Mark 1:14-20
Most of you will surely have no difficultly believing, I was, for the most part, a perfect angel as a child. Obedient, thoughtful, kind – etc. just ask me, I'll tell you. But there was this one time. It happened at church camp. My friend and I--surely operating under his influence--decided we didn't need yet another Bible study, that 2 one hour studies and 2 daily services plus nightly devotionals were enough. We decided that we would just skip and have our devotional thoughts in the woods (the woods which God made, the God which the preachers said was everywhere!) As this camp was in the Oklahoma mountains (oxymoron?), we could sneak off fairly easily and not be seen.

In fact the problem was not being seen, the problem, as it turned out, was in being found. For we got lost. We wondered around the wooded rock hills of Falls Creek encampment, until we were late for lunch. We did find our way back, but we were caught. We weren't late enough to cause alarm, just enough to be in trouble. And we were in a dilemma. We knew we couldn't tell the truth, and that we shouldn't lie. So we did what any self-respecting pre-teen would do. We didn't contradict the truth, we confused the truth. "Late? oh yea, but we didn't have a watch (true), and we saw one of the Bible teachers (true but not relevant) and also we were talking about last night's sermon and we lost track of time." OK, that was closer to a lie, but we knew if we could just throw enough facts out there, their might be a chance that the counselor would forget the fundamental fact: we were late.

There may be a number of reasons we humans, of whatever age, like to complicate truth. But the main motivation is that it's a great way to mask painful reality.

Complication tends to lessen our responsibility. If the motor is complex, with tubes running this way, wires going that way, and bright lights here, electronic gadgets there, then we can't fix it when it breaks down. We peak under the hood and say: "well, it's got to go to the shop. Only the experts can figure this out." And we blame the maker. It's too confusing. We point our fingers at the experts. They have the requisite knowledge. We're just hapless drivers, who wait in the lobby of the auto-shop.

This all fine when talking about a car. Not fine when talking about your life.
The simple truth of Jesus' message: "following me means two things: turning from, believing in." Mark 1:15 "The time has come, the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

When Mark writes the story of Jesus' life and ministry, he does not complicate. He presents us the essential elements of Jesus' message. There are no bells and whistles here. If Mark were making a car, you would have a motor, wheels, and a seat. Everything you need for transportation.

Kairos has come. The new time has arrived. He doesn't use chronos (this is not a point in chronology) but a point in experienced time, what we call now. The time is now. God is near. Repent and believe.

So here is the very first Christian 3 point sermon:
1) Know that the time that matters is now.
2) Turn from sin.
3) Believe in the good news: God forgives you and loves you.

The history of Christianity is the history of human beings--men mostly--trying to take this simple message and adding on complicating gadgets and complexifying machinery. Religious leaders are motivated to make the truth mysterious, so they have some ownership of it. They have some expertise, so the masses will need their help to fix their lives. And all of us are motivated to cast off our responsibility in this simple message, and sometimes we don't mind it getting complicated if it puts off true repentance. As Dostoyvesky said: there is nothing more fearful than freedom of conscious.

Repent = metanoia, a changing of the mind/heart which implies a changing of the will. This is the first thing that Jesus calls for.
The seconds is belief = this is not a mental assent, but a heart commitment. We are to believe in the way that a sitter believes in his seat, or a jumper in his parachute. In what? In the good news. We turn from the bad embracing the fact that God loves us.

This is what it means to be a Christian. There is here no creed, no implied study of the metaphysical nature of the Christ essence with the Father's Spirit. No concern for eschatological pnementalogy. Just a call to a two step dance.

I call it that, because just like a two step dance, this is an ongoing call to process. This is not step one, then step two – I'm done, I'm a Christian. This is a lifelong process--the renewing of our minds, and the believing in God's forgiveness and love.

I know that some of you find maps very complicated and difficult to read. I've never met a map I didn't like. I don't have difficulty reading them, and get frustrated with passenger seat navigators who do. Some months ago, I was reading a map at a computer, and giving directions to Cecelia over the phone. She was trying to follow my instructions. She made her first turn as I told her to, but then she claimed that the road was not where my map said it was. "Of course it's there," I said. "It's right here on the map--it's a mapquest map, it has to be correct." After some moments of exchange--where I was undoubtedly sounding less than pastoral--I realized I was looking at the map upside down.

You can have the best map in the world, but if you don't know which way is north, you're not going anywhere you want to go. You might have a flawlessly worked out Christology, a perfect knowledge of scripture, a degree in theology, but if you aren't oriented toward repentance and grace--then you've got a directionless map or a complicated machine that won't run.

Fundamentalists will tell you that they are making it simple by giving you a list of sins--sins for which you need to repent. But in truth this is to complicate what Jesus made easy. He gave no list. Repentance is not about a list, it's about a heart that recognizes its dark side.

There's a lot of stuff you can know and it can leave you unaffected. It's important to know that the earth is round, but unless you're planning some inter-space travel, it's not going to affect your life. It's important to learn algebra--kids--the reasons why we should all learn algebra are entirely too complicated for me to go into. But unless you are an engineer, algebra isn't going to transform your life. But the knowledge that someone loves you does not leave you unchanged. It's a simple thing to find out, it's a simple truth to understand, but it alters your world. The knowledge that God loves you, and has forgiven you, cannot leave you unchanged.