Tag: Encouragement

Anchored in God, Hope Comes

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[i]

Introduction

Lately, I’ve heard much about hope and our need to have it. Considering that we are immersed in socio-political events (both national and global) that are chaotic and tumultuous, this plea to the keeping and having of hope makes sense. Have hope! Cling to hope! Hope is all you need! Those exhorting us to hope see hope as the antidote to the creeping threat of despair and our increased paralysis to do anything. Hope is seen as the foundation and motivation to keep on keeping on as we feel lost in a sea of unmanageable events. It’s the supposed driftwood keeping us afloat among the raucous and stormy waves.

Unfortunately, the pleas to cling to hope above all else render the human being turning in on themselves. Hope becomes this illusive thing that we fight to have while finding ourselves increasingly unsure about what it means or even feels like to have hope. Hope is strangled in our death-like grip as we strive to keep it refusing to let go. We kill hope as we burden it with power it doesn’t have, forcing it do magic for us. We are convinced by those who encourage us to have hope that hope is the only way through events feeling way bigger than we are. And the more we fight to keep and have our hope, the more we turn in on ourselves; sadly, this trajectory will secure we not only lose touch with hope but will also lose touch with her little sister perseverance.

We can’t cling to hope thinking that it will keep despair away. It won’t. Hope isn’t the antidote to despair (it’s not even a good antonym for it). Comfort is the foundation of the reversal of despair. Encouragement, too. Once we have these two things in place, then, and only then, can we begin to make space for hope to show up. This is why Peter in our epistle does not tell his audience to cling to hope. Rather, he anchors them in something bigger, something outside of themselves, something that will comfort them and encourage them.

1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

Peter begins his final thoughts to his audience with endearment and encouragement. Calling them Beloved, he writes,

…do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal occurring among and in you to test you as taking place as alien to you. Rather, rejoice! according to which you are having a share of Christ’s passion so that also you might rejoice jumping for joy in the revelation of his glory. If you are defamed in the name of Christ, [you are] blessed because of the Spirit of glory, namely the Spirit of God, is resting upon you (4:12-14).

Peter knows that his audience will face persecution for their faith in Christ (from their neighbors and not as sent by God), especially as they participate in God’s mission of the revolution of love, life, and liberation in the world. [ii] Peter has already addressed the manifold fruit that comes from faith that will cause them to stand out. So, they will be tested[iii] and persecuted. There is no way to live in such a way that is both faithful to the proclamation of Christ crucified and raised and without test and trial.[iv] So, they must remember who and whose they are. Peter’s use of “beloved” in address isn’t just a nice way to address his audience; it’s a way of reminding them that their faith unites them to Christ in his belovedness of God. This is important because the testing and persecution that will happen is not bad but good, and Peter must try to help them reframe these experiences in the name of Christ.[v] Thus, as Christ is beloved of God so, too, are they. This also goes for their “fiery ordeal” and the persecution that will come because of their faith (in the name of Christ); as Christ suffered[vi] at the hands of errant humanity, so, too, will they.[vii] To experience both is to be “blessed”;[viii],[ix] again, just as Christ is blessed.[x] For Peter, it boils down to identification:[xi] if the believer is eager to identify with Christ’s blessedness and belovedness, then they must prepare to and welcome identification with Christ’s foundational[xii] suffering; there’s no option to have the former without the latter. So, Peter encourages them, rejoice now because you will rejoice later,[xiii] cloaked and covered in divine glory just like Christ.[xiv] (They are not to rejoice in or because of their suffering, but only because of what is to come in Christ.[xv])

Peter then shifts the focus away from his audience to God.[xvi] In light of what has been said,[xvii] Peter urges them, Therefore, humble yourselves under and toward the strong hands of God, so that God might elevate you in time (5:6). By centering God in the text, Peter gently directs the audience’s attention to God. There’s movement here; it’s more than just turning one’s head but directing one’s self, one’s body toward and under God. The only way to do this is through humility; in humbling themselves, Peter’s audience can direct their entire selves toward and under God. It’s here—under and toward God—where Peter’s audience will find their comfort and their protection, their foundation and stability, their sustenance and their fortitude, and (even) their hope and perseverance. He does not direct them inwards, but outwards toward God, the divine parent and loving progenitor of Christ, all of Creation, and of the faithful whom Peter addresses. Those who bring themselves low will be brought high by God.[xviii]

Thus, Peter can further beseech his audience,

Cast all your anxiety upon God, because this one, God, cares about you. Be sensible, be alert. Your opponent, the devil, walks about as a roaring lion seeking something to drink down. Oppose him, solid in faith, having perceived that your siblings in all the cosmos are undergoing the same kind of sufferings (vv7-9).

