Okay, we're looking at Mark's story of Jesus. We got to the prologue. Mark doesn't call it that, I do. First 11 verses. Simply gives us the main character, which you might think is obvious, but it's not always. Gave us the main character in its two forms, sacred, human, Finally, after certain preparation, let Jesus say His first little speech. And I presume we were all pretty unimpressed with that. One sentence. And the next three chapters. up to chapter 4, is basically Mark giving us the characters of the story he's going to tell us. You want to know who's going to be in my story?

[01:03]

Well, here I'll tell you who they are. There are going to be some disciples, going to be some demons, outside, outcasts, people that I label as scudsy. They're the wrong people. In Mark, they always have the right answer, though. The right people, the disciples, always have the wrong answer. And then he's going to, in a sense, let us watch a little bit as they respond to some of his miracle working. Now, as Jesus does miracles, we have to keep in mind, of course, that this is a very significant part for the whole first half of Mark's Gospel. Many biblical scholars are in agreement that Jesus, of all the things He did, Jesus probably did do miracles like this.

[02:09]

But the thing you have to keep in mind is that doesn't let you off the hook because the Gospel at no point says Jesus is God because He does miracles. So if you were listening to this story that Mark is telling us, and you heard Mark say, and Jesus cured a person who had a withered hand and cast out a demon, you'd sit there and you would say, What? So? Rabbi so-and-so did that. My brother-in-law did that. Other people do that. So what's the big deal? You would never be able to be persuaded that Jesus or anybody was God because they did miracles. You'd be able to say they had special powers. But that was something different. The claim that Jesus has divine power comes about in trying to discover the particular power He has in doing the miracle.

[03:20]

And you'll see what the discussion is going to be. The demons are going to be declared the ones behind the power of Jesus by His church authorities, scribes, Pharisees. They say, oh, He can do these miracles, but He does it by evil spirits. And other people are going to say, no, it's by the Spirit of God. We, of course, have to choose as we watch this move on. He chooses His first disciples pretty interestingly. As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen." You see, Mark thinks we don't know anything, so who else would cast nets into the sea? It wouldn't be plumbers or carpenters. But, you know, obviously Mark wasn't a fisherman himself, so he thought you can't have too much clarification.

[04:25]

And Jesus said to them, follow me and I will make you fish for people. The old translation, fisher of men. And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little further, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him." Now why'd they do that? Why on earth would anybody do that? Well, you know, you can make up all kinds of things. Well, he was such a powerful preacher and so he hadn't preached yet. The story Mark's telling us, he hasn't said anything except one sentence. So I don't think you can say they're overpowered by his preaching.

[05:27]

We don't know he's preached. And we don't know at this stage that he's going to be a compelling teacher because he hadn't taught anything except one sentence. And we weren't that impressed. At least our body language didn't give us the impression that we were about to run out, run through the aisle crying, Jesus is Lord, because of that one verse. And if we were sitting in the audience listening to Mark, we would be somewhat skeptical at their judgment Because two of them, we're told, left the family business. That had a lot to do with respect. That had a lot to do with pride. That had a lot to do with a sense of belonging and family. Things you did not take for granted. Things you did not give up easily. You didn't just leave home and go get a job or leave home and follow an interesting guy, you heard one day. because the concept of familial respect was overpowering.

[06:33]

And the last thing that you would ever want to be accused of was not having respect for your family name. The reason being, that's the only thing you had that you could count on. They believed in what's called a sense of limited good, meaning that there was not lots of everything. They believe God sort of divided it up, and if I get more, you get less. So they had laws about that. The only thing you could really rely on for your personal sense of well-being and dignity was your good name. So to have two guys leave their dad holding a net, jump out of a boat because some guy said, let's go fish for people, that's not going to cut it. So we wouldn't be that awe-inspired. But I think Mark is trying to tell us that they were enthused. But the question is, about what?

