January 25 |1
Sermon – Bethlehem Lutheran, Kalispell MT
Mark Gravrock
25 January 2015
Epiphany 3
Mark 1.14-20
Grace and peace . . .
Repent!
One word – one little word –
one rather challenging little word –
tucked in the middle of the good news that Jesus brings.
He bursts onto the Galilean scene –
unexpected, without warning.
He bursts onto the Galilean scene –
poverty, oppression, and despair all around him –
and makes his startling announcement:
It’s finally time!
God’s kingdom is here!
Believe the good news!1
But right in the middle, he slips in that one little word, Repent!
Repent, and believe the good news!
What do you think when you hear that word?
What kind of picture does “repent” conjure up?
Do you think of cartoons
with a sign-carrying preacher
on a downtown street-corner?
Do you think of radio or TV preachers
railing at the wrongs of our society
preaching a message that doesn’t sound at all like good news?
Do you think of old-time tent meetings?
Or, perhaps, did you grow up in the kind of church
that gave you the clear message
that you needed to clean up your act
before God would have mercy on you?
1
Mark 1.15
January 25 |2
Or have you gone to the other extreme?
Have you been so turned-off by judgmental religion
that you prefer a gospel
that strips away any notion of repentance,
that doesn’t demand or expect anything of you,
that simply accepts you as you are
and never suggests that you change?
We so want the church to be a welcoming place:
Is the end-result that we have no standards at all,
and that, here at our church, you will never be challenged?
What do you with that little word, repent?
Does it have a place in your faith?
Does it have a place at Bethlehem?
First, a little bit of word-stuff:
(I try not to throw too much Greek and Hebrew at you,
but once in a while it really makes a difference.)
The Old Testament word for repent
is simply the ordinary, everyday word turn:
Turn around!
Turn back!
You’re facing that way; face this way.
The New Testament word picks up that Old Testament meaning
and adds another nuance:
Change your mind.
Change your stance.
You’re looking at things that way; look at them this way.
Turn!
Turn from what?
Turn toward what?
Change! Change your thinking!
Change from what?
Change to what?
Plug the Old Testament meaning into Jesus’ proclamation.
January 25 |3
Here’s what you get:
It’s finally time!
God’s kingdom is here!
Turn around, and believe the good news!
Turn toward me, and believe the news I have for you!
Add the New Testament twist, and here’s what you get:
It’s finally time!
God’s kingdom is here!
Change your thinking, and believe the good news!
Change what you’ve been believing about the world,
and trust this news I have for you!
Did you catch how that scary word repent just became an invitation?
Look over here!
Turn to me, and see what I have for you!
One more word-thing:
The language of Mark’s gospel has two different kinds of commands.
One kind commands single, individual actions:
Do this! Go there!
The other kind commands on-going actions:
Keep on doing this!
Keep on going there!
Jesus’ commands – to repent and believe?
They’re the on-going kind:
Keep on repenting!
Keep on turning!
And keep on trusting in my good news!
It’s an invitation,
and it’s a continual, ongoing, lifelong invitation!
Okay, enough Greek grammar.
(I know that Greek grammar is what you’ve come to church for,
but enough is enough.)
But this gives us a start on what that scary word repent is all about:
First, it’s an invitation:
Friend, why are you looking over there?
Turn around.
January 25 |4
Come over here, and see what I have for you!
And second, it’s a whole life-process Jesus invites us into:
Come join me in a life of turning, turning, turning
and trusting, trusting, trusting!
Perhaps it will help if we place ourselves there on the scene,
listening to Jesus as he makes his announcement.
We’re there –
maybe it’s beside the Sea of Galilee on a sunny afternoon –
we’re there as this young man lifts up his voice,
gathers us together,
and says, I have something to tell you all!
We’re curious. We stop and listen.
People! he says,
We’ve been waiting for a very long time.
We’ve been waiting for God’s promises for a very long time.
I’m here to tell you that it’s finally time!
No more waiting!
God’s kingdom is here!
Really? we wonder.
There this guy stands – alone:
No army.
No entourage.
No visible resources.
The world looks the same as always.
Violence is in the streets.
The soldiers that watch us are little better than thugs.
