Jesus was born.  The known world was beginning to figure out what it was to bend the knee to one man and call him Lord and Saviour and Son of God.  The Roman Emperors promised peace and prosperity all the while enforcing their whims with the most powerful military the world had ever known.  The world we know would not be the world we know apart from the decisions made by these few powerful men and those surrounding them even though they lived 2,000 years ago.  Imperial Rome is still with us.  We might call it Democracy and have figured out how to limit the powers of want-to-be Emperors, but Western Culture is still Roman Culture.  Like the movie Groundhog Day, we are stuck reliving Rome.

Jesus came into that kairos time bringing with him a moment of decision for each person to make.  He was a Jew, one of those pesky people who wouldn’t bow the knee to any other god than their own God, the one true God.  As truly being the Son of God, Jesus stood in opposition to everything the Roman Emperor stood for.  The Spirit of God rested upon Jesus and empowered him.  Everywhere Jesus went he proclaimed good news to the poor.  He healed people.  He cast out demons.  He raised the dead.  He called people to love God and neighbour.  He called people to forgive each other.  He called people to act peaceably.  He called people to share their stuff.  Invited the rich to give to the poor.  He allowed himself to be “bothered” by children.  He regarded women as equal to men.  He listened.  He cared.  He prayed.  He knew the Scriptures and taught them.  He confronted religious hypocrisy.  He fed over 15,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish.  He calmed a storm.  He walked on water.  He was crucified for treason, but God the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit raised him from the dead in vindication starting a New Creation that will come to its fullness when this time is fulfilled and Jesus returns.

Jesus came proclaiming the Gospel.  Let me break it down for you, “The kairos is fulfilled.”  Humanity’s ability to rule itself and solve its problems will never become anything more than a repeat of Imperial Rome.  If you want to know everything Man can be when Man sings “I did it my way”, Imperial Rome and its pathologies is as good as it gets.  The Kairos of Man is fulfilled.  Come to its end.  If humanity wants to move forward, then we truly have to take Jesus seriously.

“The Kingdom of God is at hand.”  This makes more sense if we say the reigning or ruling of God is upon us.  Everywhere Jesus went through everything he said and did, the ruling of God manifested.  It continues today through those who follow him and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and love God and love neighbour. 

“Repent and believe the Gospel.”  The Greek word for repent literally means “Be with-minded.”  Be with-minded with God.  Think on the things of God not the things of Man.  Want the things of God rather than indulge the compulsions of Man.  Man has lived according to the lie that God is Almighty Power.  Jesus, rather, has showed us the love of God, the true power of God, when he died on the cross and was raised.  He did not inflict his power upon anyone in any kind of way that was not healing or freeing or empowering.  God’s power is sacrificial, unconditional love that respects persons and heals them.  It is not this survival of the fittest leading to domination by the fittest thing.  The Greek word for believe does not mean “I think these ideas to be true.”  It also goes beyond a simple matter of trusting God.  It is loyalty that arises from love; loyalty which we demonstrate  by faithfulness.  To repent and believe the Gospel that the kairos is fulfilled and the Reign of God is at hand is to become a loyal disciple of Jesus.  It is to gather together with a group of friends to prayerfully hash out the question, “Who are you, Lord Jesus?”  He will show up where people gather in his Name in the fullness of the love of God in the power of the Holy Spirit to heal us and make new us.  

If humanity wants to be anything more than what it was under Imperial Rome, we each need to take Jesus seriously.  This kairos time that we are in is the same kairos time that humanity has been in.  You, the elder church stand as a testimony to the faithfulness of God, of God’s love for you as God has proven himself faithful to you time after time after time after time after time throughout the many years of your lives.  This is Truth.  This God who has been true to you is pouring his reign in love upon the world through Jesus by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.  Have the courage to share this truth with your children and grandchildren pointing to Jesus as the Way forward.  Teach not preach Jesus and his ways.  Be disciples who disciple.  In this kairos time, Jesus must become our primary loyalty, our primary devotion for he is the way forward for this world stuck in Rome.  Amen.

 

 

What's the Difference between a Disciple and a Christian

Mark 1:14-20; 8:34-38

This is the second in an 8 sermon series following Greg Ogden's Essential Guide to Becoming a Disciple: Eight Sessions for mentoring and Discipling.