Peter’s audience need not bear their own anxiety as if no one is in their corner.[xix] Peter has spent the entirety of the letter telling them they are not alone even when they suffer for doing good and especially when they are anxious facing the reality of the suffering that will come. Peter’s audience can cast their cares on God because this one, this God, the parent of Jesus Christ with whom they identify, have God in their corner. This is important to remember[xx] because an adversary is on the loose, looking to devour[xxi] the faithful; [xxii] the faithful will only have success in opposing the opponent when they cast their entire selves toward and under God’s mighty hand of protection. This explains why Peter admonishes them to resist by faith, being clear minded and alert like a soldier on watch ready to resist incoming attack.[xxiii] It is not that they will resist this adversary by memorizing scripture passages or blindly holding to certain dogma and doctrine;[xxiv] rather, it’s about humbling oneself and being protected under the strong hand of God who will strengthen those who know they are weak apart from God. Peter’s audience is encouraged to find their support and strength[xxv] in God by faith; they can be comforted in knowing that the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also raise them both from the dead and into glory like Christ.[xxvi] God will help God’s people because God has helped God’s people in Christ. [xxvii] God will triumph over evil because God has already in Christ. Peter then takes this encouragement one step further and broadens their awareness to include their siblings who also suffer similarly; they are truly not alone.[xxviii]

In closing, Peter reminds his audience,

Now, the God of all grace, the one who called you into God’s eternal glory in Christ, after suffering a little while, God, God will mend, fix, strength, and establish you; to God be the strength forever and ever. Amen (vv10-11)

What they will experience and endure for this little bit while still here in the temporal realm will be vindicated in the coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead; God will not let God’s people endure suffering while here on earth and not follow through with restoration that comes in eternal glory for those who are located in Christ by faith.[xxix] At this point, Peter’s audience can have hope; here, they can receive hope because of all that has occurred before them and on their behalf. In remembering and recalling Christ and God’s work in and through Christ and what will come for those who are in Christ by faith, Peter’s audience can believe that this God is faithful to who God says God is and this is the foundation and the source of their hope. And it’s this hope born from this assurance that then gives them the necessary perseverance they need to endure the chaos and tumult that is present and will come.

Conclusion

When we think about hope we think about something we expect to happen in the future. In this way, hope is that thing that can disappoint rather than please. When hope fails to produce material or spiritual alterations to our life, it makes sense to ditch it. If my hope keeps presenting as dreaming of phantoms of good and better, then it’s nothing but that which perpetually disappoints me. The mythological carrot of sadistic King Future luring on the peasants of the present eager to steal their labor and love.

Another problem arises when we cling to hope as if it is the thing that will save us. As we do this, we turn in on ourselves, digging deeper eager to mine hope from the subterranean self. But it’s not there; it’s not deep in us like a precious ore waiting to be excavated. Our persistent digging only makes matters worse because in this instance it is all up to us.

Hope rides in neither with blind optimism about the future nor ruthless determination to have it. It’s comes with remembering and recalling; specifically, it comes in remembering and recalling what God has done in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. When I’ve read through the First Testament and the recorded stories of Israel’s journey and walk with God, Israel’s hope in God is a ripe present hope based on historical stories hallmarking the past: we hope now because God has done… Today we can press on because yesterday God saw us through it. These ancient stories of God’s journey with Israel and God’s work in Christ reminds us that what is isn’t ever all there is. We live in the collision of the possible with the actual, in what has been and what will yet be. Here in is hope’s realm.

Hope always takes up residence in the present with every anthology of the past stacked against her walls. Hope comes to us as we remember what is right now, isn’t all there is right now because in the past what was wasn’t all there was; all things are possible with God. Hope comes as we remember possibility. Hope comes with the whisper filled wind of history surging and coursing around our fatigued bodies causing us to remember. And as we remember, we find ourselves accompanied by hope and then perseverance.

[i] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[ii] I. Howard Marshall, “1 Peter,” The IVP New Testament Commentary Series, eds. Grant R. Osborne, D. Stuart Briscoe, and Haddon Robinson, (Downers Grove: IVP Press, 1991), 151. “[Peter’s Christians are to see themselves as] suffering at the hands of those opposed to God and his sovereign rule, and as part of the cost of bringing salvation to the world.”

[iii] Peter H. Davids, The First Epistle of Peter, TNICTNT, ed. F.F. Bruce (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), 164-165. “The picture of a refiner’s fire was picked up in the Intertestamental period as a picture for testing (therefore ‘to test you’)…”

[iv] Davids, The First Epistle of Peter, 164. “…our author turns toward the future. All the careful and considerate living possible will not prevent persecution…”

[v] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 165. “Thus these Christians are to see what is happening to them as a refining process that will reveal the genuineness of their faith…and therefore be to their ultimate benefit. While painful, this type of suffering is not something they should think strange, but something they should welcome.”

