BORN WITH GET UP AND GO

A sermon by the Rev. Dr. Marie Sheldon

Harundale Presbyterian Church

Glen Burnie, Maryland

January 26, 2003

Text: “And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’” (Mark 1: 17)

Scripture Passage: Mark 1: 14-20

A couple of weeks ago, I received a phone call from a member of my previous church who had moved from Rochester, New York several years ago. She and her family had been looking for a Presbyterian Church in their new locale, but really hadn’t found one they liked. Someone invited them to a Methodist church, and so she asked me, “Is there much difference between Methodists and Presbyterians?” I told her they were both basically mainline Protestant denominations, but that the Methodists had bishops and we didn’t – which meant that Methodist clergy get moved around quite a bit – actually about every four years or so. It seems that just when a clergyperson has begun to bond with a congregation, he or she is yanked up and asked to start all over again. That didn’t seem to bother my phone caller, but it reminded me of a story I once heard about a Methodist minister who announced to his family that, once again, they were to begin ministry in a new church setting. His youngest boy, already accustomed to the Methodist need for flexibility announced, “That’s OK, Dad, I was born with get up and go!”

Not many of us could respond to a call for change with such ease, and yet, that’s apparently how Simon, Andrew, James and John responded when Jesus issued his simple invitation, “Follow me.” The setting for this invitation was the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry. John the Baptist, who had heralded the coming of the Messiah, was now in jail. Jesus had been baptized by him, after which Satan tempted Jesus to give up his call to ministry altogether. But like that little Methodist boy, Jesus was born with get up and go. It was time for him to get started. How did he begin? According to Mark, he began by preaching a simple sermon with a straightforward theme. Jesus announced that the kingdom of God was near and that it was time for people to repent and believe in the good news.

But that sermon was just the beginning. He passed along the shores of the Sea of Galilee and he called four fishermen to get up and go with him. All Jesus said was, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." Those first disciples must have been potential Methodists because Mark tells us they immediately left their nets to follow him. Immediately – no questions asked, no excuses, no explanations demanded. Somehow, Simon, Andrew, James and John also seemed born with get up and go – born to trek along with the Rabbi from Nazareth who was going to teach them just what the kingdom of God is all about. What he taught them was that the kingdom of God was not a theological abstraction. What Jesus taught was that his disciples needed to get up and go to be with the people – to make sure they were fed, to heal them, to console them, to address their doubts. To be Christ’s disciple means to be involved with the world – to care about it, to protect it, to nurture it and the people who populate it.

Many of you have probably seen a rather sentimental piece of religious art called “Christ at Heart’s Door” by Warner Sallman. The picture portrays a meek-looking Jesus standing in the midst of a garden holding a lantern, knocking on a cottage door. The big question is: What happens when the door is opened? Nineteenth-century piety would probably say the door was analogous to opening our hearts in order to let Christ enter in. But if we were to analyze that old painting in the light of Mark’s gospel, we would have to say that Jesus would be less likely to go into the cottage than he would be to get the cottage dwellers to come out and go with him to do mission and ministry.

When Christ invites us to discipleship, he also urges us to stretch beyond our own narrow lives in order to bring the light of the good news to others. This is challenging. At first glance, When we look at those four disciples on the shores of the Galilean Sea, we wonder – how could they give up everything like that and follow Jesus? We need to remember that they didn’t give everything up. Even after they became Christ’s disciples, they continued to be fishermen. But they were transformed fishermen – men who looked beyond the mundane duties of everyday life, men who were willing to take risks so that the message of the Gospel could be spread. Their occupation was the same, but it was now infused with the desire to bring God's kingdom to the children of God.

Simon, Andrew, James and John have something to teach us. On the exterior, we, like them, need to continue with our lives. We have jobs, homes, responsibilities, people to care for. And yet, we call ourselves Christians. That means we have to get up and go. It means that we can’t simply look inward, obsessed with our own concerns and comfort.

Sometimes, individual Christians believe that if they contribute to the church, it is the church’s obligation to get up and go. And to some extent that’s true. As a congregation, Harundale has done very well in that arena. We have on-going local mission through our free hot lunch program. We offer food and clothing to the hungry and to those who can’t afford clothes of their own. Jim, through the pastor’s discretionary fund helps people pay for heat these cold, winter days. We also look beyond our own backyard to mission needs in our country – like the disaster relief needed after September 11. We look to those who need our help in the global village – in countries like Guatemala and Africa. We pay our per capita to Presbytery, Synod and General Assembly – thus supporting Presbyterian mission in the Greater Baltimore area and beyond. Harundale is certainly not an inward-looking, immobile congregation when it comes to answering a call for discipleship.

But the church is not merely an anonymous corporate body that doles out funds and building spaces. It is, rather, a family of persons who are also individually called to share the good news of God’s kingdom with others. Each of us has a world that is completely unique to us. That unique world is populated by a group of people that God has sent specifically to us. As disciples, how can we get up and go in order to bring the good news of the kingdom to them?

Here comes my evangelism push: Invite them to Harundale to share in the worship and the friendship of this congregation. Suggest that they join one of our small groups. Another way is to listen to people. As individual disciples, we can make it a point to elicit stories from the people in our lives – allowing them to communicate with us about what has shaped who they are. Teaching is also a part of ministry, and as Christ’s disciples, there are many ways we can teach. Classrooms aren’t the only places where teaching happens. Perhaps one of the most effective ways is by example – by being patient with someone who drives us crazy, by not lashing out at someone who makes us angry, by reaching out in kindness to someone who bores us.

Those who said “yes” to Christ’s invitation “Follow me” eventually followed him to Jerusalem, where he ended up nailed to a cross. But those who stuck it out, learned that the pain of the cross was exchanged for the glorious joy of Easter morning. So it is for us, modern-day disciples. If we say “yes” to Christ’s invitation to follow him, our world will never be the same. We, too, will have our crosses to bear, and we will be called to help others bear their crosses. But if we stick it out, the pain of our crosses will also be exchanged for the joy that is eternal, for the place where there will be no tears. Our pain will be exchanged for the fullness of the kingdom of God: heaven, our eternal home.

And that is, after all is said and done, why Jesus was born to get up and go into the realm of his ministry here on earth. Why don’t we get up and go, too? What a privilege it is for us to proclaim the good news our Savior came to teach us!

May God be with us all.