Is there a difference between being a disciple of Jesus and being a Christian?  One would hope not, but I think that the way church history has played out in the Western world there is a difference.  So, let’s just take a little walk through history according to me and I will make my case.

In the beginning, Jesus called to himself not Christians but disciples.  For a Jewish Rabbi or a Greek philosopher having a group of disciples was a common practise.  A disciple is a student of a particular teacher who stands in a particular tradition of thought.  In the Greek world disciples of Plato, or Arisotle, or Socrates, or other great philosophers each learned and in turn taught the teachings of their great teachers to others.  These disciples were usually a close-knit group who weren’t just there to learn information, but also/more so the way of life of the originator of those teachings.

For Jewish rabbis, the focus of discipleship involved learning the content of the Law of Moses and how to observe it.  Over the centuries great rabbinic teachers arose giving birth to differing interpretations or authoritative traditions.  And so, rabbis would teach their disciples these different interpretations.  “Rabbi Joseph says this, and Rabbi Benjamin says that”.  There also arose very influential rabbis with quite different interpretations of how the Law was to be interpreted.  In Jesus day there were two primary rabbis, Shammai and Hillel.  Shammai was a very zealous, letter-of-the-Law type and it seems the Pharisees portrayed in the Gospels were likely swayed by him.  Hillel was gentler, more peaceful, and gracious and taught the rule of love.  There are scholars who say that if Jesus was ever discipled by a rabbi, it was likely a close disciple of Hillel.  A few of Hillel’s teachings are written down and Jesus sounds like him.

The relationship between Jesus and his disciples was different than what was the custom among the rabbis.  First, Jesus called his disciples.  He chose them.  They didn’t choose him.  Second, Jesus demanded allegiance to himself and the in-breaking Kingdom of God, which he manifested through healings, exorcisms, forgiving sins, teaching with authority, and even controlling events in nature.  If you were a disciple of Jesus, as I said last week, you soon noticed that Jesus did and said things that only God could do and say.  Third, it doesn’t appear that Jesus taught the Law per se, though he had authoritative knowledge of it.  Rather, his disciples wrestled with who he was and learned the ways of his Kingdom.  The questions “Who are you, Jesus?” and “What have you come to do?” appear to be the primary curriculum.  Personal commitment to Jesus and doing what he said was the way you learned it.  This personal commitment to him meant rearranging the commitments of one’s life completely around him and his kingdom, even to the extent of suffering for him.  Fourth, Jesus sent his disciples to go and bear witness to him as the crucified and risen Lord of Creation and spread the Gospel of the Kingdom by making disciples and he fully expected that they would do this without excuse. 

Jesus came proclaiming a Gospel, his Gospel, the only Gospel, but yet a Gospel that is forgotten today.  He proclaimed, “The time has come.  The Kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent and believe this Gospel.”  The word for time there means a new age.  His Gospel was that a new age, the expected age has come about, the age when God’s reign is visibly present and active on earth.  The proper response to this Gospel is repenting and believing.  Repent means a change in thinking and doing.  Ask what God wants and be faithful to him instead of thinking and seeking the will of the unholy trinity of “me, myself, and I”.

Heeding Jesus’ Gospel had consequences for his disciples.  To be a disciple of Jesus meant accepting the real-life, day-to-day consequences and the political fall out of Jesus being the Messiah, the Lord and not the other powers that be.  Sole allegiance to him meant Caesar, the Roman military, Jerusalem, the priests, and all the other religions were false lords.  Allegiance to Jesus and his kingdom in a world that was full of idol worship could cost you your trade and get you crucified.  Jesus wasn’t exaggerating when he said “Deny youself, take up your cross and follow me”.

So, when did the word Christian come into play.  It took a few years.  The Book of Acts tells us that it was in Antioch probably about 10 or so years after Jesus was raised that the term Christian first appeared.  It appears to be a term that outsiders placed on the “followers of the Way” as they called themselves.  It also appears to have been a derogatory term.  The Greek term “Christianous” appears three times in Acts and all three times it was people outside the church placing a label on the followers of Christ.  It was meant to be demeaning. 

Interesting to note, there are a good many Bible scholars who will point out that “Christianous” isn’t the word that appears in the earliest texts of the New Testament but rather “Chrestianous” which basically meant a “goody-goody” or “follower of the goody-goody” reflective of the costly reality Christians faced for renouncing the idolatry and Pagan lifestyles that pervaded the Roman world.  They say “Christianous” is a later textual gloss from a day when the church had accepted the name Christian. 

