Mark 1:15: Where to Look for the Kingdom of God

"Repentance is not an emotion. It is not feeling sorry for your sins. It is a decision. It is deciding that you have been wrong in supposing that you could manage your own life and be your own god; it is deciding that you were wrong in thinking that you had, or could get, the strength, education and training to make it on your own..." - Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, ch. 2.

In a recent meeting with friends of mine, someone commented that he was struck by the fact that repentance was not "feeling sorry." Another friend commented, "My wife always tells me, 'Don't say sorry. Do sorry.'" Some habits are so ingrained and lead to "sorry" so often, that they become discouraging.

I think that I am too comfortable with the way things are-content to maintain an uneasy truce with my selfishness. There is a subconscious cost-benefit analysis going on and repentance seems too expensive. Perhaps I rationalize my response-downgrading the rating of my selfish, caustic actions by telling myself that I must attend to more pressing matters .

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” - Mark 1:15

Jesus tells me that kingdom of God is close-so very close-but it lies on the other side of repentance. It is not a one-and-done event, it is a day-by-day decision that "the kingdom of God is close when I turn to God and away from myself." It says every justification or accommodation of my selfish nature is damaging to my self and those I care about most.

Where do I start? For myself, I find that what irritates me is often a big clue as to where my self is active. Recently this has been a sense of entitlement that makes me upset at other drivers, other shoppers or other people in restaurants-how slow they are, how inconsiderate they are, how inefficient they are. My discipline during this post-Easter season has been taking slow lanes and slow aisles and then, when my habitual irritation rises up, to talk with God about it. There have been a lot of conversations lately. This is repentance for me right now.

How about you?

"Repentance is the most practical of all words and the most practical of all acts. It is a feet-on-the-ground sort of word." - Eugene Peterson, ibid.

Psalm 145:15-16: All The Things Which Had To Go Right

The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. - Psalm 145:15-16

I was marveling at how many things had to go right in order for my morning to work out. When I say "my morning" I usually am referring to the time period from 5:30 am, when I wake up, until about 9:00 am, when I head into work. Since I usually get the breakfast going, I'm first awake in the house, turning on the lights, heater, and coffee maker, then opening the blinds and setting out our morning medications. Then I start breakfast.

Breakfast was nothing special: a smoothie. But it contained an a startling number of pieces. There were pineapple chunks from the Philippines in a can made in Mexico. Yogurt, milk and honey produced in northern California. Mangoes from Mexico. Bananas from the Dominican Republic. Each of these were grown by people, packed by people, shipped by people, distributed by people, trucked by people, stocked by people and, eventually, sold by people to me.

These are all thrown into a blender with a similar story. In all, thousands of people touched these foods and components and cartons and containers of cartons before they reached me. Just so I could push a button, whir the ingredients around for 30 seconds and pour a refreshing morning meal.

Once my youngest has descended and imbibed this invigorating elixir, it's off to the bus stop where she gets on a bus. A bus. Driven by a lady who waves at my wife when she sees us out walking. Maintained by a few hardworking guys at the school bus yard. Built and customized by a team from hundreds of components provide by other companies, each with their own work force.

That's just breakfast and the bus. Think of how many things had to go right just for me to have a normal morning. There is a grace in that-the sustaining, providential (or common) grace of God which allows us to live and work. These verses from Psalm 145 actually simplify the incredibly complex processes through which God works to even give us the simplest of good things, such as our food.

Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. - Matthew 6:8

Consider what this simple verse means when coupled with our Lord's prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread." Not only did he know our need before we prayed, but had to have kicked off his answer days, months or years before we asked so that, at the right time, he could give it to us.

So spend a moment today and thank God for all of the things which had to go right.

Ephesians 4:11-13: Measuring Up

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. - Ephesians 4:11-13

When I lived in the Philippines, going to the market was a daily task for the apartment that I shared with the church's pastor. Each vendor would have their fruits and vegetables and cuts of meat arranged in the open air or under a sheet metal roof for you to push and prod and sniff so that you could test their freshness. You would specify a weight or quantity and the price was negotiated. Then your goods would be measured: weighed, counted or fit into a 10# tin can. I remember rice, specifically, which we could measure in gantas. We were only two in my apartment, so we never bought caban (50 kilos). If the vendor was your friend (your suki), they might let the rice mound a little bit in the measuring can. Times like these helped me to appreciate it when the Bible remarked that "Differing weights and differing measures— the Lord detests them both." (Proverbs 20:10)

More recently a different sort of measure struck me. when Paul commented that the "body of Christ" (the church) is supposed to be built up by the Spirit-gifted individuals until we attain the whole measure of the fullness (or stature) of Christ. For a moment, I want you to envision yourself as a teaspoon-the kind of spoon you use to put sugar into tea. The teaspoon is a very modest sort of measuring device.

Now-if you are a teaspoon-what sort of measuring device do you suppose Christ would be? I don't know either, but for the sake of discussion I am thinking of the large plastic buckets that can hold a 20 pound bag of rice or flour in my house. If that doesn't do it for you, imagine two Home Depot buckets stacked on top of each other.

Teaspoon. Big ol' bucket.

Back to Paul. He is saying that Christ gave these people in the church who pour into us and build us up until we have the fullness of the measure of Christ. My teaspoon just isn't big enough to hold the bucketful of the presence and character of Christ. So either I'm going to spill over. Not a bad thing. Or God is going to have to grow me up to handle the amount of Christ's goodness that he wants me to handle. It isn't just on his wish list for me, we are reaching (attaining) this goal. Paul says "...that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Phil. 1:6)

Teaspoons and buckets weren't common as measure devices in Bible days. But jars were. Jars could be measures-like ephahs and omers. Sometimes I suspect that we worry about the weak areas in our lives giving out because of external pressures: job, finances, desires, relationships, etc. But maybe we should rejoice that the full measure of Christ is actually on the inside, trying to burst forth and the weak places are those places which give way to His grace sooner: "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." (2 Cor. 4:7)

Or, as Eugene Peterson said, "This God-life cannot be domesticated or used; it can only be entered into on its own terms. ... Holiness did not make God smaller so they could use God in convenient and manageable projects. It made those men larger so God could give out life through them, extravagantly, spontaneously."[1]

[1] Peterson, Eugene H.. As Kingfishers Catch Fire: A Conversation on the Ways of God Formed by the Words of God (p. 80). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.