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January 23, 2011 Isaiah 9:1-4 Matthew 4:12-23 What Does It Mean to Repent?

Dr. Ted H. Sandberg

Repent, Jesus said, quoting the words of John the Baptist, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has

come near. Repent. Turn from what youve been doing, turn to the kingdom of heaven, the

kingdom of God. Change your ways. Change how youve been thinking. Change how youve beenfeeling. Change what youve been doing. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.

I read recently of a man who changed his ways. In the 80s, he made a rather sudden lurch to the

right. He became interested in Evangelical Christianity. Rumor had it that he was at a fundamentalist

Christian Church on the edge of town. He bragged to someone that he was in a Bible study every

night.

Then came the 90s. He made a trip out to the West Coast. He took two weeks at a retreat with the

theme of Self-Discovery. When he returned, all of his talk was about Astral Projection, out of the

body experiences, and other ideas that someone attributed to his New Age Thinking.

As the century changed into a new millennium, [he turned to the Democratic Party.] People said thathe was planning to run for public office. Other people said that, whether or not he planned to run,

politics had become his new religion. He was totally wrapped up in political matters, out every

night, going from here to there to work for various causes.1

Not all change is good. Not all change means that weve repented, that weve turned from doing our

own thing to doing Gods thing. In part, this is because many times we dont seem to know what

Gods will is, or we mix up our will for Gods will. How many people keep looking for something

that will fill the emptiness they feel? How many seekers are in our society today, looking for God,

searching for God?

Yet I wonder if they arent looking for God in all the wrong places. I wonder about this because its

been my experience that its not up to us to find God, as if God was off hiding somewhere. I dont

believe God plays hide-and-seek with us. I dont believe God is hiding under the bed, or behind the

liquid amber trees, or even in some galaxy far far away. God isnt hiding. God has been and

continually is, reaching out to people. The truth is that God is searching for us. We just dont respond

all that well to God.

This is suggested in todays sermon text. Immediately after Matthew tells us that Jesus message was

a message of repentance, Matthew gives us his account of the calling of the first disciples. As [Jesus]

walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his

brother, casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen. And he said to them, Follow me, and I

will make you fish for people. Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went fromthere, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their

father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their

father, and followed him.

1. Willimon, William H., The Long Search, Pulpit Resource, Vol. 33, No.1; Year A; January, February,March 2005, p. 18.

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Before we continue, let me just note here that Matthews account of the calling of the first disciples is

considerably different from the account in Johns Gospel that we read last Sunday. In John, you

remember, Andrew was one of John the Baptists disciples. The Baptist said when Jesus walked by,

Look, here is the Lamb of God! and Andrew and a second disciple followed Jesus. Andrew then

went to his brother Simon and said, We have found the Messiah. At that point, Andrew took Simon

to Jesus. Jesus looked at Simon and said, You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas(which is translated Peter).

It bothers some that Matthews account of the calling of the disciples doesnt agree with Johns

account. They go to great lengths to harmonize the two versions, doing their best to be rid of the

differences. They feel there must be total agreement between the 4 Gospel accounts.

I simply want to say that I dont feel any great need to make Matthews account agree with Johns, or

vice versa. Ive never read a foolproof way of determining which account is the account thats 100%

historical as we define history. How can we determine if Andrew was called the way Matthew

describes or the way John describes? And if I put the two accounts together so they make logical

sense to us today, theres no guarantee that my version would be accurate. My belief is that both

Matthew and John are using their calls of the disciples to preach to their readers and are moreinterested in getting their point across than they are in giving historical details as we understand

history today. If we spend our time attempting to harmonize the accounts, well be distracted from

hearing what the writers want us to hear.

What is it that Matthew wants us to hear in his account? Its no accident that Matthew first tells us

the theme of Jesus entire ministry, tells us that were to repent because the kingdom of God is near,

and then gives us the call of the disciples telling us what it means to repent. You can say, But

preacher, thats just the way it happened. Maybe. But I dont believe any of the Bible writers tell

their stories without a clear plan of what they want us to understand. When Matthew tells us that

Jesus ministry was one of proclaiming, Repent, for the kingdom of God is near, he wants us tounderstand that the way we are to repent is to answer the call of Jesus to be followers of Jesus, just as

those first fisherman answered the call. They left their nets, left their boats, left their families and

followed Jesus.

