Follow Me!

Read Mark 1:14-20

“Follow Me.”

This simple invitation is extended to Simon and Andrew and to James and John. The amazing thing is that they do just that – they follow Jesus. They walk away from their fishing nets; they leave their father in the boat; they follow Jesus.

I find this story to be both inspiring and frustrating.

First, inspiring. This story is inspiring because the four disciples mentioned in the text demonstrate incredible faith and obedience. Immediately, they drop what they are doing to respond to the call of Christ. There is no doubt that these disciples are committed entirely to the cause of following Jesus.

And then: frustrating. This story is frustrating because the bar for discipleship has been set so incredibly and unrealistically high. I’m not sure that any of us would leave the comforts of home, work, and family and follow Jesus Christ into such an unknown future.

I suppose I could boast about my own call to serve as pastor of Community Presbyterian Church in Plainview, Minnesota. I could brag that I left behind my family and friends to come to the unknown region of Southeastern Minnesota, that I dropped everything when I heard God call – and followed unquestioningly and with great faith. I could say all that, but it wouldn’t be entirely true.

Although I certainly feel like I am called to be here – serving as pastor of Community Presbyterian Church – my experience of discernment was not immediate. I spoke with the Pastor Search committee on several occasions. I visited Plainview 3 times over the course of 6 months – once to interview, once with my family, and once without telling anyone – to learn the lay of the land. If I was called to come to this place, I wanted to do my homework and make sure that this was a place that my family could and would thrive. (For the record, we are thriving – affirmation of the call process!).

“Follow Me.” 

I think this story in Mark’s gospel is intended to give us an example of how to follow Jesus. But we are not limited to only following Jesus as the disciples did. We are invited to follow Jesus today in distinct, unique and particular ways. How are you going to follow him?

I know some who follow Jesus with their vocation – doing the work that they are called to do to live out their faith, like teachers or health care professionals. I know people who follow Jesus by volunteering and giving themselves to a cause that is bigger than themselves. I know people who follow Jesus by looking for those on the outside, and reaching out with love, making them feel welcomed and invited. I know people who follow Jesus by caring for their aging parents, by listening to friends, by comforting the bereaved, by counselling the lost. There are countless ways in which we can answer the call to follow Jesus Christ today.

How are you going to follow him?

Come and See!

Read John 1:35-51

Dear Friends,

We call Friday's "All Daddy, All Day" at our house. Friday's are my day off; my wife works at the library most Fridays; and my 5 year old is not yet in school. So Friday I am available for my daughter's every whim. I usually enjoy this. Usually.

Last Friday, I had one email that I needed to send. It wasn't even church related - I am the Cubmaster of Pack 57 and I needed to update the Pack calendar. So I asked my daughter to entertain herself for 10 minutes so I could stare at a computer screen.

It took me nearly 45 minutes to send that email.

"Daddy, come here - look what I did!"
"Daddy, come here - I'm doing a puzzle."
"Daddy, come and see - do you like this picture. I colored it just for you."
"Daddy, come and see."

Each request conveyed excitement and eagerness to share the experience. All Daddy, All Day, indeed.

In John's gospel, when Jesus calls Philip he simply says, "Come and See." In turn Philip tells his friend Nathanael, "Come and See." It's a simple invitation to check out what God is up to.  In John's gospel, Jesus is at his best when he is encountering people. It starts with these disciples, continues with a certain Pharisee named Nicodemus, and then the Samaritan woman at the well and the man born blind. Jesus encounters Peter, Pilate, and even Thomas, who doubts.
To all these, Jesus says in one way or another: "Come and See."

Come and see - what God is up to.
Come and see - what God might do with your life.
Come and see - a new future is possible.
Come and see - God's grace is at work around you.
Come and see - God's love is real - and is available to all people.

Come and see.

What if we invited our friends, our colleagues, our co-workers and neighbors to come and see what God is doing in our lives and in the lives of Community Presbyterian Church?

I believe that God is working here in this place. God is up to something - and it is good. I have discovered that this is a special place - a place to worship, to experience fellowship, to grow in relationship both with one another, but more importantly with God in Jesus Christ. Come and See for yourself what I have discovered to be true about this place.

I have no doubt that the future of the church - and this church in particular - are in God's trustworthy hands. I have no doubt that the same spirit of God that was present when Jesus was baptized is still working through us. I have no doubt that the same spirit that worked through Phillip when he asked Nathanael to "come and see" is working through us. Might we trust that spirit to continue working as we say to others: "Come and See."

Amen and amen.

Remember Your Baptism

Read Mark 1:4-11

I have a confession. I can't remember my baptism.

To be fair, I was three months old. Baptized in November, 1974.

