In three of the four gospels, Jesus begins his ministry saying the same thing, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Now, I bet if I were to ask you to define the word repent, I guess many of you would say it means - getting rid of your sins, or being more moral, stop doing bad things. For most of my life, repent was a scary word - fraught with shame and guilt and fear. It’s not our fault. Most of us were taught this at a very early age.
 
The problem began way back when the Greek Bible was translated into Latin.
 
St. Jerome translated the Greek word “Metanoia” as “due penance” which eventually evolved into the word repent. But is that what Jesus intended? I’m not a Greek scholar, but if we were to parse metanoia, we’d learn “meta” means “to go beyond” and “noia” means “mind.” 

The most literal way to translate this specific word Jesus uses would be to say “to go beyond your mind.” Which I have translated it as, “change your mind.”
 
Instead of creating a fear-based action, Jesus begins by offering us invitations to transform ourselves to move beyond our limited thinking into something bigger and greater than ourselves…the Kingdom of Heaven.

This is more than simply saying stop sinning. Instead, Jesus is saying put your focus where it ought to be so sinning is no longer a part of the equation.
 
Jesus knows if you can go beyond yourself, to make it about God and not you, then not only will you be transformed but you will also participate in the transformation of others as well.

Which takes us to the second part of this reading, back to Andrew and Simon - the two brothers we met last week.

According to John’s gospel, the two first met Jesus by following after him. But here in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus comes to them. The men aren’t there to learn from John the Baptist, like we read last week. They are there to work, to fish. That’s what they do. They’re fishermen, like James and John and their father Zebedee, and all the others who are there hurling their nets into the sea.
 
Fishing is something these guys are familiar with, something they could probably do with their eyes closed. That’s not to say casting a net doesn’t take a certain skillset.

As a kid, I used to fish this way with friends. But our nets were single user for smaller catches. Their nets were large and required the hands of many to work right. It was like a rhythmic group dance. Once you got the hang of it, once everyone synced to that rhythm, the rest was pretty much routine. And leave it up to Jesus to interrupt their routine.

He stands at the water’s edge and calls out to these guys in a way that might sound more like a joke than anything else. “Come with me, and I will make you a new kind of fisherman. I will show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.” (The Message)
 
I think most of us would have ignored this crazy call; pretending to be too busy with work to take him up on this job offer. But these four of those fishermen don’t. There’s something about Jesus that causes them to change their minds. As a result, Jesus will forever change the direction of their lives.
 
Where traditional rabbis would sit around waiting for disciples to come to them, Rabbi Jesus goes out and finds his own. He sets his mind not on himself but on what God has called him to do - to go out into the world and usher in the kingdom of heaven.

And where the other rabbis would pick from the brightest students at rabbinical school, Jesus goes to the docks, into everyday spaces, and selects ordinary people like you and me.
 
I have no idea what made Jesus choose these four. Or what made them drop their nets and take this giant leap of faith. If my own experience means anything, there’s a great chance these guys were not ready or equipped for what Jesus was about to ask of them.

The truth is, none of us are ready. That’s okay. Jesus does not stand on the shoreline collecting resumes or inquiring about their skillsets. He’s not walking the docks checking references, “because their personal history and qualifications don’t have the last word about their future.” He does. (Hoffacker)
 
All that we are asked to do at this point is to change the way think by taking the focus off ourselves, off our worries and our fears, and set our gaze on the One who calls out to us.

Jesus is the One who ushers in the kingdom of heaven. He is the One who invites us to participate. And he is the One who shows us what to do. It begins by simply follow him. Seeing what he does and going out to do just that.
 
We don’t have to be the biggest, the brightest, or even the bravest. As we will see unfold in their early ministry, these brothers rarely get it right. Simon, who will become Peter, has a quick temper and will go on to betray Jesus.

James and John are constantly conniving their way to the top despite Jesus repeatedly telling them that the kingdom way is not upward mobility, it’s downward. We don’t hear much more about Andrew after this. Maybe because he played it safe.

Despite of their faults, Jesus invites them to become partners in his ministry. This tells me that we’re good enough to be in partnership with Christ who opens our eyes to see the Kingdom of Heaven all around us. (Hoffacker)
 
When Christ opens our eyes, our hearts and minds will be forever changed, made anew to be like his.
 
