Sermon 14th June 2015

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Adrian Parkhouse, preaches. 

The reading is from Mark 3:7-19

“From many to 12”

“Can you expect the wedding guests to fast in the bridegroom’s presence?” Mark 2: 19

I am sure Ben will forgive me for reaching back across the weeks to steal a verse from the passage on which he preached to set the scene this morning. 

Q:  Why don’t your disciples fast?

 A:  They are like men on a stag night:  what do you expect?

Already in our studies of Mark’s gospel, the people around Jesus, those he called and those who came to join as his followers have featured large:  the fishermen on the lake shore, Levi in his tax office, the crowds bringing the sick and the possessed to the door of Simon’s mother-in-law, the “people coming from all quarters”, the walk across the Sabbath cornfield – and now the large crowd of people following and pressing in on the lakeside.

And our passage today tells how Jesus takes time aside – as he often tried to and sometimes managed (in Luke’s account he spends this whole night in prayer) – and then called to himself the men he wanted/called to him those he wanted (13).   He chooses the twelve.  They were summoned up the hill/mountain.  It is interesting that some translations (including GNB) include the phrase “whom he named apostles” (meaning “someone who is sent”);  others (including the NIV) don’t– and the distinction reflects a difference in the underlying manuscripts.  The difference is not important for today – though sadly the issue of who was or was not an apostle was to feature large later in the life of the young church (see Paul’s letter to the Galatians and 2 Cor).  If anything by drawing attention to “job titles” what this point highlights is that in fact the gospel writers use the title of “disciple” quite lightly:  sometimes it refers to the 12;  and sometimes it refers to the wider group of people who have become followers of Jesus.

Even so, “discipleship”, what it means to be a follower of Jesus, is a primary theme in Mark’s gospel.  It is as if we are watching a TV drama where the director has one of the cameras constantly focused on the disciples and again and again the director takes us to them:  we hear what they are saying, we gauge what they are thinking, we laugh at them, we laugh with them, we are shocked by them, we feel for them, we share their experiences: joy, surprise, “who me?!”, self-importance, faith, no-faith, getting it right, getting it wrong, being loyal, running away, understanding, not understanding, victory, fear.  We are with them as they collect the baskets of uneaten bread at the great feedings, we are in the boat in the storm as it dies away, there in the excitement of their return from their own missionary journeys, then we are with them on the road bickering about who is to sit next to him in heaven.  Just like them, to us some of what he says makes sense – but we understand why they don’t understand when he talks of sacrifice.  Like them, we want to be like other people’s disciples – like John’s , we want to know the secret of his praying:  teach us how to pray.  And then we watch ourselves – because it might as well be us now – in that final week in Jerusalem.

It is good – if completely coincidental – that we are all wearing name badges this morning/Emily is getting baptised this morning.  Names and naming feature high in our passage.  We have the names of the 12 themselves (including the new nicknames given to Simon, James and John) and, if we follow the GNB, we have all 12 named as “the apostles”.  This is the start of the discipling journey – and starting with names in a natural thing.  Being individual, bringing themselves with all their individual differences, all represented by their name.  If you have had children, you will have had two relevant experiences;  First, the awesome responsibility of choosing a name for your child – how will it influence their future?  [How do you feel about your name?  Anyone actually changed theirs?  Not very keen on mine:  every sign of chance – delegated to my brother. ]

 Second, you have that the realisation that the baby is not a “little-you” – it is its own person:  it is “different from you”.  That control you exercised in the naming process is fleeting:  the child is herself/himself has its own likes, dislikes and its own will!  And that is us, at the bottom the hillside;  followers, disciples, each with our name, each with own histories, each with our own characteristics – the thing we have in common is a common desire to be a follower of Jesus.

Jesus chose the 12 to be with him and to be sent out to preach.  This is the second phase of discipling:  watching, listening, learning, testing, trying out.  That is what the 12 were to experience up and down the tracks of Palestine, by the lakeside and in the villages and towns:  listening how to pray, having lessons just for them on the meaning of parables, going out themselves to preach the good news, getting things wrong (“no children please!”) and getting things right (“you are the Christ!”).  This is the “being with” phase.  As you read the gospel, the mood becomes more sombre as the group approaches Jerusalem for the last time, as they are sent to find a colt and then an upper room:  no longer is this the fun of the stag party careering across the cornfield.  While the 12 are still far from understanding everything that is to happen, “being with” Jesus has taught them some of its significance.  And during that week in Jerusalem all they have learned will seem wasted.  They will fail. They will hide their name badges and run away.  Until failure is turned into joy at the empty tomb.

