If I were to name the year 1989, I wonder if you would know the significance of it. I imagine most people would think back to something that happened personally to them that year, something that touched their life in a dramatic way, like a birth or death in the family. We wouldn't forget that. But in 1989, during the season of Advent, you will remember, the Communist empire crumbled, the Cold War ended, and the Berlin wall came down.
I have a piece of that wall. Our children gave it to us after a trip to Germany. I treasure it, because I know that someday pieces of that wall are going to be in museums, and school children will take buses to go see a relic of one of history's most significant years, 1989.
George Will wrote in one of his columns that it will be one of the most important dates in history. It will mark the end of one era in history, and the beginning of another era of history.
Vaclev Havel, the president of the Czech Republic, and also a philosopher, said 1989 marked the end of the world which began 300 years before in the Enlightenment, and now in 1989, we began a new era. He wrote that the age of rationalism and abstraction is over, the age of technologies and bureaucracies is over, and the age of the personal and the human has begun, a world in which human uniqueness and human action, and the human spirit, will be rehabilitated. 1
You probably didn't realize that all that happened in 1989. It was remarkable that so little was made of it. I remember some headlines in newspapers for a couple of days, but that was all. Back then, I think we were looking toward another event, the millennium, which we thought would be the event in the century. In 1989, the millennium was just eleven years away at that time. The 21st century, that is what everybody has been focused on. How many times do you see a millennium, or a new century, for that matter. I plan only to see one. Of course, my children are convinced that I have seen several.
A new age began in 1989, and you may have missed it. But that's the way it goes. As Amos Wilder put it in the poem I quoted in the Words of Meditation this morning: Behind these ruins and these hungers lurk unsurmised and secret trends...
In other words, something is going on, quietly, slowly, behind the scenes where you can't see it. In the background of events, something is going on. Then all of a sudden, one day the world changes. You may not have noticed it. It may just be another headline about what's going on in Europe, or another year in my life has passed, or just another day, but one day, someday, that day, becomes the hinge on which history turns.
That is the way it was with Jesus. We've just come through Christmas, so this is fresh on our minds. Do you remember what happened at Bethlehem? Nobody noticed it. It happened quietly. It was a backwater place, no one paid any attention. They didn't even remember the date that Jesus was born. Nobody knows the date Jesus was born, because they didn't care when he was born. It was such an insignificant event, until they finally realized what happened.
When they heard about it, they realized that on the day that he was born, the world changed. They were waiting for the millennium. They were waiting for the end of the world. They thought it was going to be like fireworks. But it wasn't that way at all. It was so quiet, nobody noticed it.
Behind these ruins and these hungers lurk unsurmised and secret trends...
That is how you can account for the behavior of the fishermen in our text for this morning, this strange scene which comes at the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, in the first chapter, the fourteenth verse. It is called, "The Call of the Disciples." The text begins with the summary of Jesus' preaching:
Now when John was arrested, Jesus came preaching, ‘The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe this good news.'
Immediately after that comes the Call of the Disciples. Jesus, walking along the Sea of Galilee, saw Simon and his brother, Andrew, casting nets into the sea. He said, "Follow me." "And immediately they left their nets and followed him." He goes a little further along the Sea of Galilee, and see James and his brother, John, who are mending nets in the boat. "And immediately he called them; and they left their nets with their father and the hired men in the boat."
It is an amazing passage. Do you see it? It has two callings in it, two sets of brothers. In both instances, the adverb "immediately" is used to describe what happens. Which means, they did not ponder this decision. They didn't research it. They didn't consult with anybody. They didn't think about it. They didn't even pray about it. They immediately dropped everything, and followed him.
Such strange behavior. Which tells us that this story is not an example of a career move. The disciples are not leaving the fishing business and going into the ministry. If that were the case, this would be told differently. The story of the Call of the Disciples is there as a model of how people behave when they finally get it, that a new age is here. They leave the old behind, and they start living in the new age. "The time is fulfilled." That means, the time of waiting is over. You don't have to wait any longer. "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand." What does "at hand" mean? Imminent? Close enough to touch? There for the taking?
