Mark 3 vs 1-19

When Someone Calls Your Name

Context is a suburban/urban congregation that includes a variety people from  a spectrum of socio-economic groups. Date of this message is about 1986.

When someone calls your name, your life is affected. Oh, of course, there are the times when it really is no big deal. But often our lives are molded and shaped by the people who know our name. When we are in the midst of a crowd where no one knows us, we are alone even though 1000 people might surround us. When we’re in the midst of a group of our friends, we are given a lot of encouragement just because these are people who know us and know our name.

Just watch a little boy or girl going to school for the first time. Little Jane is afraid to let go of her daddy’s hand. He’s the only person she knows in this new world of schools, of desks, and teachers, and, and students. And to hear him say Jane, I’m here with you gives her a little confidence but not much. Until, she and her father stepped through the door of the classroom, and there’s Amanda! Jane, Amanda cries, Amanda, cries Jane. and she lets go of her father’s hand and off she goes with the little girl that she knows.

 When someone calls your name, you’re affected. you might just think about those who run for political office, they have this vision of changing something in their world. A few years before they run, nobody really has heard about them. There’s no name recognition, as they put it in the political circles. but then a person starts running and they go meet people, and they meet people, and they meet people mor,e and their name becomes known and sooner or later there’s more and more people who know their name and now when we see that person’s face we say oh that’s so and so. And the person would like us to say, I’m going to vote for them. But, there’s only so many people who will call that person’s name and if not enough of them do when  the Election Day comes, they’ll fail in their effort to achieve that office.

About 2000 years ago, there was a group of people who had no pretensions about shaping what the world was going to be like. But there was a man who called their names. There was a man who said follow me, and when he did, something happened to these men. And because of who that man was, that group continues to mold and shape the world even today. Something profound happened when Jesus called their name!

Who were these people? Well, some of them we know a few things about and others we know very little about. But the one big ingredient in all their lives was that Jesus called their name when he sought to establish the Kingdom of God in this world.

He went up into the hills of Galilee, Mark tells us, and he had a large crowd following him. And he knew that he needed to have a special group of helpers who would preach about what God expects of us and the great good news of what Jesus was going to be. Jesus couldn’t do it all alone. So, what he did was to look over the crowd and choose some men to be with him, to learn what he had to teach, and to preach and cast out demons.

He called the name of Simon. now Simon was a fisherman. He was married and it seems he had two homes in towns that were on the shores of the sea of Galilee. Simon was quite a guy. He was brash, he was strong. He was a man who took leadership. He was a natural at leadership and he soon was the spokesperson for the apostles as they were called. Jesus gave him a nickname, Jesus called him rock. We know it better in it’s untranslated form of Peter. He was solid as a rock. He was the kind of person you’d expect Jesus to call to be a helper.

Then there was James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. These two were the business types who were always looking to get ahead. They had connections among the right people in Galilee and in Judea , even Jerusalem. If you needed a few strings pulled, these two would see to it that it got done. But, don’t cross them up, cause they both had a terrible temper. Even after they had been with Jesus for a couple of years, they had tempers that could really flare! They were looking for a place for Jesus and his followers to stay one night and a nearby village refused to put them up. James and John volunteered to call down fire to destroy that village. Boy, they were steaming. Jesus called the two, the sons of Thunder. When they struck, it was like lightning. They wouldn’t have been the sort you’d think Jesus would call to work for him. But, what can you say?

Then Jesus called the name of Andrew. Andrew was Simon brother. he was a spiritually minded man. he worked at being a fisherman because he had to, but he really loved the things of the Lord. He had been a disciple of John the Baptist until Jesus had come on the scene. As soon as he met Jesus, he went and found Simon and brought him to Jesus. He didn’t say much, but he was always ready to bring people to Jesus. That’s just what Jesus wanted!

Jesus next called a man named Phillip. Phillip was the man who if you asked him a simple question, couldn’t give you a simple answer. he made things a little difficult for himself by being too practical. Once, sometime after this, there was a big hungry crowd who Jesus wanted to feed, and he asked Philip where to get bread, and Phillip starts trying to figure out how much this is going to cost and where they could buy so much food. When all Jesus was looking for was some faith that said you can find feed them Lord.

We don’t know anything about Bartholomew. his name only comes up in the list of the apostles names.

Matthew was next. he was the tax collector. Even people like that could be used by Jesus. But his selection strikes most people as being out of place. He was a man who cooperated with the Romans. He made money, good money working for those invaders. He had a lot of people and friends that would have made your hair stand on end. Yet Jesus called his name, and he became one of the people who wrote the story of Jesus and his ministry. You and I know Jesus because of that day when Jesus called a great Sinner to be with him.

Jesus next called Thomas and we’d probably say that Thomas could hardly believe it. He’s presented in the scriptures as being a doubter and a cynical man. Yeah, Jesus calls him to preach and be with him.

