The music on the viewer, when it is playing, is on media, That's the movie camera icon on your viewer. There is no need for you to touch the viewer. Thanks! GATHERING SONG: "The One Who Saves" ANNOUNCEMENTS (Please feel free to type a brief announcement of interest to our community in Nearby Chat.) WELCOME We are so glad you're here! Gathered together, we'll worship our still speaking, and surely still listening, God! Welcome to First United Church of Christ and Conference Center, Second Life We are an actual church with full real life standing in the Eastern Association, Southern California Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ. You may see someone besides me with a tag including the words"1st UCC" and "Minister." Yep, ordained UCC clergy in real life. And you may see folks with a tag that says "Guide." Think "Usher" in real life; they'll help you find your way around. And of course, our "Staff" folk keep the rest of us organized and handle our special events. As a United Church of Christ church, we mean it when we say, "No matter who you are, or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here." If you would like a bulletin notecard/copy of the service, please click the red book on the stand near the sanctuary entrance. If you would like to become an official member of this church, please let any clergy of staff member know! There are many ways you can offer a gift to support this ministry. You might feel called to help as a Guide greeting visitors, or as a reader of scripture, or as a leader of a Psalter service. You could volunteer to serve on our Board. And, of course, you can decide to be a full voting member. And you can support financially just as we support the wonderful work of the UCC with prayer and financially. If you would like to help with our expenses, there is a donation bowl at the rear of the sanctuary. If you are thinking of a donation you would rather do in real life currency, you are welcome to use the Donation page on our website. http://www.firstuccsl.org Since we are an IRS 501(c)(3) public charity, US donations are deductible. And we thank you! If you need information about this ministry, our activities, classes and worship opportunities and much more, just visit us at www.firstuccsl.org. SCRIPTURE: Mark 1:14-20 SERMON: "Something Beautiful Out of Busted Parts" I want to tell you about a man named Denny Brauer. Denny was a bricklayer, and made a good living at it. But he had another passion - bass fishing. One day in 1980 Denny came home and revealed the deepest desire of his heart, which no doubt shocked his wife to the core. He wanted to move from their home in Nebraska to a place where he could fish – full time - as a professional bass fisherman. I guess you can imagine Denny's wife thought of this. Jack McCallum in Sports Illustrated captured their prospects nicely when he wrote, "Deciding that you wanted to make a livable wage as a bass angler in 1980 wasn't quite as risky as deciding that you wanted to make a livable wage as, say, a marble shooter, but it was close." But amazingly enough, Denny's wife said, "Well, let's go!" And they packed up and moved to where the fish were. It turned out to be the right move, too. Two decades later, Denny Brauer had a Saturday morning fishing show on ESPN, "The Bass Class with Denny Brauer," as well as two instructional videos and even a couple of books. He has endorsement deals with so many companies that when he goes to a tournament to fish, he is festooned with so many logos that he looks like a NASCAR driver. Brauer is doing quite well since he made the transition from bricklayer to fisherman. In one year, he earned almost $800,000 in prize money and endorsements. Denny Brauer is a man who made a gutsy, courageous career change to pursue his passion of fishing. As they say, it's nice work if you can get it. But our text for this evening tells the story of four fishermen who themselves made a dramatic career change, so to speak, trading one kind of fishing for another, after Jesus of Nazareth came walking by the Sea of Galilee one day. The short text from Mark is interesting for a number of reasons. First, it’s short, very short. It offers a portrayal of Jesus as utterly compelling. Jesus is the only one who speaks. The disciples don’t say a word. That is quite a bit different than the call of Nathanael in John that was the text last Sunday. Jesus clearly knew he was finding the right people. Warren Buffett, the nation's most successful financial investor and one of the richest men in America, has some very valuable advice on hiring the best people for your business. He says, "Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you." If you were looking to hire someone to work for you, where would you begin? Wouldn't you begin with someone you could trust? Jesus saw something in these men that helped him to know that he could depend on them. But how did these ordinary men, practicing an ordinary occupation, know that they were called to make a radical life change? If you have made that kind of change in your own life, you will have an idea of the difficulty. Sensing a call can be a very daunting experience. How do we know we are called? How do we know to what we are called? An age-old question to which a wise minister and author has given us an answer worth pondering. Frederick Buechner, in his book, "Wishful Thinking," says it well. He says that a good rule for finding one's vocation is this: Our special mission in our life is usually A. That which we'd love most to do and B. It is work that the world most needs to have done. Buechner says that if we really get a kick out of our work, we have probably met requirement A, but if that work is writing TV deodorant commercials, chances are we haven't met requirement B. If our work is being a doctor in a leper colony, we probably have met requirement B, but if most of the time we are bored and depressed by doctoring, the chances are we have not only bypassed A, we probably aren't helping our patients much, either. Buechner concludes: "The place God calls us to, is the place where our deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." Every