[vi] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 165. “there is a second reason why the readers should not think their ordeal is strange: it is the same type of thing that Christ received and thus it is an indication of their identification with him.”

[vii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 164. “Thus he encourages the Christians in Asia Minor, ‘do not be shocked’ as if what is happening ere ‘strange,’ using vocabulary familiar from 4:4….Do not think it is foreign; do not think that this ought not to happen.”

[viii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 167. “On the one hand, they are blessed now if this is the case…The very persecution is a sign of their blessedness. On the other hand, they are ‘insulted because of the name of Christ.’ To be so insulted is not simply to recive a rebuke…but as is the case in the contexts in which the term appears elsewhere in the NT and the Greek TO…it means to be rejected by the society (or even by humanity). And the reason they are rejected is ‘the name of Christ’; that is, because of their association with Christ either because of their life-style or because of their direct confession…Thus it is that because of their association with Christ their social group now rejects them; they are outcasts. But that is not their true state, for peter tells them they are blessed.”

[ix] Marshal, 1 Peter, 153. “To be insulted publicly is, by normal reckoning, a source of misery. But Peter echoes Jesus and says that, on the contrary, appearances are deceptive. IN fact, you are blessed.”

[x] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 164. “…these Gentile converts had no experience of being a cultural minority. Before their conversion they were perfectly at home in their city. And instead of rebelling against God they had accepted the gospel message. But now they were experiencing cultural isolation and personal hostility, not what they might have expected as the blessing of God. Well might they have wondered if something had not gone wrong. Thus our author reassures them: persecution is not something ‘strange’ or foreign to their existence as Christians. What is happening is right in line with Christ’s predictions.”

[xi] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 166. Identification with “…Christ’s suffering during his life on earth, especially his death on the cross.”

[xii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 166. “Instead of focusing on Christ’s present suffering in the church, Peter focuses on the church’s sharing in Christ’s foundational suffering, not in a salvific sense (there is no hint in 2 Peter that this sharing either forgives their sin or adds to the work of Christ), but in a sense of identification and real unity. In other words, as the Christians suffer because of their identification with Christ, they enter into the experience of Christ’s own sufferings.  This experience creates a re-imaging of their own suffering, which will allow them to see the real evil as an advantage as their perspective shifts.  This process is precisely what each of the passages in 1 Peter that use this language does; each encourages a reimaging of suffering as an identification with Christ (and thus a type of imitatio Christi is encouraged in how they behave in the suffering situation) that will lead to an eventual participation in his glory.”

[xiii] Marshal, 1 Peter, 152. “He is talking about rejoicing that, when suffering does come to us, we can see it as a sharing in Christ’s suffering.”

[xiv] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 168. “Thus those suffering for Christ experience through the Spirit now the glory they are promised in the future…Indeed, their very suffering is a sign that the reputation (glory) of God is seen in them, that the Spirit rests upon them. They can indeed count themselves blessed.”

[xv] Marshal, 1 Peter, 152. “…Peter is not urging Christians to seek suffering, even suffering for Christ.”

[xvi] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 186.

[xvii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 186. If all that has come before is true, then “the duty of the believer is not to resist (either attacking the persecutor or raging against God), but to ‘humble p[himself] under the mighty hand of God.’”

[xviii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 186. “…they are to see God’s work behind their suffering and submit, allowing themselves to be brought low, for his purpose is that ‘he may exalt you in due time.’”

[xix] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 188. “When pressures come on the Christian the proper response is not anxiety, for that comes out of a belief that one must take care of oneself and a lack of trust in God. It is rather a trusting commitment to God….in the assurance that God indeed cares and that his caring does not lack the power or the will to do the very best for his own.”

[xx] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 189. “Thus, after writing his comforting thoughts about God, Peter must go on to warn…[the devil] is on the prowl.”

[xxi] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 191. “The goal of the hunt is to find someone to devour.”

[xxii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 190. “The devil is not a neutralized foe, but one who is seeking the destruction of the believer.”

[xxiii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 189. “…here…the meaning is not literal soberness as opposed to drunkenness, but a clear-headedness that comes from a freedom from mental confusion or passion. Likewise alertness, which in military contexts refers to a soldier on watch, is opposed to mental and spiritual lethargy…. that would prevent one from recognizing and meeting an attack on one’s faith.”

[xxiv] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 191-192. “The devil is resisted by being ‘firm in faith.’ The concept is not that of holding certain doctrines firmly, which is a meaning of faith found in the Pastorals…but that of remaining firm in one’s trust in God.”

