"The Kingdom of God has Come Near"

Mark 1: 14 and 15 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." John was arrested - this could not have been good news to the ears of Jesus yet he continues his path to Galilee proclaiming the good news. He then said - the Kingdom of God is near; repent and believe. Last March all of us experienced our own bad news as we entered into a world-wide pandemic. Like John's arrest - the news of this pandemic was not good at all. I remember being immobolized for a while but thinking surely this will be over in no time so that we can all go back to our life as usual. It is now January 25th as I write this and we are still in it. Over 400,000 people have lost their lives, families are forever changed and many have lost their jobs and need assistance. Fractures in our society and great inequities have been revealed. Life will never be the same. Yet, what does it mean to hear the words of Jesus now to repent and believe in the good news? Thomas Keating often says that to repent is to change the ways in which we have been looking for happiness. These last 10 months have given me much time to reflect on how I have lived. What can I let go of that does not bring me happiness? Are there some old ways of living that no longer matter? Did I clutter up my time with things that served no purpose? Were there behaviors that I thought were fulfilling only to find that they were not? Mark's passage continues in verses 16 - 20 as Jesus begins to call his disciples. They left their old lives behind and immeddiately followed him. We too are being called in our time to follow Jesus in new ways. How will life be different now? If I am not careful, I may slip back to my old ways and forget the voice that said to leave all of that behind to follow him. As horrific as this time has been we have also been gifted. The two experiences of chaos and creation are never far apart. Perhaps there is no better time than now to reflect on the work of the Holy Spirit within us and ask yourself: *what have you lost? *what have you gained? *what can you leave behind? *how will you keep from bouncing back to old ways? I am actively doing this myself. I pray that as a community we share our gifts and support one anotherr as we live into the transformation that has occurred within us. The Kingdom of God has come near!