Rev. Neale L. Miller

Sermon for March 1, 2009

Texts: Genesis 9:8-17/Mark 1:9-15

Title: “The Time is Fulfilled”

              Imagine a big ship, the wife of an admiral poised, bottle of champagne in hand, to christen the ship before the vessel slides from its berth on land into the sea. The vessel, construction now completed, and a round of inspections to insure her sea-worthiness concluded, it is time that she be launched to take up the work to which she has been appointed.

              The construction of the ship was a venture requiring many, many months of planning and labor, but of the planning and labor that preceded the christening ceremonies, we who have gathered on the dock have no knowledge. What we see is a ship thoroughly outfitted and ready to sail. 

              Our gospel lesson in Mark finds us gathered at the dock there to witness the ministry of Jesus launched. As to his birth and origins Mark leaves us uninformed, for that information we must to turn to other sources, the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John each of whom treated those subjects.

             No, the Gospel of Mark in concentrating on the good news that Jesus brought, for reasons known only to himself, entirely passes over topics non-germane to his topic. In fact, he boldly states his purpose in the very opening lines of his gospel, chapter one, verse one, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

              Yes, indeed, the ship was ready to sail. But first, however, there is an important matter to attend to, the christening.  Oh, yes, the christening.  “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.”  The baptism at John’s hand was the launch point for Jesus’ ministry.

               Jesus was baptized, Mark’s Gospel the only one to treat this decisive prelude to Jesus’ ministry. He was baptized. And what a baptism it was.  Mark tells us that “[Jesus] 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.’” Inasmuch as Mark consistently insists that Jesus’ divine origins were to be concealed until a time of his own choosing, Jesus was the only one to witness the spectacle of the dove and hear the voice from heaven.

                 His baptism was the launch point from which Jesus would go forth to spread the good news God appointed him to carry.  But not so fast, barely did the launch occur when Jesus encountered treacherous seas. Mark reports that “the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.  He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.”

                 Mark’s account of Jesus’ wilderness sojourn lacks the details that Matthew and Luke provide, moving quickly to report that, the wilderness behind him, Jesus was back in Galilee actually doing the work to which he had been called.  “[He was] proclaiming the good news of God.” 

                And what form did that good news take? Mark summarizes the good news Jesus brought this way, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

                Jesus might well have left himself open to charges that he had merely appropriated the message of John the Baptist.  Hadn’t John, after all, been saying what was in effect the same thing? Fact of the matter, John knew that his activity, his preaching and baptizing, were merely preparing the way for one who would complete his work.  To those whom he baptized he declared, “I have baptized you with water; but he [referring to Jesus] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

                Baptism was Jesus’ launch point, and an impressive launch it was. But almost immediately there was trouble. His sails did not catch the wind, but instead he found himself in an eddy where he was tormented. The torment would be of a fixed duration, forty days, Mark tells us, but that season of torment will turn out to be merely a portent of other torment to be endured as those offended by his words and deeds schemed to silence him. 

               Into the teeth of opposition, both the covert and the overt, Jesus introduced his message, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the good news.” “There is something you must account for that must not be ignored.” Those with eyes to see and ears to hear recognized that it was the speaker himself, Jesus, who was responsible for bringing time to fulfillment. It was those who had eyes to see and ears to hear who understood the implications of his message, understood and acted upon his summons to repent, who understood what it meant to live in fulfilled time.

                “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near.” For those who wanted to believe that Jesus was God’s chosen ambassador to bring God’s plan for the world to fulfillment it had to be discouraging to watch as Jesus’ message was so callously disregarded by many, particularly the spiritual leaders in the synagogue. How difficult it is for us living today to accept the notion that we are living in the fulfilled time Jesus announced, when some new outrage seems to assault us on a daily basis.

                  You and I make our confession each week that Jesus is Lord, that his coming to earth was the decisive turning point in human history.  But, friends, Jesus did not demonstrate that time was fulfilled on his own.  He did not demonstrate that the kingdom of God had come near on his own. He mobilized people to help him. Jesus came preaching good news.  He came teaching. He came healing.  And through those means he won converts who believed that a new epoch had opened.

                 Others before him and after him would bring their own versions of good news, but none so convincingly as Jesus. Time and time again the gospels declare that it was his authority that set him apart.  He possessed an authority unmatched by other claimants.

                  “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near.”  It was an audacious claim to make, alright. It was an outrageous claim to make, except that Jesus possessed the authority to back it up. And where did that authority lead?  It led to changed lives.  It led to repentance.   

                  The world into which Jesus brought his good news would never have changed if people didn’t change.  Eloquence and delivery cannot effect change on their own. Eloquence and delivery must serve ends greater than mere rhetoric if they are to motivate and inspire. Jesus motivated and inspired people to a wholly new way of thinking and acting. He was able to convince an ever expanding circle of people that the world, starting in that small portion of the world they inhabited, had been established on a new trajectory, this despite the fact that so much in the world seemed to function heedless of any divine guidance.

                    Time as it is spoken about by Jesus is fulfilled only insofar as people like us come to believe it is fulfilled. The time is fulfilled only insofar as people like us are willing to do what fulfillment requires.

                      Fulfilled time. There exists in our nation a widely shared, and bipartisan, conviction that we have arrived at a defining moment in our nation’s history. You might say that the nation now recognizes that the time is fulfilled on issues that threaten our nation’s wellbeing. The economic crisis which we are suffering a crisis, as you know, that is now global in dimension, has forced us to question long-standing assumptions we have maintained about quality of life issues.  Many of us who have never given thought to our ability to hold a job, own a home, enjoy affordable health care, and retire with dignity have been forced to revise our assumptions. The time is fulfilled.  There are realities to account for that must not be ignored.