We don’t know anything about the next two names either James the son of alpheus or thaddeus. Yet they too are numbered with the 12.

Simon the zealot was called next. The zealots were radical bunch of Jewish rebels. They especially hated the tax collectors, but here with Jesus, are a tax collector and a zealot, and they work together for the Kingdom of God.

And the 12th was Judas Iscariot. The man who would one day betray Jesus. He was the treasurer of the group. But he was not to be trusted. He liked to help himself to some of the money from time to time. but he too is given the task of preaching the gospel of the Kingdom.

What does all this amount to nowadays? Is it important to know something about these men? Yes, it is. The reason why it is, is because these men are the foundation of the church. They are our links to Jesus. And, they are people just like us. They show us with their limitations and their warts, that the most important thing in life is not who you know, but who knows you. And who calls your name.

When Jesus calls your name, your life is changed. When Jesus calls your name, you can never go back to being anonymous. Suddenly, you stand out and you stand on the foundation of these 12 apostles. They are the founding fathers of the new Israel. The 12 tribes of the people of God are the spiritual descendants of these men. Men who were brash, who made things difficult, who doubted, who carried swords, who collected taxes for a foreign government. You and I are part of that people of God. When Jesus calls your name you are given the opportunity to be with him, to learn about the Kingdom, and then in turn to become a missionary. Jesus calls your name in order to have you come in order to have you come to him, and you come to him in order to go out. There’s always that movement. That’s what makes the church a dynamic power in the world. That’s what changes the world.

2000 years ago when Jesus called those 12 they would never have dream that one day, we would even care that such a thing happened. But because Jesus was the one who called their name, they have changed the world, they are the foundation of our church. Without them, we’d be lost in darkness, but through them we have heard our names being called. When Jesus calls your name, be sure you answer, for he will change the world through you, praise to his name!

Mark 4:31-45  Does God Care?

Context of this message is an urban congregation in  a medium sized city in the American Midwest. It was composed for a New Year service of worship

Philosopher Umberto Eco tells of the time when he was a youth and his father took him to a soccer match. It was held in a great stadium and thousands of people were there to cheer on their team. But young Umberto was not impressed with the game and soon found himself daydreaming. He paid no attention to all the action on the field and really couldn’t care less about what one team or the other did.

He said that it was at that point in his life that he began to ask the question, suppose the world is like this? Suppose we are all as feverishly seeking to get ahead in life as the players are on the field, and nobody’s watching? What if God doesn’t care? What if there really is no God? It’s a question that nags at all of us in our lives.

We live our lives with as much polish and finesse as we can muster. We seek to do well at our jobs and occupations. We want our children to grow up with a sense of God in their lives. But always, there in the background of our lives, there lives this nagging question, what if it doesn’t make any difference? What if God doesn’t care? What if he isn’t even paying any attention at all?

The question comes out of the background and into the forefront when something we can’t explain happens. For example, last Saturday night, young man 19 years of age was out with some of his friends. They were drinking and as they drove around, the young man lost control of the car, it hit a tree, and his best friend was so badly injured that he died two days later. What if God doesn’t care? You see, the question just lurks there in the background, until something happens it forces us to look at the question square in the face and deal with it!

The disciples found that out. They had spent a day with Jesus, and he had taught the crowds all day. He had expounded to them about the Kingdom of God. He had told them some stories that would live in their hearts and minds for years. Then they had set out for the other side of the sea of Galilee. It was a beautiful evening for the five-mile cruise to the other side of the lake.

 Life was good. They were growing in their understanding of God and their place in the Kingdom. They had the wonder-working teacher with them. They were sure that this Jesus was somebody special Now, as they cruised along in the gentle breeze everything seemed good. Life just couldn’t get any better.

That’s when the first cloud rolled over the mountains nearby. Soon the gentle breeze had picked up strength and continued to grow and grow until a full force gale was going on. It beat the lake to a froth and tossed the boat around. The disciples, however, had several seasoned sailors among them and they felt they knew how to handle this crisis. They would man the oars and keep the boat afloat.

But the storm was a furious one. It kept gaining in strength and soon the waves began to break inside the boat. And as it took on more water, it began to be much more difficult to control. They began to be afraid. Their faith in their own ability was draining away as fast as the boat was filling.

It was then that they saw Jesus. Is he manning an oar? No. Is he bailing out water? No! Is he doing anything? Yes, he’s sleeping and the disciples are aghast. They rush over to where he is laying on a deck like structure in the stern of the boat with his head on a cushion, and they shake him awake and they cry out, teacher, don’t you care if we drown?

