dcrmv001068001.mkv / William H. Willimon - "Immediately, They Followed" (January 24, 1988) / Duke Digital Repository

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Good morning and welcome to this service

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of worship in Duke Chapel.

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We particularly welcome those of you who worship with us

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in Duke Hospital on the closed circuit television system.

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A couple of announcements:

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We remind you that Doctor and Mrs. Travis' course,

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Preparing For Marriage, continues each Sunday morning

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at 9:45, and many of you would find

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that course of great interest.

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Also, on Wednesday of this week,

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Becky Pippert, nationally known evangelist and writer,

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will be on the Duke campus at noon and at 7:30,

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speaking on evangelical women's issues.

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And we invite your attendance to hear Miss Pippert.

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We're glad you're here this morning.

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Let us continue our worship.

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When we gather to praise God,

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we remember that we are a people who have preferred

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our own will's to the Lord's.

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Accepting God's power to become new persons in Christ,

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let us confess our sins before God and one another.

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Congregation

Have mercy upon us, oh God,

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according to thy loving kindness;

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according to the multitude of thy tender mercies,

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blot out our transgressions;

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wash us thoroughly from our inequities,

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and cleanse us from our sins.

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For we acknowledge our transgressions

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and our sin is ever before us.

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Create in us clean hearts, oh God,

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and renew a right spirit within us,

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through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.

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Hear the Good News!

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Christ died for us while we were yet sinners.

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That is God's own proof of his love toward us.

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In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.

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(congregation murmuring)

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Let us pray.

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Congregation

Open our hearts and minds, oh God,

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by the power of your Holy Spirit

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so that as the Word is read and proclaimed,

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we might hear, our faith might be strengthened,

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and our determination renewed to follow you, amen.

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The first lesson is taken from the Book of Jonah:

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Then the Word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time,

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saying, "Arise!

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"Go to Nineveh, that great city,

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"and proclaim to it the message that I tell you."

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So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh

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according to the Word of the Lord.

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Now, Nineveh was an exceedingly great city,

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three-days journey in breadth.

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Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey.

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And he cried, "Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"

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And the people of Nineveh believed God.

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They proclaimed a fast, and put on sack cloth

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from the greatest of them to the least of them.

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When God saw what they did, how they turned

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from their evil way, God repented of the evil

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which He said He would do to them, and did not do it.

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This ends the reading of the first lesson.

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Please stand as we read together responsively:

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For God alone my soul waits in silence.

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Congregation

From him comes my salvation.

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

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Congregation

I shall not be greatly moved.

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For God alone my soul waits in silence.

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Congregation

My hope is from him.

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

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Congregation

I shall not be shaken.

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On God rests my deliverance and my honor.

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Congregation

My mighty rock, my refuge is God.

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Trust in Him at all times, oh people.

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Congregation

Pour out your heart before him.

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God is a refuge for us.

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Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this.

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Congregation

That the power belongs to God.

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And that to thee, oh Lord belongs steadfast love.

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Congregation

For you will render a man

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according to his work.

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The Gospel lesson this morning

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is taken from the Book of Mark:

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Now after John was arrested,

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Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of God

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and saying, "The time is fulfilled

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"and the Kingdom of God is at hand!

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"Repent, and believe in the Gospel."

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And passing along by the Sea of Galilee,

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he saw Simon, and Andrew, the brother of Simon,

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casting a net in the sea, for they were fishermen.

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And Jesus said to them, "Follow me,

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"and I will make you become fishers of people."

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And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

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And going on a little farther, he saw James,

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the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother,

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who were in their boat mending the nets.

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And immediately he called to them.

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And they left their father Zebedee

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in the boat with the hired servants, and followed him.

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Here ends the reading of the Gospel.

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This is the sort of text

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which preachers love.

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This snippet of a story about the calling

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of Simon, Andrew, James, and John,

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which occurs in the First Chapter of Mark's Gospel.

