When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: "Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles--the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned." From that time Jesus began to proclaim, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." As he 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 from there, 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.Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I’m an Eddie Izzard fan. For those of you out of the loop, he’s an Irish comedian who’s been in England so long you can’t tell he’s Irish by his accent. Actually, he sounds Welsh. And, of course as an Irishman, he’s a Roman Catholic. So, when he first went to England he went to the Roman Church and made his confession. It took him three weeks to work off the penance. He thought, “Boy, these English Catholics are really hard core!” So, the next time he decided to try out the priest at the local Church of England. He went in and knelt down and made his confession, waiting for judgment and retribution. But, instead, the Vicar said, “Oh! You do that too?! Oh, that’s really not a sin. It can be a bit of a nuisance at times, but as far as sin goes, it doesn’t qualify. Just be careful. Everything in moderation, you know.”
My seminary friend, Jack, used to be the curate at St. Paul’s, K Street in Washington D.C. and he had a very similar experience. St. Paul’s is an Anglo-Catholic Parish, one of the few I know who has confessionals. They make Rome look like a Presbyterian Communion Service without the shot glasses. Directly across the street is St. Matthew’s Cathedral, the church from which John F. Kennedy was buried. Jack said that a good number of the Cathedral’s parishioners would come to St. Paul’s for make their confessions because the penances were much softer.
Jack had this one man, obviously very well educated and certainly well dressed, who came to confession every Saturday morning, rain or shine, and confessed exactly the same sin every week. Of course, Jack didn’t tell me the contents of the confession, but use your imagination. I bet we could all come up with some juicy tidbits! This went on for about a year until Jack decided to do something about it.
One Saturday morning, Jack was sitting in the confessional doing the Washington Post crossword puzzle when little red light went on signifying that a penitent was kneeling on the other side. Jack opened the slide and, sure enough, it was the usual guy.
“Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.”
Jack thought, What? Again? Say it isn’t so!
“It has been a week since my last confession.”
Jack thought, “Yes, I set my watch by it.”
And the man proceeded on with his confession.
About half way through, Jack interrupted the man and said, “Hold on a minute. Let’s talk about this. You’ve been coming here every week for the last year and confessing the same sin and each week I give you absolution, which is fine. But it’s become apparent to me that you really enjoy this sin. So, why don’t you just go and do this sin as much as you can and want and get it out of your system and when you’re done with it, come and see me, make your confession, I’ll give you absolution and you can get on with your life.”
There was silence on the other side.
“Are you still there?”
“Yes.”
“So, how about it? Go do it and enjoy it and get it over with.”
The man replied timidly, “But what happens if I die during the week and I’m not in a state of grace. I’ll go directly to hell.”
“No, no, no,” replied Jack. “You won’t go to hell. You’ll be fine. But you do need to repent.”
“I know, Father,” replied the man. “I have to give up this sin.”
Jack thought for a moment. Then, “So, you see your faith as a sort of celestial fire insurance?”
The man was silent for a moment and then said, “Well, I wouldn’t exactly put it that way.”
“I would,” said Jack. “The problem is that you need to repent but your sins’s not what you need to repent of. You need to repent of how you view God. Your faith is based in fear, not love. Our culture has messed things all up. Even the Church. It's all about trying to control us. But, God isn’t a divine judge keeping a tally sheet of what we’ve done wrong. If God is God, then God is ultimately stronger than sin. God isn’t offended or angered by sin because God is God. He may be concerned about it, but that’s only because he doesn’t like seeing his creation damaged. God is ultimately compassionate. Your sin is already forgiven. You just have to learn how to live with that.”
Dead silence from the other side.
Jack continued, “So, I’m not giving you absolution, but I am giving you a penance which is that I don’t want to see you in here again until you’ve decided that you’re done with this sin. Go out and do it. Enjoy it. Get it out of your system. Get some help if you need to. But don’t come back until it’s done. Do you understand?”
“Yes Father.”
“Go in peace, and pray for me a sinner.” And Jack slammed the slide shut.
Jack said, “I know I was a bit hard on the guy, but things were getting just a little bit out of hand. Just coddling the guy wasn’t helping him any. So, I took the tough love approach. Maybe a bit too far. I knew I’d never see him again.”
A year passed. Jack was sitting in the confessional trying to figure out the answer to 29 down. (You can tell you’re really a boring person if, in the middle of your confession, the priest stops you and asks if you know a five letter word for a South American black bird.) The little red light went on and jack opened the slide. And there on the other side was the man.
He simply said, “I’m done!”
Jack replied, “Oh, I’m glad to see you. You’ve been on my mind. I must apologize for being s too hard on you last time you were in. I may have gone to far.
“No apology necessary, Father,” said the man. “I’ve spent the last year chewing on those words. They just wouldn’t let me go. That idea of God’s love and my need to repent of my fear and see God as he really is just kept nagging at me until one day I realized that what you’d said had begun to take hold. And I began to be thankful for God’s mercy and compassion and love. Inside, I no longer heard condemnation and judgment but words of forgiveness and peace. And all of a sudden, this sin I’ve been enjoying for so long lost its hold. The novelty wore off. It was no longer the forbidden fruit. And I realized I was done. My fear has subsided and now I know deep down inside just how much God loves us, with no strings attached, just as we are with no exceptions.”
Jack was truly impressed. This man had insight that many of his penitents didn’t. He was also very curious, so he asked, “Can I ask you a very personal question?”
“Sure, Father. You know all my dirt anyway. Why not!?”
“What do you do for a living?”
There was silence on the other side of the grill. Then the man said, “I’m a theology professor at Georgetown,” which is the big Jesuit university in D.C.. Both Jack and the man began to laugh. The irony was just too much.
When they had both stopped snickering, Jack said to the man, “I am going to give you absolution with the knowledge that this sin may rear its ugly head from time to time. That’s OK. You’re human. You know that and so does God. And when it does, come to see me if you need to. And for your penance, for the rest of your life, I want to teach what you’ve learned to your students. NO beating around the bush. Just the pure, unadulterated facts. I know it’s not the party line, but I suspect the Jesuits of all people will be able to cope. And the more you teach it to your students, the more you’ll teach it to yourself. Do you understand?”
“Absolutely, Father. “That’s a penance I can and will gladly perform.”
Jack gave the man absolution and when the man stood up and walked out of the confessional, there was Jack. The two men embraced. “Peace be with you, my friend,” said Jack. “And also with you, Father,” he replied.
Jack never saw the man again in confession. But from that day on, every Sunday he saw him in Church.
In this morning’s Gospel, Jesus proclaims, “Repent! For the kingdom of heaven has come near.” It’s an old Aramaic way of saying, “The kingdom is now!” And this is no ordinary kingdom, but it’s as real as any kingdom on the planet. It’s a kingdom where love and compassion and mercy are the bottom line. Where justice is mercy as the Psalmist says. Where children are nurtured and elders respected; where the poor are no longer poor and where there are absolutely no outcasts because they’re known as our sisters and brothers; where God is known as God truly is and love has no strings attached…not even a thread.
So, this morning, Repent! Remember who God really is. Remember that it is the very self of God who came to be one of us; to live and die as one of us; and to be raised from the dead among us; that God made manifest in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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