January 24, 2021: Rise Up!
Mark 1:14-20
Rev. Dr. Rhonda Blevins
January 24, 2021
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.
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There’s an episode of Friends in which Joey gets a sailboat, but he doesn’t know how to sail, so Rachel is going to teach him. The two of them get in the sailboat out in the water, and it doesn’t go so well. As Joey will find out, sailing is a lot of work, and Joey isn’t interested in the work part. He just wants to sit in the boat and eat sandwiches and drink beer.
I totally get this scene. There have been plenty of times in my life when I wanted something only to realize it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. For example, when I was a teenager, I couldn’t wait to get a car. But when you get a car you have to wash it, you have to put gas in it, you have to pay for maintenance and know how to change a tire. When you’ve got a car, you have to get a job to be able to afford a car. The same thing happened when I was a young adult. I wanted to own my own house. Luckily, houses don’t require much work. Ha! It’s constant! If you have a house, you have to have two jobs to pay for it.
I’ll never forget my older, wealthy friend saying: “I thought I wanted to own all these things, but as it turned out all these things own me.”
When we first meet James and John in the book of Mark, they’re out fishing but they’re not catching anything. They own a net, or perhaps their net is owning them. There’s a hole in their net. What good is a net with a hole in it? So we find James and John and their father, Zebedee, tending the net. That net is owning them.
Along comes Jesus: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” This verse, verse 15 of Mark chapter 1, is like a theme verse for the entire Gospel of Mark. You remember that from school right—the theme sentence? The sentence near the beginning of an essay that sets the stage for the rest of the piece? That’s this verse. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” The lectionary has us in the book of Mark this year, so since this is our theme verse, it seems fitting to unpack it.
The Time is Fulfilled
In the original Greek that most of the New Testament was written in, there are two words that we translate as “time.” The first is chronos. You may recognize this as the root word for “chronological” and “chronicle.” Chronos is time that we can measure with clock or watches or tick marks on a calendar. When we hear the word “time,” it’s chronos that we think of in common American usage.
But there’s another word the ancient Greeks used that we also translate as “time.” The word is kairos. Philosophers and mystics might call it “deep time.” Not measured by clocks or watches or tick marks on a calendar, kairos is more like a state of being. If chronos is quantitative time, kairos is qualitative time.
And in Mark’s introduction of Jesus, the very first thing we hear Jesus saying, the very first noun out of his mouth, is this word, kairos, deep time. “This is not ordinary time, people, this is deep time. There is something extraordinary, profound, about this moment.”
The Kingdom of God Has Come Near
The second thing out of Jesus’ mouth in this theme verse from Mark chapter 1 is “the kingdom of God has come near.” If time is deep time, then space is deep space. The time is now, the place is here. God’s reign isn’t some distant place beyond the clouds. God’s kingdom is here. God’s kingdom is now.
This is deep truth, esoteric truth. It’s subversive, even dangerous truth. Caesar would not have been pleased about this kingdom talk. Jesus was undeterred. The New Testament has Jesus using this language—"kingdom of God” and “kingdom of heaven”—ninety-eight times. This is a major theme. No surprise that Mark includes this in his theme verse.
Let’s pause here for a moment.
This talk of deep space and deep time is just as countercultural for us as it was for James and John, Simon Peter and Andrew. Our lives are not so different than theirs, when you think about it. They were fishing. This was their livelihood. They were trying to make some money. Most of us like to make money, (or better yet, earn money without having to work for it!) James and John were tending their property. You and I have to tend our property.
These first disciples, like you and I, were busy with the things of life. Get up, go to work, go home, go to sleep so they could get up the next day and do it all over again. Which reminds me of a joke: why did the barista quit his job? He got tired of the daily grind.
When we’re busy with the routines of life, we don’t tend to focus on esoteric concepts like deep time and deep space. Jesus came along, making them aware that there was something beyond the daily grind—something more real, more profound
Repent
So Mark tells us that Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled,” and “the kingdom of God has come near.” Both of these phrases are about the nouns; they’re instructional. What he says next is all about the verbs—what his followers are to do with the new information. “Repent,” Jesus tells them.
