I had the joy of being with God’s people gathered as Christ Lutheran outside of Louisville, Nebraska on Sunday January 21, 2024. Pastor Janet Anderson invited me to come and preach on stewardship, share words of greeting from the Nebraska Synod and about how we are church together, and to lead worship. It was a beautifully cold winter morning. What follows is the majority of the announcements I gave at the beginning of the serving, and then the manuscript I preached from later on during worship during the sermon time. The appointed readings came from the Revised Common Lectionary for the Third Sunday after Epiphany (Year B), especially including: Mark 1:14-20; Jonah 3:1-5, 10; and Psalm 62:5-12.
Opening Worship Announcements and Greetings
Good morning, Christ Lutheran. It’s so good to be with you this morning. I am Deacon Timothy Siburg, your partner in ministry as the Nebraska Synod’s Director for Evangelical Mission, Innovation and Stewardship. Thank you to Pastor Janet for the invitation to preach on stewardship, and to all of you for the warm welcome. In being with you I bring greetings from Bishop Scott Johnson, from my colleagues and your partners in ministry on the Nebraska Synod staff, as well as from all of your 90,000 siblings in Christ who with you are the Nebraska Synod. Together you and your 230 partner congregations have joined in a theme to “Go and” together this year. What a joy it is to walk together as God’s people|
In being with you, I want to share a few words of particular gratitude for you and with you. Thank you for all the ministry that you do and make possible here through your congregation. Particularly it is my joy to say thank you for your congregation’s participation in Mission Share. Mission Share is the undesignated offering that your congregation shares with the larger Nebraska Synod and ELCA, through which you do ministry that spans the globe and changes lives.
Through your mission share you help raise up new leaders, pastors, deacons, and parish ministry associates, who are trained to follow Jesus and help others follow Jesus. Through it you help youth and young adults know of God’s deep love for them, in part through supporting Nebraska Lutheran Campus Ministry and Nebraska Lutheran Outdoor Ministry including Camp Carol Joy Holling. Through your mission share you “Go and” with God’s people together, through supporting new and renewing ministries right here all across the Big Red State like Emmaus: Lifelong Learning and the Vitality Initiative for Congregations; and through sharing the Good News by accompanying God’s people across the globe by sending missionaries. And through your mission share you see your neighbors and meet them where they are at through the many serving arm partners of the church, like Lutheran Family Services, Mosaic, Immanuel, Lutheran Disaster Response and so many more. There is so much that you do and make possible by being part of this church together. So on behalf of your siblings in Christ across Nebraska and around the world, thank you, thank you, thank you! That’s probably enough for now, so I’ll save the rest for the sermon.
In other announcements for this day:
- A reminder that next Sunday, January 28th is the annual congregational meeting for your congregation following worship. Please plan to stay and participate in that important meeting. For it’s in those meetings where congregations like you tell stories of what God is up to, and what God might be inviting you to be a part of in the year ahead. And its in those meetings too, where the work of things like mission share and being church together are really made possible. So thank you in advance for that.
- White Elephant Bingo is coming up…
- Are there any other announcements for the good of the community today?
- I now invite you to take a moment to prepare your hearts & minds for worship…
The Message for this Day
Grace and peace from God in Christ, who is with you, for you, and who loves you. Amen.
Questions, Feelings, and Responses
Have you ever had a moment where it felt like everything stopped? Where all the things you had been thinking about or focused on, just slipped from the forefront of your mind. I wonder, what did you feel like in that space? How did you respond to that feeling?
Have you ever been so moved by the words of another, that you stopped and changed your life almost overnight? Like the people of Nineveh in hearing from Jonah in our first lesson today? Who, “believed God; proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth.”[1] If you have ever had such an experience of massive change, I wonder, what did you feel? How did you respond to that?
And have you ever had a moment where everything changed? Where an emergency happened, and immediacy took on new meaning? Other stuff just seemed to fall down the list of importance and you were fully present in the here and now. I wonder, what did you feel like in that space? How did you respond to that feeling?
