Mark 1:14-15 (NRSV)
Read Mark 1:14-15 on biblegateway.com
Verse 14Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, Verse 15and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."
Devotion
When I was a child, the Saturday Evening Post came every week. One of the stock cartoon figures was the lonely doomsayer walking the city streets wearing a sandwich board that read, "REPENT OR PERISH!" Very funny, we all thought. Yet, how many times is "Repent or Perish!" just exactly the message we need? The secretive addictions, out-of-control compulsions, self-destructive habits, let alone the casual neglect of prayer and worship. All of them root us in the Old Eve/Adam against whom repentance (Christ's metanoia—Mark's word—rather than our paranoia) is the only sure antidote. Fear can work, but how much more lively is our renewal when it is not the threat of doom but the dawning of God's new day that's calling us forward.
Prayer
Deliver us, Holy Lord, from self-deceitful complacency so that we may hear your good news as if for the first time. Amen.