Moving on in Western History over the first century or so of the church “Christian” gradually became the self-referent for those who followed Jesus.  In the early 300’s the Roman Emperor Constantine gave Christianity legitimacy and it soon became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire.  By the Middle Ages, in Europe and Northern Africa one became a Christian by birth, that is unless you were Muslim.  In post-Crusade Europe, if the King of your nation was Christian, you were a Christian.  Even your citizenship was determined by the location of your Baptism.  When the Reformation came about distinctions were made as to what kind of Christian you were not whether or not you were a Christian for “everybody” was Christian.  There were a few movements that tried to take up the ways of the first disciples but they were persecuted by the Christian church as fanatics.

Today, in the wake of the Enlightenment and North American Revivalism being a Christian predominantly means one of two things.  First, it is an answer to a question on a census.  A person is simply one of the 2.2 billion adherents to the Christian religion, which is one of many religions.  Second, in popular North American culture if a person today claims to be a Christian they likely mean that they believe/trust Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, that they are on God’s good side because of that belief, and that they will go to Heaven when they die provided they live a morally sufficient life.  Today people claim to believe in Jesus largely due to the benefits they believe they receive from him, not because they have relinquished their lives to follow him.  Broadly speaking, Christians have forgotten how to be disciples.  I would go as far as to say that when someone comes in our midst claiming to be a disciple of Jesus we immediately presume they must be some sort of fanatic.

The “Christian” church in North America is dying and I believe Jesus will let that “Christian” church die.  Yet, I also believe that the church in North America that disciples people will in some form persist -- the church that proclaims Jesus is Lord and lives like it; the church that prayerfully and humbly calls people to come and be disciples of Jesus; the church that equips disciples of Jesus to disciple others will be the seedbed of the church for the 21^st Century.  I fully believe that it is time we who profess to be Christians get serious about once again being his disciples.  Amen.

Leaving Everything

Text: Mark 1:14-20
          Elections are odd events. I remember when Barack Obama was elected. The way the CBC – Canadian public radio – portrayed him, his candidacy and then the events of his election and inauguration you would have thought that there was a world-wide feeling that a new day had dawned, a new era in peaceful and just global relations. This man, Barack Hussein Obama, was to be the harbinger of change who would end wars, turn the global economy around, bring about environmental solutions, end the dominance of big money cronyism in Washington, and on and on the hope list went. The hopes and expectations placed on Obama were of messianic proportion and I don’t think I’m exaggerating.
          Well, I've brought all this Obama stuff up because noting all that hope in a new day dawning that surrounded his election in a small way can help us understand what was going on in Jesus' day. I am in no way equating Barack Obama to Jesus the Christ. I'm just drawing a meagre analogy. Many Americans and more than quite a few people globally were hoping that with Obama a new era characterized by peace, justice, equity, and prosperity would come into being. Such also was the expectation of most of the people of Israel in Jesus' day; except for those who had power to lose. People were hoping, indeed expecting that any day the Messiah that God had promised would come and run out their Roman oppressors and the corrupted Jewish monarchy and temple authorities and at last establish the Kingdom of God on Earth. They were expecting peace, justice, equity, and prosperity to become a reality in their lives rather than the poverty, oppression, religious fanaticism, and constant rebellion they were living with. Most people, some more than others, were really expecting the Day of the Lord and the Messiah to come at any moment.
          And then, in the midst of that tumult of despair and apocalyptic hopes comes Jesus of Nazareth proclaiming, “The time has come; the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe this good news.” Jesus taught with an authority that the religious authorities simply did not have. He healed every sickness and disease. He cast out demons. He did these miraculous feedings. The Kingdom of God truly was at hand, the hand of Jesus. By him a new day was dawning.
          Indeed, the time had come. The Greek word that we translate as “time”, kairos, means a decisive moment in history that demands a response. Jesus himself is that decisive moment. The demanded response is to repent and believe, to leave everything behind and enlist your life in Jesus’ work of bringing in the kingdom of God, falling in behind him and following. He would say, "Come, follow me" and people would.
          I’m not sure if I’m letting us off the hook in noting this, but according to the Gospels there were only twelve people whom Jesus asked to follow him and the result of that was leaving everything behind (thirteen if count the rich young man who went away sad). There were others who did this without being asked. I’m thinking of several women and some of them were the wealthy women who supported Jesus’ ministry. At times there were crowds who left what they were doing for a time to follow him around to see what he would do. Nevertheless, following Jesus always results in leaving some things behind from the extreme of everything for always and to the lesser extent everything for a while.

