Dear friends,
Here is today’s worship service in its entirety:
If you’d prefer to listen to just the gospel reading and sermon, you may do so here:
Today’s sermon is based on Mark 1:14-20
14Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
16As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. 17And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” 18And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.
Beloved of God, grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus. Amen.
I do not have a mind for numbers—I remember names, but not dates—so I often find myself trying to piece together when something happened by remembering what else took place around that same time.
How long, for example, have we had Lucy, the dog?
Well, we got her shortly after I returned from the Youth Gathering in Houston, and it was the same day as my little league all star game, Logan pipes in, and slowly, but surely, we figure out that in July of this year Lucy will have been with us for 3 years.
The author of the gospel of Mark strikes me as operating in a similar kind of way. He doesn’t tell us the exact date when Jesus came to Galilee, but he does give us the context for this entry into Jesus’ public ministry. It was after John was arrested.
After John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.
After John was arrested…
After Jesus’ cousin was arrested…
After the one who baptized him was arrested…
After the one who paved his way was arrested…
After the one who understood him was arrested…
…Jesus came proclaiming good news.
In the midst of what had to have been anger and frustration and sorrow and grief…good news!
In the midst of continued oppression and injustice…good news!
The time is fulfilled, Jesus proclaims. The kingdom of God has come near.
How can it be? How can the time be fulfilled when the time is so ridiculously hard? How can this be the time for which the people had waited, the salvation for which they had yearned? Nothing has changed. John was arrested. Poverty is still rampant. Rome still has all the power. How can it be, Jesus, that the time is fulfilled? That our dreams are accomplished? That our prayers are complete?
How can it be, Jesus, when John was arrested? When we are still suffering? When the COVID winter is upon us? When the diagnosis has disrupted everything? When injustice continues to damage the oppressed and the oppressor? How can it be, Jesus, that the kingdom of God has come near, that the time has been fulfilled, that our prayers have been heard?
In Amanda Gorman’s incredibly powerful inaugural poem, she proclaimed: Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true. That even as we grieved, we grew. That even as we hurt, we hoped. That even as we tired, we tried. That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious. Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.
Even as we grieved, Jesus came to Galilee. Even as we hurt, Jesus proclaimed the good news of God and declared that the time is fulfilled. Even as we tired, the kingdom of God came near in the Word of God made flesh.
How can it be that we insist on hope? How can it be that we repent, turning our backs on the forces that defy God? How can it be that we believe the good news?
Jesus is here. The dream of God is alive and enacted—day in and day out—in him. He came to tie this world together—not to condemn it, but to save it—that we might all be victorious over sin and death and division in every vile form it takes.
Even as we grieve, we grow in Christ. Even as we hurt, we hope in the light of the world. Even as we see the divisions among us, we see even more that we are tied together in the love of God.
One day we may say, after the vaccine came, when we were still struggling to come to terms with all that COVID took from us, Jesus came here, proclaiming the good news of God through the laughter of our children, the words of our poets, the songs of our musicians, the prayers of our elders…and though we still grieved, we believed the good news. Amen.
Listen to Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem here: