Repent, and believe in the Good News

Please read Mark 1:14-20, the lectionary text for today.

The first public words of Jesus, recorded in the first chapter of the first Gospel ever written: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the Good News."

Do you want hope in your life and the world around you?  Do you want to see justice, equity, equality, Shalom for all and the resulting peace of it?  Jesus brought the answer in the Good News.

Peter, Andrew, James and John had had enough.  They had had enough of Roman occupation and oppression, enough of all their fish being taken to feed the machine of empire that oppressed them and enough of the King and religious leaders capitulating to the empire that hurt them.  They had had enough of the violent arrests, torture and killing of innocent lives.  They had had enough of the corruption.  They had no future under Rome.  They could not feed their families or build their lives under Rome.  The wealthy and powerful took it all as they ruthlessly abused their power, gained more wealth from it and declared superiority over others, a natural status above them.  They had nowhere left to go.  Jesus came speaking of God's Kingdom being present and good news.  It sounded hopeful after a long time of suffering in despair because of a lack of hope.

People have been laboring harder for less for over 40 years because empire has been embraced by those with power and wealth in this nation.  Claiming superiority over others and the status that comes with wealth and power, they have rigged this empire's economic, political and social systems to benefit those with wealth and power at the expense of all others "under" them.  And the politicians, even Neo-Liberal ones have gone along for the ride in order to get all that they can out of it.  And the religious leaders, even those who came from backgrounds of striving to understand what God's Word is telling us, have developed ideologies, theologies and practices that promote empire, instead of challenging it.  They have become a part of the injustice done to God's children, instead of calling it what it is and resisting it.  So, many people who are working (poor) class have been struggling just to get by, and the very poor have lost it all, even while being blamed for not thriving under a system designed to keep them down and indeed create more of them.  We have nowhere left to go.  Jesus' Good New stills speaks to us of God's Kingdom being present and good news of liberation from the system of oppression under THIS empire.  It is still our hope, if we will see it.

Still, the greatest resistance to empire is in following Jesus.  Living what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for us, as we have witness in the Gospels, is faithfulness to God, because it is centered, not on getting all we can under a system that oppresses ourselves and our sisters and brothers, but on actively committing to the well-being of others, which is the Agape Love that Jesus commanded us to live.  In order to live the Good News of the Kingdom, we must believe in the Good News of the Kingdom as a better way, Jesus' Way of faithfulness to God and neighbor.  That takes repentance for a people who have believed for so long that we can serve both God and Mammon, that American Civil Religion is Christianity and that we can disassociate what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for us as faithfulness from how we live our daily lives with God and neighbor.  Empire values are Greed, Hatred, Power over others and Status above others.  The Kingdom of God values are Agape Love (committed action on behalf of the other, even stranger and enemy and especially the most vulnerable among us), Grace, Mercy, Equity, Equality, Mercy, Humility, Generosity and the Shalom (completeness, wholeness and well-being) of ALL people, equally.  Oh yes, it will take a great deal of repentance (changing our thinking so that our direction will change) in order for us to live in alignment with Kingdom values after these 40 years of the building of empire in our nation and its churches. 

Tired of the conflicts, divisions and inequities within our nation and the world?  Repent, and believe in the Good News.

Tired of struggling to make it financially, and seeing others around you struggle to survive?  Repent, and believe in the Good News.

Tired of the lack of kindness, civility and graciousness in the culture around you?  Repent, and believe in the Good News.

Believing means living it.  Believing in Jesus means believing in Jesus' Way - what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for us- as a better Way, the faithful way of being God's people in THIS PART of God's Kingdom, here and now.  That is faithfulness to God.  Faithfulness to empire has gotten us where we are in our nation.  Faithfulness to God is the how we will ALL have Shalom, because we have lived Kingdom values.  Like the fishermen, we are commanded to follow Jesus.  Following Jesus means putting Agape Love and Grace out in the world around us AS resistance to empire.  As followers of Jesus, we are called to be the Light of the World and Salt of the Earth.  We are called to be the leaven that enhances the whole of lives around us.  If we will believe in Jesus' Good News as a way of life in this part of God's Kingdom, here and now, we will be faithful to God and neighbor and will change the world in which we must live.  It is that simple.  It is that hard.  

Jesus came to tell us that empire had had its day.  It still took a couple hundred years of resistance to see it implode.  But the lives of those who followed Jesus during that time had already changed, as did the lives of those who were touched by those who followed Jesus, and Christianity grew.  It is time to take the Gospel and the church back from empire by living what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for us as faithfulness to God once again.  

"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the Good News."

Or, continue to live under the oppression, division, conflict and despair of empire.

It really is that simple.  It really is that hard.

Pastor Jamie