                     Anxiety levels across the nation high, arrangements were made for our President to address a joint gathering of the Senate and the House. I need not go into particulars, for many of you tuned in to hear the address, but what I heard was a grave assessment of the health of our financial institutions, the necessity to reduce our national deficit, and the need to stimulate economic growth.

                    You will recall that the President identified three areas for emphasis in restoring our economy and country to health: energy conservation, good schools, and affordable health care. For how many years now have we heard that we must wean ourselves from foreign oil, improve the quality of our schools, and insure that all citizens in the land enjoy affordable care?

                   The principle remains as true today as it did in the day of Jesus. Time as it is spoken about by Jesus is fulfilled only insofar as people like us come to believe it is fulfilled. The time is fulfilled only insofar as people like us are willing to do what fulfillment requires.       

                  Is “time fulfilled” on the agendas we have consistently put off for years on end? Has the financial crisis stripped us of the illusions that we can live beyond our means? Are we willing to make the sacrifices necessary to reduce our dependence on foreign oil?  Will we do what is necessary to remake our school system in such a way that retention rates increase, and that more children receive a quality education?  Will we at last do something to make health care affordable for all our citizens?

                We may deem ourselves bystanders without a voice on the issues that confront our nation, many of us do. But what I heard the other night was the announcement that the “time is fulfilled,” in regard to many of the basic assumptions many of us have maintained for decades. Again the question, “how will we respond to challenges the times present?”

                The Gospel of Mark opens with Jesus poised to proclaim the good news that God placed on his lips. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the good news.” But how would the people respond?

Fulfillment as Jesus speaks about it is not up to him alone.  To enjoy the fulfillment he talks about requires action on our part, it requires a willingness to see reality for what it is.  It requires repentance. There are places in each of our lives where we maintain obstacles to Jesus’ message.  Jesus declared, “the time is fulfilled.” He inspired others to follow him, learn from him, and do the things that fulfillment requires. 

                  He charged his followers, as he charges us, to repent, to undertake a process of self-examination where we identify those places in our lives where we are not allowing his values to take root and grow.  He addresses us both as spiritual beings, but also as citizens challenged by a substantial economic crisis. His coming brought new things, but also demanded that his followers part company with old things.  The same holds today.   

                 It all started for Jesus at baptism where he received his call to go forth and recreate the world.  Likewise it started for us with baptism. God anointed us in that act with a blessing to stand with us forever.  Our lives, like Jesus have found the wilderness, where we, like him, have fought, and are fighting the demons. But it just so happens that there is a clearing beyond every wilderness, be it one we confront alone or one we confront collectively as a nation, and it is to that clearing that Jesus beckons us.  “Give your back to the wilderness, [Jesus declares] and come to me.  In changing the way you think and live you can help me fulfill the vision that still awaits its time, God’s kingdom fully formed on earth.”  AMEN.

             PRAYER

             O God, whose name forms on our lips in holy reverence, but also in consternation and frustration, we are the children you have given life, but we very often surrender ourselves to projects and ambitions that are self-destructive. We mark this first Sunday in Lent as an occasion to freely place the brokenness of our lives on display.  We have sinned, and we are ashamed as we confess our sins, yet time and time again we have demonstrated that we are unwilling to challenge the power sin wields over our lives. In your mercy empower us to do that which we have been found so incapable of doing on our own. Grant us the will to change, to dismiss from our lives all those inclinations of mind and heart that keep us separated from you.

                You announced, O Christ, that “the time is fulfilled.” “The time is fulfilled. No need to live in bondage.”  “The time is fulfilled.  Together we can make a new world.”  “The time is fulfilled.  You will have peace in your soul.” 

                 You came announcing that “the time is fulfilled,” and you built your church from people who believed you. We lift up the saints of past generations, O Lord, whose love for you and dedication to you, is responsible for us being here today. We praise you for all our contemporaries today whose love for you is expressed by modeling your love and grace to the world. May all who are touched by their ministries be inspired to follow their example.

                 O God, we live fearing the unknown as a financial crisis with rare precedents continues to consume jobs, savings, and hope itself. Even as we worship in this sanctuary this morning women and men skilled in the fields of finance and economics are gathering in Washington and the capitals of the world to develop strategies that will help the economies of the world regain their footing.  Grant them wisdom as they proceed.

                Abide, O Lord, with those who face economic adversity, the unemployed or underemployed who struggle to make ends meet. Strengthen those whose lives are unraveling emotionally, who have been subjected to stress beyond their capacity to respond. We pray for those who have seen relationships fray as a result of stress, and all those who are weathering this crisis with no support system to sustain them.

                We pray for all those who live in peril today, even as we ask your blessing on those who serve in our military forces posted around the world. Protect those who have sworn an oath to protect us.  May the day soon arrive when we can recall our troops from the battlefields.

                 We continue to pray for our President, his advisors, and our nation’s lawmakers.  Elected by us to serve, may they honorably fulfill their vocations in the best traditions of the statesmen and women who have preceded them.  May their desire for personal financial gain or their commitment to partisanship values not compromise the decisions they are called upon to make.

Continue, O God, to nurture your church through the inspiration of your Holy Spirit. May the leadership of this church lead by the means all faithful leaders have always led, by a daily commitment to bring our lives under the authority of Jesus our savior.

               Light of the world, shine light on this assembly that in united purpose we may fulfill the vocation to which we have been appointed. As a community of faith seeking understanding, O God, we bring these special petitions….