How each Evangelist begins his account of the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Saviour is something to study. In Mark’s account, after his description of S. John Baptist fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah, Jesus immediately comes on the scene: first to be baptized by John, and then immediately to speak. And Christ’s first words in Mark’s account are a calling. He is calling us to repent. For Mark, then, this is the character of all of Christ’s preaching: the call to repent and believe in the Gospel, because the Holy Spirit is at hand. Christ calls us to repeat, and I want to reflect on His calling of us, because Christ calls His people to Him not once, in history nearly two thousand years ago, that is, this moment in Mark and never again. Rather, we are always being called by Jesus, throughout our whole life.
Let us marvel in wonder at this: because the fact that Jesus Christ calls us is truly an incredible thing. I am not sure, but I wonder, if that is something taken for granted by Christians; and I wonder if that is something Christians truly believe happens to them. Christians in the historic-sacramental traditions, such as our Anglican/Episcopal tradition, perhaps tend to think of being called as applying to mainly to clergy – thinking along the lines of “yes, I imagine our priest felt he was called by God to this ministry; but to be called is something for the deacons, priests, and bishops of the Church. God calling lay people, God calling me, God calling members of my family or my friends. Oh, maybe – but I do not really understand how that works.” Such perhaps goes the common thinking on God calling people, and if that is the case, it would not be their fault, but rather the fault of priests not teaching about how Christ calls regular people.
Yet our Collect is unambiguous on this issue. We pray today to God: “Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Saviour Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of His salvation, that we and all the whole world may perceive the glory of His marvelous works.” Our Collect expresses the doctrine that all Christians are called by Jesus Christ. And this is an ancient doctrine of the Church, for we see it already in our Epistle today, where Saint Paul writes to us saying, “Let every one lead the life which the Lord has assigned to him, and in which God has called him.” It could not be clearer: all Christians should lead the life God called them to lead. Even that God has assigned to us a particular life, and this life which is assigned is His calling upon us.
Notice again how this teaching emphasizes the power of Jesus Christ: His power of calling us, across all conditions of time and space: Christ Who is ascended to the Right Hand of God in heaven, from beyond all conditions of time and space calls us: He reaches out to us, and calls us each by name, as He called S. Mary Magdalene at the tomb on Easter morning. And, as we have been reflecting upon this Epiphany season, His calling of S. Mary Magdalene is part of a whole sequence of calling disciples in the New Testament. Our Gospel passage relates S. Mark’s account of the calling of S. Peter, A. Andrew, and the brothers S. John and S. James. And the power of Jesus Christ in these moments recorded in the New Testament invites us to marvel today at Our Lord’s charisma to turn each of the disciples lives toward a new direction: that new direction being toward Him.
Our understanding of what it means to be called by Jesus begins of that same sort of dynamic: of being called to a new direction in life, that new direction being toward Christ. This is what the word “repent” means. Repent means to turn toward Christ by means of the Holy Spirit. It means to turn toward God in the beginning of our life of discipleship; it means to turn toward God in the middle of our life of discipleship; it means to turn toward God at the end of our life of discipleship in this world, when we die and begin the next leg of our journey. To turn toward Christ is to turn away from something: to turn away from the Devil, the world under the control of the Devil, and from our selfish desire (what Paul calls the flesh). Christ’s call upon us to repentance is therefore a very practical thing. We are called to turn toward Him, and away from what is not of God, in the choices we make day by day. We are called to choose not the power of the flesh, the power of the word and the power of the Devil, but to choose the power of Jesus Christ Our Lord and Saviour.
This is how we can see that the whole of being a Christian man or woman is a life of repentance. The whole of being a Christian man or woman is a life of turning toward Jesus Christ – a life of recognizing the supreme power of Jesus Christ and accepting His invitation to turn toward Him; and in so doing be changed, be transformed, be enlightened by the Light of the world, that we may conceive the holy Jesus in our hearts, and may bear Him in our mind, and may grow up to the fullness, of the stature of Christ, to be finally perfect in Christ Jesus.
My dear brothers and sisters, repentance is the character of Christianity. This is the deepest meaning, perhaps, of S. Mark beginning His Gospel account with these words from Jesus Himself: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the Gospel.” Mark wants us to know that living a Gospel-based life day in and day out, month by month, year by year, decade by decade, is always repentance: is always choosing to turn toward Jesus Christ. The Devil and his minions fight to tempt us toward a different choice: of turning not to God, but to self-gratification, of making choices that do not give the honor and obedience due to Christ, but instead give honor and obedience to the base desires of the flesh. Let us recognize and celebrate the teaching of our patron S. Paul that to follow Christ’s call is true freedom, and to be free in Christ is to be His servant, even slave of Jesus. Yet to be in Christ is to be a new creation, transformed more and more to be like Him. Let us marvel in wonder and gratitude and astonishment: He who took our flesh entirely for our sake, calls us to Him, that we may always recognize Him as our Master: Who together with His Father without beginning and the life-giving Spirit, reigns now and for ever and unto unending ages. Amen.
On Being Called by Jesus Christ