Sermon prepared for Messiah Lutheran Church, Auburn WA

by Pastor Gregory S. Kaurin

8:30 & 11 AM Morning Promise services, 1/26/03

 

Text: Mark 1:14-20

Sermon:

Mark’s Favorite Word[1]

 

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Let me get right to the point.  And that is the point: Do something.  Stop hesitating and finding excuses.  Stop rationalizing your faith into tiny-bite size pieces.  Decide today, change and act on it.  If you’re tired of being luke-warm, do something about it.  That’s what St. Mark would tell you.

There are different ways to read books in the Bible.  You could study the gospel of St. Mark, one little phrase, or one verse at a time, but one of the best ways is to take a couple hours, sit down and read through the gospel of St. Mark—all the way.

Better yet, find your most hyper friend, load her up with a bunch of sugar and caffeine, and then have her read it to you!  That’s how Mark felt about his story of Jesus: exciting, fast-paced, breathless.  The Gospel of St. Mark was written for all the caffeine addicts here in the Pacific Northwest!

 

Mark skipped over all the Christmas stuff and got right to it with Jesus’ baptism and call of his disciples.  And in nearly every paragraph, and in every scene, in his story you will find Mark’s favorite word: immediately.  The Greek word is euthus.  As you read along, every time you see the English words “immediately” or “at once” or “just then” that Greek word is behind it: euthus.  …Even when it didn’t make sense: It might take days to travel from one part of Judea into Samaria, but Mark would write, “Immediately, Jesus went to Samaria.”

He was a hyper story teller, like a kid telling a story, saying “and then” this happened, “and then” that, and then… and then.  And scholars have long said that Mark’s grammar was terrible.  He constantly changed verb tenses, some sentences were choppy or incomplete, others ran on.   “He was just not as creative and careful,” they say, “as Matthew, Luke and John.”

But the beauty of Mark is precisely all that.  He dashed this story down like this, not because he was careless…but because he was excited and driven.  He had something he wanted to tell you…and time was running out.  Most of the eyewitnesses who had heard Jesus were dying…and this story, this exciting, soul changing story needed to be passed on to the next generation.  It needed to be told immediately.  It called for immediate action and response, because it needed to be passed on.

 

So, Mark tells us that Jesus was baptized, and then he went to Galilee.  He proclaimed the gospel of God.  “The time is fulfilled,” Jesus said.  “The kingdom of God is at hand, right here at hand.  Repent!”  (That meant, “Change your life, now.”)  “Believe the gospel!”

And then, Jesus saw Simeon and Andrew fishing and said, “Come, and I’ll have you fishing for people!”

“Immediately,” the Bible says.  “Immediately they left the nets and followed.”

A little further on he saw the “Sons of Thunder,” James and John Zebedee.  “Immediately,” Jesus called them; they left their nets, their father and his employees.  They left it all behind in that moment and followed Jesus.

And it goes on like that, from there through the rest of his gospel.  Mark was relentless.  I really don’t think he intended us to take in his story the way we do, in such small little bites.  He wanted you to swallow this story of Jesus in huge gulps, digest it whole.  “This Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, your living Savior.”

 

Listen to all that Jesus did: Watch him teach, and then heal, and cast out demons, and tell stories and bless children, and raise people from the dead.  And now, he’s entering Jerusalem, and now he’s eating and drinking his last meal.

There’s a communion hymn in the traditional book that captures this incredible momentum.  It was composed by Jaroslav Vajda in 1973 while he was shaving one morning.  I’ve asked the song leaders to sing it for us.  It’s about communion and worship specifically, but it also captures the life and ministry of Jesus and Mark’s gospel, and it’s also about our need to respond.  It starts with these words: “Now the silence, now the peace, now the empty hands uplifted, now the kneeling, now the plea, now the Father’s arms in welcome.”  Listen to this hymn sung in its entirety, “Now the Silence.”

 

Now the silence, Now the peace,

Now the empty hands uplifted;

Now the kneeling, Now the plea,

Now the Father’s arms in welcome;

Now the hearing, Now the pow’r,

Now the vessel brimmed for pouring;

Now the body, Now the blood,

Now the joyful celebration;

Now the wedding, Now the songs,

Now the heart forgiven leaping;

Now the Spirit’s visitation,

Now the Son’s epiphany,

Now the Father’s blessing.

Now.  Now.  Now.  (© Text: Jaroslav J. Vajda)

 

And now, Jesus was being tried, judged, tortured and killed.  Then, he was in the tomb, three days, and suddenly a few women saw a strange sight and heard some incredible news from an angel, and they ran away scared. 

And that’s how Mark originally intended to end his story.  The Gospel of Mark ended with women running from the tomb, scared, but with the good news of Jesus’ resurrection…because St. Mark wanted us to finish it.  He put the story into our hands.

Immediately that happened, and then this, and then that, and now Jesus is raised from the dead.  And St. Mark was asking, “So, what are you going to do about it?”

 

Now, I’m asking, “What are you going to do about it?”

Are you going to go on keeping Jesus at a controllable distance from your heart?  Or will you let him in and add his courage, his sense of peace that gives you the strength to actually live your faith…in front of your friends, and in front of others?

 

Are you going to go on feeling guilty, all the time, for everything?  Or are you, for once, today, going to trust God when he says, “You are forgiven”?

 

Are you going to go on with your addiction, or your self-turned pity?  Or, are you going to realize that you are disgracing the person that God created and loved?  Are you finally going to get help to do something about it?

 

Are you going to let your responsibilities and work and friends and everyone else tell you what you should be doing, and wearing, and saying, and thinking?  Or, are you going to decide to do what’s really most important, at this very moment?  Are you going to trust that Jesus and his kingdom are right here and now and in the person you are standing next to?  Are you going to stop all this running around…and take time…to see Jesus? To listen to him?

 

Maybe it’s time to put aside all the fake urgency in your life, and close your eyes and ears to everything else for a moment.  Ask God for a different way to see and hear…so that you can start to see and hear him…to finally take seriously what is most important, what needs to be at the center of all your relationships and responsibilities.  At the center, you need Jesus Christ.  You need to pass on his grace and love and acceptance…to others.  And you can only do that by accepting his…grace, love and acceptance into your own life.

 

Maybe you need a quiet place to pray.  Maybe you have a decision to make…today.  euthus, immediately.  ephatha, be opened.

 

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