[xxv] Marshal, 1 Peter, 171. “What Peter is talking about is not putting strength into believing but drawing strength from what we believe.”

[xxvi] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 195.

[xxvii] Marshal, 1 Peter, 172. “During this period of affliction God will help his people.”

[xxviii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 192-193. “One thing that will make their commitment firmer is the awareness that they are not suffering alone. It is not ‘just me’ who is suffering or even ‘just us,’’ laments that make the suffering seem unfair and unjust, but ‘our brotherhood throughout the world.’”

[xxix] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 196-197. “The one who has planned and promised is also the one to whom belongs the power to fulfill. This is indeed assurance for his readers.”

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Be Encouraged, Beloved

Sermon on 1 John 5:9-13

Psalm 1:1-3 Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor lingered in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seats of the scornful! Their delight is in the law of the Lord, and they meditate on his law day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither; everything they do shall prosper.

Introduction

A couple of weekends ago, Daniel and I went to a store looking for a lamp for a bedside table. The table isn’t big, so the lamp needed to be a specific size. Sadly, when we got to the store (a secondhand store) the options for table lamps were sparse. About to lose hope, something changed. Suddenly, I said, “What if we look for a floor lamp instead?” Remembering that I had a lamp on my desk I was eager to get rid of and that was the perfect size, I switched my perspective and there were (now) many options available. We found a floor lamp that works marvelously, and the table lamp has a new home.

So, when I looked at the texts for this Sunday, I cringed and sighed. The passage from Acts made me furrow my brow and shrug. Scanning the Psalm, meh. The 1 John 5 passage made me cringe and shudder, gosh I dislike the assumption that Christians are better than others. The gospel was … to say the least… a lot and too much. So, there I was…speechless…: I wonder if I anyone would notice if there wasn’t a sermon?

But then: floor lamps. Oh damn. I went back to the text that gave me the strongest visceral reaction and looked at it again, but this time from a different perspective—bottom up rather than top down. 1 John 5:13 was like a neon sign at night with no other light around: I wrote these things for you all—those who believe in the name of the son of God—so that you may know that you have eternal life.[1] Boom. This isn’t a text about judging non-Christians or people of other traditions as inferior, hell-bound, bad, and life-less. Rather, it’s a means to tell a small group of Christians under attack to hold-on: hold the faith, little flock, God’s with you. And here, the author, like many others before, whispers courage and compassion to those struggling to make sense of things, who are fighting against doubt, who want to call it quits and walk away, wasn’t our life before easier? And rather than offer some trite colloquialism, what does our author do? Points up: this is of God and not of your doing; keep following The Way of Christ. You are not alone, the Spirit of God is with you in your fear, in your doubt, in your anxiety.[2]

1 John 5:9-12

If we are receiving the witness of humanity, the witness of God is greater; because this is the witness of God that God has witnessed concerning [God’s] son. The one who believes in the son of God has the witness in themselves; the one who does not believe has made God a liar because [they] have not believed in the witness which God has witnessed concerning [God’s] son. And this is the testimony: God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in the son of [God]. The one who has the son has life; the one who does not have the son of God does not have life. (1 Jn 5:9-12)

1 John 5:9-12

The author here is exceptionally (and painfully?) logical and mathematical. If we receive human testimony, why wouldn’t we accept the testimony of God who is greater? If we trust what our neighbor says who is capable of being inconsistent in retelling and lacking love, can’t we also trust God who is the substance of consistency and love?[3] And to what has God witnessed? God’s son: Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ died and raised.[4] This is the thrust of all four gospel narratives, the core of Paul’s theology that he was willing to die for, and through which the rest of the second testament weaves and wends. For John, this is not the stuff of humans but of God[5]—we couldn’t make this up and, if you really think about it, I doubt we’d want to.

The author continues, the one who believes has the witness from God of Jesus the Christ in themselves and the one who does not believe calls God a liar. Again, this is logical and mathematical: to believe in a witness is to affirm that the one who shares it is truthful; not to believe the witness is to say that that one who shares it is lying. If I say I have seen unicorns, many of you may not believe it and thus would esteem the claim a lie and me with it as a liar. To believe in the testimony of God is to affirm with the Spirit that Jesus is the Christ and to call it truth; not to believe is to categorize it as a lie. I want to point out that there’s no condemnation here, just a plain statement that those who do not believe do not have the eternal life that is found in and given by faith in Christ. They live, but not in the same way as those who claim Christ crucified and raised.