We recognise this “being with” phase too?  Committing to follow, being chosen, means for most of us startingSunday 14 June 2015:  Mark 3:7-19:  “From many to 12”

“Can you expect the wedding guests to fast in the bridegroom’s presence?” Mark 2: 19

I am sure Ben will forgive me for reaching back across the weeks to steal a verse from the passage on which he preached to set the scene this morning. 

Q:  Why don’t your disciples fast?

 A:  They are like men on a stag night:  what do you expect?

Already in our studies of Mark’s gospel, the people around Jesus, those he called and those who came to join as his followers have featured large:  the fishermen on the lake shore, Levi in his tax office, the crowds bringing the sick and the possessed to the door of Simon’s mother-in-law, the “people coming from all quarters”, the walk across the Sabbath cornfield – and now the large crowd of people following and pressing in on the lakeside.

And our passage today tells how Jesus takes time aside – as he often tried to and sometimes managed (in Luke’s account he spends this whole night in prayer) – and then called to himself the men he wanted/called to him those he wanted (13).   He chooses the twelve.  They were summoned up the hill/mountain.  It is interesting that some translations (including GNB) include the phrase “whom he named apostles” (meaning “someone who is sent”);  others (including the NIV) don’t– and the distinction reflects a difference in the underlying manuscripts.  The difference is not important for today – though sadly the issue of who was or was not an apostle was to feature large later in the life of the young church (see Paul’s letter to the Galatians and 2 Cor).  If anything by drawing attention to “job titles” what this point highlights is that in fact the gospel writers use the title of “disciple” quite lightly:  sometimes it refers to the 12;  and sometimes it refers to the wider group of people who have become followers of Jesus.

Even so, “discipleship”, what it means to be a follower of Jesus, is a primary theme in Mark’s gospel.  It is as if we are watching a TV drama where the director has one of the cameras constantly focused on the disciples and again and again the director takes us to them:  we hear what they are saying, we gauge what they are thinking, we laugh at them, we laugh with them, we are shocked by them, we feel for them, we share their experiences: joy, surprise, “who me?!”, self-importance, faith, no-faith, getting it right, getting it wrong, being loyal, running away, understanding, not understanding, victory, fear.  We are with them as they collect the baskets of uneaten bread at the great feedings, we are in the boat in the storm as it dies away, there in the excitement of their return from their own missionary journeys, then we are with them on the road bickering about who is to sit next to him in heaven.  Just like them, to us some of what he says makes sense – but we understand why they don’t understand when he talks of sacrifice.  Like them, we want to be like other people’s disciples – like John’s , we want to know the secret of his praying:  teach us how to pray.  And then we watch ourselves – because it might as well be us now – in that final week in Jerusalem.

It is good – if completely coincidental – that we are all wearing name badges this morning/Emily is getting baptised this morning.  Names and naming feature high in our passage.  We have the names of the 12 themselves (including the new nicknames given to Simon, James and John) and, if we follow the GNB, we have all 12 named as “the apostles”.  This is the start of the discipling journey – and starting with names in a natural thing.  Being individual, bringing themselves with all their individual differences, all represented by their name.  If you have had children, you will have had two relevant experiences;  First, the awesome responsibility of choosing a name for your child – how will it influence their future?  [How do you feel about your name?  Anyone actually changed theirs?  Not very keen on mine:  every sign of chance – delegated to my brother. ]

 Second, you have that the realisation that the baby is not a “little-you” – it is its own person:  it is “different from you”.  That control you exercised in the naming process is fleeting:  the child is herself/himself has its own likes, dislikes and its own will!  And that is us, at the bottom the hillside;  followers, disciples, each with our name, each with own histories, each with our own characteristics – the thing we have in common is a common desire to be a follower of Jesus.

Jesus chose the 12 to be with him and to be sent out to preach.  This is the second phase of discipling:  watching, listening, learning, testing, trying out.  That is what the 12 were to experience up and down the tracks of Palestine, by the lakeside and in the villages and towns:  listening how to pray, having lessons just for them on the meaning of parables, going out themselves to preach the good news, getting things wrong (“no children please!”) and getting things right (“you are the Christ!”).  This is the “being with” phase.  As you read the gospel, the mood becomes more sombre as the group approaches Jerusalem for the last time, as they are sent to find a colt and then an upper room:  no longer is this the fun of the stag party careering across the cornfield.  While the 12 are still far from understanding everything that is to happen, “being with” Jesus has taught them some of its significance.  And during that week in Jerusalem all they have learned will seem wasted.  They will fail. They will hide their name badges and run away.  Until failure is turned into joy at the empty tomb.

