Today is January 22nd<\/sup> and we are just about three weeks into 2017. Did you make any resolutions this year? If you did, how are they holding up?<\/p>\n\n\n\n New Year\u2019s resolutions can be big or small. Do any of these sound familiar?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Making a New Year\u2019s resolution is a kind of repentance. We make New Year\u2019s resolutions because we recognize our ongoing need for conversion to the new life of God\u2019s Kingdom. We know that we aren\u2019t living up to the full potential God is calling us to. We are sorry for falling short, and we promise to do better in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that three weeks have passed, we may already have to repent for not living up to the resolutions we made. But that\u2019s okay: God always accepts our repentance. As long as we continue to turn toward God, God will be there to welcome us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s more to repentance than personal conversion, however. Being sorry and promising to be better is part of it, but it isn\u2019t the whole picture. In fact, the \u201cbeing sorry\u201d part of repentance really isn\u2019t going to help you change your ways until you get an idea of what that the bigger picture is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s consider the word in the Gospel that is translated \u201crepent.\u201d The Greek word Jesus uses is \u201cmetanoia\u201d (met-an\u2019-oy-ah<\/em>). \u201cMeta\u201d is a preposition that can be translated many different ways, but usually it means \u201cafter.\u201d \u201cNoia\u201d is a verb and means \u201cto think,\u201d \u201cto perceive.\u201d Put them together and you have something like, \u201cto think after,\u201d \u201cto see after.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But\u2014after what? The interesting thing about this word\u2014about repentance\u2014is that the word itself implies a two-way street. Repentance isn\u2019t just something we do to or for God. We aren\u2019t able to do it\u2014to repent\u2014until after<\/em> God comes to us and opens our eyes and enables our response. Only then are we able \u201cto think after.\u201d Perhaps the English phrase that catches the meaning best is \u201cto think again.\u201d God enables us to think again about our actions, to think better about them, and to change our ways going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Gospel of Matthew today, Jesus announces the beginning of his ministry with the words, \u201cRepent! For the Kingdom of heaven has come near.\u201d Or as we might translate it: \u201cThink again! God\u2019s Kingdom is almost here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This declaration is the starting point for all of Jesus\u2019 teaching. Everything that comes after grows out of his idea that God\u2019s Kingdom is coming to displace the Kingdoms of the world that have perpetuated injustice and impoverished God\u2019s people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus comes out of the wilderness proclaiming this message, but we aren\u2019t really told to whom. The assumption that most people make is that repentance is primarily a personal matter: I had better repent of my own personal sin. And of course, we had better\u2014 we are all better off when we do repent. But in this passage, \u201crepentance\u201d is not the message Jesus brings to individuals. Individuals like Peter and Andrew and James and John (and perhaps, you and me) get a different message: \u201cFollow me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So then, who is the recipient of the \u201crepent\u201d message? Think again\u2014the kingdom of heaven has come near! There is a challenge in this pronouncement. Who is Jesus really telling to step aside? It isn\u2019t the common people, like Peter and John, the people down on the ground. The coming of God\u2019s Kingdom is good news for the poor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The person who\u2019s got to be worried if a new king shows up is the old king. In this case it was Caesar, the Emperor of Rome, and all of Caesar\u2019s client kings and subordinate rulers and hangers-on who benefited from his reign. Now why would Caesar need to think again?<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a good question, and its answer is tied to another question you may be asking: why exactly were Peter and Andrew and John and the others so eager to quit fishing for fish and start fishing for people? It seems remarkable how quickly they respond to Jesus\u2019 invitation. \u201cFollow me,\u201d Jesus says, and Matthew tells us, \u201cimmediately they left their nets and followed him.\u201d They give up their livelihoods without a second thought to follow an itinerant preacher around the Galilean countryside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This response is remarkable, but maybe not as remarkable as it seems. For us, of course, if we think of fishing at all, we are much more likely to think of a sunny mountain stream or a lazy afternoon on a boat. But Peter and Andrew and John weren\u2019t fishing for sport\u2014they were fishing to survive. They were merely cogs in the economy of the Roman Empire. In fact, fishermen were so heavily taxed for the right to fish the sea of Galilee that their backbreaking labor netted them just enough to survive, but little else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can begin to see why Jesus was put to death by the Roman authorities as a political revolutionary: the first act of his ministry was to tell the Emperor to \u201cthink again,\u201d and in the next moment, to liberate some of the cogs in the Emperor\u2019s great machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Roman Empire seems long ago and far away\u2014something fantastical and unreal that we know only from television and movies. The real Roman Empire wasn\u2019t a good place to be a peasant. By Jesus\u2019 time it was a totalitarian domination system. Which we like to think has nothing to do with us, safe in our modern western democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nevertheless, the picture God is trying to reveal to us through these stories from long ago\u2014part of the thing that will help us \u201cthink again\u201d and maybe alter our course\u2014is that concentrated wealth and power still tend to be bad news for those at the bottom of the economic system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are still powers and rulers in our world today, in government or in business, who abuse their position to benefit themselves and their friends, to the detriment of the vast majority of God\u2019s people. How are we to resist these powers? Especially when most of us benefit in some way because the system is set up the way it is. Can we build a world where resources are shared and not hoarded? Where God\u2019s love and God\u2019s justice rule? Where Jesus\u2019 vision of the Kingdom of heaven becomes a reality?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus is calling us to join in this work. His invitation today is: Follow me. It is up to us to build God\u2019s Kingdom, and Jesus tells us that we can. When we repent. When we think again. Every time we open our hands and hearts to share God\u2019s abundance with those in need brings God\u2019s Kingdom closer. Every time we pray the Lord\u2019s Prayer, we ask for it\u2014your Kingdom come on earth, as in heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This sermon was written by the Rev. Jason Cox<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Today is January 22nd and we are just about three weeks into 2017. Did you make any resolutions this year? If you did, how are they holding up? New Year\u2019s resolutions can be big or small. Do any of these sound familiar? Making a New Year\u2019s resolution is a kind of repentance. 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