In his commentary on the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, Robert P. Carroll writes that “it is possible to see in the early chapters of Jeremiah a theological handling of . . . disaster which . . . is to write off the past and everything associated with it and to call the contemporary generation to devote itself to Yahweh [. . . to devote itself to the Lord God Almighty] (Robert P. Carroll, Jeremiah, The Old Testament Library; Philadelphia:  Westminster Press, 1986, p. 118).  . . . And sure enough, today we hear Jeremiah say to the sons of Israel (on God’s behalf); . . . we hear Jeremiah say,

If you return, O Israel, says the LORD, . . . [i]f you remove your abominations from my presence . . . and if you swear, “As the LORD lives,” in truth, in justice, and in uprightness, then nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.

The Lord God Almighty tells the sons of Israel that if they will simply write off the past and everything associated with it; . . . if they remove their abominations from God’s presence; . . . if they no longer bring to mind and dwell upon the things that alienate them from God; . . . if the sons of Israel will reconcile themselves with God, . . . then not only will they, the sons of Israel, benefit from lives that are in harmony with the Sacred, . . . but everyone around them shall benefit as well:  “the nations shall bless themselves in the Lord God Almighty,” . . . Jeremiah says.

    Now, . . . consider the Gospel Lesson which has just been read to you.  . . .

Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God [Saint Mark says]; Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel.”

. . . “Repent, and believe in the gospel.”  The customary interpretation for that word “repent” is that we are being commanded to stop doing sinful things.  . . . But in light of what Jeremiah has shown us today, . . . perhaps Jesus is appealing for us to do something else.  Perhaps Jesus wants us to consider that if the Lord God Almighty is exactly that, . . . almighty, . . . then perhaps everything is exactly as He is willing to permit it to be for the sake of Creation’s best possible outcome; . . . that the time is fulfilled.  . . . And if we cannot accept and honor that, but must blame God when things seem to go in a direction we decide to be wrong, . . . or if we think of God as being ignorant of human needs and must give Him prayerful instructions for fear He won’t “get it right,” . . . then perhaps what Jesus means by “repent” . . . is to be reconciled with God; . . . perhaps what Jesus means by “repent” is that we permit in our hearts the possibility of the Lord God Almighty’s competence; . . . that we permit in our hearts the possibility of our own ineptitude at giving God instruction; . . . the possibility that we have (as Jeremiah puts it) perverted our ways because we have forgotten the true Nature of the Lord God Almighty.

    And so, Jesus comes into Galilee, saying, “The kingdom of God is at hand; everything is precisely as God desires to allow it to be, and so, be reconciled to God’s gracious reign . . . and believe the Gospel.”  . . . Because, you see, Jesus lived in a most cruel and vicious time; . . . a time when His nation and God’s people were dominated by a foreign, mercenary army and governed by an unsympathetic government, completely uninterested in the civil or religious rights of the people they ruled.  . . . If ever there was a time for the Lord God Almighty to rain down fire upon the oppressors of His people; . . . if ever there was a time for the Lord God Almighty to raise up a Messiah to command the swords both of men and of angels in order to establish justice, defeat cruelty, imprison tyrants, and create worldwide peace . . . it was in the time just after John the Baptist was arrested.  . . . And yet, what does Jesus do?  . . . He gathers to Himself an Ecclesia:  a community of disciples; . . . He gathers to Himself a church.  And what does Jesus tell His church to do?  . . . He tells us that we are citizens of God’s gracious reign which He (Jesus) brings into the presence of humanity . . . and that in the midst of cruelties and injustice and terrorism and wickedness of every kind; . . . in the midst of things that are beyond our understanding . . . we must be reconciled to God.  And, instead of instructing God or slitting throats in His Name, we must write off our disappointments . . . and handle the present disasters of human history by manifesting God’s reign; . . . we must handle the present disasters of human history by doing the seven sacred and merciful works that the Lord God Almighty Himself does; . . . we must handle the present disasters of human history by feeding the hungry, . . . giving drink to the thirsty, . . . welcoming the stranger, . . . clothing the naked, . . . caring for the sick, . . . visiting those in prison, . . . and burying the dead.  . . . Jesus tells His disciples, “Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men.”  . . . Or, as the prophet Jeremiah reports, . . . the Word of God declares that, “if you swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in uprightness, then nations shall bless themselves in him”; . . . in other words, if you will be reconciled to God and act accordingly, . . . if you will “count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus” (to quote Saint Paul) . . . and live lives that are devoted to the worship, love, and service of the Lord God Almighty . . . then you will, by God’s grace, teach the rest of the world to be reconciled to Him, . . . and everyone around you shall benefit.  Your sacred lives shall become precisely what the Lord God Almighty desires them to be:  a blessing to all peoples, . . . and a pathway into the Presence of Christ.