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And passing along by the Sea of Galilee

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he saw Simon and Andrew casting their net into the sea,

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for they were fisherman, and Jesus said to them,

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"Follow me,

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"and I will make you become fishers of people."

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And immediately they left their nets and they followed him.

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Now, you may well wonder why preachers

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should love such a story, and love such a text.

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It's lean, it's sparse,

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it's virtually no detail.

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Jesus says, "Follow me."

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And immediately they follow.

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How typical is this text of Mark's Gospel.

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There's almost no detail, no dramatic coloring,

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no narrative subtlety.

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And you might be surprised,

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that is exactly why preachers love it.

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Because without detail or coloring or plot,

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there is so much empty space left

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for the creative preacher to fill in.

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Because you know there has to be more here

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than the way Mark tells it.

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Two fisherman, Jesus, follow me, case closed.

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Biblical scholars call this technique,

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particularly as it occurs in Mark, telescoping.

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Probably, they say, Mark has telescoped events

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that took place over days, even weeks,

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into just a moment of narrative.

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The probable hours which Jesus spent

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discussing discipleship with these people,

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countering their reservations.

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The debate that took place among themselves

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as they gradually came to a decision to sign up

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with the Jesus Movement and to become disciples,

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all of that is omitted,

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telescoped into just a few verses. It's just an outline.

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It's a sketch at best,

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a piece of lousy narrative art at worst.

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Tell us what you did at school today, dear?

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Well, the bell rang, I went in,

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the bell rang, I came out.

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Tell us about your expedition in the Gaul, General Caesar.

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I came.

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I saw.

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I conquered.

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Flaubert's Madame Bovary, as told in a freshman,

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high school freshman book report:

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There was this woman, she lived in France.

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She wasn't happy; she met a man; she still wasn't happy.

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She met another man; she wasn't happy.

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She had a baby; she drank poison; she died.

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I think this was a very good book.

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(congregation laughing)

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Well, I was the sort of student who,

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when told to draw a picture of a dog,

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I drew a picture of a dog with a little boy

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on the end of the leash, and a tree,

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and a sun over the tree, and four balloons

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over the little boy, and a daisy.

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In my last church, a couple of parishioners

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were discussing my preaching, and one of the parishioners

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said, "I think sometimes our preacher tends

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"to embellish things just a bit."

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"Yeah, and he lies, too!"

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Said the other one.

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(congregation laughing)

Well, this is the mark of creative homiletics.

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A friend of mine, Stuart Henry, accuses me of this.

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He said, "I can hand you a couple of wilted larkspur,

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"and in your hands it becomes a riot of delphinium!"

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You think I'm going to leave this text alone?

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With just a couple of fishermen, Jesus,

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follow me, you know it couldn't have happened like that.

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It was a bright, cloudless day in Galilee.

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The waves were gently lapping upon the shore,

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surging in, surging out.

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The midday sun was arched in the heavens,

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beating down upon the tanned backs

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of two brown-skinned fishermen,

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casting down hot bright rays on the beach.

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The fishermen worked knee deep in the water,

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toiling over their nets.

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You see, we're on,

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we're off and running on a sermon

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about the romance of the fishing industry in ancient Israel.

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Think about what Mark could've done

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with a good course in creative writing,

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or even the freshman composition course at Duke.

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Suddenly one of them stands upright.

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He shades his eyes from the sun,

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and he looks toward the bank,

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and there on the bank stands a lone, enigmatic figure.

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The figure on the bank calls out, "Follow me!"

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Well, of course we're not so interested

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in filling in geographical or artistic detail.

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More than likely, what we would like to fill in,

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in this terse account by Mark of the Calling

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of Disciples, more than likely what we would like

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to fill in is psychological detail.

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Where you see, Mark tells us virtually nothing

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of Simon and Andrew, James and John.

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There is no character development.

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No interiority.

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And we wonder, what inner psychological dynamics

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might have motivated these people to such a decision.