Yesterday was "Baptism of the Lord" Sunday in church. Ever since the days of Martin Luther, reformed churches have been encouraging her membership to remember your baptism.

Now, I get the importance of baptism. Hey, I went to seminary - so I can say things like "baptism is a sacrament and a sacrament is an outward sign of an inward grace." And when I do stop and think about it, I can articulate several reasons why baptism is important. But the truth is, I just don't think about baptism all that often.

I am, however, thankful for the opportunity to think about the baptism of Jesus at least once a year. I like to think of it as the story where John the Baptism got his name, after all, if he didn't baptize Jesus we would probably call him "John the locust eater" or "John the beheaded."

There are two things I want to highlight from this reading. First, the words from heaven are deeply personal and profound. God says to Jesus when he is being baptized "This is my son with whom I am well pleased." These words contain some deep and abiding promises about being claimed by God and blessed by God.

The thing that I love about Mark's gospel is that this is one of the first stories about Jesus. Immediately after being baptized, Jesus finds himself in the desert resisting temptation. And then he begins his ministry - healing, casting out, welcoming, and the like.

For Mark's gospel, Jesus' baptism is not an preamble. Rather it is the foundation for all of Jesus ministry. In fact, I think that Jesus is able to say the same thing that God said to him through his ministry - that is that you are a child of God; God is well pleased with you." Every time he heals someone, Jesus is saying that they have worth and value. Every time he casts out a demon, Jesus is saying that they matter to God.

And that's why it is important for us to remember our own baptism (or at least reflect on the meaning of it.) In our baptism, the promise that God made to Jesus is extended onto us. We are God's children. With us God is well pleased.

And these promises enable and empower us to extent the same love, care, and hospitality to those we meet in our daily lives.

So don't forget - God loves you. You are a beloved child of God. And with you, God is well pleased.

And one more thing - as you live into the truth of these words, don't forget to share them with someone you love.

Amen.

Leaning into the Light

Did you know that author Katherine Patterson (married to a Presbyterian Pastor!) wrote an original story for her husband to read on Christmas Eve to his congregation? Well, I'm no award winning novelist, but I do recognize a great tradition. For three years I have written a story for the children of my church and read it to them on Christmas Eve. My hope is that the adults present also listen to the story. Here is my Christmas Eve story from December 24, 2014. Blessings!

John

Leaning Into the Light

An Original Story by Rev. John H.G. Curtiss

Written for the Children of the Community Presbyterian Church for the worship service on Christmas Eve.

December 24, 2014

Hello there. My name is Jack and I am 8 years old. And I want to tell you about the best Christmas I ever had. It all started with the lighting of the first Advent Candle.

You see, my mom and my two sisters – I’m the middle child – a Jack-in-the-box – my family likes to tease – we go to church each week. My Dad…he’s not really into church. My Dad once said to me, “Rooster Nugget (that’s his nickname for me), I work all week with a bunch of hypocrites! Why would I want to spend my free Sunday morning with more of ‘em!” Now, I’m not entirely sure what a hypocrite is – but Dad stays home on Sundays and does yard work or little things around the house (when he’s not watching SportsCenter on ESPN).

My oldest sister is 12 and my mom says that she is practicing being a teen-ager a year too early. That means that she rolls her eyes at half of the things my mom says and ignores the other half. Because she is nearly a teen-ager, I am stuck with my baby sister a lot. She’s fun, but she is only 3 and can’t do a lot for herself. So I sit next to her in church and help keep her quiet so that mom can listen and my big sister can pretend like she isn’t listening.

At my church we prepare for Christmas by lighting the advent candle. It’s a way to help us prepare for the birth of Jesus Christ on Christmas Day. There are four Sundays in Advent and each Sunday we light another candle. When we get to Christmas Eve we get to light the big candle in the middle and then we know that Christmas is the next day.

Well last year something amazing happened during Advent. I was actually listening to the words of the pastor (amazing, I know, I’m only 8!). And he said that we can prepare for Christ to come into our hearts at Christmas time by doing the things that Christ did when he was alive on earth. He said that Jesus was doing things like feeding the hungry and caring for those without.

And that just gave me an idea. You see, I’m a growing boy and I like to eat. And Jesus was always eating with the people around him. There are lots of stories about Jesus feeding the people around him. His disciples, complete strangers, even little children. It seemed to me that Jesus spend a lot of time feeding people. And so I thought we should have a meal at the church on Christmas Eve – feed the hungry people and then invite them to church. I didn’t realize that this simple idea was going to cause so much of a fuss in my little church.