“Immediately…”
Now that’s a lot of questions to start with. But these are questions I’m wrestling with. In this short familiar story we hear about Jesus and those first four disciples. We hear Jesus’ call and invitation, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”[2] What would you do if you hear this from a stranger, who sees you for the first time? Well, we know what Simon, Andrew, James, and John do. Mark says, “And immediately they left their nets and followed him,”[3] and “Immediately Jesus called them; and they left their father Zebedee…”[4] These were slightly different responses for the pairs of disciples, but the constant is that they responded and followed “immediately.” Immediately! Would we be so bold? Would we be so courageous? Crazy? Able to lay down our backpacks, briefcases, combines, tractors, snow shovels, daily lives, and follow Jesus? Hmm…
How would we respond if we were in this story? I wonder, is there something deep within all of us that we feel at the call of Jesus? How might we respond to Jesus’ presence and call and invitation, to “Follow me and I will make you fish for people?”[5]
Discipleship Response
The response to this invitation from Jesus to follow him, is that of discipleship. It’s a reaction or an epiphany during this season of Epiphany in real-time, where one’s heart and mind are turned toward God. Where in the act of the invitation from God in Christ, people are seen and reached out to. People who often have been on the margins, unseen, or pushed to the limits. When they are seen and invited, of course they are going to follow. And in following, they will have responsibility. They will be invited to join in with God in some of God’s on-going work.
The work of sharing the Good News of Jesus, and showing, proclaiming, and living through their very words and deeds that God’s love is real, and it is for you. When Jesus says, he will make them “fish for people,” he acknowledges their trained earthly vocation of being fishermen and uses it. He affirms their vocations and turns it in such a way so that one might see that through it they can and will share the Good News exactly where they are, where they find themselves, with their unique gifts, strengths, passions, and experiences. This was true for those first four disciples, and it’s true for me and you today. This is also where stewardship comes in.
Stewardship- What is it?
It might help to explain a little about what stewardship is. For me, I always start with the psalmist. Psalm 24 begins, “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it.”[6] Putting it simply, everything is God’s. You are God’s. I am God’s. All that we have, and all that we are, are God’s. And all means all here. That means your lives, health, bodies, hearts, and minds. Your time, talent, treasure, assets, and finances of all kinds are too. Your passions, strengths, vocations, gifts, ideas, dreams, and even questions. And all of creation that is entrusted into your care back at the beginning of Genesis. All of this and more is God’s. And God chooses to entrust it into our care because God wants life to go well for God’s people, and God wants to be in relationship with us.
God does this and so much more, for you. And this is just a starting point. God will go even to the point of death on a cross for us. We know this. We know that God coming to be among us through the incarnation and the birth of Jesus, through Jesus’ life and ministry, and death and resurrection. We know this through the salvation which God alone provides. All of this, God does for you, for me, and for all of God’s beloved. This is pure gift and grace we could never earn or deserve.
So how do we respond? That’s the stewardship question! Do we respond by going about daily life unchanged? Or do we respond by being so moved with joy and gratitude for what God has done, will do, and promises to do for us, that we can’t help but give our thanks and praise with the psalmist by “pouring out our hearts before God who is our refuge,”[7] and then being so swept up in that thanks and praise, joy and gratitude, that we join in with God in some of God’s on-going work here and now. Through our lives, vocations, and all that we are. And friends, that really is what stewardship is all about. It’s the response of living life as a steward forever changed by God’s love, forever growing as a follower of the way. It’s the response of being so moved, that we lean in, and step up, as part of God’s work, here and now today.
Our Response Now
That response is what James, John, Andrew, and Simon all embodied. They took heart. They heard Jesus’ call and followed. They sensed God was up to something and making the words that Jesus himself proclaimed to Galilee real. The words that come upon John the Baptist’s arrest, which in the Gospel of Mark signify the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.
Where Jesus says, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”[8] This is Jesus’ mission. It’s a continuation of the ministry that John the Baptist did, but really is the mission which John prepared those who might listen to pay attention to. He knew it was coming, and here it was. So the disciples began to follow. That was their response. I wonder then, what will be your response?
A Story about Immediacy
Jesus knows that this matters. This invitation matters. This work and ministry matters. It’s a life and death thing. And Mark gets right to the point using the word “immediately” to get our attention. This reminds me of something that happened this past week. A moment if you will, where everything changed or could have changed anyway. A moment of emergency and immediacy where I found myself just responding to the event in front of me by being in the moment and not thinking about next steps, but just the immediacy of the present. Early on Thursday morning my wife and I were awakened by an alarm. The carbon monoxide alarm in our kitchen was going off. I quickly ran downstairs and turned our fireplace off. The alarm stopped. For thirty seconds, and then it was going again and the number on the alarm was reading somewhat high. So, without a second thought we grabbed our two young girls who were awakened by the beeping too and threw them in our car and drove it out of our garage.