Acts of terror fill the news.
Hunger is everywhere.
Poverty is everywhere.
Disease and suffering are everywhere.
And here stands this man, alone,
announcing that God’s kingdom is here now?
Granted, there’s something electrifying about him.
There’s something compelling in his voice.
But look at him!
January 25 |5
Do you see a kingdom anywhere?
You give him a listen.
He is compelling.
There is music in his voice.
There is grace.
There is gentleness.
He speaks with a sense of authority.
He treats people – especially the weak –
with tenderness and healing.
You watch people being restored, valued, welcomed.
There is something going on here, you decide,
but what is it?
What does it mean?
You hear him say it again:
It’s finally time!
God’s kingdom is here!
Turn around, and trust what I’m telling you!
And you watch as Jesus gathers more and more people around him.
He’s like a seine-fisherman, casting his net
and drawing, drawing, drawing people toward him –
broken people, hungry people, longing people, disillusioned people –
and you watch as joy breaks out.
Finally, you get a chance to talk with him one-on-one.
I don’t get it, you tell him.
The world seems still like the same old brutal world we’ve always known.
But something is going on here.
How is it that so many people are being changed, transformed?
They’re as poor as always.
Where is there joy coming from?
Turn around, he says, and trust my word.
Keep on turning around.
What do you mean? you ask.
What is this “repenting” that you talk about?
January 25 |6
Well, he says, to start with, think of it like this:
There you stand, looking away from me,
looking only at this world you’ve always known,
looking at the world that, as you say, is still the same.
And here I stand, with a present for you.
I have a gift here in my hands, that I’d like to give you.
I call to you, Turn around – I have something for you,
but you keep standing there with your back to me.
It’s really hard for me to give you a present
if you won’t turn around and receive it.
Is that what you mean, Jesus? you ask.
Are you simply calling me to turn around and look at you,
so you can give me your gift?
Basically, yes, he says.
But think about it for a moment:
As you stand there with your gaze fixed on what you know –
on what you think you know –
what you think you know actually holds you captive:
the world as you know it,
the violence and terror,
the fear and greed,
the sickness and sorrow,
the Real World, as you call it.
I stand here weaving a new picture for you,
weaving a new world for you,
opening doors for you,
creating alternatives for you,
and calling you to turn around and see them!
You’d be amazed how many people will never turn around,
not even for a glimpse of what I’m painting.
But whenever anyone does turn around,
“there is joy in heaven over every one who repents!”2
2
Luke 15.7,10.
January 25 |7
Jesus, I listen to some preachers scream “Repent!”
and tell us that unless we repent we will perish.
Is that what you’re talking about?
Do I have to change my life?
Do I have to fix what’s wrong?
Do I have to shape up before you will accept me?
Friend, you’ve been traveling with me for a while now.
Think about what you’ve seen:
 Remember the Samaritan woman at the well?3
I knew her story.
I knew where she had been, and who she had been.
I simply offered her living water.
I offered her life.
I offered her dignity.
I didn’t ask for any kind of change.
She did change:
She became a new person.
She became a new person because she drank of my living water,
not before!
 Remember Zacchaeus, the tax-collector?4
Traitor to his people,
who defrauded them on a regular basis.
Zacchaeus who, not surprisingly, everybody hated.
I saw him in his tree and invited myself to his home.
I treated him as family.
I welcomed him as brother.
And only then – after I had embraced him –
only then did Zacchaeus say,
“I’m turning over a new leaf:
I’m giving half to the poor,
and wherever I’ve cheated, I’ll repay fourfold.”
I had to smile and say,
“Looks like salvation has shown up here!”
But notice: the change came after my welcome.
3
4
John 4
Luke 19
January 25 |8
 The woman caught in adultery – remember her?5
They wanted to stone her to death.
They wanted me to sign off on her execution.
I knew their game:
“Whoever is without sin, cast the first stone.”
And they all slunk away.
“Where are your accusers?” I asked her.
“Gone, sir,” she said.
“Neither do I condemn you,” I told her,
“Go and sin no more.”
Jesus, is that how it always it?
Do you always welcome people first?
Do you always give them grace and forgiveness first,
and only then look for change?