I also want to point out that for those who join in the claim of the centurion at the foot of the cross watching Jesus breath his last (“Truly this was the son of God!”[6]), faith affirms in us this man Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, is God. For those of us who believe the testimony of the women fleeing the tomb, faith affirms in us who Jesus is thus who God is for us. There isn’t the claim that there can’t be other ways to live, but that this is the way for those who have been so encountered. Thus, our affirmation is neither mere intellectual choice nor confession made by threat of death and hell; it’s the assertion of faith which is of God and in God.[7] We believe not because it’s been proven to us or is material fact, but because we’ve been encountered by this God in the event of faith and that encounter affirms the testimony of this God about this Jesus by the power of this Holy Spirit.

Conclusion

In this affirmation of the testimony of God is life. For John, it’s eternal life and it’s for those who believe in the name of the Son of God. Those who do not believe do not have life. This is tricky language and coarse to our ears in 2021. So, what is our author getting at?

First, this is not a recipe for the violence of threatening human beings in the name of evangelism. We are not to create systems by which we force people to choose life or literal death to confess Jesus is the Christ. You either do or you don’t; in the end God is love and loves all: those who do and those who do not believe. (This is the offense of the Gospel!). Jesus descended to the dead to release the captives and close those doors, not leaving them open for those who don’t believe. The most this text gives us is those who don’t believe don’t have the life that is promised in Christ to those who believe. This letter was written to Christians to encourage them; it isn’t a treatise on mission and evangelization.

Second, and importantly for us, the life we have in Christ by faith is life that is lived like Christ by faith. Faith asserts that the man Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, thus by faith we’re linked to and grafted into the history of this Jesus the Christ—in and into his life, death, resurrection, and ascension.[8] What was and is Jesus’s, is now ours—yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The church has existed, continues to exist, and will continue to exist not because of dry human rituals and violent force, but because this testimony of God keeps going forward calling people into it (culturally and contextually shifting, bending, and moving). It’s not our doing but God’s. Thus, in being grafted into the life of Jesus, we are ushered in as part of the manifold followers of the The Way of Christ.

And this is the way of life for the Christian, the one who believes the testimony of God: we live in love, in asking and granting forgiveness, in baptism, in truth, in reality, in possibility, and in solidarity with God and with our fellow human beings. In this way, we live eternally now and, one day, forever. For us Christians, the way of Christ leads through death into new life and is the way of freedom and liberation, release and the end of captivity—not only for us but for others. Having been given the way of Christ as our framework, we are made aware of what systems of death look like and what systems of life look like; we are made to be free in the world to bring life to those stuck in death not by forcing personal conversion at the tip of a sword (metal or verbal). Rather, we do so by exposing human made systems threatening death for those who don’t measure up to the dominant culture; and then we convert those systems by bringing them through death and into new life to participate in the cosmic and divine work of love and freedom.

Be encouraged, Beloved, hold steady; God is with you.

[1] Translation mine unless otherwise noted.

[2] I. Howard Marshall The Epistles of John TNICNT Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans 1978. 3-4, “…he here summarizes his purpose in the composition of this Epistle. He was writing to a church in which there had arisen divergent teaching regarding the nature of Christian belief…John now sums up by saying that the effect of what he has written should be to give assurance to believers that they do possess eternal life. John was therefore writing not to persuade unbelievers of the truth to the Christian faith but rather to strengthen Christian believers who might be tempted to doubt the reality of their Christian experience and to give up their faith in Jesus.”

[3] Keeping the consistency with the larger context of Chapter 5 and 4.

[4] Marshall The Epistles of John 17 “The witness of the Spirit is God’s testimony to Jesus.”

[5] Marshall Epistles of John 17, “…John is saying that we ought to accept God’s testimony precisely because it is God’s testimony and that this testimony concerns his Son, the supreme importance of the fact that Jesus is the Son of God is thus brought out. Because it is God who has borne testimony to Jesus and declared him to be his Son, it follows that acceptance of Jesus as the Son of God is of fundamental and decisive importance.”

[6] Mt 27:54; Mk 15:39; Lk 23:47

[7] Rudolf Bultmann The Johannine Epistles a Commentary on the Johannine Epistles Philadelphia, PA: Fortress, 1973). “This testimony can no more be exhibited as something at hand than can the testimony of the spirit. Ζωὴ αἰώνιος (‘eternal life’) belongs to the eschatological time of salvation, but is already present for faith; for God has given it to us as a gift, and according to 3:14 we know ‘that we have passed out of death into life.’ It can thus only be testimony in the sense that this knowledge is inherent in faith.” 19

