Jesus’ First Sermon
“The time is fulfilled; the Kingdom of God is near, repent, and believe in the Gospel”
The Gospel of Mark is the earliest and shortest of the four Gospels. It’s a great place to start to get a grasp of the Jesus tradition. The Gospel of Mark has a very concise narrative that the gospels of Matthew and Luke build upon. The above scripture, taken from this week’s gospel, are the first words of Jesus as he begins his public ministry after his baptism.
It’s hard for us to relate to the word “kingdom” in the passage. We live in countries without kings and some resent the “male” power overtones in the word “kingdom.” Some prefer the word “reign,” but that word doesn’t do much for our understanding either. A word that we do understand much better is “culture.” Maybe we should speak of the “Culture of God.”
The time is fulfilled; the Culture of God is now present among you, let your thinking change, and believe in the Gospel.
With Jesus coming among us, the culture of God is breaking into the human culture so woven into our DNA. Our human culture is built upon the premise that some have to be sacrificed for the peace and tranquility of the majority and those in power. Creation of victims, though unfortunate, is necessary and acceptable in human culture.
The culture of God, among us in the person of Jesus, doesn’t accept what we have been calling the “sacrificial mechanism.” Jesus, God’s son, accepted the worst that the sacrificial mechanism and the “powers” could throw at him when he died on the Cross. Through the self-sacrifice of those who hear the gospel and follow Jesus’ example, a new “God Culture” would take hold in the world for all time.
The Church is the “Community of Repentance” gathered regularly around the Eucharist like a yeast mixed into the dough of human culture to bring about a whole new culture of God.
Repentance, changing our thinking and making it congruent with Jesus' teaching, is not easy. Like Jonah in today’s first reading, we tend to make idols out of our own convictions: I’m not going to preach to those Ninevite idolators! Let them experience shock and awe! But, with God’s firm nudge, Jonah does end up bringing God’s message to Nineveh and they repent! Jonah is not happy about it at all and persists in his un-repentance to the end. Ironically, it is God who repents and decides not to punish Nineveh!
We are more like Jonah than we like to admit. We profess faith in God, but hold fast to the idols of our own “convictions” and insulate those convictions by refusing to hear the teaching of Jesus in the Gospel and any challenge to our thinking- repentance. That is why, in the wisdom of God, we are called to gather at the Eucharist regularly to listen to the Gospel and break bread together on our knees.
Amen.
John+
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| St. Alban |
Saint Alban Episcopal Mission (English, Anglican Communion) meets for mass every Sunday at 10:00 A.M. (see welcome letter at sidebar) at Casa Convento Concepcion, 4a Calle Oriente No. 41, Antigua, Guatemala.
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| The Reverend John Smith, Vicar 5235-6674 cell telephone (502 country code) |
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