A Little Get Up And Go
“A Little Get Up And Go”
Mark 1:14-20
January 22, 2006 CCUM
Rev. Carolyn Waters
Don’t you think it would have been exciting to have had the opportunity to have actually been one of the guys out fishing that day, doing their usual tasks of making their living, working as on any other day, chatting about the weather, the pending rain storm or the upcoming Broncos game………..and out of nowhere, completely unexpected comes this stranger that’s been the talk of the town, walks up to the guys with their fishing nets and says, “come with me! Leave all this behind. Are we ever going to be in for a ride! This is something you really won’t want to miss out on, come, follow me.”
Wow! Talk about a life changing experience!
Really, think about it. Wouldn’t it have been an amazing thing to have actually had the real life experience of being approached by the man Jesus and invited to join in on his little escapade. You would not have had any idea what would happen. You would not have known that where you were going to eat, or sleep, or what you were going to wear. You would not have know what you might experience or what history you would be making.
You would have simply been invited to take a pass for the day on mending your nets and going out later in the night to fish and swat mosquitoes!
Would you have gone? Or is it easier to just fantasize about what it might have been like to be invited!
I’ve always been one for taking adventures. I’ve always been one for doing things that other people don’t do. That’s probably why I played trombone in Junior High and High School band. One of two girls in a sea of football players at the district band events! But the two of us who were not football players always won out for first part, ahead of the football players. And then there was the bus-driving career I had the last two years of high school. It’s the way the busses got driven in my small town, but again it was usually the guys. This particular year three girls went to bus-driving school. We were the only three out of 200 high school guys on the college campus for two weeks being trained and laughed at. We passed in the upper 5%…..1/3 of the group failed. We drove the buses!
And then there’s the whole chapter of going into ministry when “women” just didn’t do that. There were times in the past 30 years that I thought I should have listed to that warning, and taken another path………..but in the current analysis of my life, I’m glad I didn’t.
In many ways it feels like my life had been one adventure after another. Moving from state to state, place to place, congregation to congregation, football team to football team………..constant change, constant growth, lots of adventure, a number of bad mistakes, and many opportunities.
Would I have gotten up from my comfortable position as first part fisherwoman net repair person and followed Jesus?
Well, let me think about that one for a moment!
What did this guy look like?
What kind of job security did he offer?
How was the pension fund doing in the current market?
Did his Masters of Divinity come from an accredited institution of higher learning?
Were the other followers intelligent people?
Had he made a fool of himself in public places?
By the time I finished checking his references, my guess is that he would have passed me by and gone down the fishing bank to more willing listeners and potential followers.
I’d like to imagine that I would have followed reckless abandon and just gotten up and walked. No questions asked.
An adventure of a lifetime I think…. it would have been.
William Loader, one of my favorite NT scholars, says that “the calling of James and John and Simon and Andrew to leave all and follow……….function as a protest not against life at home, but more generally against societal structures which simply perpetuate the past and trap people into the service of the status quo and its gods. But Jesus’ socially disruptive call upset the system not only for those called but also for those left behind. It called for a new way of looking at life, wherever you are. There is a new set of priorities. This means changed values, but it is more than that. It means a new god, or better, a return to the God of compassion and justice.” “That,” Loader says, “will make a huge difference wherever we are.”
So my own answer to my pondering about whether I would have gotten up and gotten on with following Jesus is that either way, I would have been changed because of who Jesus is. Whether I followed him then or stayed behind, whether I follow him now, or stay behind………….I am not the same person and the world is not the same place because he was.
And because he was, I am a different person than who I might have been had he not been.
So in my pondering if I would have followed if invited, the answer seems obvious that I have, that I am, that I did.
And you? What about you?
Did you, are you, have you followed? Or have you been invited to follow?
Follow what? In the footsteps, in the intention, giving up anything at all or choosing in any way to live your life differently because of who this man was……………do you follow this person?