Do you hear what they’re asking? Do you care? Here they are, in the midst of a crisis, and they don’t ask, can you bail out water, or can you man an oar, they asked teacher do you care? What if he didn’t care? What if they drowned there on the sea of Galilee? Does that prove anything? Especially, does it prove that he doesn’t care?

 Now, the church that Mark was writing for needed to hear this question being asked. They were a church that, if we compared them to a boat on the sea of life, we would say, they were about to be drowned. Life was extremely difficult for them. They felt like they were going to die from the flood of persecution that was coming their way. They, too, wondered if the teacher cared. did he care that they were being thrown to the lions? Did he care that their lives were hanging in the balance? Did he care that they felt abandoned?

Have you ever felt that in your life? Have you ever wondered where God is in the middle of some difficult struggle that you have to deal with? Philip Yancey in his book disappointment with God says it seems to him that there are just two choices in life: disappointment with God or disappointment without God. We need to recognize that no one’s life is always going to be coming up roses. The disappointments Christians experience are made worse by the nagging question of, does God even care? Teacher, don’t you care if we drown? Is repeated in 1000 different ways every day.

I’ve seen it in the anguished look of a parent with a child who’s deathly sick. I’ve seen it in the look of a man whose business has gone bad and he’s facing bankruptcy. I’ve seen it in the tears of a wife whose husband has betrayed their marriage vows. Does God even care?

We stand at the threshold of a new year today. we stand and we peer into the future and we hope for a good year. Happy new year, we say to one another. The old year has had its run. It has had its chance. Maybe the new year will be better than the last one. And so we express our wish, except that the experience of humanity has shown that this year will be, yet again, one of disappointment either with or without God. Mark, in his gospel, in his good news, wants us to know that there is an answer to the question does God care? he shows it in what Jesus does in the story.

What the shrieking of the wind and the groaning of the boat could not do, the cry of helpless humanity does. It rouses Jesus who rescues them by commanding the wind and the waves to be still, and they are.

Miraculously. Suddenly. A peace that passes all understanding engulfed them. They were terrified. The peace that was spoken into being was even worse than the storm. They were afraid before, but now they are terrified of the one who gave them peace. He showed them that he cared, and it scared them half to death.

In this new year, there are going to be storms that rage in our lives. What seems happy and positive now, may turn to tragedy at any time. A slight twist or turn of the road of life may send us over the brink. And we will find ourselves with that nagging question rising up again, does God care?

In 1991 there was a popular song that said from a distance all looks peaceful and calm, you don’t see the fighting and the hurt and the pain. And then it went on to say, God is watching us, from a distance. The song said God is looking for peace and harmony, but remember God is watching us from a distance. That song sought to give an answer to that nagging question does God care? And it said, yes, but only from a distance.

That song sought to give an answer to that nagging question does God care but it said only from a distance.

The good news book of Saint Mark the evangelist tells us, yes God cares, and he is with us in the middle of the storm. He is not at a distance. Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. He feels our pain, he experiences our suffering, he bears our burdens with us. And to me that’s good news that’s gospel.

And there’s more! He not only is present in and with us, but he can and does say peace be still to the storms that threaten our lives. But I must warn you, the peace and calm can and will be even more unnerving than the storm. Do you know why? Because we will suddenly realize that it is God who is there with us. And will be ashamed at our lack of faith.

The apostle Peter was there in that boat. Tradition tells us that it was Peter’s recollections of the story of Jesus that Saint Mark wrote down. And only this account includes the line, teacher, don’t you care if we drown? It was a question that remained with Peter, he remembered shouting it at Jesus over the noise of the storm. He remembered how he felt about Jesus sleeping there in the stern. He remembered years later yet what it was like to see Jesus stand and command the storm to silence.

In his first letter, Peter doesn’t mention this specifically, but we can read somewhat between the lines. And as he nears the end of the letter, he tells his readers, cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.

Isn’t that something? The big brash fisherman who in his fright one night screamed at Jesus. Don’t you care? Years later had not forgotten the answer. And he encourages us to throw our anxiety on Jesus, because he cares. He cares!

That’s good news. That’s will make this a happy new year.

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Mark 15 vs 20 to 41  text vss 33, 34  Between Noon and Three

There are times when I wonder what it takes for someone to learn something. I’ve heard the story of a minister who moved from a quiet town where the parsonage was located on a very quiet St. They moved to a place where the parsonage was found on one of the busiest streets in the town. The pastor had a little boy who was used to running and playing on the quiet St. in front of his former home. Upon arrival at the new home, his parents took great pains to tell the boy, now don’t go running and playing in the street. This street is far too busy for you to be on it. Yet ,the story goes, the first day there, the boy was hit by car three times. None of these were serious but one begins to ask, what does it take to learn not to go in the street?

We can be so dumb, sometimes, can’t we? Teachers everywhere sometimes feel as though their efforts at teaching have been in vain because no one did very well on a test. Yet the human mind has great capacity for learning new things. It all depends on whether we want to learn.