          Of these twelve, the first four were fishermen. Why fishermen? The only thing that I could think of was that somehow fisherman would intrinsically understand the nature of the work involved in God’s bringing in his kingdom through Jesus. It’s a lot like fishing. To begin with and speaking allegorically, casting a net is the means by which people are brought into the kingdom. Essentially, the net is the proclamation of the gospel by the church.
          As a matter of review, in the Roman world a gospel was note a four-point plan by which someone gets saved. A gospel is an imperial pronouncement from the emperor or concerning the emperor that was considered to be good news like the birth of a child or a victory in battle. And, since the emperor was considered to be closely connected to the gods or sometimes even a god, they believed a gospel was somehow imbued with divine power. Similarly, in the Christian faith the gospel is a divine, imperial announcement from God. It was/is essentially that Jesus is the Son of God and the Lord and has delivered his creation from the powers of sin, evil, and death and the evidence of his Lordship, the Kingdom of God, is breaking into the present through the working of the Holy Spirit until Jesus returns to resurrect everyone from the dead and create all things anew at which point all peoples will be evaluated with respect to how well they lived in the kingdom while it was coming in order to determine their place or status or ranking in the new world. That Gospel was and is empowered by the Holy Spirit and like scooping fish out of the water with a net, so it brings people into the kingdom of God through Jesus Christ.
          So then, the work of the kingdom that these fishermen would intrinsically understand was casting and preparing the net. These first four fisherman fished by casting a net not by bait and lure. The kingdom spreads by the simple proclamation of the gospel in word and action not by gimmicky whatever’s to try to attract people and work a decision out of them. I don’t know what became of Andrew other than he’s the one who found the little boy with the five loves and two fish and according to John’s Gospel he initially brought Peter to meet Jesus. Peter, on the other hand, became a great caster of the net in the early years of the church. He went up into Syria and southern Turkey and eventually to Rome.
          James and John, on the other hand, were preparers of the net. Jesus found them in their boats preparing the nets. James became the head of the church in Jerusalem until he was martyred. John was the longest lived of the Twelve and became something similar to a bishop in Ephesus watching over the churches of western Turkey. If you’re catching my analogy here, a great deal of work, often the most tedious work is preparing the net, or rather building up the church, the body of Christ, that it might make and live the gospel proclamation.
          Well, for all of us Jesus and his kingdom is the most decisive moment in our lives and as such a moment Jesus and his kingdom require from us the response of faith and repentance, of leaving behind what we’re doing and enlisting our lives in Jesus and his work of bringing in the kingdom of God by falling in behind him and following. This in turn means that the primary responsibility in our lives is the work of either preparing or casting the net. The Holy Spirit has gifted us each with abilities for ministry that by working together we may prepare and cast the gospel net here in our very community. The question that then follows is what are your gifts and where do they fit into the life of Christ’s body.
          Some of you may be thinking that this stuff about the Holy Spirit empowering you with gifts for ministry is a bit weird. After all, our tradition tends to stress faithful following of Jesus that demonstrates itself through being morally upright and ethically compassionate. We don’t know what to do with those charismatic gifts that Paul lists in First Corinthians 12 that includes things like speaking in tongues and interpreting tongues, prophecy, words of wisdom and knowledge, performing miracles, and healing. We tend to relegate those to the Pentecostals and call them weird. Fortunately, Paul later gets a little tamer in Ephesians 4 where the gifts become offices of ministry such as apostle, prophet, pastor, teacher, and evangelist. In Romans he gets even more practical talking about the gifts of hospitality, compassion, administration, helping and so on.
          Yet, this talk of gifts for ministry doesn’t have to sound so foreign. All we need do is remind ourselves that like Peter, Andrew, James, and John everything we have done in our lives has prepared us intrinsically for our work in the church. Speaking for myself, my preparation for ministry began a long time before seminary? I’ve be a son, a brother, a grandson, a nephew, a cousin, a friend, a best friend, a student, a musician, a retail clerk in an automotive store and a hardware store, an assistant manager in a steakhouse, an immigrant, a divorcee, a husband, and a father. Those relationships are where I learned the relational skills necessary for this call. I’ve been a seminarian, a minister in small town West Virginia, and a presbyter in West Virginia. My work as a minister there necessitated that I get steeped in the area of congregational redevelopment and as a presbyter there I was exposed to the nature and needs of small churches and started looking in that direction instead of the big church for a career. I wound up a minister in a small church in Caledon for ten years. My whole life has been Holy Spirit school preparing me for ministry.
           Now with respect to you each, I would encourage you to look at who you are and what you’ve done and are doing with your life and ask how the Holy Spirit has been preparing you for work in the Kingdom.  The highest priority of our lives is being a Christian. The life of Christ is in us each and through us every relationship we find ourselves in. Being a Christian, being a living proclamation that Jesus is Lord is our number one priority. This priority affects what we do with our lives and how we prioritize them. Who those first four were and what they did as fisherman along with time spent with Jesus prepared and gifted them for what they would be doing for his churches. Take this thought home with you: through every relationship of your life and everything you have done and are doing the Holy Spirit has been preparing and gifting you for the ministry that is going to happen through this congregation in the next several years. It is your giftedness for ministry, not some minister’s, through which Christ Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit will be primarily working to cast the Gospel net. Start thinking and praying about who he has made you to be and what he has gifted you to do because each of you are integral and necessary to what he is going to do here. Amen.

