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- Good morning and welcome to this service of worship in Duke Chapel. We particularly welcome those of you who worship with us in Duke Hospital on the closed circuit television system. A couple of announcements: We remind you that Doctor and Mrs. Travis' course, Preparing For Marriage, continues each Sunday morning at 9:45, and many of you would find that course of great interest. Also, on Wednesday of this week, Becky Pippert, nationally known evangelist and writer, will be on the Duke campus at noon and at 7:30, speaking on evangelical women's issues. And we invite your attendance to hear Miss Pippert. We're glad you're here this morning. Let us continue our worship. (peaceful choral music) (peaceful organ music) (harmonious organ and choral music) 

- When we gather to praise God, we remember that we are a people who have preferred our own will's to the Lord's. Accepting God's power to become new persons in Christ, let us confess our sins before God and one another. 

Congregation: Have mercy upon us, oh God, according to thy loving kindness; according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out our transgressions; wash us thoroughly from our inequities, and cleanse us from our sins. For we acknowledge our transgressions and our sin is ever before us. Create in us clean hearts, oh God, and renew a right spirit within us, through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. 

- Hear the Good News! Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. That is God's own proof of his love toward us. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven. (congregation murmuring) 

- Let us pray. 

Congregation: Open our hearts and minds, oh God, by the power of your Holy Spirit so that as the Word is read and proclaimed, we might hear, our faith might be strengthened, and our determination renewed to follow you, amen. The first lesson is taken from the Book of Jonah: Then the Word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, "Arise! "Go to Nineveh, that great city, "and proclaim to it the message that I tell you." So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the Word of the Lord. Now, Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three-days journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he cried, "Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" And the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast, and put on sack cloth from the greatest of them to the least of them. When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God repented of the evil which He said He would do to them, and did not do it. This ends the reading of the first lesson. 

- Please stand as we read together responsively: For God alone my soul waits in silence. 

Congregation: From him comes my salvation. 

- He only is my rock, my salvation, my fortress. 

Congregation: I shall not be greatly moved. 

- For God alone my soul waits in silence. 

Congregation: My hope is from him. 

- He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. 

Congregation: I shall not be shaken. 

- On God rests my deliverance and my honor. 

Congregation: My mighty rock, my refuge is God. 

- Trust in Him at all times, oh people. 

Congregation: Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. 

- Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this. 

Congregation: That the power belongs to God. 

- And that to thee, oh Lord belongs steadfast love. 

Congregation: For you will render a man according to his work. (peaceful organ music) (harmonious organ and choral music) (gentle organ music) (peaceful organ and choral music) 

- The Gospel lesson this morning is taken from the Book of Mark: Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of God and saying, "The time is fulfilled "and the Kingdom of God is at hand! "Repent, and believe in the Gospel." And passing along by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon, and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me, "and I will make you become fishers of people." And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called to them. And they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and followed him. Here ends the reading of the Gospel. 