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We wonder what hierarchy of psychic need

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accounts for their response to Jesus, we wonder.

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Perhaps there was sibling rivalry between the two brothers.

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Simon: Simon must have been older.

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Andrew always resented him.

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He was tired of being treated always as little brother.

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Always being second, see, Mark introduces him

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as Andrew, the brother of Simon.

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He was fed up with it.

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Here comes little what's his name.

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You know, the brother of Simon.

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But when Jesus spoke, the tragic differences

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between these two brothers were healed.

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Or, James was searching for something in his life,

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a sense of meaning, of purpose.

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Fishing was fine, but was it an appropriate vocation

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for someone of his intelligence and abilities?

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Mending the nets, always mending the nets.

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He was sick of it!

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He reached out in life for something more.

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For fulfillment, and here came Jesus, and he spoke,

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"Follow me," and he was born again,

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and he went on to an outstanding evangelistic ministry.

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And yet you know that there are limits

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to what even a creative preacher can do with this story.

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For all of that bit about tensions in the family

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and searching for something more,

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well, it all coulda been true.

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But don't you find it interesting that Mark appears

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to care less?

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In about just five verses,

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Mark disposes of an account of how these four fishermen

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drop everything,

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and follow after Jesus on the basis

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of less than a dozen word invitation.

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Years ago, I remember seeing a film

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by the Italian Marxist director, Paulo Pasolini,

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entitled: The Gospel of Saint Matthew.

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It was kind of a landmark in cinema verite.

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Now, most biblical films are of the Charlton Heston,

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Troy Donahue, Cecil B. DeMille variety,

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with everything done in pastels and this blond-headed Jesus,

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and dozens of extras.

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But Pasolini, instead chose to do a film exclusively

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in black and white with ordinary, everyday people

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off the streets.

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This Marxist movie-maker took the Bible literally.

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He said, "I will make a movie and tell

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"it just like the way it is written.

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"The folk around Jesus were simple, straight-forward folk,

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"and I will show them with Jesus."

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I think, for me, the most stunning part of the film

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was the scene of the Calling of the Disciples.

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A dark figure of Jesus moves down a dusty Galilean road,

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he sees some fisher folk toiling over their nets.

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And he calls out, just the way it's written here,

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"Follow me!"

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There is silence.

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They stare rather dumbly at Jesus,

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and then befuddledly at one another.

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What was that he said, they seemed to say to one another.

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And then they just drop what they're doing

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and they follow after Jesus, who has already moved down

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beyond them, down the road to another village.

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And I remember wondering then, I wondered,

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could it have happened just like that?

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Just a word from someone they had

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hardly gotten a glimpse of?

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Could they have left all and followed Jesus

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on the basis of a simple:

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Follow me.

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And a promise:

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And I will teach you how to catch people.

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Could this sort of thing happen just the way Mark tells it?

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You see, we're apt to fill in the blanks,

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speculate on motives, possible psychological dynamics.

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Not necessarily because we are so creative,

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but because we are so inherently evasive.

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In our wildest imaginations, most of us cannot imagine

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that it is possible to leave everything

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and follow on the basis of a simple invitation

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and a promise.

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We are not simple, taciturn,

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uncomplicated fisher folk like Simon, Andrew,

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and James and John.

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We are complex, educated modern people.

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People with responsibilities,

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people with complications in life.

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We are not apt to throw away everything

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and run off after some itinerate preacher

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who announces, "That the time is fulfilled!

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"And the Kingdom of God is now!"

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No, we're apt to have discussions.

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We will weigh all the possible options.

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We will do research, clarify our values,

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call for an objective professional opinion.

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We will have therapy to be sure.

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If we are responding out of a careful weighing of the facts

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or only out of our own inner psychological turmoil.

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Out of our poor relationship with our parents,

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or sibling rivalry.

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We have spent too many years educating you

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to be rational, balanced, well-adjusted people

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to have you change direction of your life

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on the basis of a mere impulse!