[8] Bultmann The Johannine Epistles 19-20, “The basis of this knowledge is given by: καὶ αὕτη ἡ ζωὴ ἐν τῷ υἱῷ αὐτοῦ ἐστιν (‘and this life is in his Son’). That the ‘life’ can be the ‘testimony’ lies in the fact that life is there in the Son of God for the believer, indeed in the historical Jesus, in whom the life was made manifest, according to 1:1–3. On the basis of v 6, it is specifically to this historical Jesus that the spirit bears witness: the testimony given by the spirit and the testimony of God to the life bestowed upon us as a gift are one and the same, because life is given in the Son. One would not be surprised were the text to read: ἡ ζωὴ ὁ υἱός ἐστιν (‘The life is the Son’). But, certain as it is that the revelation of the life is given in the historical Jesus, the author does not risk the direct equation of ‘life’ and ‘Son’ (as is done in Jn 11:25; 14:6), but chooses to say that ‘life’ is given ‘in the Son,’ a formulation that appears also in Jn 3:15 (similarly Jn 16:33; 20:31).”

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God’s Near

Sermon on Mark 1:14-20

Psalm 62:6-7 For God alone my soul in silence waits; truly, my hope is in him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold, so that I shall not be shaken.

Introduction

I never paid much mind to the impact of my voice. I spent a lot of time not wanting to talk in public. I was safer staring out the window of the backseat of the car as a kid, retreating to the back of the classroom and hiding as a student, and sitting in the pew furthest back as a new Christian. I’ve only considered my voice to be merely a voice to me and my inner circle but lacking weight apart from carrying words into the air. I didn’t put much thought into the reality that we come into the world knowing one voice well: the voice of the one who carried us for a little over nine months. It’s the first voice we know; the second being that of the other parent but in a muffled way. I recall with clarity the screeches of my babies quieting across the OR as soon as I spoke: it’s okay little one, mama’s here.

I put even less thought into the impact the voices of my children would have on me. I recall vividly standing amid a large group of moms at a birthday party for Jack when a child’s yelp and cry sounded from across the park where dads and kids were splashing in a shallow creek. We all went quiet listening. And then I took off. No other mom ran, just me because it was my kid and none of theirs. I knew that voice because it was the voice of my child, and he needed me.

While I learned something about the power of my voice by becoming a mother, this knowledge isn’t relegated to motherhood. The voices of siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews, grandparents and grandchildren, friends, lovers turn our heads and bring warmth to our insides; it’s their voices we miss terribly when they walk this timeline no more. We also love and miss the sound of the barks, meows, oinks, baaas, maaas, neighs, and moos (etc.) of the animalkind we care for.

Mark 1:16-18

And while passing by alongside the sea of Galilee [Jesus] saw Simon and Andrew–the brother of Simon—while throwing nets into the sea; for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Come (!) behind me, and I will make you to become fishermen of people.” And immediately they dropped the nets and followed him.

(Mk 1: 16-18, translation mine)

Mark wastes no time getting us from the announcement of the divine son Jesus the Christ (1:1), into the waters of the Jordan (1:9-11), dropped into the wilderness temptation (1:12-13), and to the calling of the disciples (1:16-20) by way of briefly articulating the good news (ευαγγελιον).[1] The thrust of chapter one is the announcement that the ευαγγελιον has come into the world; it’s this good news that John the forerunner of the Christ proclaimed waist deep in water, and Jesus, the Christ, fulfills[2] as the divine herald.[3] For Mark, the content of the ευαγγελιον: “…the time has been fulfilled and the kingdom of God is has come near; repent[4] and believe in the good news” (Mk 1:15).[5]

Mark isn’t mindlessly rattling off details about the beginning of Jesus’s ministry; Mark is writing to disciples who are presently facing persecution and is eager to show them what it means to be a good disciple. Thus, the calling of disciples accentuates none of this is their doing but God’s. Mark’s people heard the voice of God call them and responded rightly[6] by following just like Jesus’s disciples did. Therefore, they like these men, are with Christ amid the suffering and persecution. Mark establishes that faith and following are inextricably linked; hold steady, little church, Mark maternally comforts, keep the faith; God hears your cries and comes; God is with you.

God has heard the cries of God’s people; the good news is on the move.[7] And where does it go? To the downtrodden and exhausted. Jesus goes neither to the religious teachers and elders nor to those who are wealthy and lead, but to the simple men, throwing simple nets, to catch fish.[8] Jesus goes not to the temple but to the sea. Jesus goes not to the powerful rulers but to the powerless ruled—from these he calls his disciples; to these the kingdom of God comes near. It’s here among this imperfect, rag-tag, group of laborers smelling of sweat and fish and sea where the kingdom and kingship of God is secured.[9]

