Mark 1:14-20
Years ago, so long ago that I don’t even remember how and when it happened – I fell in love with Jesus. Not romantically, of course – though the writing of the mystics in our tradition experience unity with Jesus very much as lover and beloved. One can fall in love in all sorts of ways. Many new parents have looked at their little child and fallen head over heels in love. Or, have you ever walked into an animal shelter expecting to come out with one kind of pet but coming out with a different one altogether? You fell in love, and that little pug or terrier you planned on getting turned into a mid-size spaniel with red ears and the sweetest disposition ever. Perhaps your friend has been trying to get you to come to line dancing lessons for months, and you finally went with them, and all of a sudden you’ve found a new passion in life. Falling in love can be about much more than romance.
Falling in love – seriously in love – can also really mess you up – especially if it happens to you as an adult. You have plans, you have a future mapped out, you know what you want from life – and then suddenly you fall in love with a person, an idea, a type of work, a creative endeavour, maybe with a place or a people – and everything you’d planned gets way more complicated – and sometimes is abandoned completely! I have a friend who got two degrees in English and European Literature from Oxford University, with first class honours – then left it all behind to become a dance artist, choreographer, and artistic director. He’d fallen in love with dance and its connection to other art forms and the landscape itself. His love affair with dance transformed a promising academic career into an even more fulfilling life of art and movement. Love can do that!
In some ways I was lucky, that I fell in love with Jesus early on. I must have been very young when I first learned to love Jesus. I remember lying in bed at night, with my mother rubbing my back and singing “Come into my heart, come into my heart, come into my heart, Lord Jesus! Come in today, come in to stay. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus.” From the love of my parents I learned to love Jesus. I was assured from a very young age how much Jesus loved me, and how fulfilling it was to follow him. I don’t think I’ve ever doubted that love, or been tempted to follow anyone or anything other than Jesus – though I have certainly wondered at times what Jesus had in mind for me! Quite a bit later than I fell in love with Jesus, I also fell in love with Jesus’ church.
The church can be hard to love. I came across a Facebook page only yesterday that helps people deconstruct the really terrible experiences they have had with the church in its many forms. Goodness knows we mess up a lot, sometimes in terribly tragic ways; yet I have never met a company of people with so much generosity, caring, good humour, commitment and compassion as I have in the church. I’m not saying there aren’t other such communities – I know there are – but the church is where I am called to be. It is my beloved community.
I can love the church, flaws and all, in part because I know I have my flaws too, and the church never stopped loving me when those flaws really showed. We’ve had a few rough patches over the years, but we’ve stuck with each other – all the churches I’ve belonged to, and all the churches I’ve served – and we’re still committed. The church at its best is a community where grace and forgiveness are offered and received; that’s one of the reasons I love the body of Christ. At its best, I can love the church because it mirrors Jesus – it is Jesus for you and me right here and right now.
I wonder if Simon, Andrew, James and John, fell in love with Jesus? Certainly, the people who remembered John and wrote a gospel in his name speak the most about the love of God for us, and of how much Jesus loved the people around him. John’s Gospel is where we find those beloved words, “For God so loved the world, that God sent the only begotten son so that whoever put their trust in him would not perish but have life everlasting” (John 3:16) There was something about Jesus so compelling that he could walk up to people and say “Follow me” – and they did!
The Gathering magazine printed by the United Church had this to say about the readings this week: “Sometimes we’ve tried to dig into the psychology or sociology of these first disciples to try to explain why they followed, as though something was “wrong” with them, their situation, or their world. What if the point isn’t what’s “wrong” with them, but what’s right and true with Jesus? As Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it, “This encounter gives witness to Jesus’ unconditional, immediate, and inexplicable authority. Jesus calls to discipleship, not as a teacher and a role model, but as the Christ, the Son of God” (Discipleship: Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Volume 4 [Fortress Press, 2003]).
Authority is not a popular word these days – but this is authority that comes from character, from who a person is, not authority as power over someone or something. There was something so right about Jesus, then, and when I was a child, and still now, to this very day – there’s something true and right about Jesus that calls people to him. People love Jesus – books about him are as popular now as they were decades ago, and productions like Jesus Christ Superstar sell out audiences while a miniseries about Jesus is one of the most popular series on TV! They’re not so keen on the church, though – those of us who have committed to following in Jesus’ footsteps. Maybe we need to be clearer about what it is we love about Jesus and why we even bother? What does coming to church on a Sunday and being part of the church’s ministries have to do with loving Jesus? That’s one of the things I’d like us to reflect on a bit over the next couple of months.
Last week I promised that I would share the results of our values workshop after worship. We identified dozens of values that we feel are important to Gordon United, but the most important ones can be rolled together under five headings: they are FAITH, INCLUSIVITY, SERVICE, WELLBEING and STABILITY. FAITH in Jesus and the God we know in him; SERVICE to others as a way of living out the compassion we know in him; INCLUSIVITY, welcoming all in the name of Jesus and making space for others as Jesus did; WELLBEING, carrying on the healing ministry of Jesus by caring for one another and community members mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually; and finally, STABILITY– grounded in faith, on a solid footing spiritually and financially, connected to the wider church and to our traditions as we move forward into the future. These are our core values, and each can be connected to our love for Jesus and his for us. When we lose that connection, then we find ourselves wondering why on earth we bother!
For me the source of Jesus’ authority on my lifeis his love for me, and mine for him. That’s why when Jesus says, “Follow me”, I follow. In the United Church these days we tend to talk more about God or Spirit in the abstract than Jesus in the particular; yet how would we know God loved us, if we hadn’t seen God’s love lived out in Jesus?
During the season of Lent I’ll be exploring each of the values we named more fully in our Sunday services. In the meantime, I want to ask you to reflect and pray with a few things:
Do you know Jesus? Have you fallen in love with him? Do you know how much he loves you? What’s right and true about Jesus for you? I leave you with those questions. Amen.
