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Sermon at the Old-Catholic Cathedral in Utrecht on the occasion of the Presentation of the Utrecht-Uppsala Agreement
20 January 2018
Mark 1:14-20:
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.”
As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.
How did this whole thing feel for Zebedee? What did he tell his wife, mother of James and John, once he got out of the boat and they lay down for supper that particular day? A day that may have been pretty normal, plain routine – until that stranger showed up on the shore and tore apart the very structure of their family business. Was he afraid to tell his wife that their two sons suddenly had left both job and family to follow a stranger, and he, the father, had not been able to prevent it from happening? What kind of a father was he, after all: not asked for permission or advice, left gasping in the boat in front of the hired men? We might say that, according to the gospel of Mark, the mission of Jesus started with the calling of four men, but also with a mild slap in the face of the patriarchal systems that still in these days prevent women and girls from flourishing fully and safely.
At the end of the day, was Zebedee upset, confused, frightened or even thrilled? He had good reasons for all those feelings and reactions: this was a major change, a loss that also included new possibilities. What will he do next with the resources he still has? The gospel of Mark leaves those answers to our own imagination.
In fact, there is much in this story that is left to our imagination. Like wondering why Simon, Andrew, James and John actually would leave their nets. What did Jesus have that made them obey his call “Follow me”? An aircraft on the tarmac easily follows the follow-me car, because pilots know that they will be guided to a safe place for disembarking and refuelling. The new disciples had none of that knowledge, and as we know, they would not end up in a safe place. After Good Friday they would sit behind locked doors, shaking of well-motivated fear. Their refuelling would come first at that famous Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out. And that did not mean safe disembarking either! Quite the opposite: it meant embarking on a new risky adventure. Moreover, it was the start of an adventure that is still going on, since we believe that that very Pentecost event was the birthday of the Church. And even though our specific churches and their organizations came into being many centuries later, we all trace our common history back to that event, that embarkation on the new journey. The energy that drives this journey is the Holy Spirit – and let us remember this for our journey together as congregations and churches, as the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church: “God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline” (2 Tim 1:7).
While we don’t know exactly what made the disciples leave the nets, follow Jesus and go fish for people, we do know the message of Jesus. Mark makes it short and swift: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near. Repent, and believe in the good news.” Ninety-seven characters, less than a tweet, even according to the old standards. The message should not be hard to remember: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near. Repent, and believe in the good news.”
Short but rich. Much theological ink has been used to explain what Jesus meant when he said that time is fulfilled, and what the kingdom of God and its nearness meant in those days and what it means today. Let’s not go there in this sermon. Rather, let us look at the second half: Repent, and believe in the good news. Still pretty much at the beginning of a new year and celebrating a rather new agreement between churches our ears may be open to appeals that help us find better ways of living: more wholesome, more empowered and empowering, more loving and more self-disciplined. How do we do that? How can we achieve betterment as individuals as well as faith communities?
The recipe sounds charmingly simple: repent and believe!
Repent or metanoeite, as the original Greek text has it. Besides repenting, metanoein also means to change one’s mind, to feel regret, to turn around, to change one´s course of action. “Repent” is something that appeals to our mental and intellectual capacities. It means: Nothing less than the best knowledge available is good enough! Faith asks for knowledge and faith should never dread knowledge. This is why theology and science must be in dialogue with each other. To put it simply: making choices in favour of more wholesome ways of living requires good thoughts. Yet, repenting, metanoein, is so much more than an intellectual exercise. It is also about moral dedication, and thoroughly so. Furthermore, it includes the physical act of turning around, of changing the ways we lead our lives.
Repentance requires a triad, or an interplay, of mental, moral and physical activity. Mental repentance without moral dedication will remain empty. Moral dedication without mental sharpness may remain blind or turn into fanaticism. Repentance without physical action will remain ineffective and powerless.
Simon, Andrew and the Zebedee sons started out with the physical turn, and there was much more to come before they fully embraced the good news. Nicodemus who tried to pick Jesus’ brain by night started on the intellectual side (John 3) and the lawyer whom Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25ff) started on the moral side. Our faith journeys may start and evolve in different ways, but as they unfold they do engage our intellect, our moral compass and our body altogether.
Embarking on the repentance journey turns our attention to failure, weakness and vulnerability, our own and others. It belongs to human existence that we are always going to be hurt and wounded, and we will make others feel wounded. Maybe in the time ahead more than before, since four dangerous p:s are affecting our countries these days, and hence also our churches: polarization, populism, protectionism and, post-truth. We will have to resist the poisonous power that emanates from this dangerous cocktail, and thus we will feel the pain of our own wounds as well as the pain of others’ wounds.
The wounds in God’s beloved world are many; salvation is still offered for sale, human beings are persecuted, sold and trafficked; creation is mistreated and sold; the image of God in creation is still being distorted by violence and abuse, by extremist ideology, also in the name of religion, by the loss of dignity, the loss of biodiversity, by slow action in response to climate issues, by increasing gaps between people in terms of wealth, education, health, power and by the systematic promulgation of lies. And yet, our participation in healing those wounds may after all prove to be participation in the healing God wants to share with us in Christ.
The journey of repentance is demanding, because the scope of hurt and wounds is so overwhelming. Do we still want to embark on that journey?
I would not dare, if it weren’t for the second half: believe in the good news. The good news – in the first place, is the gospel, euaggelion, as the Greek text has it. The reign of God is near, salvation is reality, Christ is risen, and the Holy Spirit empowers us for a life in love and self-discipline.
With the focus on negative news, which comes with the way media logic works, the plea to believe in the good news is deeply meaningful also in a very down-to-earth way: Listen for the good news in the daily news noise. Listen for the voice of hope amidst the many dystopic scenarios. Listen for the voices of the little ones, for those are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Believe, Jesus says. Have trust, dare to trust the good news! Have trust that the good news reaches far deeper in truth and power than the scary abysses of our world and our time. Follow me, says he who is the gospel.
We do not know whether Mom and Dad Zebedee ever fully understood the scope of the journey their sons were embarking on. Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t (compare Matthew 20:20-21). But we can sure give thanks for all sons and daughters who have joined the Jesus journey ever since. Especially for those who pointed us and our generations to the way of Jesus. And here we are, made one with God and each other in the waters of baptism; one in God’s ongoing mission!
Thanks be to God!