Going the right way....

MATTHEW HOXSIE MEAD
GOSPEL OF MARK: SPRING 2003
D. BARTLETT, A. HILTON
SERMON 1: MARK 1:14-20


“The time is fulfilled.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent and believe the good news.”
In the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, Amen.


Have you ever been on a trip when you realized that you were going the wrong way and had to turn around completely and start again? I have done that several times in my life. One time in particular, I was going to a wedding with my fiancée Nicole. She was in the wedding party so we left a day early in order that we might get the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on time. We were driving up to Utica from New York City on the New York State Thru Way. If you have ever been on the Thru Way, you may know that it follows the path of several highways, mostly Interstates 87 and 90. If you want to stay on the Thru Way, you have to merge from one highway to the next. I did not know that, I thought I-87 and the Thru Way were the same road all the way through New York. So, we stayed on I-87 and just kept going north instead of west. After an hour I began to question whether or not we were on the right road. Finally, when we saw a sign saying that we were about 50 miles from the Canadian border, I came to the realization that I was going the complete wrong direction. After a fit of anger where I blamed everyone, including the bride, the groom, and even Nicole for not making sure that I knew where I was going before I set off, I immediately turned the car around and went the other way. We drove all the way back to Albany and got back on the Thru Way. Luckily we made it up to Utica to the wedding rehearsal on time.

Today’s Gospel offers us a look at the start of Jesus’ career and the call of his first disciples. When Jesus first encountered these disciples they immediately stopped what they were doing and followed him. Why? Were they, like me, going the wrong way only to discover that the right way was with Jesus? If so, what was so special about Jesus that these men stopped what they were doing, dropped everything, and followed him? What made Jesus the right way?

To understand what the disciples did and to understand what was so special about Jesus, we have to look back a little bit. The gospel of Mark begins only a few verses before today’s Gospel reading so we won’t have to look far. If we quickly recap what has happened so far we have a very rapid introduction of Jesus. Mark the evangelist does not give us a story about the birth or family history of Jesus. He does not give us any information at all about the childhood or youth of Jesus. Instead the Gospel of Mark starts with the testimony of John the Baptist and the arrival of Jesus at the Jordan River. At his baptism, the heavens open, and Jesus is identified by a voice from heaven as the Son of God. Immediately after this, Jesus is driven into the wilderness where he is tempted by Satan and ministered to by the angels. His first act after this is to come to Galilee and proclaim the good news.

Essentially, the only thing that Mark has told us about who Jesus is prior to his preaching is that he is the Son of God. With this in mind let’s take a look at what Jesus preached. In verse 15 we read what Jesus preached: “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news!”

His message has two parts. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.” This first part is a statement of things that have happened. Jesus here is speaking about what his own impact is in the grand scheme of things. We already know from the beginning of the Gospel that Jesus is the Son of God, but what does the presence of the Son of God mean for us here on earth?

In his letter to the Romans, Saint Paul says: “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Through Jesus, the time truly is fulfilled. Before Jesus the human race had not yet been redeemed. Before Jesus there was no means of salvation for humanity. We were stuck in a perpetual state of sin that was separating us from God. However, because God loved us so much, He sent His only Son into the world so that we would never again be separated from God. With the coming of Christ to the world God himself has come to us and through Jesus we will never again be separate from God. By suffering and dying on the cross Christ has redeemed us and brought us to God. Before the coming of Christ there was no salvation. With his coming, a new age has come about. This new age now made it possible for people to enter into the Kingdom of God. Through Jesus we can all enter the Kingdom of God. For all of us, the Kingdom of God is at hand. Now, through Jesus nothing at all can separate us from the Love of God.

That really is good news! Sign me up right now! Where do I sign up or what do I need to do? What do I need to do to get into this Kingdom? What do I need to do to never again be separate from the love of God?

Very often we find ourselves with the final result but no idea how we got that result in the first place. Its like seeing the final few minutes of a movie or reading the last few chapters of a book and knowing how it all ends but not knowing what the whole story was about or what the characters did to wind up the way they did. A few days ago I rented a movie called Memento. The movie basically runs backwards so that at the start you know what happens but you don’t know why the characters do what they do. In this case, I needed to keep watching to find out what was really going on. Likewise, Jesus gives us the good news first and then he tells us how each of us can make that good news a reality in our own lives. If you only hear the first part of his message, nothing else will make much sense. The first part of his message is: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.”

But we cannot forget that Jesus’ message had two parts. In the second part of his message Jesus said, “Repent and believe the good news!” The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church defines repentance as: “The acknowledgement and condemnation of one's sins, coupled with a turning to God. It includes sorrow for the sin committed, confession of guilt, and the purpose of amendment.” Webster’s Dictionary defines it as: “the action of turning from sin and dedicating oneself to the amendment of one's life”. Literally then, to repent is to turn away from sin and towards God. In a manner of speaking it is a complete change of direction. Not an arbitrary turning but a willful turning away from sin towards God.

If you were traveling by train and you suddenly found out that you were on the wrong train, you would get off and get on a train going in the right direction. If you were walking through the woods and found yourself suddenly at the edge of cliff would you keep walking right over the edge? No, you would turn around. If you were driving and you found that you had taken the wrong road, no matter how far out of the way you had gone, you would turn back. And, if you found out that you were on a path that didn’t lead to God, you would turn around, get on the right path and go the right way.

Jesus asked the same of the first disciples. He called them, they immediately stopped what they were doing and followed him. When Jesus found Simon Peter and Andrew they were fishing. They were casting their nets into the sea. Immediately after Jesus called them, they left their nets and followed him. James and John not only left their nets, they left their boat and their father working in the boat. They left everything behind and followed Jesus.

Today I hold up the first disciples as an example of what we as Christians must do. Very few people are called to leave their families and jobs and become itinerant preachers of the Gospel. Families, friends, jobs, homes, and every other thing in our lives that we have and cherish are very important, but at the same time we must realize that they are not everything. They cannot be compared to the love of God that we have through Jesus Christ. Jobs and money; homes and cars; all the little things we do that we really enjoy doing and all the really big, exciting things that we do; fun with friends, and even family come and eventually they go. None of these is God and if we put any of them before God, then we make one of these our god and we are going in the wrong direction.

If you are going in the wrong direction in your own life, stop and turn around. If you have put anything before God you need to stop, turn away from sin, turn towards God, and make sure that God is first in your life. Leave sin and worldly idols behind and follow Jesus. When we hold something up so high that we have put it before Jesus then we are going nowhere fast. In fact, when we do that we have left Jesus behind and we are going the wrong way fast. Through Jesus we have been saved. Through Jesus the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Turn away from sin, turn towards God, and believe this good news!