Isaiah 8:23-9:3-1 
1 Cor. 1:10-13, 17 
Matthew 4:12-23 

Bishop Untener's Homily

The first two chapters in Matthew's Gospel tell the story of the birth of Jesus. The third chapter introduces John the Baptist. Then in the fourth chapter - from which today's reading is taken - Matthew begins the story of the public ministry of Jesus. Matthew summarizes the whole ministry of Jesus in one sentence: “From that time on, he began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

The Jewish people had long been waiting for a messiah who would restore the kingdom of Israel. They once were a great kingdom - back in the glory days of David and his son Solomon a thousand years before Jesus. That kingdom was no more. After the death of Solomon it had split in half - the north and south - because of a civil war. Then, seven centuries before Christ the northern kingdom was overrun, and it was no more. Five centuries before Christ the southern kingdom was lost, and from then on Israel was ruled over by one country after another, and this is the way it was at the time of Jesus.

So, they looked for the day when a messiah would come, someone sent by God who would restore the once proud kingdom of David, and make it even greater than it was, stretching all the way from Egypt in the southwest all the way up and over to modern-day Iran. All the enemies surrounding Israel would be conquered, and it would be a time of great prosperity.

But Jesus didn't preach the kingdom of David. Matthew says: "From that time on, he began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." This is what Jesus would talk about over and over - the kingdom of heaven, which he sometimes referred to as the kingdom of God. When Pilate asked Jesus, "Are you a king?" Jesus replied: "My kingdom is not of this world." 

What is this "kingdom of God"? It is the ultimate victory over evil - physical evil and moral evil. It is the elimination of all evil from this universe.

There was then, and there is still today, evil all around us. Sickness, for one thing. Death, for another. There were also storms that ruined crops, sank ships. Or, there were droughts, when the heavens were shut tight and no rain fell. There was moral evil too - robbery, cruelty, hatred.

In Jewish thought at the time, all of these "evils" were attributed directly to Satan. It was Satan who ruled over the kingdom of evil, and he wielded great power causing storms, sickness, death, and also causing people to sin.

This is the kingdom Jesus came to take on. The stage was set: The kingdom of God versus the kingdom of Satan. It was good against evil, light against darkness.

This is what Jesus had come to preach and to make happen. "From that time on, he began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." What do we see him do in the rest of the Gospel? He calms the storm on the Sea of Galilee. He casts out demons. He cures sick people. He brings the dead back to life. He forgives sinners. When the disciples asked him how to pray he said, "When you pray say: "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come . . ."

It would be a long process, but the coming of Jesus marked a great turning point in the struggle against darkness and evil. Jesus used the parable of the mustard seed that is so tiny but grows into a great plant. He used the parable of a little bit of yeast that makes a whole batch of dough rise. Yes, it would be a long process, but now there is a power in this world, a power in each of us, that can carry the day against evil. As St. Paul wrote years later: "Where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more."

Jesus has breathed his Spirit upon us, and we are engaged day by day to plant the seeds of goodness in our world, and gradually to overcome evil, and to help build "the kingdom of God."

It's that simple. And it's that colossal.

I close with this. The key to happiness and to a sense of fulfillment, whatever the circumstances of your life, is this: To know you're part of this great enterprise of God, and to enjoy being part of it. It's true, and I'll illustrate it with a true story.

Two years ago I spent a day working on a Habitat House. Now it's no small thing to build a house. But you don't do it alone. People with all kinds of skills, and people with no skills join together in the project.

I showed up on the site, and they must have had an intuition about my skills as a carpenter, plumber, or electrician, because do you know what they assigned me to do? Well, there was this truckload of dirt that had been dumped on the site, and they needed the pile of dirt moved by wheelbarrow from one part of the site to the other, and my job was to stand there and shovel the dirt into wheelbarrows. All day. That's what I did - shovel dirt.

And do you know what? I enjoyed every minute of it. Not that shoveling dirt is a barrel of laughs. I enjoyed it because I knew that I was part of this great project. I was helping to build a house for someone who didn't have a good house. I was helping to build a house in a neighborhood that was run down, and this would help to make that neighborhood a better place. I enjoyed it also because I was doing this together with a lot of other people, and even though many of us had never met before, there was a good spirit in the air.

So I say to you, whatever your age and whatever the circumstances of your life, even if they seem meaningless and monotonous: Know that you are part of something magnificent. If you bring to your day some goodness, if you bring to your day some light - if only through a smile - you are part of this colossal good work that is God's good work. Know that it's more than just "shoveling dirt." You are sharing with the Lord, and with his disciples around the world, in building the kingdom of God.

Originally given on January 27, 2002