When we have the mind of Christ, we can’t help but love God, love others, and serve both.
 
When we have the mind of Christ, we can’t help but be moved to make real changes and real differences in our lives and in the lives of others.
 
When we have the mind of Christ, we can’t help but open our hands like he did - healing and transforming people and communities.

​When we think, and see, and feel, and love like Christ, we begin to understand why God has invited us to participate in this kingdom today.
 
These four fishermen, and eight others, will walk away from family, friends and careers to be a part of this kingdom. By simply being with and around Jesus, they would come to discover this great truth: that God is love.
 
Jesus calls us to follow him; to embrace and live out this love in all that we do. In accepting his invitation, we agree to love what God loves by being the light, the leaven, the salt, the small mustard seed of love.
 
In Christ, like Richard Rohr writes, “God is changing the world. But to get everyone and everything there, God needs people who are willing to enter this kingdom and transform it into “life and life more abundantly” (John 10:10).
 
Who among us will drop our nets, stop what we’re doing, to follow him there?
 
​
 
WORK CITED
Hoffacker, Charles. The Bible is Full of Beginnings. January 27, 2008 (accessed on January 19, 2023).
Rohr, Richard. The Mind Does Not Like To Change. January 25, 2020  (accessed on January 19, 2023).

In the summer of 1979, I got hired as a dishwasher at an Italian restaurant near my house. My boss, Frank, was a tough and intimidating man. He was raised on the streets of the South Bronx during a time when being a hoodlum was considered a vocation.
 
Set aside Evel Knievel and the Bionic Man, Frank was probably the first male figure I looked up to. He was certainly not the kind of teacher parents would want their children to have. In the five years I worked for him, I learned how to cuss more colorfully, how to think more dangerously, and how to survive on the streets more skillfully.

Without even realizing it, Frank had made an indelible mark on my life. So much so that when I went off to college people would ask what part of New York I was from. (Note: I'm from the South)
 
Here’s the thing, just as Frank taught me, someone taught Frank. We are all students. And we’re all teachers, absorbing and passing on the things we’ve learned whether we know it or not. In our reading from the gospel today, we see how this kind of teaching works. Read John 1:29-42 here

Once again the lectionary points us back to John the Baptist. People were going to the wilderness in droves to see what he’s all about. In the midst of the dunking and shouting, Jesus walks by. John points to him and yells, “There’s the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
 
By his testimony we learn Jesus is the Son of God. He is the one to bring true restoration between God and creation. We might not have learned that had John not pointed it out to us. John is only teaching what God has made known to him.

God tells John and John tells us. This is how teaching works. Knowledge moves from the teacher to the student who will go on to become teachers who will go on to testify to what they know.
 
Now, as some of John’s students will learn, Jesus has more to offer than mere knowledge. This Lamb of God offers us true redemption. Which brings us back into the center of God’s heart.

Andrew learns this first hand when Jesus invites him to come and see for himself.

This means we are a part of this great story. Which means at some point we must move from student to teacher; embracing and proclaiming God’s redemptive grace with our words and deeds.

Gerald Collins invites us to consider what might happen to the church if no one testified. "Would it become like the proverbial falling tree in the woods with no one to hear it fall?"

Jesus knew if we don’t continue what he started then people might never know the unconditional, steadfast love of God, which made us and claimed us as God’s own beloved children.

Josh Bowron reminds us that “The gospel requires people to proclaim and live it. If we don’t, society and culture will just swallow it up, because as we know, nature abhors a vacuum.If we don’t proclaim that God is love and, through Jesus Christ, has broken every bond and boundary and empowered us to do the same, culture will come in and teach us how to get and get and get, and how to use people as things.” 

watch the message here

Jesus made if very clear that we are not called to be mere practitioners of our faith. We are to be ministers and teachers of it as well. Jesus knows that whenever we teach and testify to God’s glorious truth like John and Andrew did “the Holy Spirit brings light to where darkness has settled, love on the road where hate once traveled, and hope to the house where hopelessness once dwelled.” (Collins)
 
We are called to both learn and teach the Word because the Word alive in us. It’s a part of who we are. And what it means for us to love God, love others and serve both.

We can’t lose sight of this - as individuals and as a church - because people are watching and listening to what we do and say. They are learning about God from us whether we know it or not.
 
