“The Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew” (1308-11) – Duccio di Buoninsegna
At the beginning of his ministry Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
Repentance clears the way for Jesus to pour good news into our lives.
Eugene Peterson, in his book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society, says that “repentance is always and everywhere the first word in the Christian life.”
That’s a startling statement. “Repentance is always and everywhere the first word in the Christian life.”
Peterson goes on to say that “repentance is not an emotion. Repentance is a decision…repentance is a realization that what God wants from you and what you want from God are not going to be achieved by doing the same old things, thinking the same old thoughts. Repentance is a decision to follow Jesus Christ and become his pilgrim in the path of peace.”
“Repentance is the most practical of all words and the most practical of all acts. It is a feet-on-the-ground kind of word. It puts a person in touch with the reality that God creates.”
Peterson points out that once we meet up with God, and by extension, Jesus, then we can see the truth about ourselves—that God made us and loves us. And we can see the truth about others—God made them and loves them too, just as much as God loves us. The truth about what is wrong with the world is that both I and my neighbor have sinned in refusing to let God be for us, over us and in us.” And that’s true of all of us.
Jesus calls on us to make a decision, “to turn away from the nostalgia for a better life and toward a rugged pilgrimage of discipleship in faith, from complaining about how bad things are to pursuing all things good.”
“There is always a way that leads out of distress-a way that begins in repentance, that is, turning to God.”
Anxiety is a form of distress. We have had a year of anxieties, haven’t we? Covid and all the changes that it has brought has been a great source of anxiety around the world. The state of our nation has made us all anxious, I would guess. For me, the declining health of my father and his impending death was a tremendous anxiety, and now that he is at peace, my anxiety over my mother has become greater. You will have your own list of anxieties.
We will always have anxieties to deal with, but it’s how we deal with these anxieties that matters.
Peterson offers this thought, from Elie Wiesel, who describes a motif that occurs frequently in the tales of Israel of Rizhin. “A traveler loses his way in the forest; it is dark and he is afraid. Danger lurks behind every tree. A storm shatters the silence. The fool looks at the lightening, a wise man at the road that lies—illuminated—before him.”
Anxieties feel like that to me—like lightening. And I, a fool, spend time freaking out over the lightening, rather than looking at the path that is suddenly visible before me.
The Apostle Paul addresses the anxious and argumentative Corinthians, some who are worried about their marriages, some who are sick with grief, those who are caught up in temporary joy, those who are worried about their possessions.
Here’s what Paul has to say to these Corinthians. I’m going to read the passage again—it’s fairly short. Paul writes that “the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none; and those who mourn as though they were not mourning’ and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.”
Paul is telling the Corinthians what Jesus was saying at the beginning of his ministry to anyone who would listen. The kingdom of God has drawn near. That’s what Paul means by saying that the present form of this world is passing away.
The very next thing that Paul says to this anxious bunch of Corinthians is—“I want you to be free from anxieties!”
Because their anxieties are distracting them from the good news of God’s kingdom of love in their midst.
In contrast, in the gospel, we get the story of four people who did not give into anxiety when they experienced what must have been like a lightening bolt out of nowhere.
Jesus is walking along the Sea of Galilee, and he sees Simon and Andrew fishing, and then James and John, who were in their boat mending their nets. Jesus calls them all to follow him, which they do instantly!
They just leave their nets, and James and John even leave their father behind in the boat, and they follow Jesus.
We can all imagine the anxieties these four might have felt, the tentative responses they could have given. Who would care for the nets? Those nets were the way they made a living. What about Zebedee? The family fishing crew would be missing two strong members. And so on.
But all four just get up and go.
They repent—that is, they follow Jesus, because they are in touch with the reality that God has created—Jesus Christ himself. Their feet are on the ground—they follow Jesus, leaving behind their old reality without a backward glance.
Now, as Peterson says, “they are going someplace—going to God. The truth of God explained their lives, the grace of God fulfilled their lives, the forgiveness of God renewed their lives, the love of God blessed their lives.”
Next week at our congregational meeting we are going to look at some of the ways we can continue our ministries and consider some of the ways we can follow Jesus if we don’t let our anxieties get the best of us. So many ideas have been born out of this time—ideas that I am excited to share with you. Only our anxieties can keep us from being even better disciples of Jesus in this year ahead. I’m challenging myself and all of us not to be blinded by the lightening bolts of our anxieties, and held back by our hesitations, but to see the path ahead in the light of our anxieties. By giving our anxieties over to God, we can give our attention to new possibilities of doing God’s work in the world.
Remember — “Repentance is a decision—to follow Jesus Christ and to become his pilgrim in the path of peace. Repentance puts us in touch with the reality that God creates.”
Reference Peterson, Eugene. A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society. Downer’s Grove, IL. Intervarsity Press, 2nd ed., 2000.