- This is the sort of text which preachers love. This snippet of a story about the calling of Simon, Andrew, James, and John, which occurs in the First Chapter of Mark's Gospel. And passing along by the Sea of Galilee he saw Simon and Andrew casting their net into the sea, for they were fisherman, and Jesus said to them, "Follow me, "and I will make you become fishers of people." And immediately they left their nets and they followed him. Now, you may well wonder why preachers should love such a story, and love such a text. It's lean, it's sparse, it's virtually no detail. Jesus says, "Follow me." And immediately they follow. How typical is this text of Mark's Gospel. There's almost no detail, no dramatic coloring, no narrative subtlety. And you might be surprised, that is exactly why preachers love it. Because without detail or coloring or plot, there is so much empty space left for the creative preacher to fill in. Because you know there has to be more here than the way Mark tells it. Two fisherman, Jesus, follow me, case closed. Biblical scholars call this technique, particularly as it occurs in Mark, telescoping. Probably, they say, Mark has telescoped events that took place over days, even weeks, into just a moment of narrative. The probable hours which Jesus spent discussing discipleship with these people, countering their reservations. The debate that took place among themselves as they gradually came to a decision to sign up with the Jesus Movement and to become disciples, all of that is omitted, telescoped into just a few verses. It's just an outline. It's a sketch at best, a piece of lousy narrative art at worst. Tell us what you did at school today, dear? Well, the bell rang, I went in, the bell rang, I came out. Tell us about your expedition in the Gaul, General Caesar. I came. I saw. I conquered. Flaubert's Madame Bovary, as told in a freshman, high school freshman book report: There was this woman, she lived in France. She wasn't happy; she met a man; she still wasn't happy. She met another man; she wasn't happy. She had a baby; she drank poison; she died. I think this was a very good book. (congregation laughing) Well, I was the sort of student who, when told to draw a picture of a dog, I drew a picture of a dog with a little boy on the end of the leash, and a tree, and a sun over the tree, and four balloons over the little boy, and a daisy. In my last church, a couple of parishioners were discussing my preaching, and one of the parishioners said, "I think sometimes our preacher tends "to embellish things just a bit." "Yeah, and he lies, too!" Said the other one. 
(congregation laughing) Well, this is the mark of creative homiletics. A friend of mine, Stuart Henry, accuses me of this. He said, "I can hand you a couple of wilted larkspur, "and in your hands it becomes a riot of delphinium!" You think I'm going to leave this text alone? With just a couple of fishermen, Jesus, follow me, you know it couldn't have happened like that. It was a bright, cloudless day in Galilee. The waves were gently lapping upon the shore, surging in, surging out. The midday sun was arched in the heavens, beating down upon the tanned backs of two brown-skinned fishermen, casting down hot bright rays on the beach. The fishermen worked knee deep in the water, toiling over their nets. You see, we're on, we're off and running on a sermon about the romance of the fishing industry in ancient Israel. Think about what Mark could've done with a good course in creative writing, or even the freshman composition course at Duke. Suddenly one of them stands upright. He shades his eyes from the sun, and he looks toward the bank, and there on the bank stands a lone, enigmatic figure. The figure on the bank calls out, "Follow me!" Well, of course we're not so interested in filling in geographical or artistic detail. More than likely, what we would like to fill in, in this terse account by Mark of the Calling of Disciples, more than likely what we would like to fill in is psychological detail. Where you see, Mark tells us virtually nothing of Simon and Andrew, James and John. There is no character development. No interiority. And we wonder, what inner psychological dynamics might have motivated these people to such a decision. We wonder what hierarchy of psychic need accounts for their response to Jesus, we wonder. Perhaps there was sibling rivalry between the two brothers. Simon: Simon must have been older. Andrew always resented him. He was tired of being treated always as little brother. Always being second, see, Mark introduces him as Andrew, the brother of Simon. He was fed up with it. Here comes little what's his name. You know, the brother of Simon. But when Jesus spoke, the tragic differences between these two brothers were healed. Or, James was searching for something in his life, a sense of meaning, of purpose. Fishing was fine, but was it an appropriate vocation for someone of his intelligence and abilities? Mending the nets, always mending the nets. He was sick of it! He reached out in life for something more. For fulfillment, and here came Jesus, and he spoke, "Follow me," and he was born again, and he went on to an outstanding evangelistic ministry. And yet you know that there are limits to what even a creative preacher can do with this story. For all of that bit about tensions in the family and searching for something more, well, it all coulda been true. But don't you find it interesting that Mark appears to care less? In about just five verses, Mark disposes of an account of how these four fishermen drop everything, and follow after Jesus on the basis of less than a dozen word invitation. Years ago, I remember seeing a film by the Italian Marxist director, Paulo Pasolini, entitled: The Gospel of Saint Matthew. It was kind of a landmark in cinema verite. Now, most biblical films are of the Charlton Heston, Troy Donahue, Cecil B. DeMille variety, with everything done in pastels and this blond-headed Jesus, and dozens of extras. But Pasolini, instead chose to do a film exclusively in black and white with ordinary, everyday people off the streets. This Marxist movie-maker took the Bible literally. He said, "I will make a movie and tell "it just like the way it is written. "The folk around Jesus were simple, straight-forward folk, "and I will show them with Jesus." I think, for me, the most stunning part of the film was the scene of the Calling of the Disciples. A dark figure of Jesus moves down a dusty Galilean road, he sees some fisher folk toiling over their nets. And he calls out, just the way it's written here, "Follow me!" There is silence. They stare rather dumbly at Jesus, and then befuddledly at one another. What