The little notebook I use to write sermons, write blogs and check emails automatically connects me to the search engine Bing. You likely have never heard of it, Google reigns supreme. But Bing is trying hard to grab the attention of its consumers, so before people like me click over to Google they feature some eye catching headlines to hold me on their site. I have never succumbed to this marketing strategy but did notice a title last week that caught my attention, Markle Will Taint Royal Blood. The story references the royal wedding this May and offers up concerns by some, albeit a small minority, that Harry’s choice of a partner may not be “royal” enough.
I think this angle of the Monarchy in general and the royal family in particular sums up my unease with the word we hear so often in our scriptures, Kingdom. Obviously it is also a male word and thus exclusive. Some of my colleagues use the word Realm but I find it such an obscure word, such a bland word, that it fails to capture what Kingdom implies, namely a citizenship that connects us to our true selves, to our deeper selves. Kingdom may be male and exclusive but we have an understanding of an order and a loyalty that binds us together. Realm leaves me cold.
But Kingdom is not just exclusive it is also hierarchal. There is a sense of a pyramid, that the masses below do the work, support the cause, are told what to do and judged unimportant while the small number of people at the top make the decisions and reap the spoils of this system. In Jesus’ time the system he lived under was the Roman Empire, a Kingdom of sorts, with an Emperor named Caesar. There were many peasants who supported this Empire, even worshipped Caesar as a god because it did what few regimes had ever achieved before, it kept the peace. One should never underestimate stability, and many peasants counted their blessings that expensive wars of blood and treasure were absent for long periods of time.
But like all Kingdoms or Empires based on force and fear there were limits to this loyalty. Peasants did bankroll their own occupying force, Jews paid tax that provided salaries for soldiers who “supervised” their daily lives. And it got worse, either the Empire itself or a few wealthy absentee landlords owned the land and the sea that provided the income for the largely agricultural and fishing communities of that region. Farmers and fishermen paid large user fees and eked out an existence that left no room for illness or drought or a poor annual catch.
Our text this morning is centred in the region of Galilee. It was multicultural, it had a significant gentile population, owing mostly to Greek and Roman settlements following their respective conquests. Gifts of land in conquered territories would be given to high-ranking soldiers and major politicians--the so-called "spoils of war." As mentioned the vast majority of the indigenous native population was poor. The region of Galilee was looked down upon by the "sophisticated" of Jerusalem. Galileans were "hicks from the sticks."
So with this context in mind let’s hear a portion of our text again: 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.” A few quick comments. The phrase After John was arrested refers to John the Baptist who was arrested because of his run-in with the Empire. It would not end well. The inclusion of these words implies that Jesus was following in John’s footsteps, likely to butt heads with the Empire himself resulting in the same outcome. Further, proclaiming the good news about the Kingdom refers to a new kind of citizenship, a new way of being, that Jesus embodies and teaches.
Let’s look at the other half of this text, to "turn and 'faith' in the good news." The Greek word metanoiete is a second person plural imperative--"you-all turn." (The overwhelming majority of "you"-words in the New Testament are you-plural. They are addressed to many, not just individuals.) Metanoia, of course, does not mean feeling sorry for getting caught and then crying your eyes out at what a jerk you've been. It is not, in other words, a word that is primarily about emotions, but more about action. It means "turning"--the literal meaning of the word--and moving in a new direction. The direction toward which Jesus points and leads is the "kingdom of God." The "way" (1:2-3) of this kingdom, its modus operandi, will be exhibited and given meaning by Jesus as we move through Mark's Gospel. Jesus will make his followers into "new people" following a new "way" in a New Community.
So often when we western Christians living in the 21st century think on texts like this we imagine it is addressed to us personally. We live in a time and context of individualism while these texts were written for a people, a gathering, a community. And here is why I have come to use another term for Kingdom, kin-dom. Kin refers to family, a deep connection of relationship, others in the gathering become sisters and brothers. Early Christians were called “people of the Way” because they embodied the message they preached. And those who were part of “the Way” were sisters and brothers, they worshipped in member homes and shared a common meal and cared for one another, even unto death, like how we care for our kin today.
So imagine you are a peasant farmer, a poor fisherman, and someone comes along to tell you about a new Way, a community where you are valued and connected by a faith in a common Creator, a movement that embodies healing, forgiving, calling out others by name, feeding and sharing. Is this not good news? Would you not consider leaving your nets behind to join this cause? I would. And even though our times are different, our context radically different, there are still forces and fears that hold us to lifestyles and mindsets that leave us enslaved and joyless. Into that space comes a Jesus, a Saviour, who calls us to leave these arrangements behind and follow him, join the kin-dom.
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. My friends we are called to invite others to this kin-dom, to a family, to a household, where they can leave behind force and fear and experience a new kind of relationship, one based on healing, feeding and sharing. A new kind of citizenship, one based on mutuality and love, not royal blood or elite social structure. And the one way to make this invitation authentic and meaningful is to live it out, to be people of “the Way”.
Let’s follow that Way. Amen.