GIVING OUR WHOLE LIFE BACK TO GOD

Text: Mark 1:14-20

We’ve heard a lot of hoopla in the last few weeks about US President Obama. I heard that they spent $150 million on the inauguration celebration, which some commentators are calling the closest thing the American republic can get to a coronation. It seems excessive in the current economic climate. But it’s not only about the economy. It’s about the survival of the American dream, about a future for America. Americans truly hope this man who represents the possibility that Americans really believe in – that any American child can become President – can find the way to lead them out of the mess their former leaders have got them into. And more than that: they hope that the greed and corruption and violence that characterize American society can be transformed into something better. President Obama appears to be an intelligent man and a man of integrity; we know he is an educated man, and from somewhere the American government still seems to get money to buy the best information and support available, so he has access to the wisdom and experience of the best advisors in the US.

Not only is Barack Obama being treated like an American king…he’s also being treated like an American saviour. Americans are looking to him to save them from the errors and the excesses of the last few years. But I suspect that the real hope is that the average American won’t have to pay the price for the errors and excesses. Certainly we know that the leaders who promoted the errors and the excesses won’t likely have to pay. And if President Obama sets up a scenario where Americans have to pay for the sins of the past, President Obama will pay. That’s the way the system works. It’s based not only on the last few years but on the whole history of America, which has always made the weak and the vulnerable pay for the good fortune of the powerful. It’s the American way. Unfortunately it’s also the way of lots of other societies, perhaps even including our own.

So in spite of the high hopes that have been expressed for the “new America”, I suspect it will be very difficult even for a man as gifted and with as large an electoral mandate as President Obama. Not because he isn’t a good man with some good plans, but because the system is rotten. A total overhaul is needed, and it’s unlikely that anyone is willing to undergo that kind of change.

So in our Gospel lesson today, we see a somewhat parallel situation in the Palestine of the first century. The system is rotten; it’s presided over by greedy and violent leaders, namely the representatives of the Roman Empire and collaborators among the Jewish people themselves. A prophet comes along, John the Baptist, who condemns the rottenness and convinces people that great changes are needed. John sets up a scenario in which he criticizes the leaders, and demands repentance of everyone, the ordinary people included. And we know what happens to John. He tells the truth to the wrong person – to King Herod himself – and he loses his head – literally. The head of John the Baptist is brought before the king on a platter, specifically to please Herod’s vicious wife, Herodias, who hates John for naming her sin.

Well, that could have been the end of it, and first-century society in Galilee and Judea would have continued in its accustomed way, where the weak and vulnerable were exploited by the rich and powerful, and nobody believed in the possibility of positive change. But that wasn’t the end of it. “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God….” And what did Jesus command people to do? “Repent, and believe in the good news.” Jesus didn’t come with huge media hype costing 150 million dollars; he came with a “new commandment” that would change the world – confess your sins, change your ways and believe that good things will happen. That’s what America needs, that’s what Canada needs, that’s what we all need. And it’s not just talk; it’s action that reaches all the way to the bottom of our problems, roots out our sin and puts us on a path to forgiveness and holiness. Sadly, President Obama doesn’t have the power to do that; no politician has the power to do that. Only God has the power to do that.

Look at the story of Jonah and the city of Nineveh in the Old Testament reading. Jonah is sent by God to proclaim the good news to Nineveh. Jonah doesn’t even believe the message himself, but when he obeys God and gives the people the message, they repent, the calamity that God had threatened doesn’t happen, and Nineveh is saved. And in the Epistle reading, Paul gives the same message to the Christians at Corinth: recognize that it’s a crisis, obey God, change your ways and your world will change too.

So Jesus begins his ministry by recruiting a few fishermen for his assistants. They don’t seem to be the most promising prospects, but if Jesus had recruited the wealthy and powerful, his kingdom would have been a very different kingdom. He’s not looking to keep a particular party in power; he’s trying to turn the world upside-down. That’s what he succeeds in doing, and in the process he loses his life and so do a lot of other believers. This is not mere party politics; it’s major upheaval.

And that’s what Jesus does in our lives too – he turns things upside-down. That is, he turns things upside-down spiritually. He makes us look at ourselves with different eyes, decide that we need to change, and he gives us the power to change. For some people, that change is a turning away from crime or addiction; for most of us, it’s a turning away from bad habits and bad attitudes; it’s a turning toward Jesus’ way of holiness: devotion to God, denial of self, dedication to the service of others. And when enough people follow Jesus in this way – heck, when even a few people follow Jesus in this way – it changes the world around them.

Here’s a story of a saint who came alive:
Awhile back a pastor told about a wonderful saint in his congregation down in Texas. Her name was Idalia. Her grown-up children called the pastor and asked if he would stop in and visit her because they admitted that seeing her very often was just a chore. She was crotchety, she was negative – not the kind of person even her children really wanted to hang out with. So, being the good pastor that he was, he set his watch for one hour and went to put in his time with Idalia.

Idalia was 90 years old and hadn’t been to church in years. This wasn’t the first time the pastor had been to visit her, but all of a sudden as they were talking he noticed a greenhouse kind of room that went off the back of Idalia’s house. And from the living room where they were sitting, he could see in that greenhouse ivy plants with the biggest leaves he had ever seen in his life. Gigantic leaves!

He said to Idalia, “I never noticed your greenhouse before. The plants are remarkable!’

“Well, you’re always in such a rush to get out of here, you probably haven’t noticed a lot of things.”

The pastor thought that was probably true. He hadn’t really looked before. Suddenly, he had an idea. Every Sunday after services, members of his congregation delivered a small plant to the home of all the first-time visitors.

“Idalia,” he asked, “would you be willing to give us some of your beautiful ivy to share with those who visit our church for the first time?”

“No,” she answered.

“Well, what are you going to do with them? You have so many!”

“I just throw ‘em out when they die,” she said.

Well, he talked her into giving him just a few to share this one time. He decided this week that he would personally deliver these wonderful ivy plants to a few of their first-time visitors. And as he brought them around that Sunday, he told the people about Idalia and asked if they wouldn’t mind giving her a quick phone call to thank her for the exceptional ivy.

A week later at church, there was Idalia out in the narthex, all smiles. People who hadn’t seen her in years were greeting her, hugging her, welcoming her back.

Well, of course Idalia continued to grow the ivy for the first-time visitors at Colonial Hills Church. And a year and a half later, the pastor asked Idalia ifshe would give a testimony in church. She stood up in front of the congregation at 91 ½ years old and said, “I became a Christian at age 90 when someone taught me that it’s better to give than to receive.” She said “Life has got to be recycled. Everything we get has to be passed on to someone else.” Idalia had finally answered the question “So what?” for herself. She had spent her life hearing the promises of Jesus Christ…Idalia had been given the gift of a green thumb, but she never connected what she’d been given to her faith life. She had discovered at age 90 that giving – giving our whole life back to God – is what it’s all about. It is, isn’t it?