Sermon on 2/22 part 1

Saying NO

¹² Now when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, He departed to Galilee. ¹³ And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, ¹⁴ that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:
       ¹⁵
" The
land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
      By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan,
      Galilee of the Gentiles:
       ¹⁶
The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,
      And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death
      Light has dawned."<sup>[a]

17</sup> From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Strange how things work out the way you wanted to despite your best planning. I actually put the plan for preaching together back in early January, and I have the sermon passages and tentative themes of each Sunday planned through the end of May. I had decided to preach through Matthew until we got to the Lenten Season. At that point, my plan was and still is, to look at the Lord's Prayer. By the time we got to this Sunday, I was planning on focusing on the second half of this passage, and talking about obeying the call of Jesus. I still plan on doing that…later. But for right now we are starting with the passage I just read.

It is strange how things work together, because I kind of wanted to challenge us to practice the Christian Season of Lent, but I was a little unsure about whether I should do so. Then I came upon this passage a couple of weeks ago, as I was thinking through my messages that were coming up, and I decided that the way that this passage was presenting itself as a passage was a prompting to give Lent a try.

Now growing up, I had never practiced Lent. Lent was something that you find in your dryer, or maybe once in a while in your belly-button. If you did hear about Lent, it was something that Catholics did. When I was younger, I thought that Ash Wednesday was when you were supposed to get your chimney cleaned. Really! But as I grew older, especially when I was in seminary and youth ministry at the same time, I started to love the tradition of the Christian Year, especially the days from Reformation Day to Pentecost. It was a way of active learning, which I am convinced, is one of the best ways to learn. And it is a way of actively learning about the life and work of Jesus.

The two meditations today, as you can see, are about saying no and saying yes. As is the Christian practice of Lent. Most of you may know about Lent from Catholics giving up meat on Fridays. To be honest, I do not know why they do this, but I am sure it came with sincere hearts and good reason. Lent was a Christian holiday before it was a Catholic holiday, but it is a tradition that some Protestants have forgotten until recently. It is a spiritual exercise I want you to think about trying for the next month, and seeing if it challenges you or grows you in a unique way.

What I want you to do, as I preach through this sermon and as you go through your next week, is to think about some decision that is meaningful to you. Maybe it is a step of faith that you have wanted to take and are scared to. I want you to think about either something to go without for a little while, or some habit or commitment to add to your life for a little while. Some discipline or fast that is meaningful for you, and that you think may help you get to know God better.

Ok, back to our passage. Jesus has just finished battling with the Devil in the Wilderness. He has overcome. And now, it is time to start his ministry.

He moves from Nazareth to Capernaum. Capernaum was a growing area in his province with a little bit larger population, but within a day's walking distance from the small town Jesus grew up in.

And in that bustling boom town Jesus starts preaching to people. He says, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!"Repenting is about saying no.

Christians often get a bad rap in the world around them. Sometimes with good reason. Well…a lot of times church people get a bad rap for good reason. But there is one reason that I disagree with. A lot of people criticize the Bible and Christianity for the "thou shalt nots". Because even if you look at the 10 commandments, the Bible spends a lot of times saying NO to certain things.

I don't like it when people criticize the "Thou Shalt Nots" because I believe that the word "NO" has gotten a bad rap. The word NO is often a good word. It is a powerful word. It is a word that protects us. It is a word that strengthens our faith and our character. This two letter word, "NO".

Jesus starts his ministry out with a word that is a word with the same kind of tone and meaning as the word, NO. Jesus starts out his ministry with the word repent. The word REPENT has a very specific meaning. As I have shared with you before, REPENT means that you were heading in one direction. You were walking along a path. You were heading in a certain direction. And at some point you realize that you are going the wrong direction and you make a complete, one-hundred eighty degree turn, and you start heading in the opposite direction from where you were going. In order to move toward me, the Lord seems to be saying, you need to turn your back on some other things.

Jesus' first lesson to the people he was trying to reach was the word "REPENT". Repent is a hard word to hear, isn't it? It seems…well…very critical. Very un-open. Yet Jesus gives us this word repent.

Yet this word REPENT can be very helpful. I started in Youth Ministry before the Advent of the GPS and Google Maps. We just had these things called maps, in a book published by Rand McNally. Maybe many of you use them when you travel even today. I do too. But there are times when you can misread the maps. As a matter of fact, in Montana, after the first couple of years of youth mission trips, I kind of gained a reputation for misreading the maps. The first time I got lost was on the Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona. We were on a trip entitled the "Fort Apache" mission site. Well, because I did not think I needed much in the way of direction or assistance, I followed the signs to Fort Apache. This brought me to a little park that had the original fort. No mission group. I kept insisting I could find the way. Finally, the other adult leader and the teens urged me to REPENT, and go up to the reservation police and ask for directions. I had to swallow my pride to do this, as I received a police escort for 15 minutes around the reservation to the town of White River. But I am glad I choose to say NO to my way of doing things, and make a decision to say YES to getting on the right path. It was a little crushing to my ego and pride, but in the end, my saying NO to doing things my own way was the right decision. It put me in the right direction.

If we are to go in the right direction, we need to say NO to going in other directions. Jesus said that no man can have two masters, for either he will hate one and love the other, or love the other and hate the one. We cannot serve Jesus unless we learn to say no to the ways of the world that lead us away from him, to say no to those things that lead us away from being fully committed to him, to say no to those things that keep you from loving God and loving others with your whole heart.

I want you to examine your heart. What in your life, would Jesus want you to try and turn away from? Maybe it is some sin you are struggling with. Or maybe it is something that is getting in the way of you being able to follow Jesus with all your heart. Think of something like that. And then, try saying no to that thing, that attitude, that behavior for the time between next Sunday and Easter. And see what happens. See what you learn about how much faith and attachment you have in that thing you have said NO to. See how much power that thing you have turned your back on has on your life. Maybe it is an addiction you have struggled with. Maybe it a pleasure that is not necessarily wrong, but that you overindulge in. Maybe you want to give up TV for 50 days, or soda pop, or coffee. None of those things are necessarily sinful, but you will find you have invested more emotional and personal energy in them than you thought you did. Or maybe you don't think you can give up drinking alcohol or smoking forever, but you can try and do without it for 50 days. One year, I tried to give up self-deprecation and putting down myself for Lent, and fined myself whenever I put myself down verbally. I lost a lot of money that year until I learned how much I actually did that kind of thing and needed to stop. Think about what you can say NO to, so you can spend more of your life, time and energy saying YES to Jesus.