now and then, someone does respond in a radical and unexpected way. Dr. Fred Craddock tells the story of a medical student who heard the call and made a radical response. A young woman came to him after hearing his sermon on today's text. She had decided to leave medical school and go to work among migrant workers in the Rio Grande Valley. Dr. Craddock did not manipulate her unexpected response. Instead, they talked for a long time about the meaning of her decision. Her parents were, understandably, furious with the new direction her life had taken. Like those fishermen, however, she heard the call and she stayed with it. And there have been others. People in the western tradition have long known about Francis of Assisi. He turned from a life of luxury to one of voluntary poverty with the intention of sharing his possessions with the poor. He became an example to his fellow townspeople of the biblical assurance that God can provide. Likewise, Elizabeth Gurney Fry (1780-1845) exemplified an emphasis on living by Jesus' example. In addition to raising a large family, this wife of a wealthy London merchant single-handedly initiated, and caused the implementation of, efforts to reform the prison system in England. These reforms spread throughout the continent even during her lifetime. Similarly, in the United States, Dorothea Lynde Dix (1802-1887) spearheaded the movement for the establishment of hospitals for the mentally ill, who were, at the time, being held in prisons. These people have admonished us to see Christ in our neighbors and to serve all who are in need. I n these people and in many others, we see an example of people "leaving their nets" to follow. One business person sold his automobile dealer-ship in order to attend a theological seminary in preparation for ordained ministry. His wife said, "My husband came home one day and said, 'You will be very surprised at what I am about to say, but I want to sell the business and go into the ministry'!" Within a few days, the business had been sold, and the family began tramping along another path. "We have never been happier," said his wife. There was, for this family, a call and a response. Life, for them, has been reoriented. My own journey into ministry was an abrupt change in careers. Where does this leave us? If others have heard the call and have responded in a radical way, then shouldn't we all do the same? That's a question only you can answer. It has to be answered by each of us as we experience God's call in our lives. How one hears the call and responds to it is a matter of personal decision. One more point. It is never too late to make that decision. Julie Pennington-Russell told about a friend of hers. She says, he's a man in his late 60's. Rugged, burly, brilliant guy. He studied at a prestigious university in the East some years ago, and then he moved to Texas to work on his doctorate. But somewhere along the way he became addicted to cocaine and just tumbled into that dark hole. Lost his family, lost his place in graduate school, lost big pieces of himself. But somehow he washed up on the shores of a good church. And when he did, he was so fragile he looked like he'd been "rode hard and put up wet" as they say in Texas. But the folks in that church put their arms around that man and slowly he started to heal, and eventually, miraculously, even reunited with his wife and children. Pennington went on to say that they had this couple in their home for dinner and the man began to talk about where his life was going. "I want to believe," he said, "that my best days aren't behind me, and that my life can still count, can still make a difference for God." He sat at the table with his head in his hands. "I just can't help but feel like I've blown all of my best chances," he said. That's when his wife, who's just this wonderful, middle-aged bohemian Texas flower child kind of woman, reached over and took his hand and said, "Baby, you've got to take your sticky fingers off that steering wheel. If God could yank Jesus out of a grave, I figure he can make something beautiful out of busted parts." And the people of God said… MUSIC FOR PREPARING FOR COMMUNITY PRAYER: "Hero" You are invited to type your prayers of joy and concern in Nearby Chat, during this song, before our community prayer time, so that we may lift them to God as community! We ask you to read each shared prayer carefully. and to enter into this time with reverence. We are actually in a conversation with God when we pray, and that should never be taken lightly, but rather as we are told in Ephesians, "... with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." (4:23) Your energy will be added to that prayer as we surrender it into God's keeping. If you wish, you may respond to others with "God hear our prayer" or words of your choosing. COMMUNITY PRAYER and PASTORAL PRAYER MOMENT of SILENCE PASTORAL PRAYER We know, O God, that all are called. And yet, for so many reasons, we miss ignore misunderstand and even reject your call to live our lives in service doing what we can for your creation. May we find deep inside the inspiration we need the courage and resolve to drop the nets that hold us back and follow where you lead. We ask in the name of one who called and calls yet our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. LORD'S PRAYER O Breathing Life, your Name shines everywhere! Release a space to plant your presence here. Imagine your possibilities now. Embody your desire in every light and form. Grow through us this moment's bread and wisdom. Untie the knots of failure binding us, as we release the strands we hold of others' faults. Help us not forget our source, Yet free us from not being in the present. From you arises every Vision, Power and Song from gathering to gathering. May our future actions grow from here! Amen. BENEDICTION I extinguish our candles; the light of the Spirit goes now with each of you. Journey with that Spirit company in whatever world you sojourn. It could not be otherwise, not really. You journey just exactly as you were created to be the beloved of God. Amen. CLOSING SONG: "Jesus Calls Us O'er the Tumult"