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And of course, the trouble is that once you do that,

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Jesus has already moved on to another town; you missed it.

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He may not come this way again.

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But at least we have not behaved impulsively,

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made decisions out of our passion

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rather than out of our reason.

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Back to the nets.

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Education, sophistication, tends to do that

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to people, I suppose.

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But what if, as we said before,

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what if the Calling of the Disciples

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took place exactly the way Mark tells it?

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What if it takes place exactly that way today?

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What if following Jesus was an act of impulse?

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A decision of the moment,

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based upon some mysterious act of passion,

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rather than a careful weighing of the facts.

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And immediately they left their nets; they followed.

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And immediately he called them,

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and they left their father and they followed, immediately.

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Perhaps Mark is saying in this terse,

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staccato account

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that this is the only way Jesus

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ever gets followed by anybody:

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As an act of impulse, without all the facts.

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Stumbling after an enigmatic figure

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whom you hardly even know, much less where he's going.

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For I call to your attention that our text begins today

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with the statement:

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Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee

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preaching the Gospel of God.

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You see what Mark has done?

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The story begins with just a subtle little side comment.

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A mere mention of the arrest of John the Baptist.

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The mission that Jesus calls people to is full of peril.

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John, the forerunner of Jesus, has been arrested.

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In a short time his head will be on the platter

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at one of the King's parties.

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And if they can do that to John,

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and if they can do that to Jesus,

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who knows what they may do to his disciples.

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You'd better think this thing over again.

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"If you want to follow Jesus,"

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remarked the Catholic activist priest Berrigan,

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who preached, by the way, from this pulpit,

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"If you want to follow Jesus, you better look good on wood."

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That's what he was calling them to.

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It was the cost of discipleship.

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They're getting ready to murder John,

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and they will do the same to this one

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who bids us to follow.

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And reason always provides plenty of reasons

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to avoid this cost.

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What reasonable, careful,

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intelligent person would follow?

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Except,

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as impulse.

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I remember John Vannorsdall, who will preach

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at the Baccalaureate this year,

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preaching from this pulpit on this text.

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And meditating upon these fishermen leaving their nets,

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and their father, Zebedee, and following.

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He made a comment:

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Jesus must've broken the hearts

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of many a Jewish and Roman family.

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As a pastor, it almost never fails,

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when someone, say some student,

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comes by to tell me that he or she

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has decided to do something for God;

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to follow, to give his life to something or someone,

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some great undertaking which is felt

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to be divinely ordained,

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it just never fails, among the first words

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the person says are:

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I know you're gonna think I'm crazy, but...

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They know.

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This past week I received a letter from a Duke graduate.

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I know him only because he spent an hour or so with me

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trying to decide whether or not he ought

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to go into seminary or law school or into business.

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Now he spent a year since graduation thinking it all over,

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and he sent me this letter.

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And the letter consisted of about 21 questions

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that he wants me to think about and then answer,

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before he makes a decision.

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Questions, like: How much free time do pastors have?

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What is the average salary of the American pastor?

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Do you think you can still stay a human being

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and be a pastor?

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Questions, more questions than on the GRE.

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It'll take me longer to complete this letter!

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But only half-crazed people go out and stake their lives

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on impulse, we've spent years teaching you that.

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She was a graduate of two

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of this country's finest medical schools.

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She could've had a lucrative practice,

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but she went as medical missionary to Africa.

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And I was dying to know

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what act of reason had led her to this decision,

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and I asked her, and she responded:

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I just had this feeling that

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it was what God wanted me to do with my life.

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That's it?

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Just a feeling, an impulse?

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Jesus preached, the time is fulfilled.

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The time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at hand.

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Repent, believe, follow!

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The time is fulfilled.

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In the New Testament there are at least two Greek words

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used for what we call, time.

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First of all there is: chronos,

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from which we get chronology, time,

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as years, months, calendars, clocks,

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the steady tick-tock of predictable time.