We recognise this “being with” phase too?  Committing to follow, being chosen, means for most of us starting a whole new journey where we are not sure we know how to read the map?  For example, everything I have said today may make no sense at all – lots of references to Bible stories with which we may not be familiar?  It takes time and application to be a disciple – to learn, time to test, time to try again – learning the code to the sermons is the least important thing:  learning to love God and love one another is of great importance. 

The 12 were chosen not just to “be with” Jesus but also to be “sent out” to preach.  The experiments they were try out later in the gospel were seen to be a foretaste of the “Great Commission” after the resurrection:  “You must go to the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature! (16:15). Having learned, they were to take responsibility.  Well done them!

Naming;  being with and being sent.  The 12, the apostles.  But I wonder what the mood was at the bottom of the hill - among those who were not summoned up the hill?  I have this picture in my mind of everyone having turned up that day with their CVs ready, hoping for an interview.  Begs the question as to what a CV for an apostle might contain?  And it might lead to an interesting sketch on th interview process?  This line of thought led me inevitably to the internet and things people wish they hadn’t put in their job applications:

KEY SKILLS: “I would like to assure you that I am a hardly working person”

SIZE OF CURRENT EMPLOYER: “Very tall, probably over 6’5″”

But to return to the line of thought, I am thinking of those folk who have seen the 12 go up the hill –  that special 12, the number of the tribes of Israel – how are we feeling?

I raise this question because I am acutely aware that it may seem that there is an increasing number of “opportunities for service” in the parish at the moment:  in both churches there are the regularly repeated requests for volunteers for the every-Sunday tasks [Chairs, flowers, microphones, cleaning, Children’s Church etc.];  to which now are added even more “opportunities” to get involved in Parish matters – the upcoming weekend, the holiday clubs, the elderly lunches, the Tree Shepherd employment work.  The opportunities are multiplying – the pressure to leave the stag party and find a route up the hill may seem to be growing.   At the same time, the number of disciples involved is increasing:  for some waiting at the bottom of the hill, the question may be, “is there space for talent that I think I have been given?”

I have no specific answers – but just a general plea, that in all of this, coming forward or not coming forward, we are able to see the life of the church as a gathering of disciples:  we are each individuals, we each need the time and space to be with Jesus and realise his love for us and then we need to be sent out in one way of another to do what He has for us to do.  And feel free to say where you are:  no is an acceptable response.

 a whole new journey where we are not sure we know how to read the map?  For example, everything I have said today may make no sense at all – lots of references to Bible stories with which we may not be familiar?  It takes time and application to be a disciple – to learn, time to test, time to try again – learning the code to the sermons is the least important thing:  learning to love God and love one another is of great importance. 

The 12 were chosen not just to “be with” Jesus but also to be “sent out” to preach.  The experiments they were try out later in the gospel were seen to be a foretaste of the “Great Commission” after the resurrection:  “You must go to the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature! (16:15). Having learned, they were to take responsibility.  Well done them!

Naming;  being with and being sent.  The 12, the apostles.  But I wonder what the mood was at the bottom of the hill - among those who were not summoned up the hill?  I have this picture in my mind of everyone having turned up that day with their CVs ready, hoping for an interview.  Begs the question as to what a CV for an apostle might contain?  And it might lead to an interesting sketch on th interview process?  This line of thought led me inevitably to the internet and things people wish they hadn’t put in their job applications:

KEY SKILLS: “I would like to assure you that I am a hardly working person”

SIZE OF CURRENT EMPLOYER: “Very tall, probably over 6’5″”

But to return to the line of thought, I am thinking of those folk who have seen the 12 go up the hill –  that special 12, the number of the tribes of Israel – how are we feeling?

I raise this question because I am acutely aware that it may seem that there is an increasing number of “opportunities for service” in the parish at the moment:  in both churches there are the regularly repeated requests for volunteers for the every-Sunday tasks [Chairs, flowers, microphones, cleaning, Children’s Church etc.];  to which now are added even more “opportunities” to get involved in Parish matters – the upcoming weekend, the holiday clubs, the elderly lunches, the Tree Shepherd employment work.  The opportunities are multiplying – the pressure to leave the stag party and find a route up the hill may seem to be growing.   At the same time, the number of disciples involved is increasing:  for some waiting at the bottom of the hill, the question may be, “is there space for talent that I think I have been given?”

I have no specific answers – but just a general plea, that in all of this, coming forward or not coming forward, we are able to see the life of the church as a gathering of disciples:  we are each individuals, we each need the time and space to be with Jesus and realise his love for us and then we need to be sent out in one way of another to do what He has for us to do.  And feel free to say where you are:  no is an acceptable response.