Sermon for the 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany

The Present Form of This World

-Well, it is still early in the season of Epiphany – there are many weeks still before the start of Lent – and yet today the Lectionary calls us to stop and reflect together upon the call to repentance.

-Here in the Gospel of Mark, we read of our Lord’s first words after beginning his public ministry: “Repent, and believe in the good news.”
-I hope that none of us miss the significance of this. We can say with confidence that repentance is the first word of Jesus to this world.

-This was not a new message, of course. We see Jonah preaching a similar message to the people of Nineveh: repent or else destruction is coming upon you.

-But, within the kingdom of God, repentance is a bit different than the actions taken by the Ninevites. For those of us in Christ, repentance is not a one time affair. It is not even a once a year activity that we only contemplate during Lent.

-For those of us baptized into Christ, repentance is our way of life. Repentance is the door to a new life and also the path to a new life. Repentance is the gateway into a new land of wholeness and abundance, but it is also the way deeper into this land. It is the Christian’s way of life.

-Well, that is my claim, and this is the primary matter I believe that we desperately need to consider together this morning. But I am sure all of you right now are saying to yourselves, “Oh great. Repentance, huh? Gee, this sounds like fun.”

-But it is fun! Really! And it is exciting. And it is crucially important. Let me show you what I mean.

-We human beings desperately need to change. This human society in which we live is very, very messed up. God has given to us free will, and we have used this to sow destruction throughout every part of the earth.
-True, there is beauty everywhere, to be sure, but the amount of pain and suffering in this world is immense, truly unbearable if we try to hold it all. I will spare us a list of any relevant statistics.

-We need to change, and we all know it. In fact, the call to change echoes everywhere today.
-“Change we can believe in.” “The change we need.” Sound familiar? Talk about change is everywhere in our society today, starting from the top, but what does it mean?

-Now, I did not vote for Barack Obama, but I do recognize and applaud his ability to energize people and to give many a new sense of hope and optimism. The inauguration this past week was amazing – just the raw sense of energy and emotion and joy and anticipation.

-But the problem is this: real change comes from within, and it is slow to come. Passing new laws, writing new executive orders, cutting federal checks – none of this will really change anything. All action comes from within. “You will know a tree by its fruits.” Our actions are the fruits of our hearts and they faithfully reveal what is inside.

-Our family likes to watch movies together. I remember once two years ago when we all decided one night to watch a movie together and we watched An Inconvenient Truth – the movie by Al Gore which presents the looming crisis of global warming in stark relief. It is startling to see all of this information put together, even for someone like myself who has studied environmental issues for my entire adult life. But for our oldest children – who were 11 and 9 years old at the time – it struck a deep chord. They immediately wanted to spring into action and began talking about what we can do to reduce our carbon footprint. “Angus,” our daughter Se` said to her older brother, “maybe we can spend less time watching TV and playing X-Box, and maybe we can play outside more!”
-It was heartwarming to see this kind of response, but little does she yet know of human nature.
-She does not yet understand that human beings, left to their own meager resources, are rarely able to transform themselves. Her resolve to change lasted only a week or so. Most New Year’s resolutions for 2009 won’t make it out of January still in force!

-So how then do we change? How do we effect real and lasting change within ourselves or within our communities?

-The self-help gurus of our culture tell me to look inside and to recognize how powerful I truly am. But it’s just not there.
-No, I need another source of power, another source of energy outside of myself in order truly to become myself, truly to become the man who God has intended me to be.
-You see, from all eternity, God has designed me to be a certain kind of man. Try as I may now to fit into that design, I am not able. I try to change my life to be that Christ-like model, and I fail. I try and I fail. I try and I fail.
-I need something else! I need a source of power, a source of energy outside of myself to enable me to become who God has intended me to be!

-When our Lord began his ministry, he preached this message: “The kingdom of God has come near.” The kingdom of God is near, right at hand, surrounding us at all times and in all places. In that kingdom, the very life power of God is made available to us through our Lord Jesus Christ.

-Power – dynamos in the Greek – from which we get the word dynamic. Dynamic energy, power, force, vigor – this is the message of the Gospel.
-Kingdom power right here and now available to us through the means of grace.

-This then is the path of repentance for us. It is not a one time affair. It is a continual way of life in which we turn away from the present form of this world, our weak and fallen selves, and become empowered by the grace of God to claim our true selves.

-The apostle Paul taught us that “the present form of this world is passing away,” and that’s a good thing because it is weak. Instead, we continually turn to the kingdom of God and receive power, strength, energy to be transformed daily more and more into the fullness of Christ.

-The temptation is to be fooled by the present form of this world. All is not as it seems, and every single day we are being sold a bill of goods, a stack of lies about how to be happy and whole. All we need is a flatter tummy, or whiter teeth, or smarter investments, or a better car, or hair with less gray in it. The list is endless.

-But thanks be to God that we can hear a different voice, the call of the Holy Spirit to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Thanks be to God that grace and power are available to us when we repent and believe in the good news. Amen.