Leaving Everything

Text: Mark 1:14-20

Well, it’s a provincial election coming up this week.  As it is wrong for ministers to endorse candidates from the pulpit, I won’t do that.  In fact, I wouldn’t know who or what to endorse.  Elections and politics are so enshrouded by a famine of truth that I just shake my head.  Elections are odd events.  I remember when Barack Obama was elected.  The way the CBC – Canadian public radio – portrayed him, his candidacy and then the events of his election and inauguration you would have thought that there was a world-wide feeling that a new day had dawned, a new era in peaceful and just global relations.  This man, Barack Hussein Obama, was to be the harbinger of change who would end wars, turn the global economy around, bring about environmental solutions, end the dominance of big money cronyism in Washington, and on and on the hope list went.  The hopes and expectations placed on Obama were of messianic proportion and I don’t think I’m exaggerating.  

Well, I've brought all this Obama stuff up because all that hope in a new day dawning that surrounded his election in a small way helps us look at what was going on in Jesus' day.  I am in no way equating Barack Obama to Jesus the Christ.  I'm just drawing a meagre analogy.  Many Americans and more than quite a few people globally were hoping that with Obama a new era characterized by peace, justice, equity, and prosperity would come onto being.  Such also was the expectation of most of the people of Israel in Jesus' day; except for those entrenched in power.  People were hoping, indeed expecting that any day the Messiah God had promised them would come and run out their Roman oppressors and the corrupted Jewish monarchy and temple authorities and at last establish the Kingdom of God on Earth.  They were expecting peace, justice, equity, and prosperity to become a reality in their lives rather than poverty, oppression, religious fanaticism, and constant rebellion.  Most people, some more than others, were really expecting the Day of the Lord and the Messiah to come at any moment, true intervention by the hand of God. 

And then, in the midst of that tumult of despair and apocalyptic hopes comes Jesus of Nazareth proclaiming, “The time has come; the kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent and believe this good news.”  Jesus taught with an authority that the religious authorities simply did not have.  He healed every sickness and disease.  He cast out demons.  He did these miraculous feedings.  The Kingdom of God truly was at hand, the hand of Jesus.  By Jesus a new day was dawning.

Indeed, the time had come.  The Greek word that we translate as “time”, kairos, means a decisive moment in history that demands a response.  Jesus himself is that decisive moment.  The demanded response is to repent and believe, to leave everything behind and enlist your life in Jesus’ work of bringing in the kingdom of God, falling in behind him and following.  He would say, "Come, follow me" and people would.

I’m not sure if I’m letting us off the hook in noting this, but according to the Gospels there were only twelve people whom Jesus invited to come and follow him; thirteen if we count the rich young man who went away sad.  These twelve responded by leaving everything behind.  There were also others who left everything without Jesus asking them.  I’m thinking particularly of several women, the wealthy women who supported Jesus’ ministry.  There were also whole crowds who left everything to follow Jesus.  Following Jesus always resulted in leaving everything either permanently or just for a while.  He was the watershed event after whom everything would be forever different.