[07:36]

About what? You can read as well as I can. You'd have to make your own decision. I think it has to do with the person. That's the only thing that he's got. Somehow, Mark wants us to understand, the person of Jesus did have some magnetism to it. And that when these disciples started out, they start out on a real high note of enthusiasm. How high? High enough to say, I'm walking out on this and I'm going to go do that. And not really. Pay much attention to what all that means. Off they go. Off they go. Now, there's lots of questions that Mark wants us to ask about this following, this discipleship. This is as good as it's going to get for them, by the way. This is their peak. The time they step out of the boat onto the shore, that's as good as it gets.

[08:42]

Because it's not going to be what they think. Now, we can't read their minds as such, but as the story goes on, we're going to be given a little insight into what they thought they went to get outside that boat. And it wasn't, if you want to be first, be last. If you want to be great, be nothing. If you want to be big, be little. None of that. They thought they were going after fame. They thought this would lead to fortune. They thought this was going to be something that would really put them on the map. And so they liked the idea. And even as you watch the ministry unfold, they liked the miracle. Why? Because lots of crowds, lots of accolade, Jesus is popular, at least for the first two chapters. But you see, it's all going to fail. Now, this is a story, remember?

[09:45]

This is Mark's story of Jesus. But for us, it's Revelation. So, we're interested in Mark's story of Jesus, but when Mark is telling us the story of Jesus and discipleship, you can't help but think, maybe remotely, about our own discipleship. You can't read this story without forcing yourself to say, what are we really about, you know? Now, no one here, of course, would say, I'm about fame and fortune, all that. That's really why I'm here. That's why I've stayed. You know, we wouldn't say that. They didn't say it either. But we have to ask it, what we are really about. I like to use the image of the boat periodically when I'm doing other stuff. Boat works better with Matthew because there it's actually a metaphor for the church. Remember Peter and the boat walking on the water, starts to sink, tries to grab hold of Jesus.

[10:48]

You've got a lot of interesting boat imagery in the Gospel. I often wonder the question, did these guys really get out of the boat? Well, they did. But then they didn't. Did they really follow him? Well, I mean, they left their old man there holding the net, and were told they got out. But really, where it counts, did they ever get out? That's the question we need to ask. Did we ever get out of the boat? Or are we still in there someplace? No, we got a lot of ways, like they got a hanging on, you know. We can all give the impression of being faithful disciples. We know how to do that. We're trained to do that. That's not hard to do. How do you do that? Well, you just follow down the shore. That's all. Who's going to say? We will. We will say. And we'll watch as our lives unfold. What are we really going after?

[11:52]

Well, as they do this, and they are enthused, and they're following Him, and He does some miracles, of course, showing us that the power of God is with Him. That's what we're to believe. Mark wants us to know that this is the divine power. He has this funny little thing about silence, as was referred to already, that messianic secret, a term created by a man named Vreda back at the turn of the century because he thought that was the clue to the understanding of the Gospel of Mark. Now when Mark was really putting together his story, it became clear that Jesus Himself did not have any great messianic hackle you know, leanings. And so the early church certainly felt he did, so they're trying to figure out, well, why didn't anybody know Jesus was the Messiah in his own day? And Rheda said it was because Mark created this sense of he didn't tell anybody.

[13:03]

It was kept a secret. But that Mark really invented that idea. That's a theological device Mark invented. It's an ingenious idea. It changed the whole theory of Markian studies right up until this very day. I don't think it's very correct. I think the secrecy is simply because Jesus is not ready to let it out in a story. The story Mark is telling, the secrecy theme is everything that's a secret is going to be revealed. That's the nature of secret. It's going to be revealed. Jesus doesn't want to reveal it because Jesus doesn't want to have anything to do in the beginning with the power, the glory, the honor, the fame that the disciples are following. That's a dead end. But of course, it isn't a secret. Nothing is a secret in this Gospel. Everybody knows who He is. He tells people in his huge crowd, all right, now remember, even though I did this whopping miracle, keep this to yourself.

[14:11]

Don't tell a soul. Sure. And usually we're told, and they blabbed everybody they could find. So there is no secret. It's all about Jesus. Well, let's say that he gets going. We're following him. And we're kind of wondering who he is, and we're a little irritated periodically, because we like the power of these miracles. We like the fame, the crowds, and all that. We think that's good, because that looks good for us. And we get a little irritated when these scudsy folks emerge, the demons, you know, who seem to know exactly who he is. We don't know what they mean when they yell out, you are the son of David, who are you, so on, you know. We'd like to get rid of them. He's a little more sympathetic to them than we would be. And then we notice that scribes and Pharisees, they start to emerge.