Maybe you’re like me and this word, “repent,” conjures up images of crazy street preachers calling out sinners and declaring the end of the world. But that’s far from what was happening when Jesus called his disciples.
The word we translate from the Greek is metanoeó, which simply means, “change the way you think.” So if I were to paraphrase this theme verse so far, I would put it this way: “This is deep time; this is deep space. God is here. God is now. Change the way you think.”
In other words, don’t be so attached to the way you think about things.
Perhaps you’ve heard of the legendary Silicon Valley creator and investor, Marc Andreessen. Marc co-created the first widely used web browser. He co-founded Netscape, which sold to AOL for over $4 billion. Marc is “considered one of the founding fathers of the modern Internet.” He created software categories used by over a billion people; he established multiple billion-dollar companies. Today he is one of the most influential and dominant tech investors on the planet.[1] He has this saying: “Strong views, loosely held.” When asked about the meaning of this, here’s what he said:
Most people go through life and never develop strong views on things, or specifically go along and buy into the consensus. One of the things . . . to look for . . . is things that are out of consensus, something very much opposed to the conventional wisdom . . . Then, if you’re going to start a company around that, if you’re going to invest in that, you better have strong conviction because you’re making a very big bet of time or money or both. [But] what happens when the world changes? That’s where “loosely held” comes in for you. People everywhere hate changing their minds, but you need to be able to adapt in light of new information.
Be ready to “change the way you think.” Or as most New Testament translations put it, “repent.”
So far in Jesus’ theme statement according to Mark, we’ve looked at:
· Deep time (Kairos)
· Deep truth (God’s kingdom here)
· Deep turn (repent, change the way you think)
And now Jesus calls his followers to deep trust.
Believe in the Good News
The second thing Jesus tells people to do is believe. To trust. To trust what? The good news! The joyful tidings!
Our human brains aren’t wired this way. In fact, our brains intrinsically have greater sensitivity to bad news. Psychologists call this “negativity bias.”
In one famous study, a psychologist measured electrical activity in the brain while showing people different pictures, some to arouse positive feelings (like a shiny sports car or a piece of chocolate cake), some to arouse negative feelings (like a dead puppy on the road or a mutilated face), and some that would produce neutral feelings (like a cup or a chair). The psychologist demonstrated that the brain reacts more strongly to negative stimuli. “There is a greater surge in electrical activity. Thus, our attitudes are more heavily influenced by downbeat news than good news.”[2] This is called the “negativity bias.”
In terms of evolution, our brains likely developed this way to keep us away from danger. But in terms of our daily lives, this often proves counterproductive. We attach to negativity.
Jesus, on the other hand, tells us to “believe the good news.”
So, putting my paraphrase all together: “This is deep time; this is deep space. God is here. God is now. Change the way you think. Trust the GOOD news.”
When we yield ourselves to deep time (kairos time) and deep truth (God’s kingdom here), it calls us to a deep turn (repent, change the way we think) and a deep trust (believing the GOOD news.)
Finally, when we understand deep time and deep truth, when we yield ourselves to a deep turn and a deep trust, Jesus calls us to a deep target.
I Will Make You Fish for People
“I will make you fish for people,” Jesus tells the fishermen. You’re making a living; I want to show you how to make a life.
Drop your nets. Drop your attachments to the daily grind, the routines, the superficial beliefs that keep you living like a rat in a wheel. There is more to this life. Rise up, out of the boat, out of the rat race, away from the bad news and all the screens that clamor for our attention.
Rise up! Follow me. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. Follow me. Make a deep turn; yield to deep trust. Change the way you think. Follow me. I’ll show you how to live.
I close with the words of the ancient poet, Rumi:
Absorbed in this world, you’ve made it your burden.
Rise above this world.
There is another vision.
All your life you’ve paid attention to your experiences, but never to your Self.
Are you searching for your Soul?
Then come out of your prison.
Leave the stream and join the river that flows into the Ocean.
It will not lead you astray.
Let the beauty you seek be what you do.
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/business-lessons-from-marc-andreessen-2016-12
[2] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/200306/our-brains-negative-bias