Called to Follow – 24 January, 2021

This is a Sunday to examine foundations. To what do we cling? What are we able to hold loosely? Where is our rock and salvation? Are we ready to follow, even if we don't much like where God takes us…or whom God brings along to join us on the journey?

Mark 1:14-20

Follow me, and the work of your life will be about the rule of God as well. Follow me, not so that you can be come a “religious” person, but so that you can become a real person, one who is alive to the presence of God in this world, learning to embody the love of God in the way Jesus did.

Jesus is calling us to be disciples—people who are learning from him how to live. What sort of life would Jesus live if he were…a forestry manager? A health care worker? A technical writer? With Jesus, we aren't on our guard against identity theft. We open our hearts to identity gift! In baptism, we have received from Jesus a new identity—we are God's beloved. . . Now we are following him, because he's the one who can teach us what it means to live that way. . . It doesn't mean that we're perfect. We're learning. We're following Jesus because he's the one who can show us what the love of our Creator God looks like. Moreover, it seems to me that, if we really do want to learn from Jesus, there are at least three things we need to be doing.

The first is learning all we can about Jesus, about how he lived and how he touched the lives of the people he met every day. Reading the Bible, by ourselves, yes, but also sharing our learning with other believers, is one of the basic ways we learn from Jesus and begin to see our world differently because we're learning to see it through his eyes.

Secondly, we open our hearts to our living Lord, to the risen Christ who promises to meet us whenever we pray. Whether it is in the privacy of our own hearts, or in the assembly of God's people, in prayer we seek to be awake, aware, and alive to the love of God that fills creation.

Third, we need to decide that we will follow Jesus and that we commit to following Jesus. There comes a point when—like Peter and Andrew, James and John—we need to leave the boat, leave the nets, and leave the life we would have had. We decide to leave what would have been, so that we can receive Jesus's identity gift. . .

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Paul's underlying, apocalyptic notions ooze out into full view here. In special, final times, special interactions are called for. Drastically changing times call for fidelity to most basic responsibilities and to strongest stability. When the entire world seems to be shaking and changing, we people of faith must be at our strongest.

Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Who could have guessed it? The preacher/prophet who immediately ran in the opposite direction from God's call, now experiences great success in his prophetic work at Nineveh. A great city repents and believes God, much to Jonah's disappointment! If your translation reads that God changed his mind, please make reference to it in your sermon. What a different notion of God than the one we often have.

[Contributors to this Sunday of lections is not noted in the publication.]

Homily Service 42, no. 1 (2009): 107-115.