That’s the bottom-line truth, friend, he says.
But everybody is just a little different.
The need is the same –
for the most part, people find they can’t really change much on their own.
If people needed to clean up before they come to me,
I wouldn’t have very many followers!
Usually, it’s only when people have been bathed in my love
that they discover that change is even possible.
But remember, friend:
The basic “repentance” is a turning around to face me
so that you can receive my gift.
Sometimes, people are so dominated by a burden that they carry,
that they cannot come to me until they have laid it down.
Remember the rich young man?6
He so wanted to come to me,
and I so wanted him to come,
but when I told him that the weight of his wealth
was holding him back,
he gave up in sorrow, and turned away.
5
6
John 8
Mark 10
January 25 |9
If only he had realized that I’m here to help him let go!
And then, there was that one time
when people were yammering at me
about some folks who had perished in terrible tragedies.7
The were insinuating that those who died must have been terrible sinners.
Well, there’s one time when I turned it back on them.
I told them,
“You think they were such terrible sinners?
What are you assuming about yourselves?
Don’t you realize you’re in the same boat?
Unless you turn around,
you’ll be facing the same thing!”
My bottom-line truth is to embrace with grace first –
no entrance requirements!
But folks who assume they’re already on the inside,
all by themselves –
sometimes I have to shake them up a little.
But friend, we’ve been talking about lots of other people.
The one we need to talk about is you.
Me, Lord?
Is there something I need to let go of?
Is there something I need to repent for?
Friend, what I’m all about is restoring you.
I’m here to turn you around and set you free,
to restore you to the joy and freedom of God’s love,
to restore you to the people around you
in genuine love and dignity and care.
Think about our walk together so far:
 I’ve welcomed you with open arms from the very first day.
And you’ve been practicing turning around to receive my gift.
I know it’s been hard for you,
to pull your eyes off the world as you know it
and turn to see the gift I have for you.
7
Luke 13
J a n u a r y 2 5 | 10
Keep on turning!
 You are mine! I have claimed you!
Think about where we’ve been together:
o Think of your struggle with anger.
Remember how it was only when you realized how fully I love you,
only then could you welcome your anger,
and understand it,
and let me reshape it.
o Think of your struggle with fear.
Remember how fear once dominated you,
and how I held you
and showed you over and over how useless your fear was,
until, within the grip of my love,
your fears began to release you.
o Think of your addictions.
Think of how helpless you have felt in the face of them,
and how I have held you
and understood you
until, little by little, you’ve begun to trust my love.
o Think of your “besetting sins,”
those patterns in your life that have so served your own ego
and your own power
and have done such hurt to others.
I didn’t ask you to change those before you came to me.
I simply loved you and graced you.
And little by little, you’ve given them over to me
and you’re allowing me to remake you.
Friend, this “repentance” business is not an entrance requirement.
Well, aside from turning around so that you can even see my gift!
But the changing of your life is not something you can even do.
Keep on turning to me.
Keep on trusting me.
And then repentance becomes my lifelong invitation to you,
my invitation to lifelong learning to trust me
and give yourself over to me.
And then, friend, do you see it?
Then repentance actually becomes good news!
J a n u a r y 2 5 | 11
Good news, because my love always comes first.
Good news, because I make you new.
And I am faithful.
Are you ready for this?
It’s finally time!
God’s kingdom is here!
Keep on turning around – turning, turning, turning.
Keep on trusting my word – trusting, trusting, trusting.
Amen
Repentance in the Gospels
1. John the Baptist:
a. Mt 3.2 – call to repent
b. Mt 3.8 = Lk 3.8 – bear fruit worthy of repentance
c. baptism for repentance -- Mt 3.11 = Mk 1.4 = Lk 3.3
2. Jesus’ proclamation:
a. Opening call: Mt 4.17 = Mk 1.15
b. Offer of repentance for sinners (Luke): 5.32, 15.7,10, 17.3-4, 24.47
c. Warning to the self-righteous (Luke): 13.3,5, 16.30
3. Disciples’ proclamation: Mk 6.12
4. Jesus’ warning to cities that won’t repent:
a. Mt 11.20-21 = Lk 10.13
b. Mt 12.41 = Lk 11.32