[15:12]

That's another set of characters in this story. They don't like him. They don't like him because he doesn't follow the law like he's supposed to. They don't care if he heals, but you don't have to heal on Saturday. You've got six days to do your work. Don't do it on Saturday. Don't do it on the Sabbath. And of course, Jesus is totally unimpressed with that because the way Jesus' ministry unfolds is people are first. Laws are second. People are first. I don't care what day it is. I don't care what feast it is. I don't care what you're doing when people are in need. That's the Sabbath. All your laws and customs and regulations and all of that, they might have a place, but when you start making your discipleship to those, then it's misplaced. That makes us nervous.

[16:16]

It makes me nervous, you know. I live a pretty regulated life. I live in an monastery that says you do it once, it's custom. Custom is far more severe than any law you could create, at least where I live. And we live pretty orderly, and we say there's a reason that gives us freedom to do the important things. We don't all have to wake up in the morning, take a vote, see how we're doing it, and we all write this and that and so forth. But, my experience has been those regulations get in the way sometimes, don't they? Well, we got justification for all of that. We got centuries of justification for how that all works. Why? Same reason scribes and the Pharisees did. We're practiced at it. We know how it all works. And what if Jesus would come in and say, well, I'm not saying those aren't good, but I'm saying maybe you ought to back off every once in a while.

[17:21]

And I'm not saying we don't. Our saving grace is probably our strong commitment to hospitality, which basically does say that. People do come first. That's how I think our life is meant to be led, and that's how most of the time I think it is, but periodically. I think these disciples, after a while, you know, memorized that one verse, the great programmatic verse that we all love. The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the good news. Well, let's say they did that. Memorize that. Let's say they went out and told everybody. That's what it meant to follow Jesus. Get out of the boat. We're going to fish for people. Here's the bait. Tell them this sentence. The time is fulfilled.

[18:26]

The kingdom of God is right now at hand. Repent and believe in the good news. That's all you have to do. Just spread that word. Great! Great! We'll make things happen. We'll make change. That'll be great. So they go out and do that. And you know what the response was? The response was nothing. The response was, you know, there's a strange group of guys running around. You'll see them. You know, they'll nail you. They've got this one little sentence they want to tell you. You know, be nice to them. They're harmless, but don't spend much time with them. It'll be one sentence and then they're going to look at you like you're supposed to do something. Well, they don't ask for money. They just say that. Like, go on. Well, so they remember these disciples are probably looking for a little affirmation, some accolade. They probably want some change.

[19:27]

They probably get tired living under the Romans in a land that was supposed to be theirs, where they got no power, they got no authority. They're treated as second-class citizens. They probably are hoping that maybe, maybe this Jesus fella can get some things going. Maybe somehow there's power in this sentence, so they tell it. Doesn't appear to be any power. Nothing changes. No accolades, no affirmation, just strange looks. Kind of like the first time I was in Jerusalem to do the wonderful Way of the Cross. And I just thought this would be the most, just the most pious moment of my whole life. Well, first of all, I couldn't figure out where we were going to meet. Some old Franciscan said, so I tried to figure out what that meant. And I'm waiting for it, and it's in front of a store. And there's about 50 of us of all sizes and shapes, and about 200 other people trying to do business there.

[20:33]

And the one great pious phrase he told us is, keep your hands on your wallet. And so, you know, well, where is the first station? Oh, right up there on the side of that lawn. You're looking up there and a bicycle's gone by and people moving in and out of the store. And I said, this is the most unpious experience I've ever had in my life. I mean, God, I could have sat home with my wonderful little Way of the Cross and just done it there in peace and tranquility and solitude like it was supposed to be done until some kid Looked up and said, you know, this is probably just like it was in the time of Jesus, don't you think? He had me. Yeah, I think that's right. Just probably what it was. Just like these disciples. Business as usual. That's what the incarnation is all about, isn't it? God immersing himself in the business as usual, but the business doesn't stop.

