Most of you know by now that I’m a big news and politics junkie. I love to watch the process of our democracy at work. I like to rail again the decisions I don’t like and cheer the ones I do. As you might expect, this past week’s inauguration has put me in hog heaven. I’ve been loving every minute of it. I’d probably be loving it even if my candidate hadn’t won and the other guy had.

But one thing I just don’t get and maybe it’s a guy thing, but there’s all this hype not just about what the President says in his address and what he plans to do now that he is sworn in, but there’s this fixation on what his wife is wearing. Clothing, part of the news cycle is about clothing. What is Mrs. Obama wearing? To the address, to the ball. I don’t get it.

Of course, the same sort of thing is going to happen again in a few weeks. In addition to being a politics junkie, I’m also a huge movie buff, so I love to watch the Academy Awards. And you know when all the stars of Hollywood are walking down that red carpet, everyone’s going to be talking about what they’re wearing, how they’re dressed.

I still don’t get it. Or maybe I do and I’m just immune to it. You see, these celebrities, be they from stage and screen or from the halls of power, are people we tend to look to as icons of our age. They set a tone, an atmosphere, for our society. They set trends, as people hunger to in some way be like them.

My daughter Emily has more Hannah Montana and High School Musical stuff than she knows what to do with, because she wants to emulate those characters and the celebrities who play those parts. When I was a teenager and in college, I dressed all in black a lot, because I wanted to be dark and morose like Robert Smith of the Cure. So we adults can do it too at times. We want to be like our heroes, so we follow the trends that they set. We buy into what they’re selling.

That’s the world. That’s our culture. And it strikes me how completely different life here in the church is from that. Pastors and Bishops are people of authority, yet when they exercise their office they don a simple robe of black or white. We make ourselves as non-descript as possible, and what little splash we might add in is not for our glory. My stole, colorful as it is, is meant to point to something other than me. It points to the themes and ideas of the season and day. Green, the color of life, pointing to the experience of life.

The church is not about celebrity. It’s not about style and flash. It’s not about fiction. It’s about truth. It’s about genuineness, sincerity; it’s about the real. Substance over style.

I think that is really at the heart of why Jesus does some of the things that he does in his earthly ministry. Today’s Gospel lesson from Mark is the very beginning of that ministry. Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, ¹⁵and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” Look out folks, here comes Jesus.

Believe in the good news. He’s got a message. The kingdom of God has come near. But how to get that message out? As powerful as he is as the Son of God, he is still only one solitary human being. How can get that message of hope to as many as possible?

Well, considering our tendency to get caught up in glamour and style, he could have gone to people of influence in his day. People that were admired, idolized, the trend setters of the 1^st century¹⁶ Roman world. But Jesus isn’t about glamour. He’s not about flash and style. He’s about the real. He’s about truth, and so who does he call to be his first messengers, his first disciples and apostles, but a bunch of fishermen.

He goes to the seashore and calls four of the least influential, least glamorous people he could possibly find. Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Follow me! And I will make you fish for people.

Someone caught up in the world’s way of thinking would think he was out of his mind. Far from it. Jesus knows exactly what he’s doing, because he’s looking for the real. Now mind you, I’ve met a few celebrities here and there, famous politicians and a few Hollywood stars. One of the things I’ve learned is that many of them are actual genuine human beings. But we almost never see that side of them, and it is very hard for us to figure out where the star ends and the person begins. But with someone like Peter or John, you never have to worry about that. What you see is what you get.

What you get is someone like us. And when they speak, odds are good that they’re talking from the heart, that they mean what they say. You can trust their words. Jesus knew this, and so he called twelve ordinary folk to carry his message. And those twelve became hundreds, and those hundreds became thousands, and now today millions upon millions of people proclaim Christ as their savior.

Jesus’ call comes to us also, likely through the life, work, and words of one those millions who have carried Christ’s message through the centuries to us. And what are we? Ordinary folk, just like those fishermen. But we are real, there’s no glitz here, no false face that we put on for our adoring public. It’s just us and our story and our experience of God’s good news. Our experiences of when Christ was there for us, of how his strength pulled us through the tough times in our lives. Of how his wisdom led us to make choices that brought us happiness and fulfillment. Of how his death and resurrection have given us hope.

That’s a story we are called to share. It may not seem like much, but it has more power to influence than all the glamour of Hollywood. We too are standing at the seashore and Jesus is coming to each one of us and saying “follow me.” What is our answer? Amen.