Were Andrew and Peter, James and John, seeking something, like the man I shared about earlier?

We dont know. Johns account tells us that at least Andrew had been following John the Baptist, but

Matthew doesnt tell us that. Matthew simply tells us that Jesus called, and those 4 followed. I

assume that Matthew is giving us a much shortened account of what happened in the call of the

disciples, but I dont know that. Jesus called and the disciples answered. They repented.

Oh, you say. I dont think I can leave my home, leave my family, leave my job and follow Jesus

like that. After all, things have changed. Cant I repent at home? Cant I repent without becoming atraveling missionary? The answer, of course, is yes. We dont have to leave our homes, our jobs, our

families, at least not in a literal sense. There are those who are called by God to leave everything and

go. I think of Adoniram and Ann Judson sailing off to India and then on to Burma, leaving everything

and everyone behind. No cell phones to keep in touch. No e-mails to contact loved ones. No jets to

fly home if there was an emergency. Simply mail transported by ship. And they probably thought

they were fortunate to have the mail, because there were others before them who went out from

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Europe who never made contact with home again. Some are called to leave everything.

But for most of us, the call to repentance is only a figurative call to leave everything behind. God

doesnt ask us to literally leave everything and everyone. I do believe, however, that God asks us to

leave family and friends and job and leisure figuratively. At the very least, God asks us to move

obedience to God to the top of our To-Do list and move all the other things in our lives down a

notch. We arent asked to give up our job, but were asked to put our love for God before our love ofmoney. We arent asked to give up our families, but we are asked to love God as we love our family,

even love God more than we love our family. We arent asked to give up our love of our self, but we

are asked to put our love for God before our love of our self as difficult as that is to do. To repent

means to follow the ways of God, rather than our own ways, or the ways of humanity. In all that we

say, and even more, in all that we do, we are to follow Gods ways.

What does this mean? It means that were to be obedient to the prophets of old and to the teaching of

Jesus. Following the prophet Amos, were to let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like

an ever-flowing stream.(Amos 5:24) Were to follow the words of the prophet Malachi: He has

told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love

kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.(Micah 6:8) Were to hear and obey the words of Jesushimself when he said that were to love God and love our neighbor as our self. And were to do this

both individually, and as a society. At least, as individuals were to work to implement these

teachings into our world.

Weve done this by offering our Fellowship Hall to reduce the overflow numbers at the Torres Shelter,

something that could take place as soon as this week. Weve also done it by allowing the Rose Scott

School to use our building. Yes, their use of the building helps us meet our budget, but it helps the

ADHD students even more. Cindy and her teachers do a great job of helping those students. There

are other things we do. We serve at the Torres Shelter as well as providing towels and milk for them.

We collect food for the Salvation Army. We support Catalyst and the Catholic Ladies Relief, and theJesus Center. I know that many of you serve in many different ways in the community.

Its also true that as our congregation ages, we dont have the energy or ability to go out into the

community as perhaps we once did. But that doesnt mean that we cant be obedient and let justice

roll down like waters. Throughout Christian history, Christians have been a people of prayer, a

people who have raised to God concerns for the poor, the homeless, the hungry. No matter our

circumstances, we can raise our concerns for the needs of Chico to God in prayer.

To repent means to turn away from everything else but God, to understand that God loves us so much

that God sent Jesus Christ to earth for us. True repentance is difficult to accomplish therefore, because

we all tend to slip back into the ways of the world. Its difficult, maybe even impossible, not to get

sidetracked from time to time by the lure of a worldly promise of an easier time, for example. And itssometimes difficult to sort out Gods will from our own will. Its amazing how often God calls we

ministers to churches with higher salary packages than God calls us to churches that pay less.

Repentance is hard. Fortunately, God is forgiving, and gives us the Holy Spirit to help us repent.

Were not left by ourselves with this business of repenting. God helps us especially when we ask for

Gods help. Its probably better to think of repentance then as a process or a journey rather than a

once-for-all event, because our hearts change too often. The Good News of Jesus Christ is that Gods

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Spirit travels with us on this journey once we first turn towards God. We are not left alone. God is

always with us as we seek to love one another. Thanks be to God.