"Repent, and believe this good news." If the fishermen's strange behavior is a model of anything, it is a model of repentance. It is what the Bible says repentance ought to look like. It means this, stop living the way you are, and start living the way you are going to be. It is not here yet, it is "at hand," so you are to start living the way the world is going to be, and live that way until it becomes that. And, you start living the way you are going to be until you become that. It is "at hand." That means, start moving toward it.
I learned something the other day in preparing for this sermon, that the term "good news," which also means "gospel," in Roman times, when the Gospel of Mark was written, had a political meaning.2 Caesar announced to the world upon his ascension to the throne to be king of the Roman Empire, that it would inaugurate a whole era of peace in the world. He called that news, that peace would come to the world, the "gospel." The "gospel," therefore, was like political jargon, like "The New Deal," or "The Great Society."
That is where the Christians got the term "gospel." They said the real "good news" is not that Caesar is king, but that Jesus is Lord. The new age, they said, is "at hand." The new age is here, not because of Caesar, but because of what God has done in Jesus Christ. So stop being the way you are, and start being the way you are going to be.
I read a book some years ago entitled, Beyond Left and Right. It was a collection of essays about the future. In the book was an essay written by Zbigniew Brzezinski, the head of the National Security Office in Carter's cabinet. I don't remember all that he said in that essay, except one phrase. He had a marvelous phrase. He said, "America is the first society to experience the future."
What he meant by that, I think, is that America has been heir to all of these technological revolutions, and the freedom that comes to us because of technology. We are also the heirs of the political revolution 200 years ago, that gives us political freedom. We are experiencing now the way all the world will be someday. It is not that way now. Relative to the other nations of the world, we are living in the future.
It occurred to me that the same thing could be said of the Church. The Church is supposed to be the first society to live in the future. Again the word that they chose for "church" was a political word, "ekklesia."3 It is a source of our word, "ecclesiastical." It means, "church." In ancient Greek society, the "ekklesia" was the political assembly. There were other words that they could have chosen in Greek and Hebrew to describe a religious society, but they didn't choose those words intentionally, because the Church did not see itself as just another religious society, not like the other ones anyway. The Church was the first sign of a new age that had come into this world, the governing body, the "ekklesia," of a new world.
The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe this good news.
Which is why the strange behavior of the fishermen, who left everything that was a part of the old age, and started living in the new age.
That is why to get into the Church, the society that lived as if the new age were here, you had to repent. Which means, to put off the old, and to take up the new. Which is exactly the meaning of baptism, as it was practiced in the early Church. They renounced the evil powers of this world, and pledged their allegiance to Christ and his Kingdom. The symbol of that was to take off their clothes and be immersed in the waters of baptism. When they came out of the waters they received a new garment, a white robe. Which meant they had stopped living the way they were, the way they were was just a ring in the tub now, and they started living the way they were going to be.
But it seems to me that today a lot of baptized people are still waiting for something to happen. They have been baptized, but it hasn't made any difference in their life. They aren't working on either their lives, or the world, and both their lives and the world need some attention.
It is like a roommate I had in college who had to have everything just right before he could study. He went through this ritual every night. He would begin with a shower, after he came back from supper, and then get on his pajamas, robe and slippers. He had to have everything just right before he could study. He had to have the proper lamp, with the right wattage in the bulb. He got a cup of coffee. He sat it on a coaster so it wouldn't make a ring on the desk. He had to sharpen his pencils. He had a book holder to sit his book in. He had an eye shade, and he would put that on. When everything was ready, when everything was just perfect, then he would sit down at his desk, and go to sleep.
Now is the time. That was the preaching of the early Church. Now is the time. It is still the preaching of the Church. It is still the Gospel. Now is the time. "The time is fulfilled." The Kingdom is there for the taking, so do something about your life. And, do something about this world. But first, do something about your life. Get your life in order, then keep going and follow Jesus into the world. If you follow Jesus, that is where you are going to end up. You are going to end up in the world, trying to make the world a better place as well.