[21:36]

I wanted all the business to stop and people to be quiet and play a little soft music as I made the way of the cross. It didn't happen. It didn't happen. Let's say they say to themselves, well, you know, Jesus is a smart person. He knows that this isn't working, or at least He will when we tell Him. Let's go find Him. Ask Him for a different plan. We need to make things happen. He's got good intention. We won't criticize that. But we've got to tell him the folks aren't buying this. So let's make believe that they go to Jesus. They get Him to sit down. They say, you know, we got out of the boat. We think this is a good idea. We want to follow you, but nothing's happening. This little verse you gave it, they think that's silly. They ask us questions we can't answer them. You didn't tell us anything else. So they just walk by.

[22:39]

Now we know you had good intentions, but how about let's devise a new strategic plan, a plan of action. Kind of like a business plan, you know, one that really gets things done. Make some things happen. We'll have people follow us. You can't imagine. What do you think about that? You know, let's do that. Do you think he can do that? Here's what I think he said to them. Listen. It's his opening word. Listen. Sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil.

[23:43]

And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold. And He said, Let anyone with ears to hear, listen. begins and ends with the same word, listen. Wonderful little frame around which it is. And I think he smiled at them as he can do. One of those smiles that says, I understand, but you're getting nowhere, and walked away. And so here we are, 12 of us. We were all excited.

[24:49]

We thought we were going to get a plan. We thought we would get him to change his mind, give us something to go, and all he gave us was a story about seeds and something solid. It was accurate enough. We've seen this time and time again. Those old Palestinian dirt farmers, we know how it works. Not the way. We think God meant it to work, but you get a little piece of ground, watch the guy put that sack of seed around his neck, and you look at that ground and you say, aren't you going to get the rocks out of that first? Well, there's no rose here. That's all right. It'll work. You watch it, you just start throwing that stuff, and the wind's blowing, and you're thinking, well, there goes a sack of grain, useless. And you pick up that stick, you know, it's got a hook on the end. He's going to call it a plow. You're going to say, that ain't a plow, that's a stick with a hook on the end. I've seen plows. And then he's not going to do rows like we know in the beginning when God created farming, neat rows like we do in Indiana.

[25:52]

Straight, perfect rows. You do that first, after you've cleared the field. Then you put the grain in, then you cover it up, then God brings the water, and it grows. That's the way it's supposed to be. But he doesn't know that, so he's just digging all over the place. Looks like you just turn loose, whatever, and let it run through the thing. When it's done, it looks like a mess. And he says, well, there's my field. And you know how it's going to work, and so does he, because he's done it time and time again. Some of that seed fell on those rocks, but it ain't going to grow much. And it goes all the way down just like this story. It's a very accurate story of Palestinian dirt farming as it was done then and even sometimes can still be done today. And a little bit will grow, no doubt about it. It will grow. So Jesus just took that common experience and told them about it. So what's the point, do you suppose?

[26:53]

What do you suppose he was saying? I don't think Mark really knows what Jesus was thinking when he told this story. Mark's going to give us a different interpretation we'll look at later, but I think this might be what Jesus was thinking. And you see, he's getting at a fundamental problem, a fundamental issue that these disciples are suffering from already. And not only them, but maybe even one or the other of us. And if not us here, us someplace. We'll run into others. That is the difference between being the creator and being the creature. You see, we like harvest, don't we? That's what we like to talk about. Numbers. How much? How many? How big? That's harvesting. That's making things happen. We like that. More harvest? Better off you are, aren't you?

[27:55]

Hang around monks very long? You're not there more 15, 20 minutes if it's strange people. How many people in your monastery? 5,000. Oh, that's good. How many in your monastery? Three. Oh, that's bad. Well, maybe. Maybe not. How busy are you today? How many things you got to do? Oh, I'm loaded. I can't do another thing. Oh, that's good. You're busy. That's good. What are you going to do? Nothing. I'm going to read a little bit. Take me a little nap. Going to go out and walk. Check out this snow. And, well, that'll be time to have lunch and nap again, you know. Bad. Not so good. You see, Jesus is saying, one of the things you've got to remember, you've got no control over the harvest. Discipleship is not about harvesting. Discipleship is about sowing.

