Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (2)

When you think of God’s rewards to us, what do you think of?

personal fulfilment?

your joy?

Eternal life?

Sure, true

look back story of salvation:

Israel, not just individuals

God’s kingdom

in OT earthly Jerusalem

in NT Kingdom of Heaven

sure, OT earthly everlasting life (bloodline),

but always turned to Israel

so in NT,personal eternal life,

but always turns to the kingdom of heaven

Nation, empire, kingdom is very central to the whole salvation story

to see that we must look at

how thru prophecy is announcing establishing a new kingdom

see our own desire for kingdom

Backstory

John arrested, disciples scattered

after Christ was killed, now we see Andrew and Peter back fishing

John’s job done, Christ: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand”

and he starts this with fishers of men

probably referencing Daniel 9, 2, and Jer 16.

Daniel is very hard to read without alot of study, but to sum it up, and what the religiously educated would have known at the time of Christ (unlike many contemporary scholars) based on the prophecies is this:

God is going to

establish a global kingdom

under the time of the Roman Empire and

will outlive and consume it,

will happen around what we now call the first century AD

as Jeremiah time stop talking about old exodus

“fishers of men” will first gather lost tribes israel

this bring all nations together

renounce fathers pagan gods as false

will know the God of Israel

talk of personal liberation?certainly,

focus a kingdom through new Exodus as israel thru old Exodus

For us

cry out kingdom of heaven like Jewish cried out for Israel?

central our view of Christianity as Christ taught?

or just individualistic?

we have patriotic zeal for the Church triumphant as exiles strange?

All but most self-absorbed desire empire, but often unfruitfully spilled out on secular earthly ones:

in a more humerous vein, heard men daydreaming about the Roman Empire or other great earthly kingdoms or eras

just look at the money and time spent on national politics in the US

Some look for it not in one nation but in an dominating globalist empire of earth

whether imagination, nation, or globalism, its all our desire for empire

The righteous want (ON ONE HAND) poverty alleviated and (on the OTHER HAND) sin purged

seeking an earthly government that will wipe out all sinful behavior or fix poverty is to seek what only heaven can do

to think these two goods can be fulfilled by an earthly government inevitably to greater evils.

think of the horrors of Marxism and sharia law

Is patriotism bad then?

by no means

and we should care about our earthly kingdoms,

but your real patriotic desire can only be fulfilled in God’s politic

so never sacrifice religion on the altar of politics

utopia means no-place, so to try and find it in an earthly place is a fools game

Conclusion

the time of fulfillment came, the kingdom is now building to its full revelation as its heavenly reality will eventually crash into the world of appearances, and

to this day the fisher of men have been signing up citizens for the final conquest

lets see to it that we are loyal subjects of that one and only real utopia which is eternal

Notes

Me

Back story of andrew in John, like backstory for kingdom of heaven

his kingdom, seen in who chosen, not go down to knowingly wise experts

we would be tempted think invention of well educated well connected elites

“My Kingdom is not of this world”

even the Church, most realized not in who successful it is earthly, but in the authority from on high

Came to preach empire

personal happiness (not secular) technology anti Christ

uplift poor (not secular) Marxist anti Christ

purity (not secular) HRE anti Christ

‘kingdom of God not really used in OT

probably clearly referring to Daniel

and God as real king

Commentators

Roman Catechism

kingdom of God refers to God’s providence

Theophylact

Peter and Andrew, disciples of John, now returned to trade after John in prison (me: did same thing when Christ died)

Bede

not lettered men, but fishers for his chief leaders to show power of God [Origen did this too]

Pitre

‘time is fulfilled’ 4th empire kingdom of God Daniel prophecy

Jeremiah 16:14–21 New exodus which will cause nations to renounce their false gods as nothing and renounce their ancestors deities’

new Exodus that will be more spoken of than old Exodus

fishers of men will find its members of lost tribe of Israel

hoping for new Exodus with John (river Jordan etc), and now arrested

1st reading:

called to repent like Jesus

submission to God