That also makes me wonder what those who mocked Jesus as he hung on the cross would need to have them see the love of God in that scene. What did they think of the darkness that settled over the land between noon and three? What did they think of his cry of agony at the end of the darkness as it lifted?

We wonder how blind can they have been that they could not see what was going on before their very eyes? That has been a question that has remained unanswered, but which is asked again and again by those who read the story. What would it take to teach them their sin, to teach them their sin in condemning Jesus to death?

But then, we need to ask ourselves, what does it take to teach us about our sin? Because we often are gathered there at the foot of the cross with the jeering crowd wondering when Jesus is going to make his move. He saved others, we say, let him save himself. Let him come down from the cross and then we will believe that he is the Messiah. Our lives so often betray what we say we believe.

 And today on this Lord’s day, as you approach the table of the Lord, it is very important that we all understand with our hearts as well as our minds what was going on there at Calvary. We want to focus on the hours between noon and three of that fateful Friday. For it was in those hours that Jesus experienced the horror of hell for you and for me. The sun itself could not bear to give light when that happened and so the sun was darkened and a deep darkness fell over the land.

Picture it with me in your minds. There are three crosses set on the hilltop. They bear the bodies of three men who were condemned by the Romans to die for their crimes. Two men were robbers. Of the third, the sign over his head said, Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. The crowds that remained and swarmed around on the hill as they came to watch or passed by going to the city, were interested mainly in that center cross where the king hung. Only a few days earlier, they had seen him riding on the little donkey into the city and they had sung his praises. They had gotten into the spirit of it that Sunday, and they got into the spirit of spirit of it again as they jeer and mock and say, come down Jesus, show us your power.

Yet he hangs there in virtual silence. he doesn’t argue with the crowds or preach to them. He just hangs there in what appears to be great agony. Then at noon, without warning, darkness falls over the area. This darkness lasts for three hours and just as it begins to lift again, a loud cry comes from that center cross. Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani? my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? In a few more minutes, he’s dead.

For many, that meant it was time to go home. we might say, well the party’s over. It had been fun to see Jesus die. But let’s ask ourselves what about us, how about us? Christians say they participate in the death of Jesus. Do we? Were we hanging there on the cross? What can this mean? Why is the death of that man on the middle cross so much more important than the deaths of the others who were crucified outside Jerusalem’s gates that day? As we read the gospel of mark, we find that the darkness is significant for Mark’s timeline. The darkness comes between the act of the crucifixion and the death of Jesus. So mark wants us to see that the darkness is a sign of the curse of God that rests on his own son. During those 3 agonizing hours, the curse of God hung there on Jesus. The darkness is a message to us that in those silent hours, Jesus underwent the infinite torment of hell in his body and his soul. It reminds us of the book of Exodus where, as the people of Israel were going to be set free from Egypt and their slavery in Egypt, the 9th and the 10th plagues came. One of which was darkness which covered the whole countryside and then the death of the first born. Here, too, darkness covers the countryside and the first born of Mary dies.

Jesus is alone in his agony. He does not have the light of day to be able to see his friends there at the foot of the cross. And his father withdraws his love from the son. Jesus is utterly alone. He is abandoned to the terror and the agony of hell.

But why? What crime has he done? There is nothing that warrants his death, surely there’s nothing that condemns him to hell. The crimes he died for were mine, were yours. The suffering of hell was for us, you, me. The loneliness was ours that he bore. The agony of being forsaken by God was my chosen way of life. But he came and he walked in my place. He died my death. He did it because he loved me. And not just me, you too.

The wonder of it all is more than we can comprehend. God took our punishment and laid it all on Jesus. Because of that we will never know the awful agony that Jesus went through. In the midst of our deepest despair, our God will always be there with us. He will not abandon us, he loves us. Jesus assures us of that.

This is how mark encouraged those for whom he wrote his gospel. They faced evil days in their lifetimes. But God had forsaken Jesus so that would mean now the church would experience his power his presence in their lives, yes, even in their death.

So now the way to God is opened up for us. We can know that we are accepted of God in Jesus Christ. You can no longer be required to live a perfect life and to be acceptable to God. Nobody can do that. That’s why God sent Jesus. You need only turn from your sinful ways. Stop  your jeering, and look in faith to the man who hung there on that middle cross on Golgotha. The others deserve their death. Jesus deserved his too because he took your place and he took mine. But that’s the only reason he deserved his death. You will even find in the midst of your messed up life that God will not abandon you. He will pursue you and seek to have you be renewed in your life in Christ by the power of his Holy Spirit. Then with Paul we will say that we have died with Christ. And now it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

The bread and the wine at the Lord’s table are there to nourish our souls with the life of our savior who died to give us that life. Let’s come with joy to his table.