[29:00]

That's all you're supposed to do is sow. Sow and forget it. Sow in season and out everywhere. On the rocks, yes. In the good soil, yes. Just wherever. It doesn't matter where you sow, just sow. Only God makes things grow. Well, I know that. But you know, sometimes God isn't up on the latest stuff. God could use a little help. That's all I'm saying. A little help doesn't... God doesn't want a little help from us. Now, we don't believe that, certainly. And so, we continue discipleship by the numbers, by the productivity, by all of that sort of thing. It's the same fundamental error that was made back when Adam and Eve were told, hey, it's all yours but the tree. Well, forget all ours, I want the tree.

[30:03]

And there they made that fundamental error between the creature and the creator. From that moment on, Adam and Eve and everybody that follows wants to be God. Now you and I would say, that's stupid. I've never wanted to be God my whole life. Oh no, we haven't used that term. That'd be arrogant. Nobody's going to come and say, my goal in life is to be God. But then when you ask and you watch, well, what do you do with your life? How's it unfolding? I want to be in charge. I want to have control. I want to make things happen. I'm going to make it grow. It will grow. I'll tell you it'll grow. I'll grow it. Down by our place, there's some Honish people. Every summer, they produce these magnificent cantaloupe. I mean, these are the quintessence of utter cantaloupe. And I try to get down there once in a while and see when they're going to have the little cart out selling these things because, man, I can do one of those in by myself.

[31:12]

So last summer I waited and eventually that cart was there. Man, I'm right there. I'm an introvert. I'm not much on small talk, so I got to rehearse a little bit before I get there. Well, you know, I'll figure out a few things to say. So he's got these babies mounted up. I mean, it's really picturesque. And I say, boy, I love these cantaloupe. Thought that'd be a good opening line. And he said, don't you grow all those without missing a beady big smile? I said, no, no siree. I just planted them. Well. You read your gospel, you know. I'd have said, I grew them. That's what I would have said. Yep, I grew them. Like them? I grew them. He didn't say, he just said, I planted them. This is going to be a fundamental mistake these disciples make all through this story. That's why they're not going to get to the end of the story.

[32:16]

That's why they're going to abandon Jesus. That's why discipleship is going to end up being dead end, because it doesn't produce anything. doesn't produce anything, doesn't give us the timetable, doesn't let us be in charge. So what's that say to us? Who knows? We have to figure out who us happens to be. The sower, the one that you've heard a million times, read probably at least a million and a half, heard all kinds of people, good and bad, give sermons on it. maybe given one or the other yourself. But it's a story, I think, originally Jesus told to answer the disciples' anxiety about discouragement. If you've ever been discouraged, or you are currently discouraged, if you're wondering if your life is going anyplace, if this life is going anyplace, if our corporate life as monks has any future, are we going to die out?

[33:26]

Does anybody care? Where are our recruits? So, whole thing. This is a story for us. This is a story for people who aren't quite sure what the future brings, wonder who's in charge, and need to be given a good word. And this is the good word of the Lord to us. It's all about the sower. It's all about the seed. So I would suggest thinking a bit about your own situation, your discouragement, Or if you're not discouraged, your need to control. Or if you don't need to control, your need to do harvest, make things happen, to produce. And this doesn't say all of that's bad. This doesn't say we're just all going to sit around, hold hands, and watch things grow by God's grace.

[34:30]

No, it's not that. But we know what it's talking about. It's those deep-seated sort of inclinations that we can't root out that tell us deep down in, we are in charge. This story tells us we are not in charge. Christian discipleship, as I think monastic discipleship, is a dead end. Literally. Because you're never going to be the master. Unlike all other forms of discipleship, the only reason you become a disciple is to become the master. That's how you define discipleship. Here, it's different. For the Christian discipleship doesn't lead to becoming the master. But Christians are clever, and sometimes they try to be the master anyway. Let anyone with ears to hear, listen.

[35:36]

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.

[35:46]

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