A sermon delivered by Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min., on January 21, 2024

We are beginning to wade into the Gospel of Mark for a season and before beginning, I want to give it some context. Mark is one of the earliest Gospel accounts there is and is often thought to be the foundation for Matthew and Luke. It’s the shortest of the four gospel accounts and it moves along at a very fast pace. Mark was a good editor and uses an economy of words to tell the Story. Mark the author was also a good writer and uses the basics of good storytelling to tell his Story. If you are one of those who say, “I really don’t know the Bible too well,” and want a way to start reading it for the new year, I offer Mark as a great place to begin.

Turn in scripture to Mark 1:14-20. In the first thirteen verses of his Story, Jesus and his cousin John have been introduced and then Jesus was baptized. In the seven verses for today, we begin to hear the definition of the Gospel, i.e., good news, and who some of the main characters are in Jesus’ ministry. Hear the Word of the Lord.

Mark 1:14-20

¹⁴Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, ¹⁵and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” ¹⁶As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. ¹⁷And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” ¹⁸And immediately they left their nets and followed him. ¹⁹As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. ²⁰Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.[1]

There are so many different trails we could take in unpacking our few verses this morning – what’s it mean to be called, what is required to follow Jesus, what’s it mean to be fishers of people — this text is packed with things to talk about. This morning, I want us to focus on verses 14 and 15 which provides the reason why the four fishermen dropped their nets and followed Jesus in the first place. These two verses provide us the definition of what the gospel really is and then clarifies what it means to embrace it.

The first thing we note is that the good news Jesus was proclaiming was bad news for some others. The Story’s tone strikes an ominous note as it begins, “After John was arrested.” John the Baptizer was setting the stage for Jesus to introduce the coming reign of God and already his words were causing a kerfuffle and rankled the establishment. With just four words, “After John was arrested,” Mark is letting the reader know up front that this Jesus is going to ruffle feathers and stir things up. He’s giving us a hint of things to come. As we define what the gospel is, we note the good news is that God’s way of doing things and living is close at hand, but God’s proximity is going to make some people uncomfortable. So as we define what the gospel is, we learn that the good news creates change because God has come near. God’s presence is close at hand!

Don’t you find it ironic that creating a shift from what’s perceived as normal causes conflict? This is what change does and one of the most profound places where change is resisted is in the church itself! In business, in education, in medicine, change and adaptation is necessary for growth to occur but when you talk of change or adaptation in the church context, “Whoa! Back that truck up! We’ve never done it that way before! We can’t change or adapt because…Mrs. Prettypenny donated that and we can’t move it.” Lawd. Friends, good news creates shifts and causes one to reevaluate what they think is important.

The four fishermen dropped their nets and followed Jesus because his good news that God is at hand made them want to do things differently. “I don’t know what this fishing for people is all about but let’s go find out!” The gospel, the good news, is that God is nearby. We learn God’s proximity makes some people excited and some others anxious and troubled, hence John is in jail. The ripple effects of God’s presence creates change and movement so what is the specific movement Jesus is calling for?

Before I get to that, I simply want to say pastors and preachers in this country have done a poor job outlining the two needed movements we are to make now that the presence of God is close at hand. I want us to see if we can reframe and reclaim the intent Jesus was really getting at when he speaks about these two following items.

First, Jesus is calling us to repent. We hear the word repent and our minds go to shouting preachers and organists playing Just as I Am a hundred times until someone can’t stand it anymore and walks down the aisle! We hear the word repent and we take as an indictment of who we are and of what we have done or didn’t do. Like Pavlov’s dogs, we hear ‘repent’ and we immediately feel this need to grovel. Let’s take a moment and reframe what repent really means.

In its original language, repent means to turn around, to think differently, to reconsider a position, or to amend one’s view of a situation. Nowhere does it imply groveling in unworthiness like Smeagol in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Jesus’ call to repent is an invitation to stop and look at life, people, the world, things around us, in a new way from a new perspective. It’s an invitation for us to make adjustments, amendments to the way we live so we can best take advantage of our new way of seeing. And once again, what are we to see? God’s presence nearby. Repenting is like changing seats at a ballgame so you can better see the action; in this case, we are adjusting ourselves from an old vantage point and way of seeing and are changing our seats to see God, others, and the world from a different perspective. Let’s reframe repentance in this way. There’s no groveling as seen from this perspective; rather, repentance spurs excitement because we will encounter God and life in totally new and fresh ways.

But Jesus isn’t just calling us to change our point of view, he is calling us to believe and act like God and in such a way that the world is living as though the reign of God was close at hand. Sadly, we have done to the word ‘believe’ what we have done to the word repentance – we have narrowed its meaning.

For many Western Christians, we hold to the notion that to believe something means that we mentally assent to its truth.[2] In the early church, they understood belief in four different ways and assenting to a propositional truth is only one of them. To believe in God, in Jesus, was a matter of the head and intellect. One either agrees to the proposition that Jesus is the Son of God or disagrees that he is. Modern Christianity has boiled it down to you either assent to the Jesus Story or you are a dissenter of the Jesus Story. We have made it all black and white, this or that. Thank God there are three other ancient understandings of what belief is for us to embrace.[3]

The second understanding of belief is known as fiducia, that is the word we get our word fiduciary, trust. Faith and belief is understood as a radical trust in the nearby Presence of God and that regardless of the world throws at you, God has got you firmly in God’s grasp. As the late theologian, Marcus Borg notes, the opposite of trust is not disbelief but is mistrust. Trust and mistrust are heart issues, not head ones.

The third understanding of belief is fidelitas, or fidelity. Belief is an unwavering faithfulness, an unwavering fidelity to centering our life around God and God’s nearby presence. The opposite of having fidelity and faithfulness to God is what? Infidelity. In other words, it’s called adultery because we are committing ourselves to something other than the Lord.

The fourth and final way of believing in the ancient church was visio, Latin for ‘vision.’ In this instance, believing is determined by how we see the world and how we see God. Do we see them as hostile and threatening or do we see God and life as full or hopefulness, beauty, and grace? Second, do we look at the world with indifference or with the eyes that the world is redeemable and demands we take care of it and one another. As Borg writes, “How we see reality matters, for how we see “what is” profoundly affects how we experience and live our lives” in response to it.[4]

So, Church, the gospel, the good news is that God is Present where we are. That Presence will make some folks very happy and make others very uncomfortable and Jesus reminds us we are to respond to that Presence with repentance and belief. As we have learned this morning, repentance and belief are so much richer than the church has made them to be. So, I leave you with these questions to chew on while you’re eating Sunday dinner.

Identify what you’re turning from as you re-turn towards God and is there a cost for doing so? If it’s gospel, it will cost you something.

When you say you believe in God, what do you really mean by that? Is it mostly from the head as belief or disbelief or is it from the heart, as trust or mistrust, fidelity or infidelity, or do you see the world hopefully or woefully?

In the Name of the One who is, was, and is to come. So be it. Pray with me.

© 2024 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, 8 West Notre Dame Street, Glens Falls, NY 12801 and may not be reproduced or repurposed without permission from the author. All rights reserved.

[1] New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. See http://nrsvbibles.org.

[2] In Latin, this is assensus.

[3] Marcus Borg, The Heart of Christianity. Rediscovering a Life of Faith (New York: HaperCollins Publishers, 2004), see Chapter Three: The Way of the Heart.

[4] Ibid., 36.