Dallas Willard is a professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California and author of a popular book about four years ago, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God says of discipleship or following:
“A disciple or apprentice is simply someone who has decided to be with another person, under appropriate conditions, in order to become capable of doing what that person does or to become what that person is.”
Ok, so I’d follow this man Jesus in order to do what he does? I don’t know about that. Don’t know that I’d be interested in that job description! Don’t think I like the retirement plan.
What else does Willard say about discipleship and following Jesus?
Hear his words continue:
“How does this apply to discipleship to Jesus? What is it, exactly, that he, the incarnate Lord, does? What, if you wish, is he "good at"? The answer is found in the Gospels: he lives in the kingdom of God, and he applies that kingdom for the good of others and even makes it possible for them to enter it themselves. The deeper theological truths about his person and his work do not detract from this simple point. It is what he calls us to by saying, "Follow me."
Ok, let me re-think this for a moment or a life-time. What Jesus does is that he lives in the Kingdom of God, and following him is about my learning how to live in the kingdom of God. That might be a life description that I can accept. So following Jesus and doing what he does is about living in the Kingdom of God.
What else? What about me?
Willard says:
“Another important way of putting this is to say that I am learning from Jesus to live my life as he would live life if he were I. I am not necessarily learning to do everything he did, but I am learning how to do everything I do in the manner in which he did all that he did.”
That a nice fresh twist on WWJD. Rather than pretending to live out “What would Jesus Do,” I live out what will Carolyn do learning from What Jesus Did?” WWCDLFWJD! Think it could catch on? Except that you have to put your name in there, not mine!
Willard continues:
“So as his disciple I am not necessarily learning how to do special religious things, either as a part of "full-time service" or as a part of "part-time service." My discipleship to Jesus is, within, clearly definable limits, not a matter of what I do, but of how I do it. And it covers everything, "religious" or not.”
Just wondering, does anyone have the energy, or the time, or the interest….or the desire….To Get Up and Go?
Mark 1:14-20
January 22, 2006 CCUM
Rev. Carolyn Waters
Don’t you think it would have been exciting to have had the opportunity to have actually been one of the guys out fishing that day, doing their usual tasks of making their living, working as on any other day, chatting about the weather, the pending rain storm or the upcoming Broncos game………..and out of nowhere, completely unexpected comes this stranger that’s been the talk of the town, walks up to the guys with their fishing nets and says, “come with me! Leave all this behind. Are we ever going to be in for a ride! This is something you really won’t want to miss out on, come, follow me.”
Wow! Talk about a life changing experience!
Really, think about it. Wouldn’t it have been an amazing thing to have actually had the real life experience of being approached by the man Jesus and invited to join in on his little escapade. You would not have had any idea what would happen. You would not have known that where you were going to eat, or sleep, or what you were going to wear. You would not have know what you might experience or what history you would be making.
You would have simply been invited to take a pass for the day on mending your nets and going out later in the night to fish and swat mosquitoes!
Would you have gone? Or is it easier to just fantasize about what it might have been like to be invited!
I’ve always been one for taking adventures. I’ve always been one for doing things that other people don’t do. That’s probably why I played trombone in Junior High and High School band. One of two girls in a sea of football players at the district band events! But the two of us who were not football players always won out for first part, ahead of the football players. And then there was the bus-driving career I had the last two years of high school. It’s the way the busses got driven in my small town, but again it was usually the guys. This particular year three girls went to bus-driving school. We were the only three out of 200 high school guys on the college campus for two weeks being trained and laughed at. We passed in the upper 5%…..1/3 of the group failed. We drove the buses!
And then there’s the whole chapter of going into ministry when “women” just didn’t do that. There were times in the past 30 years that I thought I should have listed to that warning, and taken another path………..but in the current analysis of my life, I’m glad I didn’t.