We live in a parsonage across from the church my wife serves as pastor. So we parked by the church with the heat on, grateful to be okay but worried about what might have been. We called 9-1-1, the emergency line of our local gas company, and had a number of church people on the phone too. After a little while, the Rural Fire Department and the Gas Company person on call arrived. They were very thorough. They checked every vent, nook, and cranny.
After an hour of hunting and searching, they said, “we’re still getting pretty high and dangerous readings in your bedrooms.” My heart sank. “Wow, I thought.” “Thank you, God, for waking us up. Thank you, God, for a working alarm. Thank you, God, for what might have been, was not…” Maybe you can relate to that feeling? The search continued and after a while they came back and said that they had traced the problem to our furnace. I would have about five minutes to go in and grab some extra clothes, but then we would need to leave for the night until the furnace people could come and open it up. So I grabbed what I could. The bare essentials really. And off we were. Thanking God for each other, and the fact that my parents moved from Washington state to Fremont a few years ago. We had a warm place to go close by on such a cold early morning. The next day the furnace company came. Sure enough. There was a lot of carbon monoxide in the broken furnace, the result of a cracked pipe and broken system that would need to be replaced. They said, thank you for having a working alarm and for making sure it was in good working order.
It felt a little strange to hear a thank you for that. But I am thankful. And like the disciples in today’s story, there was immediacy in this. For the moment that alarm went off, it was immediate. There was no time to think “well, maybe it’s just the batteries.” Or, “well, maybe if we just open a window?” No. We trusted our gut, and immediately got out of the house. It was the right call. The firefighters, the gas company employee, and the furnace company all said the same thing. We did the right things, and because of it, we’re okay.
Putting it Altogether
That early morning this past week featured a response that was more instinct and the result of being trained in what to do to be safe. It’s not quite the same thing as responding to Jesus’ call, but both are immediate. Both are life and death things- for you and your neighbors, God’s beloved children. So, people of God, how do you respond to the Good News? How do you embody and share it here in Louisville and in every community that you find yourselves? How do you follow when Jesus calls you to come and follow him? To come and see that the Lord is good. How do you live and grow as disciples and stewards here, now, today?
You do it through your unique vocations and daily lives. You do it by living out your baptized lives through the promises made for us and by us and by God. To join in with God’s people. To gather and worship together. Through your Wednesday Church experiences, Vacation Bible School, and your congregation’s prayer shawl ministry. To go about meeting your neighbor’s needs and working for justice and peace. To open the scriptures and committing to continue to grow as God’s people, like supporting your congregation’s youth to participate in the ELCA Youth Gathering later this year. To follow wherever it is that God might be inviting and leading next. And to not just see, but to respond when you see and know your neighbors’ needs. To come alongside as Jesus comes alongside those first disciples and sees them and invites them to come and follow. Just as Jesus does for you and for me.
There is an immediacy in this. Because Jesus knows that such an invitation is a costly one. It’s an invitation to a life with the cross at its center. This life won’t always be easy. But it will be deeply meaningful. For Jesus’ invitation and call is one that is truly life-giving, life-changing, and a lifesaving one. For that we can’t help but respond with joy, gratitude, and being all in as disciples and stewards of God’s love. So join in People of God. Continue to do what you do- here in Louisville, Plattsmouth, Springfield, Cedar Creek, Weeping Water, Beaver Lake, Murray, Murdoch, Papillion, Omaha, and everywhere else you find yourselves. Commit to open your ears, eyes, hearts, hands, feet, and minds for Jesus’ call and invitation. Know that Jesus is with you, for you, and loves you. Always. No matter what. For just as Jesus said to those first hearers of the gospel, he says to you this day, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”[9] Thanks be God. Amen.
Sources, References, and Citations:
[1] Jonah 3:5, NRSV.
[2] Mark 1:17, NRSV.
[3] Mark 1:18, NRSV.
[4] Mark 1:20, NRSV.
[5] Mark 1:17, NRSV.
[6] Psalm 24:1, NRSV.
[7] As in Psalm 62:8, NRSV.
[8] Mark 1:15, NRSV.
[9] Mark 1:15, NRSV.
Timothy Siburg 