So, what are they learning from us? Better yet, what are we teaching? Are the things we say testifying truthfully to an all loving and all inclusive God? Or do they say something else?

​What about the things we do? Are they hospitable, kind, healing and life giving? Do they lift people up or knock them down?
 
Jesus has entrusted us with his ministry, and his message. He tells us things like what comes out of our mouth matters more than what goes into it because our words come from our heart. The things we do, or don’t do, matter because those actions also begin in our heart. The heart is where God finds our truth because it’s in our heart where God has chosen to dwell in us.
 
Diana Butler Bass writes, “Jesus invite his followers to come and dwell in him, even as he dwells in God. And as God has been made known through the works of love Jesus has done, so Jesus will continue to be known through the works of love the disciples will do.”
 
Just as God’s heart is given to Christ. Through Christ, God shares with us. Now it’s our turn.
 
So how can we live God’s heart, like Christ did, so others will want to come and see and know more? You could start with a smile. Or allow someone to go ahead of you in line.
 
You could do a random act of kindness without expecting any recognition in return. You can begin by being present – listening instead of reacting. Or letting go of your ego and pride to lift up someone else’s self-worth.
 
You can start big or small. It doesn’t matter. Just start. The world is hurting and hungry for what we can offer as the Body of Christ.
 
St. Teresa of Avila said it best when she taught, “Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which to look out Christ’s compassion to the world; yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good; yours are the hands with which he is to bless others now.”
 
We are more than just people who show up for church to learn a nice lesson on how to live life. We are God’s beloved children called to teach God’s glory in all that we do. There will be some people who won’t understand why you are flashing your lights at them or why you’re all of a sudden being kind when they don’t deserve it.
 
Every time you respond to a rude gesture with love, that is a teaching moment. One’s willingness to show Christlike love to someone who doesn’t deserve it, or to someone who desperately needs it, can make all the difference in the world to that person and to the community of Christ in general.

The world is watching us. But will they want to join us?
 
While Jesus invited Andrew to come and see, I hope this message encourages you to go and be. Go and be a living testimony to God’s glory in your life.
 
Go and be “like John, like Andrew, like the uncountable cloud of witnesses to God’s gospel of love, justice, peace, and presence.”
 
Go and be like Dr. King who took the Word of God to heart and understood its value to making the world a more just and equitable place.
 
Go and be who God made you to be - blessed and beloved - like Christ, the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world. Amen.
 
 
 
 
 
Work Cited.
Adapted from Ian Macdonald's sermon Teaching The Word. January 19, 2020.
Bartlett, David L and Barbara Brown Taylor, eds. Feasting on the Word, Year A Vol 1. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2010) p.260.
Bowron, Josh. Testimony.   January 12, 2020 (accessed 01/16/2020).
Butler Bass, Diana. Freeing Jesus. Rediscovering Jesus as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence. (New York: HarperOne, 2021).
Collins, Gerald. A Witness To The Lamb of God. January 20, 2002 (Accessed on January 11, 2023)

For some reason we get this baptism story numerous times in the church calendar. But it’s only during Epiphany that I wonder why it took God so long to reveal this information about Jesus. I mean, given the historical data, many scholars believe this event took about 30 years after Jesus was born. So what happened in between? Why did God make us wait?

The gospel of Luke gives us a birth story and one quick glance of a precocious 12 year old holding an intense Q&A session with the Rabbis in the Temple. But that’s it. And Matthew skips over the birth to talk about some Magi coming to visit baby Jesus a year or two later.

There are no stories about Jesus having weird emotional mood swings during puberty. Or him dealing with pimples and peer pressure.

Nothing about Jesus’ parents totally embarrassing him. Or him trying to find the words to ask someone on a date. None of the gospels write about Jesus sulking in his bedroom wishing that “someone would just understand him.” And that’s probably a good thing. I think if we knew those stories, Jesus might come off as a little too human for our comfort.

But he was human. And yet he was more than just a man. As he will discover, Jesus is also the manifestation of God’s love in the flesh. He would spend his short life revealing to himself, his community, and to us what that would entail.

In his book “Lamb. The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal” author Christopher Moore offers us a great, satirical look at our young, recently bar-mitzvah Messiah. Part of the story focuses on him going on a spiritual quest to find out who he is, and his purpose in life.

