Sermon outline

Last week call from Divine Mystery

Come and see for yourself; get to know the one who

knows you

This week call from God with skin on, Jesus, come and follow for others

Call of the disciples from wandering rabbi: follow and fish

Fishing

Following

Fishing

The e word -- evangelism

Jewish context—Spong and Bell

Jesus’ call

The e word -- everyone

So what? 1. know what’s your good news

2. live it

via other e words

Last week John talked about God as Mystery, and we heard about this incomprehensible god in the context of 2 calls: God’s mysterious night call to Samuel, and Jesus’s mysterious knowledge of Nathanael after Philip called him to ‘come and see for yourself’

This week we have another story about a call, this time not a call from God as Mystery, but from God with skin on….the invitation from Jesus to follow him….the mystery here is more about how on earth these guys could just drop their nets and leave with him!

Perhaps it’s easier to understand if we think of the context. Jesus has been baptized by John, who was preaching repentance.

Repentance is metanoia which usually means a complete turnaround, either of life or of thinking.

So Jesus has a complete turnaround of life and has taken over the message of ‘the good news’ (v. 14 Greek word #2 coming up evangelion) that God’s reign is very near, very present, very available, but that evangelion good news includes repentance, and now the turned around Jesus is preaching repentance himself –so it’s not really surprising that the fishermen he calls see metanoia as a complete turnaround of their lives, involving both giving up and going forward

giving up the fishing trade, going forward following Jesus.

So maybe there’s some sense in their response after all. God’s good news, evangelion, is pretty radical.

Now in case you hadn’t clicked yet, that’s the E Word of the sermon title….nowadays used as evangelism (and some of you thought it was e for electronic as in email, ecommerce, ebay etc.)

For those of you brought up in the church over the years, this Evangelism word went out of fashion awhile back (we used to have an evangelism committee, then it was membership growth committee)—nobody much liked the preachy, converting to Christianity, be saved or damned kind of activity that word took on.

And the evangelion good news became “Evangelism” -- Fishing for people (men in those days before the enlightenment)

– it meant going door to door, at least inviting people to church (your church, the only one with the truth) at most asking if they knew Jesus as their personal savior and why not if not. Some of us were ‘saved’ by this means…more by fear of the Divine Judge than faith in the Divine Mystery or following the divine with skin on, Jesus.

Talk about turnarounds….Nowadays lots of people like the E word, and for the same reasons we rejected it. But it has become a political word, not a faith word. It has lost all sense of good news as far as I can see. Evangelical I am, but I can’t claim that name without somebody immediately thinking I’m a raving conservative, or somebody else, who knows what a liberal I am thinking I’m a liar!

it’s high time we reclaimed it. Reclaim it as good news. The evangelion is that God is near, God’s reign is around us and here for the joining, says Jesus, turn around, think differently! Follow me so you can share it!

Now before you think you could never do what those fishermen did, let’s look back again at those first called disciples and the context they were living in: first century Jewish fishermen, living in a Jewish culture, called by a Jewish rabbi.

Unless you’ve done some study or have learned about that culture, you don’t realize what’s really going on.

One of teacher/pastor Rob Bell’s little videos gave me a lot of insight to this, as did Bishop Spong’s book “Liberating the Gospels”

A rabbi is the most honored, most respected person around; he is the best of the best of the best of Jewish scholars, Bell says. They had the most education, the most knowledge, the most wisdom; different rabbis had different interpretation styles.

Little boys would learn some of the Jewish law, then the best of them would learn some more, then the best of them might want to be rabbis. The Wannabees would apply to be disciples of a rabbi.

The rabbi grills the youth and if he sees this person has what it takes to be like me; I think he can do what I do, then he invites him to ‘come, follow me’.

So here comes rabbi Jesus, walking along the shoreline. And here are fishermen, grown men who were not among the best of the best, who didn’t make the cut for further study, who left school without even a GED and went for manual labor.

And Jesus calls them? Talk about turnaround, metanoia.

You see, Jesus’s E word evangelion was for another e word, Everybody. In fact, any body. In fact, nobodies….the not good enough, the least of the least, the ones who don’t make the cut.

Jesus has faith in us. Jesus believes in us. That’s the good news. Jesus knows that God’s good news can be entrusted to us.

Jesus uses an analogy of fishing for people to help these fishermen understand they had something to offer that Jesus could use

(like Jesus saying to me that I should leave my social work but use the same kinds of skills and gifts in pastoral work)

we don’t have to become someone different when we follow Jesus, tho some of our behaviors will be different; we just have to become all that we can be.

So what, Margaret?

First, decide what the good news is for you, then share it. It’s that simple.

I asked some people this week what the good news is for them and got diverse answers:

It’s knowing I am not alone….

The good news is that Divine Mystery loves me and cares enough to come and be with me…

It’s sensing God’s justice for all and knowing it needs me…

It’s good news that Jesus is the great equalizer that allows one to become the best one can be

And our evangelism, our following Jesus, our fishing for people, is simply how we share the good news. Like those fishermen’s, it might not be preached from pulpit, but it can be lived.

…..and it can be lived with many e words….educate enlighten edify encourage endow envision

experiment expound empathize explain expedite explore expose energize

and perhaps most simply, enthuse

Our Spiritual Gifts workshop leader yesterday said that our enthusiasm can be the best of all possible evangelism, when people think: I want what she has….I love what he is….

Evangelism, according to several of the modern dictionaries, e-dictionaries included, include the words zeal or enthusiasm in their definitions…simply being enthusiastic about your church, a class you’re taking, a group you’re in, a new faith discovery, can be a great evangelism tool. Just ask someone whose wearing a strange pin today…..or ask Jim Oleksyn about his disaster relief volunteer trip a couple of weeks ago….or watch a student inviting another to youth group…if it’s good news to you, it’s worth enthusing about.

Evangelion. Good news. Know it. Share it.