Sermon at the Sung Eucharist on the Fourth Sunday of Epiphany 2018

If I had to give a title to this morning’s gospel reading, it would have to be:  ‘Jesus has a very busy day’.  You see, Mark chapter one introduces the whole of the gospel of Mark by giving a sort of summary account of a typically busy day in the life of Jesus.

First of all we get some scene setting:  we’re told of Jesus’ baptism in the river Jordan by the extraordinary desert preacher, John.  We’re told that Jesus mission is to baptize with the Holy Spirit; and that God himself declares that Jesus is his beloved Son.  This is the beginning of no ordinarily busy ministry, clearly!

So Jesus wrestles with temptation in the wilderness for a long and testing time, before returning to what we might think would be the quieter northern haven of Galilee with a clear message to proclaim to all who may hear it:  The kingdom of God has come near – repent, and believe the good news.  Then begins the busy day proper…

This morning we heard how a rather unlikely bunch of fishermen are called away from their boats to follow Jesus, leaving family businesses in a bit of a quandary.  You wonder what Zebedee might have to say to his sons.  Or what Peter’s wife might have said to her husband that night after Jesus had called him away?  Be that as it may, Jesus is on the move.  He’s got some disciples, and among them is James, so now he goes off to the local village where they live in order to teach at the synagogue.  No sooner has he opened his mouth than he finds he has to do an exorcism – to the utter amazement of the others gathered in the synagogue.  This is not your normal mid-week service in Capernaum apparently.  Instantly, the local gossips start spreading rumours of Jesus’ remarkable powers.  Here’s a man to watch out for.

But Jesus’ day is not over yet.  He walks straight from the synagogue across through the village to Peter’s house.  Peter’s mother-in-law is running a very high temperature – she needs help quickly.  No problem.  Jesus takes her by the hand and she is healed instantly.  So much so that she is able to go off straight away and prepare them some late lunch.  Jesus is always one for a good meal, and sits and eats with his friends.

Still Jesus isn’t finished his day.  Come evening and there’s a huge queue of sick people outside the house.  Jesus’ fame has spread fast.  So it’s an evening of healings and exorcisms.  Then some sleep, before a pre-dawn start to go off out of the village and to pray on his own.

But not for long.  Peter hunts him out, and Jesus heads off to some neighbouring villages to proclaim his message of good news and repentance, and to do yet more exorcisms and healings.

Phew!  It’s an exhausting twenty-four hours which are described in chapter one of the gospel according to Mark.  To be fair, though, it’s unlikely that Jesus spent twenty-four hours exactly like this in reality.  What the author of the gospel is actually doing at the beginning of the gospel is to give us the flavour, the essence of the whole of Jesus’ ministry which is to come.  It’s a collage, if you like, of the things which Jesus typically did during the three years leading up to his death on the cross.

And what lies at the heart of the opening chapter of the gospel according to Mark?  It’s the simple phrase which is repeated twice in slightly different ways:  ‘the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ’ we’re told at the outset of the gospel.  And then, when Jesus has been baptized he proclaims, ‘The kingdom of God has come near: repent, and believe in the good news’.

So what is this good news?  Why does Mark think that Jesus is good news for those of us who hear and read his gospel?

We have all the answers here is chapter one.  Jesus is good news because he is the one who comes and puts things to rights.  People are healed of illnesses and freed from the demons which bind them in fear.  Damaged people are made whole again.  Those despised and feared by society are accepted and brought back to families and friends.  Evil is overturned by good.  And that’s good news.

And Jesus is also good news because he treats everyone he meets with dignity and respect.  He sits and eats with everyone.  He gives encouragement to those who think they are worthless, and who are distracted by worries and anxiety.  Jesus is the God-man who wants to come alongside everyone, no matter their background, their age or their respectability. Good news indeed.

And Jesus is good news because he chooses and calls the unlikeliest people to be his friends, and to share his life with him: ordinary men and women in ordinary jobs or with no jobs at all.  Everyone is counted in, even the despised, the smelly, the shabby, the outcast.  Come and follow me.  Believe in the good news – it’s for you, too!

If Mark is right, that’s what characterises the good news of Jesus’ ministry:  putting life to rights, and counting everyone in, even the most unlikely of people.

Today we draw near to the end of the Christmas season in the Church’s year. On Friday we will remember together the story of the child Jesus being presented to God by his parents in the Temple in Jerusalem. We will turn from celebrating the birth of Jesus, and look instead towards his passion, death and resurrection. The reminder of Jesus’ baptism in today’s gospel reading signals the way ahead. And in all of this, Jesus’ ministry is good news for all people. We who are Christians have a great story to tell – a story of love made visible among us in Jesus; a story which includes the invitation to engage with the risen Christ now, here, today; a story which offers everyone a new start, and a new sense of purpose to their lives.

What of us, then?  Well, I wouldn’t want to ask you to copy Jesus’ very busy day!  We’d all be exhausted before we began.  But we could do worse than put ourselves in the sandals of those first disciples this morning, and hear again that call, ‘The kingdom of God has come near: repent, and believe in the good news’.  And then be prepared to be surprised by what we see of God at work here in St Margaret’s, and in the communities of which we are a part – signs of healing, of things being put to rights, of good overcoming evil.  It does happen, not always obviously, and not always where you’d expect to see it, but it happens.  And we can rejoice that Jesus still accepts us as his followers, warts and all.  If he could call that motley band of disciples at the lakeside, he can and does most certainly call you and me.

The story of Jesus’ very busy day is a simple reminder that each of us can, in our own way, know what it is to turn and to follow Jesus – even here in central London, even in St Margaret’s, on a chilly January morning by the Thames.

Oh… and if you would like to learn more about the short but amazing Gospel according to St Mark, do come along to our Explorations in Faith sessions at 12.30 pm starting on Sunday 11^th February – a fortnight today. You’re in for some wonderful surprises!