Of these twelve, the first four were fishermen and why fishermen?  Well, fisherman would intrinsically understand something about the nature of the work involved in God’s bringing in his kingdom through Jesus.  That work would be a lot like fishing with a net.  You spend your time preparing and repairing the net and then casting it either from the shore or from a boat.  In Jesus' case, the net is the means by which people are brought into the kingdom.  It is the gospel lived and proclaimed by the church, the good news that Jesus is Lord.  So then, the work of the kingdom that these fishermen would intrinsically understand was the preparing and the casting of the Gospel net.  This proved true for them.  Peter, like Paul, was a great caster in the early.  He traveled all over the Roman world gospeling – proclaiming Jesus as Lord and planting churches.  James and John were great churchmen, bishops of the early church who helped keep it ready to cast the net.

The kingdom spreads by casting, by the simple proclamation of the gospel in word and action not by gimmicky whatever’s to try to attract people and work a decision out of them.  The kingdom comes as congregations go about the work of being Jesus' disciples, the work of loving each other as Jesus himself loves us.  Kingdom work is all about how we do relationship in the church and with the world around us.  We spend our time preparing loving community among ourselves and then in time we cast our Gospelized community upon our surrounding community meeting real needs and by the power of the Holy Spirit Jesus shows himself to be truly the Lord.

Well, for all of us Jesus and his kingdom is the most decisive moment in our lives.  We know our lives would not be the same had he not called us.  To bring in his Kingdom Jesus continually requires from us the response of faith and repentance, of leaving behind what we’re doing and enlisting our lives in Jesus and his work of bringing in the kingdom of God.  This in turns means that the primary responsibility in our lives is following Jesus in the work of preparing and casting the Gospel net.  How we as followers of Jesus love one another, our families, our neighbours, indeed our God is the task that is of the highest priority for us each and us together.  

Peter, Andrew, James, and John were fishermen.  They had to leave that life behind and go forth and plant and build Christian communities all over the world.  Their work as fishermen prepared them for what Jesus would have them do in his Kingdom.  So also with us, Jesus takes all that we've been and done in our lives and by the work of the Holy Spirit uses that to give us our own unique perspective on how to use our gifts for participating in Jesus’ ministry of bringing in the Kingdom.  Just like Peter, Andrew, James, and John through everything we have done in our lives the Holy Spirit has been preparing us for our work in the preparing and casting of the Gospel net together as a congregation. 

I can speak for myself.  I’ve be a son, a brother, a grandson, a nephew, a cousin, a friend, a best friend, a student, a musician, a retail clerk in an automotive store and a hardware store, an assistant manager in a steakhouse, an immigrant, a divorcee, a husband, and a father.  Those relationships are where I have learned the relational skills necessary for the work Jesus has called me to do.  More specific to the call, I’ve been a seminarian, a minister in small town West Virginia, a presbyter in West Virginia, a minister in a small church where the Greater Toronto Area met farmland.  My work as a minister necessitated that I get steeped in the area of congregational redevelopment and the nature and needs of small churches.  Finally, I’m a Doctor of the Ministry, which means I’m qualified to teach and have a qualified opinion on the relationship between theology and congregational redevelopment.  My whole life has been Holy Spirit school preparing me for what I do in Jesus' church.  Moreover, through who I am and what I do the Holy Spirit continues to prepare and gift me for what comes next and will do so until the day I die.

Now with respect to your each, I would encourage you to look at who you are and what you’ve done and are doing with your life and ask how the Holy Spirit has been preparing you for work in the Kingdom.  The highest priority of our lives is being a Christian, being a follower of Jesus Christi in the midst of all our relationships.  The life of Christ is in us each and in every relationship we find ourselves in.  In the midst of our relationships is where we find Jesus ministering through the Holy Spirit and where we find him we repent, believe, and follow. Take this thought home with you: through every relationship of your life and everything you have done and are doing the Holy Spirit has been preparing and gifting you for the ministry of preparing and casting the net of the gospel through this congregation right now in this particular community.  Keep that in mind and in constant prayer be asking Jesus where he is ministering around you and through you.  Eventually you will see.  Last week, I told you to look around and pray and you will see the Kingdom coming.  That’s not just preacher babble.  I’m serious about that.  Amen.