Repent!

To repent means to change. Radical change from the inside out. It means reordering inner thoughts, beliefs, and mindsets so that outward lifestyle is likewise radically changed. When genuine repentance occurs one’s life is forever different.

I think repentance begins with deep searching and calling out to God. The psalmist cried,

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting (Psalm 139:23-24).

Repentance also requires the willingness to set aside anything counterproductive to following Jesus and entering his kingdom. It means allowing Jesus the freedom to take us on the frightening journey of change and transformation, where old thoughts, ways, and associations are replaced with new. Transformed, as Paul put it, by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2).

Jesus began his itinerant ministry, as John had, calling people to “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” This became the underlying theme of everything he said and did. The kingdom requires thinking and living a different way.

The transformation Jesus has in mind does not come about over night. Jesus implemented a system of disciple-making whereby he invited a small group of men to join him in his travels and his life. This was common among Jews in Jesus’ time, where a rabbi would enroll a small number of men, usually no more than twelve, to live and study with him. Would-be disciples would make application to be included in the group, and the rabbi would approve or decline as he desired.

I’m quite certain the likes of Jesus’ first recruits would not have made the cut for most rabbis. These hearty fishermen, in their late teens or early twenties, were blue collar ruffians who made a good living by fishing in the sea of Galilee and selling their catch (tilapia, mostly) to the Romans to export to to other regions of the empire. They braved the unpredictable and sometimes fierce weather of the lake in rickety boats to troll every night for fish. Often they faced death in unexpected violent storms. A tough lot, they were backward in manners and coarse in speech. Hardly the kind to be accepted by a rabbi.

But Jesus recruited unlikely disciples. Passing by Andrew and Peter Jesus invited them to join him in learning how to make fishers of men. They abandoned their boats to tag along. He then approached cousins James and John, mending nets with their father Zebedee, asking them also to join. Something profound lured them to make such a huge transformation away from a lucrative fishing business to follow the new rabbi.

You could say the fishermen repented, but not of their crude ways – that came later. They repented by virtue of the fact that they left behind one way of life to enter another, without a clue as to how the rest of their lives would turn out.

When Jesus invites us to follow him he asks us to repent of our lives with a willingness to change everything if necessary. We leave something, sacrifice everything, and expect nothing. It is as Peter later told Jesus, “Lord, we have left all and followed you” (Matthew 19:27).

From the shores of the lake, near Capernaum, Jesus drug his new disciples around Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and disease among the people. He not only talked about the kingdom but demonstrated it to with signs that point to a resurrection to come where all is set right (see Isaiah 65:17-25).

As we await that resurrection we proclaim it, the gospel of the kingdom, with signs that confirm that Jesus is as much real as he ever was, and that he loves the world he came to redeem. One of the first signs is the transformation that comes when we repent, for without the new birth no one can see God (see John 3:1-3).

I believe God has called our embassy to a season of repentance. To seriously rethink our mission and our work. To enter into prayer and inquiry and to invite him to search our hearts and make known to us any thing that displeases him. He is calling us to repent. For only then will we be able to see the kingdom of God move in our midst.

Repent! The kingdom of God is at hand!

Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP)

Matthew 4:12-23 (3 Epiphany A)