September 11 - Week One: Good News in a Broken World

September 11: Week One, Good News in a Broken World

Mark 1:1-20

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,

‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,

   who will prepare your way;

the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

   “Prepare the way of the Lord,

   make his paths straight” ’,

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’

 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’

 And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’

As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

                Marcus Borg reminds us that these opening verses act as a kind of overture to the whole gospel, laying out the themes and direction of the whole story. From the very first sentence, this is good news (“gospel” in Greek means exactly that). In that this opening section kind of frames the whole story in miniature, each phrase is densely packed with meaning.  It names Jesus as the Christ or Messiah, the hoped-for figure who would deliver Israel from oppression and usher in an age of peace and justice for all people. It also names Jesus as the Son of God. More than just claiming an intimate relationship with God, this is also a political statement. Caesar in Rome was proclaimed to be a Son of God, legitimating his rule and claim over the Empire. To say Jesus was the Son of God was to say that Caesar’s claim was false.

                John appears on the scene to remind us that 1, God is already in motion and 2, that Jesus’ was not the only voice calling for a change in people or the culture. John’s baptism was a symbolic action calling the people to go back to the wilderness and re-enter the Promised Land anew, letting God lead them in a new direction. Hence a baptism in the Jordan River, for the forgiveness of sins.  Jesus comes to John for baptism, implying his affinity for John’s message. In Mark’s telling, we as readers are privy to what is an interior experience of Jesus. The sky (the barrier between the human realm and God) is torn open, the Spirit lights on Jesus in dove-form, and he hears a voice that proclaims him as God’s beloved one. Borg describes this as Jesus’ “religious conversion” experience – not convert from a godless to a godly life but a conversion into the role and ministry of his calling.  The Spirit then immediately drives Jesus into the wilderness for a period of discernment and struggle.

Only when John is arrested does Jesus begin his own ministry. Jesus proclaims ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’ This, then, is the whole of Mark’s Gospel in one line. Tense in the language of the New Testament is tricky when translating into English. “Has come near” can mean is at hand, close enough to grasp, coming soon, nearby, already happened but also happening still. Jesus tells us that God’s kingdom (as opposed to Caesar’s) is all this. “Repent” does not mean feel bad for our sins. Borg says the root word indicates a turning toward home as from exile. Repentance is a turning from the garbage of our world and heading home to the world God wants it to be. Finally, in a time devastated by the Roman war, believe there is good news. Again in the Greek, “believe” does not mean to give intellectual assent to a proposition. It originally meant to commit one’s whole self to a cause, a teacher, a way of life. To believe the good newss of Jesus is to commit ourselves to live the way that makes it real.

Jesus knows this is a task he cannot undertake by himself and here he begins by inviting others to join him. Something about his good news was so compelling that the first four followers drop the obligations of their daily lives and they “immediately” follow Jesus. The question hanging in the air for readers of the Gospel is, will we act so immediately as well and follow?

The authors of Mark begin their story to their war-torn world by announcing that there is indeed “good news.” In the face of the terror and violence and oppression in our own day, what good news do we have to proclaim? One part, I believe, is that the way the world is today is not the way God wants it to be. We need to know that there is one, one named and claimed by God, to bring us the good news that things can change, that we can change. Neither the destruction of the Temple or the attack on the towers signaled the end of things. Rather, we live in a time when something new is emerging. Like the community of the faithful who presented the Gospel of Mark as a compass for their day, our community of the faithful can use the story and teaching of Jesus as our compass on our journey forward. “The time is now. God’s dream for the world is happening now. Change direction, and believe that there is good news.”

Good News: Jesus is God’s chosen one who can help us change the pain of the world.

Subject: In the face of the tragedy of Sept. 11, we know that the powers of fear do not have the last word.

Igniting Desire:  We long for a different kind of world, a world of love, justice and peace.