The 1st United Methodist Church of Napa

The 1^st United Methodist Church of Napa

January 22, 2006

3^rd Sunday after the Epiphany

Scripture Readings:

Hebrew Scriptures – Jonah 3: 1-5, 10[1]

¹The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, ²“Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” ³So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. ⁴Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” ⁵And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth….

¹⁰When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

Gospel – Mark 1: 14-20[2]

¹⁴Now 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.”

¹⁶As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. ¹⁷And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” ¹⁸And immediately they left their nets and followed him. ¹⁹As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. ²⁰Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

Now's the Time.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions." How many times have you heard that one? How many times have we found ourselves, even inadvertently, part of the paving crew? Our failure to act as we know we should is often due to the "approach-avoidance" mechanism that we learned about in elementary biology. We feel the need to move, but don't want to get hurt. We want to speak out against acts that we believe perpetuate oppression, but we know that if we do it'll cost us. Because we are conflicted, we may then fail to make a decision or to make a move. But as I regret learning, even my failure to decide becomes my decision. All too often, then, most of our approach-avoidance conflicts lead to either inconsistent responses, or to our simply doing nothing at all, so we miss the opportunity and never come to any resolution.

Both of our readings for today address this approach-avoidance dilemma by emphasizing the need for us to decide and then to act on our decision. There's a point where we can't sit on the fence anymore wondering which way to go. If a decision isn't made soon, opportunities will be lost, because nothing less than "the kingdom of God has come near." In other translations of that phrase attributed to Jesus it says that "the kingdom of God is at hand"[3] – right there "within arm's reach"…"at your fingertips. That's pretty close, isn't it?

The phrases "kingdom of God" and "kingdom of heaven" are actually used interchangeably in the Bible; but they're all talking about the same reality. Some of us have thought that part of the problem is that this word "kingdom" is a bit anachronistic and somewhat of a semantic block to what's actually being talked about. So some have suggested that we ought to drop the "g" and make up a new word: call it "kin-dom" – as in we're all kin in this place, part of the same family. Others have suggested calling it "the commonwealth of God," while still others think that simply saying "the realm of the Spirit" captures it best. I'll say more about what I think it is later.

It should be said at the outset, though, that throughout the biblical witness (and not only in Mark) this unbelievably good news of the presence of God comes with urgency into the midst of the ordinary. It comes to shepherds and fishermen, to tax collectors and prostitutes, to people afflicted with leprosy and those thought to be insane, to the outcast and the elite. It comes to every single one of us and stops us in our tracks. And all too often (like today's call to "repent") its blunt message says to us, "Stop! You're going in the wrong direction! Turn around. I'll show you the way. Just follow me." This message can't be much clearer, but we do have a tough time incorporating it into our lives, don't we?

This call from the "realm of the Spirit" comes while we're fishing or reading, sitting in a worship service or cleaning the house, just laying around or riding to work. Not only is it clear but it is constant; it comes when we're in the mood to respond and when we're not. Using the biblical language now, to "repent" and "believe" is to make a radical commitment to a new way of life. It may mean that we'll have to turn away from all of the things that we thought gave us stability and security, but it's not meant to be postponed. If now is not the time, then, when will it be?[4]

In a very real sense, then, today's scriptural texts form a continuum with those of last Sunday. Last Sunday's theme was the call. Today's is the response. And we do that in any number of different ways. Some of us simply wait, not necessarily out of defiance, stubbornness or fear, but just out of apathy – we don't even think about it. But the call keeps coming. It is persistent. And, ultimately, it is more powerful than our resistance or our indifference, however strong. In that regard the noted psychologist, Carl Jung, once said, "Some go willingly, others are pushed." Some of God's most favored friends have started out in this latter category.

Another group, you might say, falls into the category of the guilty. They often respond because they're scared to death of what will happen to them if they don't. The church has been big on using this one! I don't like guilt – feeling it or using it – but it is, nevertheless, at least the beginning of a religious consciousness. After all, the totally guiltless are called sociopaths.

