Everything Changes – Nothing Stays the Same
Matthew 4: 12-23 comes directly after the Three Episodes of
Testing in the wilderness. John has been arrested. Jesus retreats from the
region of Judea to Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee. As noted by the reference
to Isaiah 9:1-4, the region of Galilee is majority gentile territory with some
Israelite towns scattered throughout the region. For Matthew, this is another
moment of Epiphany – the light of Christ, the light of the world, has arrived
in a land “of deep darkness.” For Jesus, after forty days of testing his new
vocation as God’s Beloved Son, sets off on a new mission: ‘From that time
Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”’
No longer a carpenter’s son, he now represents the presence of God’s kingdom.
(Matthew alone refers to “kingdom of heaven” to avoid using a name for God
which by tradition is not pronounced out loud, because Matthew’s gospel
believed to have been addressed primarily to Jewish communities of emerging
followers of Christ. One might say he is no longer Jesus; he is now the Christ
[the anointed one] of God.)
As the Buddha said centuries before Christ, “Everything
changes – Nothing stays the same.” The Christ emerges from his forty-day
retreat changed, and as an agent of change. It is a change of direction in the
life of Jesus, and he invites others to be similarly changed to become citizens
of his Father’s kingdom of heaven – his Father’s vision or dream for this
world: “of a friendly world of friendly folk beneath a friendly sky,” as
Howard Thurman, a Black mystic, preacher, and theologian, once described God’s
good creation.
As he walks along the banks of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus
runs into two sets of brothers: Simon and Andrew, and James and John the sons
of Zebedee. They are fisherman. Fishing was a primary vocation in the gentile
region of Galilee. Simon and Andrew were actively fishing, while the Zebedee
brothers were repairing their nets. Jesus issues an invitation: Follow me and I
will make you fish for people. Immediately, we are told, they leave their nets,
their families, and everything else that was their life in Capernaum, and
followed him. Evidently, this is what it means to repent: to follow Jesus the
Christ to live the life of God’s kingdom, God’s vision, God’s dream for this
world of God’s own creation.
That is, repentance is not confession. Repentance is not
about seeking forgiveness. Repentance is to change direction; to be transformed.
To repent is to accept the invitation to follow Jesus. To accept a disruption,
a change of the way things are and have been; to accept a disruption of work
and life. Simon and Andrew are still brothers, but brothers who do the will of
God. James and John do not cease being sons of Zebedee, but are now also
children of God. All four leave their fishing nets, but they do not stop
fishing. They are now in the presence of the kingdom of heaven, and as they now
accept this change of their lives’ direction, they are now to fish for people.
Their past has not been obliterated; it has been transformed by meeting Jesus
and accepting his invitation to follow him. Which is what it means to repent.
To follow Jesus and allow our lives to be changed and transformed.
And to follow him means to make the world a friendlier place
of friendlier folk beneath a friendly sky. Lord knows, we find ourselves living
in a world that looks more like the regions of Naphtali and Zebulan – a land of
deep darkness. A land of friction and unfriendliness between different tribes
of peoples. One can hardly turn on or read the “breaking news” without hearing
another story of fear, or violence; stories of families ripped apart;
individuals being shot, often randomly; to break down doors without warrant;
the search, and seizures of people’s homes without due process. Problems of
drug addiction, alcohol addiction, gambling addiction, ripping families apart.
Countries seizing territories of neighboring countries with no provocation.
Clear cutting of forests which are the lungs of the planet; polluting waterways
and the oceans with microplastics and forever chemicals. Children and adults
being trafficked around the world as sex-workers. And this just in: penguins in
Antarctica having to adjust their mating seasons due to global warming caused
in part by there being too many cars on the roadways, and too many planes in
the air. The list of deep darknesses is mighty long and mighty dark.
When does it become obvious to us all that there are entire
systems of societies and of the Earth’s ecology in deep need of Repentance – to
find other ways that might lead us to being a friendly world of friendly folk
beneath a friendly sky? When do we notice that Repentance has nothing to do
with confessing I/we have done something wrong and asking for forgiveness, but
rather means to stop doing whatever it is that causes deep darkness in this
world and allow ourselves to change, to be transformed, into a people who will
live into Christ’s understanding of the kingdom of heaven? Of living lives that
are in accord with God’s will, not our own, not that of our tribe, but to
become sons and daughters of God’s Dream for a world of kindness and love and
mercy and care for others? All others? That repentance is not about believing,
but following?
This is what Matthew hears in Jesus’s invitation to “repent
for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” One day along the banks of the Sea of
Galilee outside the city of Capernaum four common fishermen felt the nearness of
God’s presence in a young man named Jesus. They left everything that was their
life and livelihood, and followed him. And what they saw was a new world
unfolding before their very eyes. People learned how to love God and love
neighbor. People were healed of all manner of dis-ease. More and more people
left their homes, families and livelihoods and followed him into the very
presence of God’s world as God dreams, wishes, and hopes it will be. Matthew
recounts that day that four fishermen were changed, and set out to change
others so that all people might one day know and feel the presence of God in
Christ Jesus.
Our prayer this day is “to answer readily the call of our
Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation,
that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works.”
Do we hear our prayer and accept the invitation to repent, to change, to be
changed, so that all the world that walks in darkness might see the great Light
of Christ? For when we let ourselves repent and be changed, everything can
change such that the darkness shall not and cannot remain the same. This is the
very essence of Christian Hope. And Christian Love, and Mercy, and Justice for
all. All means all. For if even one of us is chained, none of us are free.
Amen.
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