"Look Y'all: Wake Up! Turn around and Be the Good News"

Sometimes when I sit down to write my sermons, I have a pretty clear idea of the direction I want to go and the message that I hope will be heard.

Other times, I feel as if I am yanking my own teeth out trying to find the right words and phrasing. 

And when the text itself feels like its own sermon, I'm thinking, "What more can I really say?"

As it happened, I was having one of those "What now?" moments with the opening of Mark's Gospel and the call of the disciples. But when I yielded myself to the Spirit to help me, guide me, give me what maybe somebody out there needs to hear...I ended up saying things that, for some, were likely the words they needed to hear...even if they never tell me that. 

I'm thinking of the new couple who came to church, seeking a place to worship, who smiled and laughed at some of my images. And the young person who brought a friend as almost a bodyguard into this strange little church that says it loves unconditionally...but do we really mean that love is for those who other churches have rejected?

No one specifically talked to me about the sermon, but in the end, I think I did God's will with my words. See what you think.

Texts: Jonah 3:1-5,10; Mark 1:14-20

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“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.”

I was recently having a text exchange with my mentor…Mother Lee Shafer…who serves at a church in Louisville, Kentucky.

In our back and forth…we talked about preaching and particularly about how hard it is to preach a sermon on Christmas Eve and Easter.

As preachers…we were both like, “What else can I say that hasn’t already been said, done, demonstrated in what we’ve heard in the Gospel?”

I really feel that about Easter!

I had no idea that I would have that same feeling as I looked at our reading this morning in Mark.

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.”

In one sentence…Jesus has basically told the whole story of this Gospel.

It’s the shortest sermon he will ever deliver.

When I was at our fall clergy conference… we talked about this line.

We noted it’s powerful declaration…that it comes so early in Mark’s Gospel.

Jesus is coming back from his testing in the wilderness. He hears that his forerunner…John the Baptizer has been arrested.

And this statement begins his ministry.

At the conference…we did an exercise where we were to say this line as we thought it should be said.

We were to bring our own voices to breathe out these same words of Jesus.

And never have you seen so many priests do anything and everything to avoid being called on to speak!

It was as if we were embarrassed to make this bold declaration ourselves…or maybe just too shy to put it out there.

Possibly…we feared what our fellow presbyters would think of us.

Thank goodness… a couple of deacons finally spoke up.

But instead of repeating the words on the page…they took it one step further…shortening the text and really making it theirs!

I’m paraphrasing but I remember one of them said something like:

“Look, y’all. Wake up! Turn around and be the Good News!”

What a great way to capture this moment!

What a way to bring what is on the page forward…and place it in our laps as the call to all of us to shake off old ways and habits that keep us from living and loving to our fullest potential.

And to understand that time for that to happen is right now.

I’m often struck by how many people think that this language about “the kingdom of God” is what we hope for when we die.

Like…physically die…stop breathing…cross over.

No: what Jesus is talking about is a death of things that prevent us from living into our potential and our call to be the lights and love of God in our world right now.

He’s talking about transformation and the grace of God that will carry us through those changes.

If there is one certainty about what happens to a person when they have an encounter with God…it’s that they will be changed.

We see it in the story we heard about Jonah…which by the way is one of the most hilarious reads in the Bible.

Jonah is this most reluctant prophet…doing everything he can not to go to Nineveh.

He hides on a boat…gets swallowed by a big fish.

When he finally does walk into Nineveh…he rails and rails about how God is going to destroy them… make mincemeat of them…if they don’t repent…and believe.

He’s got some regular fire and brimstone street preaching going on!

And much to Jonah’s astonishment…the Ninevites listened.

Even as he was cursing them…somewhere in all that hollering…the universal translator was employed…and what they heard was God saying, “Come back to me! Quit these ways that place a barrier between you and me…and come back!”

And thanks be to God….their change of heart and behavior spared them. That even through all that heat and shouting from Jonah…the call of God touched them…and moved them to respond.

We just never know what in our words or actions will become that conduit for God to reach another person.

How what words we choose to express our faith will make a difference and maybe help someone take a second look at themselves and realize that they really are a beloved child of God?

I often find myself in conversations with people who are not believers.

Some of them are more on the spectrum of not wanting to be part of “organized religion.”

Others are proud to proclaim their disbelief to me early and often as if I might’ve forgotten from the previous time before or something.

But I’ve had the occasion where someone who doesn’t believe in God…

Or more accurately…has been so hurt by those who say they believe in God that they want nothing to do with the church…that when we’ve spent time listening and talking…they’re often moved in ways they hadn’t expected.

When they’re met with God’s love….through presence and not with proselytizing…they feel that difference that maybe there’s something to this “God thing” after all.

It seems that’s what was at work with Simon, Andrew, James, and John.

Simon and Andrew were average fishermen working their nets in the Sea of Galilee…a freshwater lake that was good for fishing.

James and John were part of the Zebedee family fishing business…a much bigger operation run by their dad.

They’d probably heard about John…his whole come out to the Jordan…you sinners…and repent…and thought, “Nah. I’ll just keep fishing, thanks.”

But when Jesus shows up…and simply offers the chance to go “fish for people…” Simon and Andrew lay down their nets and follow.

Such a simple invitation…and yet it moved them so profoundly that they left behind their nets to see what this meant…this different type of fishing.

James and John…same thing. Jesus called. And they answered.

I’m not sure their dad was excited about this, but luckily he did have hired hands to help with mending the nets.

Turning around…moving in a different direction…believing and trusting in God’s grace to not fail us is a risk.

There will always be those who are the outside observers casting doubt on our decisions…or mocking us for listening to that small still voice of God within us.

But remember what Jesus proclaims in his one-sentence sermon:

God is present…right now…

Lay down those things which distract us and divert us from living in love and our fullest potential to be present.

Just our presence to those who are longing for a deeper connection to this One Love that’s around us is enough.

Or…in the words of a Georgia deacon:

“Look y’all: wake up! Turn around and be the good news!”

In the name of God…F/S/HS.