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And that's where most of us spend our lives,

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mired down in chronos.

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Hitting the books, mending the nets,

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tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.

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And yet there is another word used for time:

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It is kairos,

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which means special time.

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The right time.

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When time is fulfilled,

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and you see your whole life before you,

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caught up in one single moment,

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and everything hinges on whether you say yes

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or whether you say, no!

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The preacher says,

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the time

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is fulfilled.

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The Kingdom of God is now.

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Repent!

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Believe!

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Follow me!

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(peaceful organ music)

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(harmonious organ and choral music)

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The Lord be with you.

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Congregation

And also with you.

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-

Let us pray.

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Jesus said, "Whoever among you wants to be great

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"must become a servant of all."

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For the son of man himself has not come to be served,

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but to served, and to give his life

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to set many others free.

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Master, we hear your call.

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(congregation murmuring)

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Jesus said, "Unless you turn and become like little children

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"you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

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Master, we hear your call.

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(congregation murmuring)

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Jesus said,

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"You must love your enemies and do good

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"without expecting any return.

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"So will you be children of the most high.

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"Because God indeed is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.

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"Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate."

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Master, we hear your call.

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(congregation murmuring)

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Jesus said, "This is my Father's glory,

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"that you may bear fruit in plenty,

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"and so be my Disciples.

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"If you dwell in me as I dwell in you,

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"you will bear much fruit.

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"For apart from me you can do nothing."

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Master, we hear your call.

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(congregation murmuring)

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Jesus said,

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"There is no greater love than this,

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"that you should lay down your life for your friends.

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"This is my Commandment:

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"Love one another as I have loved you."

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Master, we hear your call.

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(congregation murmuring)

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Jesus said,

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"All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

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"You then are to go and make Disciples of all the nations,

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"and baptize them in the name

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"of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

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"Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you.

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"And remember, I am with you always,

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"even to the end of the world."

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Master, we hear your call.

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(congregation murmuring)

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Amen.

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And now, in response to Jesus' call

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to be disciples of Christ,

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let us offer with grateful hearts

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our gifts and ourselves unto God.

43:08

(peaceful organ music)

43:13

(uplifting organ music)

45:19

♪ Praising the Lord ♪

45:31

♪ Praising the Lord ♪

45:35

♪ Praising the Lord ♪

45:38

♪ Praise God in His sanctuary ♪

45:41

♪ Praise Him in the places ♪

45:48

♪ Praise Him praise him ♪

45:52

♪ Praise Him according to His level of greatness ♪

45:58

♪ Praise Him the sound of the trumpets ♪

46:05

♪ With the sound of the trumpets ♪

46:09

(vibrant organ music)

46:14

(harmonious orchestral and choral music)

46:27

(peaceful organ music)

49:45

(harmonious organ and choral music)

50:08

-

Almighty God, giver of all life,

51:13

in hearing your call to be followers of Christ,

51:15

we your unworthy servants do give thee most humble

51:19

and hearty thanks for all thy goodness

51:22

and loving kindness to us,

51:24

and to all men and women.

51:26

We bless thee for our creation, preservation,

51:29

and for all the blessings of this life,

51:31

but above all for thy most gracious love

51:34

in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ,

51:37

who taught us to pray:

51:41

Congregation

Our Father, who art in heaven,

51:43

hallowed be thy name.

51:45

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,

51:47

on earth as it is in heaven.

51:50

Give us this day our daily bread

51:52

and forgive us our trespasses

51:54

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

51:57

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

52:00

For thine is the kingdom, the power,

52:04

and the glory forever, amen.

52:07

(peaceful organ music)

52:12

(harmonious organ and choral music)

52:54

-

And now may the grace of our Lord

55:57

and savior, Jesus Christ, the love of God,

55:59

and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit

56:02

be with you all now, and always.

56:04

(peaceful choral music)

56:14

(vibrant organ music)

57:32

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Duke University Archives