was that he said, they seemed to say to one another. And then they just drop what they're doing and they follow after Jesus, who has already moved down beyond them, down the road to another village. And I remember wondering then, I wondered, could it have happened just like that? Just a word from someone they had hardly gotten a glimpse of? Could they have left all and followed Jesus on the basis of a simple: Follow me. And a promise: And I will teach you how to catch people. Could this sort of thing happen just the way Mark tells it? You see, we're apt to fill in the blanks, speculate on motives, possible psychological dynamics. Not necessarily because we are so creative, but because we are so inherently evasive. In our wildest imaginations, most of us cannot imagine that it is possible to leave everything and follow on the basis of a simple invitation and a promise. We are not simple, taciturn, uncomplicated fisher folk like Simon, Andrew, and James and John. We are complex, educated modern people. People with responsibilities, people with complications in life. We are not apt to throw away everything and run off after some itinerate preacher who announces, "That the time is fulfilled! "And the Kingdom of God is now!" No, we're apt to have discussions. We will weigh all the possible options. We will do research, clarify our values, call for an objective professional opinion. We will have therapy to be sure. If we are responding out of a careful weighing of the facts or only out of our own inner psychological turmoil. Out of our poor relationship with our parents, or sibling rivalry. We have spent too many years educating you to be rational, balanced, well-adjusted people to have you change direction of your life on the basis of a mere impulse! And of course, the trouble is that once you do that, Jesus has already moved on to another town; you missed it. He may not come this way again. But at least we have not behaved impulsively, made decisions out of our passion rather than out of our reason. Back to the nets. Education, sophistication, tends to do that to people, I suppose. But what if, as we said before, what if the Calling of the Disciples took place exactly the way Mark tells it? What if it takes place exactly that way today? What if following Jesus was an act of impulse? A decision of the moment, based upon some mysterious act of passion, rather than a careful weighing of the facts. And immediately they left their nets; they followed. And immediately he called them, and they left their father and they followed, immediately. Perhaps Mark is saying in this terse, staccato account that this is the only way Jesus ever gets followed by anybody: As an act of impulse, without all the facts. Stumbling after an enigmatic figure whom you hardly even know, much less where he's going. For I call to your attention that our text begins today with the statement: Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of God. You see what Mark has done? The story begins with just a subtle little side comment. A mere mention of the arrest of John the Baptist. The mission that Jesus calls people to is full of peril. John, the forerunner of Jesus, has been arrested. In a short time his head will be on the platter at one of the King's parties. And if they can do that to John, and if they can do that to Jesus, who knows what they may do to his disciples. You'd better think this thing over again. "If you want to follow Jesus," remarked the Catholic activist priest Berrigan, who preached, by the way, from this pulpit, "If you want to follow Jesus, you better look good on wood." That's what he was calling them to. It was the cost of discipleship. They're getting ready to murder John, and they will do the same to this one who bids us to follow. And reason always provides plenty of reasons to avoid this cost. What reasonable, careful, intelligent person would follow? Except, as impulse. I remember John Vannorsdall, who will preach at the Baccalaureate this year, preaching from this pulpit on this text. And meditating upon these fishermen leaving their nets, and their father, Zebedee, and following. He made a comment: Jesus must've broken the hearts of many a Jewish and Roman family. As a pastor, it almost never fails, when someone, say some student, comes by to tell me that he or she has decided to do something for God; to follow, to give his life to something or someone, some great undertaking which is felt to be divinely ordained, it just never fails, among the first words the person says are: I know you're gonna think I'm crazy, but... They know. This past week I received a letter from a Duke graduate. I know him only because he spent an hour or so with me trying to decide whether or not he ought to go into seminary or law school or into business. Now he spent a year since graduation thinking it all over, and he sent me this letter. And the letter consisted of about 21 questions that he wants me to think about and then answer, before he makes a decision. Questions, like: How much free time do pastors have? What is the average salary of the American pastor? Do you think you can still stay a human being and be a pastor? Questions, more questions than on the GRE. It'll take me longer to complete this letter! But only half-crazed people go out and stake their lives on impulse, we've spent years teaching you that. She was a graduate of two of this country's finest medical schools. She could've had a lucrative practice, but she went as medical missionary to Africa. And I was dying to know what act of reason had led her to this decision, and I asked her, and she responded: I just had this feeling that it was what God wanted me to do with my life. That's it? Just a feeling, an impulse? Jesus preached, the time is fulfilled. The time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, believe, follow! The time is fulfilled. In the New Testament there are at least two Greek words used for what we call, time. First of all there is: chronos, from which we get chronology, time, as years, months, calendars, clocks, the steady tick-tock of predictable time. And that's where most of us spend our lives, mired down in chronos. Hitting the books, mending the nets, tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. And yet there is another word used for time: It is kairos, which means special time. The right time. When time is fulfilled, and you see your whole life before you, caught up in one single moment, and everything hinges on whether you say yes or whether you say, no! The preacher says, the time is fulfilled. The Kingdom of God is now. Repent! Believe! Follow me! (peaceful organ music) (harmonious organ and choral music) 