Not long into their journey, the two pals come across his crazy cousin John, who is screaming wildly into the heavens while drowning people in the river. The boys try to avoid him but can’t. Before he could resist, John grabs his cousin and pushes him underwater.

While he’s fighting for air, the heaven open and God reveals these divine words to the world. “This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased.”

​When the young boy comes up from under the water, everyone is starring at him, but no one will tell him why. He has to continue his mission in order to find out who he is, and who God made him to be.

Although it’s satire, it does remind us that Jesus is like us. Which means we can be like him. Which means on any given day, God can tear open the heavens and reveal to the world who we really are: Beloved children. In whom, God is well pleased.

watch the message here

We don’t know what Jesus did up to this point to earn that title. I mean, what does one have to do for God to say this about you? Or does it take anything? Maybe we’re born beloved. And we just need to go out into the world to discover this truth for ourselves.

Many years ago, my father and I were hiking in the Hollywood Hills. He had come out to visit with me because my personal life was falling apart. It was on that walk my father confessed he didn’t know how to help me because he had never experienced the dark pain of divorce. “But” he said, “you are my son, and I will stand by you no matter what.”

His willingness to join me in my pain, change the course of our relationship forever. Here I was lost in a wilderness of despair. The Hollywood Hills was my Jordan River. The tears that flowed down my face were the waters of my baptism. And my father’s words echoed over the canyon, "You are my beloved." I didn’t do anything to deserve it. Talk about an epiphany!

Charles Hoffacker writes, “On this special day of epiphany, we remember how Jesus declared solidarity with our sin and suffering by accepting baptism at the hands of John—not because he needed it, but because we needed him to be baptized for us...This baptism is a manifestation, not only of Christ but of the Trinity. Jesus is there in the river. The Spirit descends on him like a bird. The Father’s voice announces from heaven, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

Perhaps the gospel writers jump over the early years to teach us how it’s not our birth but our baptism that marks the beginning of our awakening.

Or maybe they point us to the river so we’re not fixated on the human side of Jesus, but focused on his divine side, the part of him that draws us back to God’s heart. This is a part of him, that thanks to him, we are able to share with him.

That part is God’s grace and love made manifest to the world. A part that reveals to us that we are God’s beloved.

We don’t earn it, or buy it, or barter for it. It’s just given to us. No matter what! To add to that good news, we don’t have to be perfect to claim it.

In fact, I would argue the less perfect we are the better it is, because it helps us understand and grasp the concept of God’s grace and deep affection for us. 

​This gift frees to become a manifestation of that love, not by living Jesus’ story but by living our own in imitation of him.

Tarfon, a rabbi from a long time ago, makes this same point when he advised, “It is not up to you to complete the task. Nevertheless, you are not free to desist from it.” Because the thing is, God needs you and me, like God needed Jesus. Through us God’s love is made manifest in the world.

Jesus’ baptism is an epiphany moment in that it gives witness to the world that he belongs to God. Like Jesus will later tell his disciples, “They will know you belong to me by the way you love one another" (John 13:35).

​Love is our outward sign of our baptismal promise.

As we continue on our pilgrimage journey may we never forget that by our own baptisms, we too are sealed into the body of Christ, confirming within ourselves who we are called to be - God’s beloved Sons and Daughters.

Each one of us is given the same relationship with the Father that Jesus had. Each of us is given the same power of the Holy Spirit that emboldened Jesus to enter into our pain and enlighten us with truth. Each one of us bears the same responsibility to give of ourselves just as Jesus did.

We each have a different story of the same love and grace we share. So let us out into the world as God’s beloved to continue Jesus’ earthly ministry; longing for the day we can hear our Lord say to us,

"When I was hungry you fed me, when I was thirsty you gave me drink. When I was a stranger you let me in. When I was naked you clothed me. When I was sick you comforted me. And when I was in prison you visited me. For every time you do stuff like this in my name, I am well pleased.”



Work Cited
Adapted from a previous sermon My Father’s Voice Calling Out To Me. January 10, 2016.
Hoffacker, Charles. Johnny Appleseed Christianity. January 2, 2023 (Accessed on 01-05-23).
Willlimon, William. "Preaching Epiphanys." ChristianCentury, January 2014.