Jesus doesn’t ask them to follow; he commands it.[10] It’s a command commanding the action in its entirety (now): Come behind me! (Now!) Unlike other rabbis who were sought by future students, Jesus calls his disciples to follow him.[11] These disciples will ask not: can I sit at your feet, rabbi? Rather they will have to self-reckon: Will I come behind Jesus? Will I follow Jesus? The crux of the predicament being the necessity of an overhauling and upending of their lives as they know it. Simon (Peter) and Andrew, as well as James and John (vv19-20) are called into apprenticeship that demands leaving everything they knew as is to become was in order to embrace what will be.[12]

This is the core of what it means to “repent” (μετανοιετε) proclaimed in the good news. It’s not about some verbal “sorry” or about professing how wretched you are. Instead, it’s about being called to reconsider things, to change your mind/purpose in the world, to align with the will of God and not the will of humanity—these two things rarely aligning (if ever). Jesus tells Peter and Andrew they’ll no longer fish fish to eat but fish people out of harm’s way. If they follow their lifestyle will change.[13] If James and John follow, they’ll leave behind their father and his way of life.[14] These fishermen are the epitome of what it means to repent and believe: they heard the voice of love—who spoke the cosmos into existence—and they turned, dropped their nets, and walked with God. To repent and believe is not about verbal self-flagellation because of God’s wrath in some desperate attempt to make God love you. It’s about being made aware God’s love comes to you lovingly calling you into God’s presence like a mother seeking and calling her beloved child to her bosom. It’s okay little one, mama’s here.

Conclusion

Simon, Andrew, James and John heard love call them into love’s presence and couldn’t do anything else but drop their nets and follow love. They didn’t follow an abstract concept of elusive warm feelings, but a tangible, fleshy, active, living and breathing love walking in the world. They won’t follow perfectly, but perfection isn’t the point; Love walking in the world is. It’s this living, breathing, active love they’ll proclaim after Jesus leaves and sits down at the right hand of God. It’s this living, breathing, active love that’ll cost them not only their livelihood, but also their life breath as they proclaim a love that upended and overhauled their society and their status-quo. Following this active, living, breathing love and asking the self-reckoning question that day on the shore, changed not just their lives but the lives of many others.

This love, this active, living, breathing love set the world in motion, keeps it in motion, and comes near and calls us today. The same love that walked along the wet sand of the sea of Galilee, walks on the frozen ground of this Ute land at the base of the National Monument calling us. We are the sought, the Beloved. And, we, like the disciples, must ask the same question: will I come behind Jesus? Will I follow after Jesus?

To follow will upend your life; to follow love, God, Jesus, will overhaul everything you know to be true about the world. If you drop your nets, you’ll walk away from that which is rendered “what was” to embrace “what will be.” The encounter with God in the event of faith—working out through “repentance” and “believing”—is death to the old age and old person and new birth into the new age as a new person (not as “sinless and good” but as “new and filled with divine love of God’s spirit”). The kingdoms of humanity rage against the way of love of the kingdom of God. Paul exhorts the Corinthians to behave as if God’s eternality eclipses the mortality of our human institutions.[15] He asks them to follow love so that through them and by them something new comes forth from death. “For the external structures of this world are slipping away,” (7:31b).[16] It’s okay little ones, Paul comforts, God’s near. The new age is populated with new creations perpetuating love and life and light into the world and letting that which is of the old age slip away so that something new can be built in its place, letting the divine phoenix of life break from the ashes of death.

[1] RT France The Gospel of Mark NIGTC Grand Rapids, MI: 2002. 88. “The narrative moves on rapidly from scene to scene, carrying the reader on by its own momentum rather than by any formal structural markers.”

[2] France 90, “For now the reader is expected to know it already, or must simply take it on trust. There is no place here to spell it out, since John himself is no longer in focus, and to delay over the details of his story at this point would distract attention from his successor, who now takes, and will retain, his place in centre stage. The role of the forerunner is over; the time of fulfilment has come.”

[3] France 90-1, “There is an important element of continuity between John and Jesus. The same participle κηρυσσων which described John’s ministry (v.4) now describes that of his successor, and at least one of the elements in that proclamation is the same…[the overlap being the ‘forerunner motif’] but also the messianic herald of Is 40:9 52:7; 61:1 whose role is to announce ευαγγελιον…and who is himself the Spirit-endowed Messiah.”

[4] Μετανοιτε (first principle part: μετανοεω) in v.15 it is an imperative 2nd person plural verb: a command to repent. The verb can also be translated as: you change your mind/purpose. It can also carry the idea of changing the inner person in regards to the will of God. It’s as if you were going in one direction and you are caused to change your direction.

[5] France 90, “Verses 14-15…play a crucial role in Mark’s story, as the reference point for all subsequent mentions of the proclamation initiated by Jesus and entrusted by him to his followers. Here is the essential content of the ευαγγελιον to which the people of Galilee are summoned to respond.”

