Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text for this meditation is written in the 1st Chapter of the Gospel according to St Mark: Verses 14 - 20:
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” 16 Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.
This past week, the United States of America inaugurated a new president. Whether the residents of the US agree with the policies of Joseph Biden or disagree with them, he is now their president. God’s Word as written in the Holy Scriptures is very clear in its’ direction that the citizens of the US are to pray for the new president and his administration. They are to pray that they will govern wisely and that the country will prosper under their guidance. As written in (1 Tim 2: 1-2) “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way”. Out of interest, I did a quick ‘Google’ search and found that there are some sixty odd references in the Bible about how we should pray for and be subject to the earthly authorities.
When we take the time to think about it, the transfer of power in democratic countries is really quite amazing. There is a procedure. In the US, the old president steps aside and the new president takes his place. Historically, this has been a civilised and amicable process. Even though the events surrounding the transfer of power in the US over the past few weeks set an unsavoury precedence, it is still really quite a contrast with most of human history. For most of human history, the transfer of power usually meant somebody had to die.
In the most benign situation, the king died of natural causes and his son, the prince, became the new king. Although this transfer of power is still relatively peaceful, the average subject had no say in the matter. Whether the prince was a genius or dim-witted, he was the new king.
In other cases, rulers stole their authority by assassination. Rulers had to have food and wine tasters to assure that they were not poisoned. Kings had to keep an eye on the members of their own families. A certain amount of paranoia helped many kings maintain their thrones and their lives.
Then, of course, there were the conquerors – people like David of Israel, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Cyrus and Darius of Persia, Alexander the Great of Greece, Hannibal of Carthage, Julius Caesar of Rome, and the like. These people built their kingdoms by raising armies, conquering other kingdoms, and joining the kingdoms together into empires. These rulers built their empires at the price of a great deal of blood.
There is one thing that all of these rulers have in common. Whether these rulers came to power through the peaceful transfer of the modern democracy or the violence of war, they do not have the authority to rule within themselves. They must receive the authority to rule from outside of themselves. From an earthly standpoint, they must have people, land, and other resources in order to govern. The lands they rule sustain them. Earthly rulers ultimately receive their authority from the empires, kingdoms, or countries that they rule.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus proclaimed, “The kingdom of God is at hand.” The Kingdom of God is different from earthly kingdoms because it does not rely on outside resources or people. Instead, God rules, and His ruling creates and sustains the kingdom. While earthly kings depend on their kingdoms, the Kingdom of God depends on God, its king.
Not only does God’s Kingdom exist in a different way, but it also reveals itself in a different way. The Kingdoms of this earth put on an extravagant show. Kings live in palaces. They have personal guards and servants, food and drink tasters, as well as other support staff. Even our own democratic leaders have multiple highly trained people to guard and care for their person at any given moment – not to mention the multitude of people who serve in the public administration. This week’s inaugural celebrations in the US were incredibly expensive. They were grand. They were glorious. That’s the way it is done here on this earth. Earthly kingdoms tend to do everything big. They reveal themselves in very public and very extravagant ways.
On the other hand, when God reveals His Kingdom, most people see just a man – the apparent son of a common labourer. He has no servants. His clothing is simple. When someone asked about His home, [Matthew 8:20] Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” The Kingdom of God is a Kingdom of paradoxes. So much is the exact opposite of what we expect.
There is a reason that the Kingdom of God is so much different from the kingdoms of this world. As Jesus told Pontius Pilate, [John 18:36] “My kingdom is not of this world.” Jesus did not come to rule, but to submit. Jesus said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” The king who ruled over heaven and earth left His throne, hid His glory, and joined His subjects here on this earth. He suffered as we suffer. He was tempted as we are tempted. Never the less the king did not sin as we sin. For the writer to the Hebrews says, [Hebrews 4:15] For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Then – even though He was sinless – He suffered the punishment and death of sin. The king took on the sins of His subjects – you and me – and then endured whip and crucifixion so that we – His subjects – might have eternal life. The king endured the punishment His subjects deserved and gave them the royalty of His righteousness to take its place. We are now kings and queens in his kingdom.
When Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead, He opened the entrance to this kingdom. That way is now open and will remain open to the end of time. The proclamation of Jesus in today’s Gospel tells us how we enter this kingdom. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Repentance begins with confession. We acknowledge our sin and our sinful nature to God. Then repentance asks God for the desire and power to change our sinful ways. As we repent, we believe that God will remove our sin and guilt for the sake of His Son Jesus Christ. As John wrote in His first epistle, [1 John 1:9] “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Those who repent and believe in the Gospel find themselves in God’s kingdom. Those who refuse to believe cannot enter God’s kingdom and so find themselves in the dungeons of hell.
We cannot repent and believe in our own power. Even these elementary actions of the Christian are the work of the Holy Spirit in us. They are a continuous, living, active part of our relationship with God. We sin every day, and so we repent every day, and every day our saviour-king comforts us with the eternal truth that our sins have been and always will be forgiven.
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” This is the message Jesus proclaimed. This is the message that He passed on to His Apostles when He made them “fishers of men.” This is the message that the church has proclaimed down through the centuries. This is the message that the church proclaims today. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Amen.
The love and peace of our Great trine God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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