If we could imagine the best way to respond to the call of the Holy Spirit – realizing that almost all responses will be mixed – we could describe a category of those who do listen to what they're being called to do and consciously respond. They may still be aware of their guilt or indifference, nevertheless they try to find some way in their lives in which to respond to that invitation to turn around and follow a new direction. In Mark's somewhat naïve image of the disciples leaving both their families and their businesses behind to follow Jesus, we might try setting aside the impossibility of that ideal, and simply look at the power of what authentic engagement and response looks like. Some do go willingly. But, thank God, they don't just leave the rest of us behind, but come back to give us a push.

So, and I don't think that this is fudging, I've come to believe that Jesus doesn't always demand that we abandon everything we're doing, but that we transform it. It's true, Simon and Andrew will no longer be simple fishermen. Now they'll be casting around for bigger fish. James and John will leave their father, not to completely turn their backs on him, but to become part of a much larger family. They all still fish. Jesus seems to be able to evoke from these first followers of his the essence of what they know best about themselves, what they do day-in and day-out, and he reorients it to a larger purpose.

It's the same for you and me today. A doctor touched by the message of the Christ doesn't just run people through a chute as if they were cattle, poking and prescribing, anesthetizing and cutting, swabbing and suturing, then heading them out the door. She uses all of her compassion and healing power to bring about a deeper, healthier life in the whole person. The teacher who responds to the call of Jesus doesn't just pour information into his comatose students like so much grain stuffed down the neck of a goose, hoping to get a well-rounded individual. He invites his students to share in the same passion for the Truth that he has. I truly believe that all of us can act out of our own sense of vocation, to use our own particular talents and limitations to connect with the fulfillment of this "realm of the Spirit," in whatever ways we can and in everything we do.

Would you bet your life on it, though? If you've ever gone fishing with a group of friends, you know that inevitably somebody's going to lay down a bet about who's going to get the first "bite." Amateur fishing is probably one of the worst possible areas in which to offer anything at all like a "sure thing." Our faith in God is probably about the same. Most of us have been lulled into a kind of quasi-certitude by our family traditions, our history of involvement in any number of churches, and just by the whole huge structure and history of organized religion. It is a bit unsettling, then, to think that our faith is founded on the gamble of a few middle-eastern Mediterranean fishermen who've long since died and left their nets to others. In a way we are willing to believe what they believed. Professional gamblers always try to go with the odds – whether it's a fishing fleet or a new kind of toothpaste. We've come to trust in a whole line of others who've gone before us, for the most part accepting what they experienced and trying now to make it our own. Most of us here have come to know in our hearts that, at least for us, the best way to respond is to simply turn around and follow Jesus. It still may be a gamble, but, again, most of us have come to believe that the odds are in our favor.

The only thing left that I feel compelled to say is to offer what I've come to believe about "the kingdom of God" – this "realm of the Spirit," this "commonwealth of the sacred." What do you pray for when you repeat the words, "Thy kingdom come"? How in the world are we supposed to become part of "the reign of God"? It must mean something important because it's at the very heart of Jesus' teachings. First, it's not (as the word "kingdom" suggests), a place at all. It's anywhere and any place that God is – or to put it another way, it's wherever justice and peace, love and beauty, forgiveness and compassion permeate our lives.

The "kingdom of God" is not an institution – certainly not the church! It's what the goal of the church should be, what we hope to become. It's not anything that will be constructed by a program or a ministry that we put in place – we don't "build" it, we simply live it. At first we might not even know that it's there; its arrival and growth can be sudden, surprising and completely out of proportion to anything that we actually do. We believe that Jesus lived there, so to know what it's like we don't need to look any further than him. Jesus is "the kingdom of God" in person.

So how do we get there? We've got to simply accept his invitation, turn around, open our hearts, our minds, and our hands, and take a first step. To "repent" isn't to regret something, to feel guilty about something and tear our clothes, or to bang our heads against the wall of the confessional. It simply means that we turn and face Jesus. What's more, when we do repent the "realm of the Spirit" will be there, not because we've turned, but because in turning we discover that Jesus is already there. He's always been there. And that will surely begin to make this world a very different place.

Now, don't you think that it's time we got on with it?

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