A sermon preached at Kowloon
Union Church on Sunday 25 January 2015, Third Sunday after the Epiphany, by
the Rev. Dr. John LeMond. The
scripture readings that day were Jonah
3:1-5, 1 Corinthians 7:29-31, Mark 1:14-20.
Repent, and believe in the good news.
These words of Jesus shape the Christian identity
Repent…believe…good news
In fact, we usually think of it this way:
Repent, believe in the good news, and…be saved!
Or even simply: repent and be saved
The words themselves do not contain a warning,
But a warning seems to be implied.
In fact, an implied threat accompanies these words of Jesus.
Repent, for…the end of the world is coming.
Repent, for…God is coming to judge you
Repent, or…die an eternal death.
I once participated in a dialogue with a Muslim scholar
And the subject that we both addressed was “salvation”.
We each spoke on the understanding of salvation
Within our own religious tradition.
I talked about the various ways that Christians understand
salvation
About the different theological understandings of the life,
death and resurrection of Jesus.
As part of my talk, I briefly mentioned the idea of life
after death:
“What’s going to happen to us when we die?”
And even though this was a very small part of my
presentation
And I could tell from the faces of those in the audience,
Both Christian and Muslim,
That when discussing the topic of salvation,
This was really
what people were interested in.
This was really
what they wanted an answer to:
Am I going to heaven or hell when I die?
Later, during the question and answer time
Someone raised this question specifically
The person wanted to know
From a Muslim perspective…and from a Christian perspective:
What is going to happen to me when I die.
When we hear the word Repent!
Our minds and hearts go immediately to this ultimate
question.
It is a command that elicits fear
Repent or perish!
We could gain the same perspective
From the readings from Jonah
And from Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth
Jonah walks through the streets of the great city of Nineveh
Calling the people to repentance
He shouts out to them, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall
be overthrown.”
Of course, in this story, Jonah wants Nineveh to be overthrown
Even to be completely destroyed.
But he’s afraid that God might not be vengeful enough to
carry out this destruction.
And Paul, speaking to his brothers and sisters in the faith
Encourages them to be strong
In the time of testing that is going to come upon them
Marriage, possessions, the regular activities of life
Are all going to change.
Everything that we know and are familiar with
Everything that makes our lives normal
All of this is passing away…to destruction.
Repent…Jesus says…repent!
_______________________
How easily we assume that there is an implied threat is what
Jesus says.
How easily we reduce a message of blessing…
Into a black and white choice…
An either/or…of heaven or hell.
How easily we turn good
news into bad news.
Let’s read again verses 14 and 15 of Mark 1:
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee,
Proclaiming the good
news of God,
And saying, "The time is fulfilled,
And the kingdom of God has come near;
Repent, and believe in the good news."
Surprisingly, there is no mention here of heaven or hell
There is no mention here of the end of time
There is no threat…implied or otherwise.
Unless we take the word “repent” to have threatening
connotations
We've surrounded "repentance" with all kinds of
ideas about the next life.
But it turns out that the word repent means something very
simple and ordinary.
It means to change one’s mind.
To change one’s way of thinking about something.
To repent means to turn around and go in a different
direction.
Jesus came, proclaiming the good news of God
What good news?
The good news that the world is coming to an end?
No.
The good news that…
The time is fulfilled,
the time is here, the time is now
That the kingdom of God has come near to us.
The kingdom of God is here.
Look and see!
In fact, look and see the world in a new way.
Everything has changed.
This is good news.
How will we choose to interpret the words of
Jesus in Scripture?
Jonah provides us with one example
For Jonah, repent meant: prepare to die
Because God is going to judge you harshly
God will find you guilty
And will destroy you.
Repent…for you are immoral and shameless and bad.
At least, that is the way Jonah would have interpreted
repentance…
If Jonah had been God.
Jonah was not God
But he wanted desperately to be God
Or at least to force his own will upon God.
Remember, God said to Jonah
Go to Nineveh and tell them to change
But Jonah fled from this mission
Because he was afraid that the people would change
He was afraid that God really did love them
And would have mercy on them.
He was afraid that God would be God
That God’s love would prevail,
And that Jonah’s condemnation
would fail.
Jonah shouted:
Repent…for in 40 days you’re all going to die.
God shouted:
Repent… and welcome the love and mercy of God.
Repent…and see the world in a new way.
The Apostle Paul understood this new way of seeing the world
He realized just how life changing it can be to change one’s
mind,
To turn around and to see the world in a completely new way.
Paul knew that this good news that Jesus had preached
Had brought about a profound change in the world
So profound that everything he had thought was normal had
changed.
So profound that Paul could say with confidence:
“The present form of this world is passing away.” Look! See!
Paul says: Imagine the most stable, unchanging, ageless
elements in life
Birth, death, marriage, work
And they all disappear
Imagine the things,
the possessions, that you most treasure in your life
And imagine all of these disappearing.
Gone. Vanished.
And…that something much more satisfying has come in their
place.
That is the good news of the kingdom of God.
Not that birth, death, marriage and work will cease to be
Not that the material things around us will disappear
But that the way we think about those things will change
completely
Will change to such a degree
That what we knew before…no longer seems to exist
Something much more fulfilling has taken its place.
_____________________
Jonah was afraid of what God had planned for him…
And what God had planned for others
He was satisfied with seeing our world the way he had always
seen it
So, in the end, it was Jonah who would not repent, change
his way of thinking.
It was Jonah who would not see the world in a new way
He became angry, and said finally to God—
The God who loved
the people of Nineveh
As much as he loved Jonah:
Just kill me.
I wish with all my soul to die,
Rather than to repent and think of things differently.
We live in this new reality as well…just as Jonah did.
Jesus comes proclaiming to us,
To you and to me,
The same good news of God.
Saying, "Brother, the time is now,
Sister, the kingdom of God is here
It is not far away
It is in you and with you.
It is not something you have to earn
It is something that already belongs to you
It is not a threat or a warning or intimidation
It is a gift.
Repent, and see…that the kingdom of God surrounds you
Open yourself to it.
Think differently, and see, that the love of God fills you
Share it.
Repentance leads not
to avoiding an eternal death.
Repentance leads seeing and living life in a new way.
In the unconditional love and grace of God
Repent! For the kingdom of God has come near.
Amen.
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, January 25, 2015