But for God's sake, don't just sit around and wait for some sign. Don't wait for some "moving" experience. Don't wait for everything to be perfect before you start, because that isn't going to happen, not to you. It may happen to other people, but it's not going to happen to you. This transformation happens when you realize that because Jesus came into this world, the world changed. Therefore, you must change.
You see, according to the Bible, the problem is not that God is tardy in bringing in the Kingdom. The problem is our procrastination about joining it.
The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe this good news.
I read about somebody who repented. Her name was Katherine Akers. She decided one year that she was going to take Lent seriously. We are just a few weeks from Lent now, so you might listen to this as an example. She thought she would give up something, only she wouldn't give up the things that you usually give up for Lent, like candy or cigarettes. She would give up an attitude.
That first year she tried this, she said she would give up saying mean things about men. (You can see why I was attracted to this illustration.) She realized that for whatever reason, she was putting men down. It had poisoned her. It didn't bother the men, because they weren't around to hear it. But it was doing something to her, this negative attitude, and she wanted to get rid of it. She said, "I am going to change." She repented. She said, "I saw myself in a new way, and then I started to live a new way."
The second year she gave up something else. She gave up negative thinking in general. She said, "My tendency was to see temporary setbacks as being permanent, to see disappointments as always escalating into catastrophes, and to experience problems in my life as always being insurmountable. There was nothing that I could do about it." So for the forty days of Lent she worked on that. She said, "I didn't come out perfect, but I came out different." She wrote this, "I now believe it is possible to see the world in a whole new way, and then make great changes in my life. I see now that it was God who came after me and intervened in my life."
What happened was she made the decision to get up, and do something about her life. It is time. Do it now. We have the means here at church, both to help people do something about their life, and do something about the world. Go over to Linder Hall following the service, to the table over there. They will tell you how to get into something that is going to make a difference in your life. The problem is not that God is tardy in inaugurating the Kingdom. The problem is our reluctance to do anything about it after we have heard the news. So repent.
Another thing that this text ought to tell us is to eliminate that idea from our mind, that repentance is for people who do bad things, evil things, or dumb things. Peter and Andrew, James and John, were good guys. They were decent, hardworking folk. Being fishermen, they probably lied a little bit, but that is all. Nothing more serious than that.
Repentance is not just for those who are doing bad things. Repentance is for those who are doing nothing, just sitting around being miserable, bemoaning their plight. Repent. Like the paralytic that Jesus met at the pool of Bethesda. He told him, "Stand up and walk." He had been there for thirty-eight years. He was waiting for everything to be perfect before he did anything about his life. You know what Jesus told him to do? He said, "Stand up and walk." Do you know what that means? It means, stop being the way you are, and start being the way you are going to be. "The time is fulfilled." No more waiting. "The kingdom of God is at hand." Stand up, and believe this good news.
Leonard Sweet wrote about John Wesley, and how he was raised by his mother with puritanical aphorisms, such as, "Live each day as if it were your last." That aphorism made it to this country, too, thanks to the Pilgrims. So it is a part of our life, too. In fact, Jean and I have a little book that we bought when we lived in New England, that was printed over 150 years ago. It is a collection of the last words of pious children. The book was published for spiritual instruction. Its purpose was to remind people that this day may be your last, so get right with God.
I have heard evangelists do the same thing. They tell the people at the meeting, "Of course you know, anything could happen to you on the way home tonight, so get right with God." That is a kind of pious, somber counsel. It represents a certain seriousness about life, "Live each day as if it were your last."
But I want to point out to you, that is not what the Bible says. The Bible says, live each day as if it were your first. The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. That means a whole new beginning is waiting for you. Repent, and believe this good news.
1 The New York Times, March 1, 1992 "When Fishermen Do Strange Things"
2 From the writings of Helmut Koester
3 From Koester