In many ways it feels like my life had been one adventure after another. Moving from state to state, place to place, congregation to congregation, football team to football team………..constant change, constant growth, lots of adventure, a number of bad mistakes, and many opportunities.
Would I have gotten up from my comfortable position as first part fisherwoman net repair person and followed Jesus?
Well, let me think about that one for a moment!
What did this guy look like?
What kind of job security did he offer?
How was the pension fund doing in the current market?
Did his Masters of Divinity come from an accredited institution of higher learning?
Were the other followers intelligent people?
Had he made a fool of himself in public places?
By the time I finished checking his references, my guess is that he would have passed me by and gone down the fishing bank to more willing listeners and potential followers.
I’d like to imagine that I would have followed reckless abandon and just gotten up and walked. No questions asked.
An adventure of a lifetime I think…. it would have been.
William Loader, one of my favorite NT scholars, says that “the calling of James and John and Simon and Andrew to leave all and follow……….function as a protest not against life at home, but more generally against societal structures which simply perpetuate the past and trap people into the service of the status quo and its gods. But Jesus’ socially disruptive call upset the system not only for those called but also for those left behind. It called for a new way of looking at life, wherever you are. There is a new set of priorities. This means changed values, but it is more than that. It means a new god, or better, a return to the God of compassion and justice.” “That,” Loader says, “will make a huge difference wherever we are.”
So my own answer to my pondering about whether I would have gotten up and gotten on with following Jesus is that either way, I would have been changed because of who Jesus is. Whether I followed him then or stayed behind, whether I follow him now, or stay behind………….I am not the same person and the world is not the same place because he was.
And because he was, I am a different person than who I might have been had he not been.
So in my pondering if I would have followed if invited, the answer seems obvious that I have, that I am, that I did.
And you? What about you?
Did you, are you, have you followed? Or have you been invited to follow?
Follow what? In the footsteps, in the intention, giving up anything at all or choosing in any way to live your life differently because of who this man was……………do you follow this person?
Dallas Willard is a professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California and author of a popular book about four years ago, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God says of discipleship or following:
“A disciple or apprentice is simply someone who has decided to be with another person, under appropriate conditions, in order to become capable of doing what that person does or to become what that person is.”
Ok, so I’d follow this man Jesus in order to do what he does? I don’t know about that. Don’t know that I’d be interested in that job description! Don’t think I like the retirement plan.
What else does Willard say about discipleship and following Jesus?
Hear his words continue:
“How does this apply to discipleship to Jesus? What is it, exactly, that he, the incarnate Lord, does? What, if you wish, is he "good at"? The answer is found in the Gospels: he lives in the kingdom of God, and he applies that kingdom for the good of others and even makes it possible for them to enter it themselves. The deeper theological truths about his person and his work do not detract from this simple point. It is what he calls us to by saying, "Follow me."
Ok, let me re-think this for a moment or a life-time. What Jesus does is that he lives in the Kingdom of God, and following him is about my learning how to live in the kingdom of God. That might be a life description that I can accept. So following Jesus and doing what he does is about living in the Kingdom of God.
What else? What about me?
Willard says:
“Another important way of putting this is to say that I am learning from Jesus to live my life as he would live life if he were I. I am not necessarily learning to do everything he did, but I am learning how to do everything I do in the manner in which he did all that he did.”
That a nice fresh twist on WWJD. Rather than pretending to live out “What would Jesus Do,” I live out what will Carolyn do learning from What Jesus Did?” WWCDLFWJD! Think it could catch on? Except that you have to put your name in there, not mine!
Willard continues:
“So as his disciple I am not necessarily learning how to do special religious things, either as a part of "full-time service" or as a part of "part-time service." My discipleship to Jesus is, within, clearly definable limits, not a matter of what I do, but of how I do it. And it covers everything, "religious" or not.”
Just wondering, does anyone have the energy, or the time, or the interest….or the desire….To Get Up and Go?
posted by Rev Waters | 8:53 AM
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