- The Lord be with you. 

Congregation: And also with you. 

- Let us pray. Jesus said, "Whoever among you wants to be great "must become a servant of all." For the son of man himself has not come to be served, but to served, and to give his life to set many others free. Master, we hear your call. (congregation murmuring) Jesus said, "Unless you turn and become like little children "you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven." Master, we hear your call. (congregation murmuring) Jesus said, "You must love your enemies and do good "without expecting any return. "So will you be children of the most high. "Because God indeed is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. "Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate." Master, we hear your call. (congregation murmuring) Jesus said, "This is my Father's glory, "that you may bear fruit in plenty, "and so be my Disciples. "If you dwell in me as I dwell in you, "you will bear much fruit. "For apart from me you can do nothing." Master, we hear your call. (congregation murmuring) Jesus said, "There is no greater love than this, "that you should lay down your life for your friends. "This is my Commandment: "Love one another as I have loved you." Master, we hear your call. (congregation murmuring) Jesus said, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. "You then are to go and make Disciples of all the nations, "and baptize them in the name "of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. "Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. "And remember, I am with you always, "even to the end of the world." Master, we hear your call. (congregation murmuring) Amen. And now, in response to Jesus' call to be disciples of Christ, let us offer with grateful hearts our gifts and ourselves unto God. (peaceful organ music) (uplifting organ music) ♪ Praising the Lord ♪ ♪ Praising the Lord ♪ ♪ Praising the Lord ♪ ♪ Praise God in His sanctuary ♪ ♪ Praise Him in the places ♪ ♪ Praise Him praise him ♪ ♪ Praise Him according to His level of greatness ♪ ♪ Praise Him the sound of the trumpets ♪ ♪ With the sound of the trumpets ♪ (vibrant organ music) (harmonious orchestral and choral music) (peaceful organ music) (harmonious organ and choral music) 

- Almighty God, giver of all life, in hearing your call to be followers of Christ, we your unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving kindness to us, and to all men and women. We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and for all the blessings of this life, but above all for thy most gracious love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray: 

Congregation: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever, amen. (peaceful organ music) (harmonious organ and choral music) 

- And now may the grace of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all now, and always. (peaceful choral music) (vibrant organ music)