On the Easter Road (1)
Readings: Genesis 9:8-17, Psalm 25:1-10, 1 Peter 3:18-22, Mark 1:9-15
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, February 18, 2024
I'm not the world’s greatest when it comes to computer games. When others are working their way to the end, I'm still struggling away on level one. I remember a game on an ancient computer many moons ago based on the Disney film "The Lion King." The beginning was really cute. Just before the game started, one of the characters from the film, Timone, came on screen and said, "It Starts."
Today is the first Sunday of Lent. We are on the road to Easter. Over the next several Sundays we will be confronted by a number of passages that call us to travel with Christ. We start here with a passage that speaks of Jesus beginning His mission in Galilee. He is baptized. He is empowered by the Spirit. He is declared by a voice from heaven to be the Son of God. He faces temptation in the wilderness and beats it. That was the preparation. Now the real business gets under way. "It starts".
(Mark 1:14-15) “Now after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe in the gospel.”
In this verse we see that “It Starts”-
• With a Challenge. “Now after John was delivered up.” There are challenges that we must face.
• At the Chosen Time. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.” Now is the time for us to receive and declare the Good News.
• With a Choice. repent ye, and believe in the gospel.” We are invited to say “Yes” to the message of Jesus Christ.
The Challenge
It starts with a challenge. The journey will be a hard one. It will involve struggle and pain, opposition and death but will lead to a glorious resurrection morning. The journey begins "After John was arrested." John was a family friend of Jesus. He was someone that Jesus had high regard for, whom he called the "Elijah" of God sent to prepare the Way. But look where it had landed him! Now he was on death row in the darkness of Herod’s jail.
John’s fate foreshadowed that of Jesus. Jesus is to preach a similar message to John. A message about repentance and a coming Kingdom. The sort of message that led John to jail. It would lead Jesus to a cross. It is impossible to know what was going through the mind of Jesus as He began His ministry, but we do know that as He drew near to His death, He prayed to His Father that if there were any way that cup could pass from Him then it would be so.
What should we expect as we walk the path of discipleship? Blessings, riches, health and wealth? Is that why the first disciples left everything to walk with Him? That's not what the bible tells us. "Whoever wants to be my disciple," says Jesus, "Must take up his cross and follow." When He spoke like that a lot of people weren't interested anymore. They turned back. But that was the terms from the start. That was the challenge Jesus faced as He began the journey to Easter.
You and I face challenges in our own lives. Mine are not yours and yours are not mine but they are real challenges. Whatever life may hold in front of us it is not going to be all sweetness and light. If we are to walk into the future with Christ as our King it will make us opponents of those who don't want the kingdom of God to invade their personal kingdoms.
The church today faces many challenges. Some elements in society are openly hostile to the Christian message. Others couldn’t care less. We live in a culture that has sold out to materialism and self-indulgence. The church itself often reflects the values of a compromised world rather than being a radical movement to bring the justice and love of Gods Kingdom to a hurting world. These are challenging times.
People react to challenges in different ways. Some take the defeatist point of view. "There is nothing that can be done. We've left it too late. The problems are too big, too complex. Nothing will change, it will only get worse." Others react with denial. "Problem, what problem? Why do you always look on the dark side? Let's NOT talk about it." Others simply delay. "Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?"
All this is in stark contrast to the way Jesus begins to bring in the Kingdom. He just strolls out into Galilee and says, ‘Now is the time to put things right.’ "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand."
The Chosen Time.
The fulfillment Jesus spoke of was found in His own self. He was there and He was then. The Kingdom He came to bring was not far away. It was (and still is) at hand. It is nearer than we imagine and closer than we dare believe. He was not only there and then, He is here and now. The time has come, and the Kingdom is still at hand.
We pray every Sunday, "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on the earth as it is in heaven." We recognize that whilst the Kingdom is near, it is not fully here. It is, as Bob Dylan called one of his albums, a "Slow Train Coming". Slow, not in the sense of being ponderous or hesitant, but slow in the sense of plowing purposefully onward unhindered by people’s plans.
You can interpret the word "near" in different ways. If you nearly pass an examination, it means you failed it. If you are driving on the road and you swerve to avoid something, then you nearly hit it (although you actually missed it.) If you think, as I sometimes do, of family that are a long way off, you may describe them as being near to your heart, even though they are actually thousands of miles away.
