(A summary of the sermon given at St.Paul &St.Peter’s church, Houston on June 23, 2019)
Today we heard from Matthew’s Gospel the story of Jesus sending his disciples with the good news -- the Kingdom of God is at hand. I have always wanted to know the meaning of the good news proclaimed by Jesus, and recently I have got a very clear understanding of what it means. This is what I am going to share with you now.
In order to understand Jesus’ good news, we need to live in the time and place of Jesus. Although we are far removed from Jesus’ time, we may imagine that we are living at that time and place. Let us imagine that we live in the fist century Israel, and we are among the people who listened to Jesus’ good news.
People had an extremely miserable life there. That place was occupied by the Romans, and under their rule, the Jews had no freedom to live a normal life as they wanted. Their economic situation was very bad, as they had to pay taxes to the Romans in addition to the temple tax. Many of them sold themselves into slavery. There were robbers everywhere, and life was not safe. Contagious diseases spread, and there were lepers everywhere. There were also mentally ill people everywhere, who were thought demon-possessed.
The people believed that they were in such a miserable situation because the world had been ruled by Satan. They had a story that originally Satan was a good angel, who turned evil by rebelling against God. They hoped and prayed that God would soon appoint a new ruler in place of Satan, whom they called the messiah, the anointed.
It is in this context that Jesus proclaimed the good news that God was going to take over the rule of the world from Satan. People were excited to hear the news. They approached Jesus for more details. They wanted to know if the messiah would come in the clouds, if he would do a judgment, and who would be on the right side of the messiah at the judgment.
Jesus made it clear to them that God was already ruling the world. If the people were under the rule of Satan, God was not to blame for it. They were free to remain under Satan’s rule or to escape from there and be under God’s rule. Jesus made his idea clear with the story of the Prodigal Son. He left his Father and worked under a cruel master. When he realized his mistake, he left this master and ran toward his father. He was not kept in bondage by his master. He was free to leave. God, our heavenly father, is like his father, and Satan is like his cruel master. We are always free to leave Satan and go to our heavenly father, who is always willing to accept us.
In order to turn to his father, he needed to have two primary realizations of his father. He needed to realize that his father was right and he was wrong, and also that his father loved him unconditionally. We need these two realizations of God for us to turn to God.
1. We need to realize that God loves us, and God has nothing against us. God is willing to forgive us the worst crimes. God is always there with stretched arms to receive us.
2. We also need to realize that God is the only one who is always right, good and holy, for God is the only one who knows everything. We, with our limited knowledge, do mistakes. If we realize this we will be willing to admit our mistakes and seek forgiveness. We will also be willing to forgive others.
The prodigal son was willing to admit his mistakes, justifying his father, but his older brother justified his mistakes placing the blame on his father.
In the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they had the option to say sorry. But instead they justified themselves and put the blame on others. God, you are wrong,and I am right! That is how Adam said. The prodigal son said in the other way: father, you are right, and I am wrong.
In our Kauma, we say Holy art thou O God, and then we say, Lord have mercy on us sinners. Like the prodigal son we also admit that God is right (holy) and we are sinners (wrong).
The realization that God alone is holy helps us to seek forgiveness and also forgive others. When we admit our mistakes, and forgive others, the world will transform to heaven-- a place of love, joy and peace.
May God bless us to transform our families, our communities, our workplaces, and our world into heaven!
