Fasting for the Kingdom
Text: Mark
Aldersgate
1. Has there
ever been a time when you really, really wanted something?
As
I thought about this question, this past week
a time
from my past came to mind
Volunteer
in
An area outside of
where
descendants of slaves
have
lived for several generations as squatters
this means they never had title to the land
yet they have lived there for over 200 years
Part
of a group doing habitat like work on substandard housing
Our
schedule began at
without
my usual morning shower (you’ll find out why)
dressed
with breakfast and in cars by
so we
could be at job site by
broke
for lunch at
after sheet-rocking, spackling, or sanding walls
one afternoon
found
myself crawling around in attic space
laying
out Pink Panther insulation in 90 degree
now we
only had one shower for ten adults
very
excited to be first team to leave job site
arrived
back at home base, picked up my personal things and made a beeline for that
shower
then I heard someone calling my name
looked
back saw Joe, whose usually quite serious
telling
me I had a phone call
I
thought it was a prank
because
the other vehicles were arriving
and
soon I’d loose my place
I
wanted that shower bad
I was willing to give up the phone call
If
there really was one
I was also probably willing to give up dinner
I was willing to fast so that I could have that
shower
I
still remember with a little shame how fast I moved
toward
that shower
Fasting, one of the spiritual disciplines,
along
with prayer and tything
is much more serious than this story about wanting a shower
but it
captures the sense of wanting something badly
fasting
is an activity that one accepts
because like the other spiritual disciplines
it
opens one to the possibilities of God’s kingdom
I
am like the deer in Psalm 42:1
“As a deer longs for flowing
streams,
so my
soul longs for you, O God.”
2. The disciples were willing to give up quite a
bit to follow Jesus
Perhaps they were really longing for something
Sparseness of Mark’s gospel makes us wonder why
these
fishermen left home and livelihood so quickly
Jesus promises that they will be fishers of men
Yet how can they make a living at that?
Why
do they give up an occupation
With
a secure market
For
one that is ill-defined at best?
It’s not even clear in the lesson that they respond
out of faith
About halfway through Mark’s gospel
learn that Jesus does promise persecution and conflict
but I don’t think that’s why they respond to this call
Perhaps something about this promise of the kingdom
creates this longing for God
Perhaps they were fasting for God’s reign, willing to
give up security and livelihood to find it
Yet,
as we read further into the story
We learn that these same fishermen over and over misunderstood this man
and his message
They misapprehended his identity
One way of apprehending Jesus’ identity is too
realize
That the man becomes the message
Jesus proclaims in this gospel lesson
the
nearness of the kingdom,
but he is also part of the kingdom
Mark, along with the early church, proclaims Jesus
Even as Jesus proclaims
“the
Epiphany,
the manifestation of God,
Promises
the disclosure
of God’s power and purpose
in the midst of our daily lives
Epiphany is about the disclosure of God’s reign,
or God’s kingdom
that
reign or kingdom is reveled in Jesus Christ
3. In the verses from Mark directly preceding today’s gospel
lesson
John
proclaims
“a baptism of repentance and
forgiveness of sins”
but in
these verses and in our lives
Jesus
proclaims a baptism of the kingdom
Albert
Nolan, author of Jesus before Christianity writes
“Metanoia [repent] in John [the Baptist]’s
time
meant
fasting and doing penance;
metanoia in Jesus’
[moment] was like
accepting the invitation to feast
[Maybe, I should have titled this message
“Feasting for the Kingdom.”]
Nolan
continues:
“In John’s time forgiveness was a future possibility
dependant on baptism;
in Jesus’ time forgiveness was a present reality…
The
[moment] of John and the [moment] of Jesus
are
radically different because they are determined by two
radically different
future events.
John prophesied the judgment of God;
Jesus prophesied the salvation of God.
John live[s] off the prospect of a great catastrophe;
Jesus live[s] off the prospect of a great kingdom.”
The end of the story of
Jonah helps us to hear Jesus’ good news
Usually we pay more attention to Jonah and the whale
or should I say Jonah in the whale
but end
of this story is critical
we see
why Jonah did not want to go to Ninevah
in the first
place
Lay reader told us that once Jonah finally got to Ninevah
and did
what God wanted,
the
people fasted, they repented
this is
actually an amazing turn of events
no
where in the story does it even suggest
that
God might forgive the Ninevites
yet the
Ninevite king
entertains a daring theological option
can human action impinge on God?
can human action make a difference,
cause
God to alter the terrible decree?
Jonah’s story proposes that God is not a terrible
tyrant
God can and will engage in the freedom to forgive
so one
would think that Jonah would feel good
about
his preaching style, right?
gee if
I could ever get the king to repent, I’d feel great!
But
no, not Jonah, he did not feel good
He
went off and pouted under a bush
Because God had forgiven the Ninevites,
His sworn enemy
Jonah represents the staunch
nationalistic view
And he offers a stark contrast to Jesus’ prophecy:
Jonah is angry that God
forgives the people
Jesus’ purpose is that
God forgive us
God’s
freedom and responsiveness to human behavior
creates
important possibilities for humanity,
God’s partners in the sharing of the good news
4. Beyond the reaches of our western world
In
the northeast corner of
The
Eveny, a nomadic people who actually ride reindeer
Have
an understanding of time
That is closer to the biblical experience
than
our own enslavement to chronological time
Piers
Vitebsky writes about the Eveny,
The Reindeer People
And their experience of living half the year
in darkness
and the
other half in light
for a
people who travel with reindeer
as migrants across a frozen tundra
chronological time looses its importance
and the
moment becomes the important and sacred time
for biblical people chronological time was of less value
as well
they
had no watches, no date books, no next appointment
they
lived by the light and darkness of the day
and
were much more aware of being in the moment
5. Jesus speaks about “the kingdom” being near
in the sense of kairos,
Which calls to mind a special time,
An opportune time,
A time in which the constellation of factors
creates
an unusually significant moment
and
this moment is not stuck in the past
when
Jesus says “the kingdom is near”
he
means it for us as well as the first audience
Take a look again at the gospel lesson,
and see
that Jesus call us to repentance
so that
we might receive the good news
this is
not a doom and gloom repentance
it is
one we enter into freely
acting
more justly
in our
social, political, and economic lives,
as well
as our moral lives
When
we work for justice in our world,
We prepare for the inbreaking
of God’s reign in this time
When
we share the love that God has offered to us,
We get ready to receive this great kingdom
We
cannot separate Jesus from his message
Cannot remove the prince of peace
from the search for a world where problems
are
resolved peaceably
cannot remove Jesus from this proximity to God’s reign
where people love God and one another
where
they act justly toward each other
and
toward the whole of creation
Responding
to Jesus’ call brings us closer to God’s kingdom,
The reign of God in our on lives
and in
our moment, this moment
Suddenly
or slowly, noisily or quietly
God acts,
Jesus appears, and it is kairos,
the right moment: “Repent, and
believe in the good news.” Amen.