When the scriptures speak of the Kingdom they do so with this element of ambiguity. Yes... the Kingdom has come in Jesus Christ. No... it has not yet fully arrived. It is near. It is at hand. Jesus begins His ministry with the message that the power of God is available to those who open themselves to the Kingdom and its way of loving service.
Do you see? The Kingdom is not a static place. It's a movement. It's a happening. Right now, we are either going with its flow or we’re out of it. It's either moving us or e are digging in our heels and singing "We shall not be moved". It's either changing us or we’re still the same old un-redeemed miserable self that the Devil would be proud to have as a friend.
Getting back to my Lion King computer game when Timone came on the screen and raised his hands to say, "It starts", you either got twiddling away on those keys or you lost your life and you were out of energy and you stayed on the same level and then it was "Game Over." Jesus walks into Galilee announcing that the time is now to face the challenges of the gospel. It starts.
And as it starts there are choices we have to make. "Repent ye, and believe in the gospel."
The choices we have to make.
The gospel challenges every part of our lives, all that we are doing and all that we are. To be a disciple does not involve defeat, denial or delay but does demand decision. The time is right. But right for what? What exactly are we supposed to be about? Jesus says "Repent" and "Believe."
Repenting is not just saying sorry. Just saying sorry isn't enough. What we need to do is rebuild our fragmented relationship with God and in the process rebuild our relationship to God's world and our relationships with each other.
To repent means to actively do something about the things we're sorry about. We don't repent of our sins by going about in sackcloth and ashes telling everybody what awful people we are, and how miserable our disobedience to the will of God has made us. That's not repentance. That's self-indulgence.
In the Old Testament, Noah, when he learned of the flood that was coming didn't start saying, "Oh, no it's raining. I'm going to get wet and drown." He set about building the boat. Chopping down trees, hammering it together, stocking up with resources, instructed his family on how to deal with things. A lot of those around him thought he'd lost his mind, but who cares what they thought! They weren't the ones who knew the kingdom was near. They weren't the ones who saw the rainbow. They weren't the ones who knew the power of the covenant.
We are the people of the New Covenant. We don't look to a rainbow, but to a cross and an empty tomb. And as we do so, we are changed. We see what sin is capable of in the crucifixion of our Lord. We awaken to the possibilities of grace as we gaze at the empty tomb and hear the words of our Risen Lord through His Spirits voice in our hearts.
Repentance involves choice. Do we choose to spend the time listening for the voice of the Lord among the many other voices that call us to follow them? When we hear His words, do we choose to follow? All the time we must make choices. Repentance is closely related to belief. Jesus says, "Repent and believe." Believe, not just in anything, but believe in the gospel, believe in the good news. Believe that the Kingdom is near.
Believing is saying “Yes, God has revealed God's love to us in the life of the Son Jesus Christ.” Saying “Yes, He died for our sins that Gods' love may permeate our lives.” Saying “Yes, He was raised to life on Easter morning.” Saying “Yes, His Spirit came in power on Pentecost morning.” Saying “Yes, God's love can transform my life on this Sunday morning in the year of our Lord, Two thousand, and twenty-four!”
Yes, God can provide me with the grace and resources I will need to see me through this coming week. Yes, God can use a life as insignificant as mine to be a channel for God's love. Yes, the things I do and say in the coming days will matter to God (and because they matter to God will have an eternal value!)
Yes, because God is a God of all hope, I will have hope in my heart, because God is a God of Peace, I will seek to be a Peacemaker, because God is a God of love, I know I am loved by God and so will seek to love others.
To believe is to say “Yes” to the good, wonderful, amazingly beautiful, awe inspiring, death defying, enabling, transforming, renewing, life changing, love bringing, good news of the Gospel.
Say “Yes” to that and "It starts!" We are on the Easter Road. To use computer game terminology, when we've battled through the levels, cracked all the codes, collected all we need for our travels and the screen lights up with the message "Well Done, Game over," we'll be able to say, "Thank God, life is not a game, all the world is not a stage, and we are not simply players."
We are God’s children whom God loved enough to send the Son to die upon a cross for; God’s children who though sometimes defeated will be raised up; God’s children over whom God rejoices and whom God longs to have a deeper relationship with in this life and the next. We declare on this first Sunday of Lent as we journey towards Easter... “It Starts!”
May it start in all of our hearts
The Reverend Adrian J Pratt B.D.
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