A Sermon on Mark 1:14-20

A Sermon on Mark 1:14-20

Preached January 26, 2003

First Christian Church, Corpus Christi, Texas

By Donald M. Tuttle

A wonderful picture adorns the jacket of a new book by Richard Winter. On a black background, dozens of people sit in a theater. Some are munching popcorn. Others are sipping soda from overly large cups. But what stands out are the eyes of each person. They all have that glazed, half-shut look of boredom. Despite being in a place where they are to be entertained, they are bored.

And that is the point because Winter’s book is entitled Still Bored in a Culture of Entertainment. As one reviewer notes, the book explores the fact that despite having "hundreds of entertainment options--video games, the Internet, CD and MP3 players, home entertainment centers, sporting events, mega malls, movie theaters and even robotic toys--Western culture is battling an insidious disease. It’s an epidemic of boredom."

All of us have or have had children or grandchildren who confess after only minutes without being entertained that they are bored. But it is not just children. One college professor says it is a common trait among suburbanites. In fact, he paints what he calls a picture of the typical suburbanite. He says:

She is tired of the magazine that she is reading or the television show that she is watching and mixes another cocktail for herself. Or perhaps she telephones an equally bored friend and they talk for hours about nothing, or perhaps she drifts into an affair that means as little to her as the television show or that magazine article.

But boredom may even be more widespread that children and suburbanites. In 1999 a study of 2500 people found that 71 percent were bored and wanted more novelty in their life. And that was up 4 percent from just the year before.

Today, many people are bored. And it is ironic because we have created a culture intent of defeating it. As one author notes, we now live in a culture where every event--take the Super Bowl, for example--is a spectacle and where there is a frenzied pursuit of entertainment, often pushing the envelope--as it does weekly with The Osbournes or as it did this week with Primetime Lives hour-long special on the porn industry. To grab and keep the interest of a bored people, everything has to be bigger or more shocking or more risqué. That is the culture in which we live.

But as I’ve said before, what affects the culture often infects the church. Boredom is no different.

Recently an organization in Australia surveyed 8500 people. Although two-thirds of the folks said they were Christian, only about 20 percent go to church. Their Number One reason for NOT going? Boredom. 42 percent said that the church was boring and unfulfilling. I suspect that if such a survey were done in the U.S. we would get similar results.

I know that in an unscientific poll of teenagers using the Internet, one youth worker found that the Number One reason teens gave for dropping out of the church was boredom.

And an article in the religion journal Relevant says boredom is a leading factor in the loss of men in the church today.

And all of those conclusions have been confirmed by Bill Hybels and other church planters who survey their target areas before starting churches. Consistently non-churchgoers--even those who identify themselves as Christians--will say that they don’t go because it is boring.

You know what else? I don’t think it is just the non-churchgoers that feel that way. Many in the church, many of us who remain in the church, might well find ourselves bored. And I am not just talking about worship; I mean bored by the whole way in which we do church today. For many of us, church can become nothing more than one meeting after another, budget discussions and stewardship campaigns, program and building maintenance, and an occasional fellowship dinner. All of which may be important, but hardly the stuff excitement is made of. To borrow from our Gospel reading, we can find ourselves spending all our time mending nets and plugging leaks. And after a while our shoulders droop and our eyes glaze over. We get bored, tired of the religious routine.

But what really makes such feelings more striking is the contrast we see between them and the response of Jesus’ first disciples. Here they are, going about their business, making a living, tending to the tools on which they depend, when Jesus comes along and invites them to follow him. And they do. Simon and Andrew drop their nets and go. A little later, James and John do the same. All of them go immediately, Mark says. They leave without a moment’s hesitation.

Now there is no magic here. There is no great mystery as to why they responded as they did. Jesus was inviting them to be church--

to gather regular to mumble the words of the hymns,

to attend this meeting and that,

to volunteer for committees,

to contribute to the upkeep of the building,

and to make sure that fellowship dinners, Sunday School and CWF are maintained.

Right? Isn’t that what he was asking them to do? Isn’t that what got them so excited that they left their businesses and families to join him?

Of course not. What got them excited was Jesus’ invitation to share in his ministry. Before he called his first disciples, Jesus went about Galilee proclaiming the Good News that the time had been fulfilled, that the kingdom of God was coming near, that people were to repent and believe. What Jesus invited his disciples to do was join him in that ministry--to go with him and go from him to tell people that God was revealing God’s purpose for the world, that people everywhere could be a part of the realm, that they should and could realign their lives to God and trust in Jesus. They were excited because Jesus invited them--humble fishermen--to help reconcile people to God, to invite others to come and live in God’s grace.

And they never grew bored doing that. Oh, sometimes they didn’t understand. Sometimes they doubted. Sometimes they were afraid. But never did they get bored with sharing the Good News with a world in need.

Neither do those who grasp what it is that God calls his disciples to do.

Today much is made of the fact that new congregations grow while older one’s most often decline. There are a number of reasons for it--location, leadership, musical styles and theology. But the most significant difference is that new congregations clearly know why they exist. Whether they say it or not, they clearly understand that following Jesus is about proclaiming the Good News and bringing others to know and love him. And they put everything else--location, leadership, musical style, theology, and all the rest--into serving that purpose. That is what gets them excited. Worship isn’t about music for music sake. It is about touching people’s hearts with the Good News. Bible Study isn’t about being able to identify the sources of the Gospel. It is about opening up people’s minds to the wisdom of God. Fellowship isn’t about just having a good time. It is about embodying God’s grace to one another. Service in the community isn’t just about keeping people off the streets. It is about witnessing to God’s love. Giving isn’t about meeting budget. It is about making sure no one misses an opportunity to know Jesus Christ as Lord. Everything they do is seen as a chance to help reconcile broken people and a broken world with God. Following Jesus in that way is never boring.

But then we know that. Our ancestors knew it.

It was nearly a century ago, when a handful of folks gathered to organize a new congregation in their small city. It wasn’t that the city didn’t have religious options. There was a Methodist Church and a Baptist Church, an Episcopal one and a Roman one, maybe even a Presbyterian one. But these folks felt that there were people in their community who needed the love and grace of God. They believed with all their heart that there were people who needed to hear the Good News in terms that made sense to them in the world in which they now lived. And so Mr. and Mrs. Orr invited over a handful of people and formed a congregation--Central Christian Church, they called it. And they took as their mission the making of disciples of Jesus Christ and introducing them to the understanding of faith put forward by Alexander Campbell. For years that church struggled. What would become this church, First Christian Church, struggled. It started and stopped. It grew a little and then declined. There was even a time or two when it didn’t even meet. Sometimes they were frustrated. Sometimes they were uncertain as to what to do. Sometimes they were broke. But they were never bored. They were never bored because they knew why they had come into existence and what they were meant to do. They knew they had been called to bringing others to Christ, to introduce them to a faith that encompassed head and heart.

Today, we need to reclaim that heritage, that passion for ministry. Jesus is calling: "Come, follow me, and I will make you fish for people. Come, follow me and share in reconciling the world to God."

The question is "How will we respond?" Will we drop everything--our old routines and boring ruts--and go? Will we set aside the habits that no longer work and learn new ways to serve him? Will we put ourselves anew into his service? That is what Jesus wants to know? How will we respond today?