Well, I didn’t tell anyone about my idea until the Second Sunday of Advent.  And then I only remembered when we were lighting the second candle at church. So I told my mom about my brilliant idea – but she said not now. So I started to doodle and draw on the back of the bulletin and I came up with a poster for the free food before worship at church night. It seemed like a perfect idea in my head.

I went home and I made those posters. I even let my little sister color them in even though she can’t stay in the lines. I had my mom look up the address of the church and everything and when I showed her my work, my mom was impressed, but she just wasn’t sure it would work. She said that sometimes things happen in the church slowly – that different groups need to be involved – and that everyone was just too busy to make a church supper on the night of Christmas Eve happen. When she saw how disappointed I was, she at least agreed to talk to the pastor.

We met the pastor after worship after the 3^rd Sunday in Advent. And although he liked the spirit of the idea (“It’s always good to want to help people, Jack!” Pastor reassured me.) He just didn’t think there was any way we could pull this off. We hadn’t talked to the mission team – and they are always involved when there is outreach. And we hadn’t talked to the session – they have to approve new ideas like this. And the kitchen ladies have to be involved early because nothing happens in the kitchen without their explicit approval. “Good idea. No, Jack – great idea. But not this year. Not this year.” I think he made my mother a little mad, because she said, we will see about that, pastor. And she had that look in her eye. You know the look. All moms have one.

The next week, she helped my make posters and we hung them up all over town – especially in the places where people in need are more likely to be. We walked the streets of town putting our posters up. And at home at night Mom started to make phone calls to her friends. She had been a member of the church for a long time. She was working so hard on this that even my Dad noticed and asked what kind of trouble we were getting into. He seemed to like the idea that we were doing something without the pastor’s approval. I didn’t realize that people were taking sides – some for the dinner and some against the dinnet.

On the 4^th Sunday of Advent – just a few days before Christmas Eve – the church was buzzing with excitement. The pastor asked my mother and I to come into his office to talk. He had found a couple of our posters around town and wanted to know the story. My mom explained that the birth of Jesus Christ was about sharing God’s love – and that her son – that’s me – wanted to show love by feeding people. The pastor wanted to know what kinds of plans were made and what kind of approval she had. Does the session know about this? What about the Deacons – they are always in charge of food? Does the mission committee or the evangelism committee know about this? He had question after question about how we had planned this backwards and it wasn’t going to work. He looked a bit tired, but mom said that’s because preachers work hard during Advent and getting ready for Christmas.

He didn’t exactly give us his blessing and he admitted that he was more than a little skeptical but he could see just how determined my mother was. She quickly assured him that everything would be fine, that God would bless this meal, and that the Holy Spirit might even show up in our church on Christmas Eve. I’m not sure the preacher knew what to say about that!

Before I knew it, it was Christmas Eve. Church service weren’t till later – when it was properly dark so that the shepherds can see the star and the baby Jesus can be born at night in the manger.

My mother and I and my two sisters went to church early in the afternoon. I thought it was odd that we only had 2 onions and a bag of carrots. Mom went into the kitchen and began to chop the onions and the carrots. Soon another lady from church came – and she had the celery and a can of broth. They got out the big pot and began to cook the onions, mix in the carrots, and stir in the broth. Every little bit another member of the church would show up – with some potatoes, a bit of meat, some herbs and seasons. Even the men’s group president showed up with 6 dozen cookies from the local grocery. Pretty soon the church kitchen smelled like supper. Everytime I turned around someone was bringing a bit of this or that. Mrs. Smith brought her homemade bread. Mr. Jones brought some store bought rolls.  There was a buzz of excitement in the place.

About an hour before church began, the pastor showed up, and with him several people I had never seen before. He said they were waiting outside looking for the food.

We began to serve. We begin to eat and soon the hall was filled with the sounds of pleasant 

conversation, of laughter and story-telling. I even saw the preacher look around all misty eyed at the fellowship around him.

And then I saw my dad enter the back. By the looks of it he had showered and shaved and put on his nice shirt. He winked at me and smiled and said he didn’t want to miss what happened to the trouble makers. We grabbed a bowl of stew and found a seat and ate together as a family. I couldn’t believe that we are all together on Christmas Eve.

That night at church, the pastor set aside his notes and said that he had a different message to share tonight. He wanted to say that the church is better when we are together – working together towards a common goal of sharing God’s love. He said that Jack, that’s me, had taught him that. He said that he loved the idea that Christmas Eve happens shortly after the winter solstice – the longest night of the year because the earth is just now beginning to lean into the light. He said that he saw all of us today lean into the light by working together and sharing God’s love.

That was the best Christmas I’ve ever had. I can’t remember what present I got last year – but I do know that I was a part of a group of people who leaned into the light together. 

Amen and amen.