Our Sunday Message

A Simple Fish Story: Mark 1:1-11
Rev. Dr. Kenneth A. Corr
January 8, 2006
Second Sunday After Christmas

  Theodosius was a new Christian in first century Palestine and he was a soldier. He had come to faith as a result of a very dramatic conversion but now he found himself in the midst of a very real dilemma. His new Christian friends told him that he could not be a Christian and be soldier. He would have to choose between his faith and his career. What was he to do?
  Fernando was a new Christian in fifteenth century Spain and the best friend and neighbor to a Jewish boy named, Aaron. When Pope Sixtus IV made Torquemada the leader of the Spanish Inquisition, Fernando’s priest told the congregation that no one could be a Christian if they withheld the names of their Jewish friends from the protectors of the faith. Fernando had never thought that being a Christian meant betraying a friendship. He would have to choose between his faith and his friend. What was he to do?
  Susie was a new Christian in twenty-first century America and a member of a fundamentalist church. In Sunday school one Sunday, her teacher told the class that no one could be a Christian who did not believe in the literal seven days of creation. Susie had never heard this before and began to doubt her own salvation. What was she to do?
  Each of these stories illustrates the church’s very real struggle through the centuries over what doctrinal, ethical, and moral beliefs are essential for the faith. Or as my theology professor called it, “What is the irreducible minimum of the gospel?” My guess is that most of you have wondered about this question from time to time. What must we believe to be a Christian?
  The early church had a simple answer. It was the sign of the fish. You’ve seen them on the back of cars or displayed as jewelry. It is the simple outline of a fish. For the early church, that sign was a statement of faith.
  The Greek word for “fish” is, “ichthus.” If you make an acrostic with each letter in the word “ichthus,” you have this statement of faith: Iasus—Jesus; Christos—Christ; Theos—God; Huios—Son; Sotarion—savior. Jesus Christ, God’s Son, our savior. That’s what the sign of the fish means. And that’s enough.
  Doctrines, ethics, and morals are important. But if you are struggling to find some meaning for your life, if you are wondering about what is real that you can trust, if you are wanting to connect with something to transform your life, it is found in this simple profession of faith: Jesus Christ, God’s Son, our savior.
  Today is the Baptism of the Lord Sunday in the Christian calendar. We have moved quickly in the church calendar from our Lord’s birth to his baptism. One day he is a child and the next he is beginning his life’s work. If you are a parent, you understand that. As the commercial says, “Life comes at your fast.”
  If we were reading a biography of Jesus, we could expect more memories of his childhood, or stories from those difficult pre-teen years, or lessons about his young adult struggle for independence and identity. But this is not a biography. It is a gospel. It is the unique story of God’s salvation.
  So, where do you begin telling that story? The evangelist John begins in the beginning. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The evangelist Luke begins with the birth. “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. . .” But the evangelist Mark begins at the Jordan River. Mark’s beginning is not as poetic as John’s theology or as beautiful as Luke’s story, but it begins where we all begin. It begins with ordinary people looking for something to give meaning and wholeness and depth to their lives, a vital connection with the divine, something to satisfy what James Hollis calls, “. . . the anguish of yearning within our estrangement.”1 Salvation always begins in the anguish of yearning.
Tom was not a particularly religious person until his daddy died. Daddy had always been the one in the family who carried the religion for the family. He was the one who prayed and quoted the Bible. Tom had never felt particularly religious until Daddy died. He was not prepared for it, he didn’t anticipate it, but when Daddy died, he felt an emptiness. It wasn’t just longing and grief for the friendship he and his Daddy had. He had good feelings about the life Daddy had lived. He knew that he would be okay now that Daddy was gone, but there was something that was missing. Tom began to realize that all those years that Daddy had carried the religious function for the family. Tom knew that there was an anchor, a meaning, and depth that Daddy had carried for the whole family. But now that Daddy had died, it raised questions for Tom. What did he believe? Where was God for him? He began to pray and as he prayed, he discovered what James Hollis calls, “the anguish of yearning in our estrangement.” Tom began to look for some way to connect to this God that his Daddy had known.
  You see, that is where salvation always begins. Whatever words you want to use to describe it, there is something in us that longs for something more, something to give wholeness and depth and meaning to our lives, something to allow us to connect in a meaningful, vital kind of way with the Divine. That’s why they came out by the thousands to the river Jordan to be baptized by this strange, enigmatic, counter-cultural man named, John. Baptism was not for the Jews. They came because they were seeking something more.
John told them, “I have baptized you with water, but he (the one who is coming after me, the one more powerful that I, the one that you are really looking for) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” That’s what they wanted. Not just a ritual experience of water baptism, but a baptism of real power, and spiritual energy, and life transformation. Something new was needed and they came by the thousands.
  “And Jesus came from Nazareth.” As best we know, until this moment, there was nothing unusual about his life. Yes, he was an exceptional child, but the life that he had lived until this time was so unexceptional that his neighbors and even his family did not suspect anything out of the ordinary.
  We can guess that he learned a trade, like everyone else; he attended the synagogue, like everyone else; he tended to the needs of his family, like everyone else; and probably he heard the encouragement about it being time to get married. He was an ordinary, young adult living a very modest life in an obscure Galilean village. And in those days, like everyone, Jesus came to be baptized.
But then something happened that was completely unexpected. The heavens opened, the Spirit descended, and the voice of God spoke, “This is my son, my beloved.” For the evangelist Mark, that was the moment that life became extraordinary, or, to use Mark’s own words, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ.” The rest of Mark’s gospel is going to show you what it means that this ordinary, young adult from Nazareth in Galilee is “God’s Son, the beloved.”
  Did anyone else in line that day hear it? The text doesn’t say. Were the ones in the back of the line shouting, “Hey you up there. Hurry up!” The text doesn’t say. But the question is, have you heard it? The story stands on the first Sunday after Epiphany every year to remind us that this one, Jesus Christ, is God’s Son, and our savior. That’s all you need to know.
  Theological doctrines are very important. Ethics and morals are very important. But what I want you to know today is Jesus Christ. This is the beginning of God’s unique story of salvation. It’s a simple fish story.
  What are you looking for this morning? If you are looking for some way to have a vital connection with God, the testimony of the church is that real power, spiritual energy, and life transformation can be found in Jesus Christ.

1 James Hollis, Tracking the Gods, p. 25.