Will You Pass the Test?

Bible Verses

"Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand"

Isaiah 8:23-9:3; ,,; ,;

ILLUSTRATION

It was the last day before the football team of a large University was to play its biggest game of the season ...

Unfortunately, the head football coach had just received the troubling news that his star quarterback had been disqualified by the Dean for academic reasons. The coach went running to the Dean's office to protest and was informed that the student was caught cheating on an important exam. The coach demanded to know what evidence they had to prove the quarterback had cheated. The Dean explained, "Well, he sat right next to an 'A' student, the best student in the class, and on the first nine questions, his answers were identical -- word-for-word -- to the answers of the 'A' student." Not satisfied, the coach insisted, "That doesn't prove he was cheating. Maybe he really studied this time. Or maybe the 'A' student copied from him." The Dean answered, “I understand. I had the same concerns. But it was his answer to the tenth question that proved it. The 'A' student had written, 'I don't know,' and the quarterback wrote, 'I don't know, either.'"

Repeatedly in the Gospels, we discover the Good News of the kind of rich, full life God wants to give us. Because He loves us so much, in and through Jesus Christ, He has offered us the full life that we want, for ourselves and for those we love, and for all God's children. This is a gift from God. But the gift is only for those who are willing to pay the cost. And by cost, we mean that we must first pass a major test in order to receive the gift.

What, then, is the cost? What, then, is the test? Do I hear someone saying, "I don't know?" And do I hear someone else saying, "I don't know either?"

The truth is that most of us in this congregation do know the price we need to pay for God's gracious gift of wholeness of life. Which is not to say that we are always ready and willing to pay it. Consequently, the Lord Jesus is in our midst now, reminding us -- commanding us -- to pay the price. For, in today's Gospel Lesson, we read that at the very beginning of His public ministry, Jesus began His preaching with the message, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand" ().

Repent! That's it! That's the price to be paid if you are going to experience the Good Life, we all need and want.

Jesus is talking about the way we live our daily lives. Jesus is telling us that if there is anything in our daily living that prevents our being in union with God, we've got to change it!

If you claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ, if you claim to walk in the light of God's Love, and this is not reflected in the life you live you are a "liar." That's exactly the way the Apostle John lays it on the line in his First Epistle.

If we claim, in any way, even by coming to church each and every Sunday, to be Christ's men and women, and we don't show it in our daily living, we are lying by our very presence here. That may sound like pretty tough talk but, again, if we want to become the beautifully fulfilled persons God created us to be -- if we want this great gift of God to enrich our souls, we must be willing to meet the cost.

One of the words used in the New Testament for "repentance" means literally, "to change your mind." And, of course, it later came to mean to change your life -- as the result of your having changed your mind -- about God and about life.

The other word for repentance used over twenty times in the New Testament means, literally, "to turn around."

Both words are trying to tell us that there is a turning involved -- away from estrangement from God -- turning away from self-centeredness and turning toward union with the God of Love.

All of this means, of course, that we've got to take that deep inward journey of self-examination, to look at ourselves squarely in the soul, so to speak, and to admit the need for change in our daily living in order to draw ourselves into closer union with God.

Thomas Carlyle, the famous Scottish writer, and historian, once received a letter from a young person who wanted to become a teacher: "Mr. Carlyle, I wish to be a teacher. Will you tell me the secret of successful teaching?" Carlyle replied, "Be what you would have your pupils be. All else is unblessed mockery!" And that is precisely the method of authentic Christian teaching. What Jesus teaches us to be, He is. And the only way we can be sure we are "in union with Him," the Apostle John has written, is to "conduct ourselves as He did" (). Moreover, the only way we can conduct ourselves as He did, is to repent.

Again, in today's Gospel Lesson, before calling Simon Peter and Andrew and the others into His service, Jesus said, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" (). In other words, "To be My follower, to follow My teachings, to accept Me as your Model for living -- to embrace the New Life I am offering you -- to transform not only your religion but your whole life from routine to adventure -- you'll have to change -- radically change your ways.

"Reform your lives," cried out John the Baptist, and the people asked, "What ought we to do?" That was at the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. "Jesus is Risen" cried out the Apostle Peter, and the people asked, "What ought we to do?" That was after Jesus had risen from the dead and ascended into His Father's Kingdom. For Christians, the question is not "What ought we to do?" Rather, it is "When are we going to do it?" We know the Gospel Story. We know the teachings of Christ. We know the example He gave us...

Do you bless those who curse you? ()

Do you give to all who beg from you? ()

Do you do good to those who hate you? ()

Do you love your enemies? ()

Do you have compassion for others? ()

When you see a brother or sister in need, do you see Jesus? ()

"Reform your lives" means "Change in such a way as to make the doing of these things a matter of lifestyle -- your style of life."

A child’s view of the goodness of God and the beauty of God’s creation comes through the child’s parents. And if it isn’t coming through, it is being blocked by the parents. A mother who came to realize that this very thing was happening in her relationship with her baby daughter, has written a very moving account of how she changed all that:

I remember the day I had wandered so far away from God; I felt too weak to move. I couldn’t clean the house; I could barely wash myself and the baby. Finally, I couldn’t hide from it anymore; bitter depression set in. I tried to drag my withered spirit back to God, but my throat had become so parched that I could hardly speak to Him.

“God,” I begged, “I’m so weak. Help me! Feed me! Comfort me!” As the minutes wore on, my baby intruded on my struggling. “Not now, baby,” I whispered “Not now. Can’t you see I’m too weak to help you?” She began to cry. It was almost her dinnertime, but I didn’t care. At that moment, she was the enemy. God wasn’t helping me like I wanted Him to. I grew desperate. But I couldn’t give up. I needed Him! My baby would just have to wait.

“When she stops crying,” I said to myself, “I’ll pick her up.”

She cried for fifteen minutes. Finally, in her misery, she started to crawl away. And, finally, I realized my hypocrisy. Here I had asked God to comfort and feed me -- to show me His goodness -- yet I refused to comfort and feed my own child -- to show her God’s goodness through me.

I picked up my baby and held her close, and love flowed. God’s love flowed through me to her. As I fed my little girl her dinner, I began to feel strengthened. She became quiet now, but I began to cry -- and repent. -1

Repent! That's it! That’s the test! That's the price to be paid if you are going to experience the Good Life that God has intended for you all along.

Repent! And let God’s goodness flow into you and out to your brothers and sisters everywhere. When you do this, you will have passed the most important test of your life!

1- Beckwith, M., “Songs From the Heart,” (adapted).