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.’

 

I love music and art. To wander through an art gallery, or to hear some beautiful piece of music so often has the potential to add wondrous opportunities to reflect on the experience of life.

 

Often, when I see a particularly striking piece of art or hear some new piece of music that I enjoy, I find it interesting to learn more about the artist or the musicians who were responsible for those creations.  Knowing something about their lives, about their joys and challenges, about their struggles and accomplishments, can provide deeper insights into the meaning, the inspiration, the intention, and even the vision that informed the piece of music or the piece of art that they have made.   When a piece of art or music is genuine, it reveals something about those who made them.

 

Today’s suggested reading from the Gospel of Mark invites us to reflect on the opening scene in Jesus’ public ministry.  In the verses leading up to this reading, Jesus had been baptized by John in the Jordan River, and then had gone out into the wilderness to be tempted for forty days.  Upon his return from the wilderness, and in light of the fact that John the Baptist had been arrested by Herod, Jesus realized that the time had come for him to begin the work that he had been sent into the world to do.

 

And so, he began to proclaim that the good news that the kingdom of God had come near, calling people to repentance and belief in that startling proclamation.

 

“The time is fulfilled,” he proclaimed, “and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.”

 

It is good for us to pause when we read this statement.  After all, most of us have probably read or heard that verse many times before; and certainly we are aware that many of Jesus parables and teachings began with reference to this idea of the “kingdom of God” or the “kingdom of heaven”.

 

And yet, even though we may have heard that phrase many times before, we sometimes tend to forget that this announcement of the coming of God’s kingdom, to this world, was the proclamation that lay at the heart of Jesus’ purpose in this world.   Jesus was the proclaimer; the coming of the kingdom of God was his proclamation.  And the world has never been the same.

 

Over the past two thousand years, there have been times when the church has focused more on the proclaimer than on his proclamation, more on the declaration of the coming of the king rather than on the coming of the kingdom.  It is as if we focus so much of our attention on the artist that we forget the vision that the art was conveying; or so much of our attention on the musician that we forget to listen to the symphony that is being played.

 

There is nothing inherently wrong with this – after all, it is the church’s role and responsibility, throughout history, to point beyond ourselves to the coming of the One who is the Messiah, the true King, the Christ.  His appearance in this world, his coming to this world, his work in this world, his triumph over the brokenness of this world – it is all good news; and it is at the heart of the Gospel that we seek to proclaim to this world.

 

But it can nonetheless be good for us, from time to time, to step back a bit, and try to focus our attention on the vision that Jesus was trying to convey.

 

The German Lutheran theologian Rudolf Bultmann explored this important dynamic when he suggested that in the history of the church, the proclaimer had often become the proclamation. To put it another way, for Jesus, the good news was that the kingdom of God had come; for the church, the good news has often been that Jesus the Messiah, or Jesus the Christ, had come.

 

So what did Jesus mean when he proclaimed that the kingdom of God had come?

 

Perhaps one way to explore that question is to reflect on the types of things that took place in the presence of Jesus.

 

And this is where the rest of today’s passage becomes important.

 

Today’s suggested reading from the Gospel of Mark suggests that, having publicly proclaimed that the kingdom of God had come near, the first thing that Jesus did was to call a group of individuals to come and follow him.  He summoned a few people to come with him, to watch, to see, to experience, and in so doing to become witnesses to what the coming of that kingdom actually meant.  The proclaimer wanted his followers to understand the proclamation; the king wanted his disciples to see what he meant by the kingdom; the artist wanted others to see what the art looked like; the musician wanted them to hear the music.

 

And what did they see and hear and experience?

 

They saw people’s broken, conflicted, tormented spirits being healed; they saw sick people find wholeness and health; they saw hungry people being fed; they saw marginalized and outcast people being welcomed back into community; they saw powerful religious officials confronted and challenged; they saw life triumphing over death; they saw the restoration of joy and of faith in the lives of those who had been ground down by the vicissitudes of life.  They saw powerful, even miraculous things taking place in the presence of Jesus – powerful, even miraculous things that attested to the fact that, in the presence of Jesus, an almost otherworldly, life-giving, healing, wonder-working, spirit changing, world transforming, compassionate power was at work.

 

But what Jesus wanted them to see – and what we are supposed to be able to see – is that this wondrous reality was not taking place in some envisioned heavenly realm or in some dreamy afterlife.

 

Rather, it was a reality in their very midst; it was an experience that they had in the presence of Jesus himself.  He was calling them to follow him so that they could see the effects of the coming of God’s kingdom to this world.  He was calling them to follow him so that they could see with their own eyes, and hear with their own ears, so that they could be witnesses to what was happening because he had come.

 

But this watching, this witnessing, was not an invitation to a life of passive observation.  They were also being called to get up and follow him in order to prepare themselves to go out to the ends of the earth in order to continue his work when he was no longer physically present with him.  Once they had seen and experienced the reality of God’s kingdom, in their own relationship and in their own experiences with Jesus, they would be ready to go out into the world in his name to continue that work.

 

And in some ways, it is this dynamic – of following Jesus in order to understand the nature of the kingdom of God – that begins to blur the line between the proclaimer and the proclamation, between the king and the kingdom, between the artist and the art, between the musician and the music.

 

They followed and paid attention to the words and actions of the proclaimer so that they could more fully understand his proclamation; they followed the king so that they could learn how to recognize the presence of the kingdom as they set out into the world to seek it; they followed the artist so that they could understand his art; they followed the musician so that they could comprehend the music that he wanted them to play.

 

And what was true, for those first disciples, is equally true for us, even today.  The call of the Christian faith, at its very heart, is to seek and to strive towards the presence of God’s kingdom at work in this world.  And we gather together, regularly, to read the stories of Jesus, to pay attention to him, to witness what he did so long ago, so that we will be able to better cultivate the ability to recognize, and respond to God’s presence and God’s activity as we journey out into the world.

Because it was in the world that Jesus invited his followers to catch glimpses of what the kingdom was all about. Jesus almost always used images and situations drawn from real life in order to help his listeners to better understand the kingdom.  The kingdom of heaven is like a farmer going out to sow seed, he said, likely perhaps as he walked with them past a field of grain.  The kingdom of God is like a shepherd who leaves behind a group of sheep to go and find the lost one, he said, perhaps as he and his followers were watching a tired shepherd guiding a small lamb back towards the fold.  The kingdom of God may be revealed in the generosity of a child who offered his own small lunch to Jesus with the seemingly naïve idea that Jesus could use that lunch to satisfy the hunger of thousands of people.  The kingdom of heaven may be experienced when an outcast, ridiculed woman is treated with dignity and grace rather than persecuted and stoned for her perceived mistakes.

 

It was by listening to Jesus, and watching him in action, that the first disciples, and the church throughout the ages, and even we ourselves, come to learn what the kingdom of God is supposed to be all about.   The proclaimer lived the proclamation; the king revealed the kingdom.

 

Our calling, as his followers, is to continue to seek and to strive towards and to dedicate ourselves to the coming of that kingdom, to live it, to point towards it, to embrace it, to let it flourish and grow.

Because when we do, the world — and our lives – will never be the same.

 

And that is good news.

 

Thanks be to God.

Amen.