[6] France 93, “With the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, therefore, a new era of fulfilment has begun, and it calls for response from God’s people”

[7] France 90, “Down there, people had had to make a special journey to John, but now Jesus is going to where people are, in the inhabited areas of his own province.”

[8] France 94, “…the Messiah himself refuses to assert his authority by an impressive show of divine…pomp and pageantry. The kingdom of God comes not with fanfare but through the gradual gathering of a group of socially insignificant people in an unnoticed corner of provincial Galilee.”

[9] France 94, “They [the disciples called] may, and often will, fail him and disappoint him, but their role is crucial to the achievement of his mission, for it is through this flawed and vulnerable group of people that God’s kingship will be established.”

[10] δευτε οπισω μου: come (!) after me. Δευτε is an aorist active imperative 2nd person plural verb indicating the action being commanded is being commanded as a whole.

[11] France 96, “Rabbis didn’t call their followers; rather the pupil adopted the teacher. Jesus’ preemptory summons, with its expectation of radical renunciation even of family ties, goes far beyond anything they would be familiar with in normal society. It marks him as a prophet rather than a rabbi.”

[12] France 96, “Simon and Andrew are being called to follow Jesus as their leader, in a relationship which went beyond merely formal learning to a fulltime “apprenticeship’.”

[13] France 97

[14] France 97

[15] Anthony C. Thiselton The First Epistle to the Corinthians TNIGTC 585, “…‘Paul’s point is not the transiency of creation as such….but the fact that its outward pattern, in social and mercantile institutions, for example, has no permanence.’ To combine Barrett’s emphasis on social, political and commercial institutions with the notion of outward appearance with Hering’s ‘disappearing across the stage’ we translate the sentence as For the external structures of this world are slipping away.”

[16] Thiselton 585, “The crumbling of the present world order is indicated by παραγει γαρ το σχημα τοθ κοσμου τουτου…Paul’s eschatological frame indicates a dynamic cosmic process. Hence we translate, For the external structures of this world are slipping away.”

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The Big Engine Who Thought She Could Not

There was once a big engine that could, so she thought.

Until, one day, she decided she definitely could not.

Her eyes traveled along the track up the great, big hill.

The daunting task engulfed her; steam puffs went still.

She grit her teeth and tried to gather from inside,

But the biggest problem was that her fire had died.

All alone on her track and without support to be found,

Her momentum slowed, then her wheels made no sound.

They stopped rolling forward; they went completely dead on the track.

All the work and the fight had worn her thin; she felt her morale slack.

An incredible exhaustion seized upon her tired frame fast

Until she started rolling backward, her forward-part last.

Anxious panic set in. What should I do? Where should even I start?

The bend was nearing, so she gripped the track with all her heart.

She caught herself in time before hitting the deadly, sharp turn;

But, man, did that friction between wheel and rail begin to burn.

She held still and began to regain her steely, metal composure,

When something caught her eye down below the steep shoulder.

Up the steep climb a small engine came huffing,

Wheels slowly turning and steam clouds puffing.

The small engine stopped to take a quick needed breather,

And the bigger engine turned so she could clearly see her.

Then their eyes met and locked together in knowing;

The smaller was following where the bigger was going.

“You shouldn’t proceed…” the big one said. “This path is quite frightful.”

The smaller smiled and replied, “But I hear the view is quite delightful.”

“Plus,” the small train started then stopped and then continued to speak,

“I never knew an engine built like us could even consider going to the peak;

Then I watched you start climbing higher and higher!”

Silence fell; the big engine felt something stir inside her.

The little one to the big spoke again, words fast embolding;

The big one leaned in toward the little she was beholding.

“And it’s not just me who has been inspired by your acts…”

Just then more chugging was heard below on the tracks.

More engines were weaving and wending up the treacherous mountainside.

She watched these little trains climb, inspired by how they worked and tried.

“I’ve been at this all wrong….” The thought began to grow in her mind.

“I’ve been looking for help from the side and ahead and not from behind.”

Her gaze returned to the tracks she was desperately clinging upon,

“Maybe…” she thought to herself. “Maybe for them I can climb on?

Even if it’s only an inch or two farther that I can offer,

It’ll be one less inch or two they will have to fight for.

She closed her eyes and gathered up her remaining bits of strength.

“For them…” She grit her teeth, bore down, and powered a length.

“For her…” and she went forward…covering more distance!

What had begun to stir was a full-fledged fire in an instance!

And on the train chugged and huffed,

Engine strong and steam clouds puffed.

There once was a big engine that gave into thinking that she could not;

Until one day a smaller engine reminded her she could, so she fought.

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