Change our Hearts

By Rev. Heather J. Blais, Rector

​Before Jesus’ public ministry began, he set out for Judea to be baptized by John. At his baptism, he has a transcendent experience of God. The Spirit then led him into the wilderness for forty days and nights. 

These experiences inwardly changed Jesus. He emerges from the wilderness - as we often do - with a clearer understanding of who he is, and more importantly whose he is - God’s beloved Child. Having accepted this truth, Jesus has fully embraced his ministry as the living embodiment of God’s reign of love. 

When Jesus returns to society, he does not go back home to Nazareth. Instead he moves to Capernaum and makes a new home in this fishing village by the sea. There he proclaims: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (4:17). 

The translation of the Greek word ‘metanoia’ to the word ‘repent’ stirs up conversation amongst commentators. While we understand ‘repent’ in English to mean remorse, sorrow, or regret, that definition is not in keeping with the meaning of the Greek word ‘metanoia’.* Nor does metanoia translate as ‘to turn around’, which is what the Hebrew word often translated as ‘repent’ means.* Rather ‘metanoia’, means something more akin to ‘change one’s mind’, or ‘change one’s heart’, or to ‘change one’s perspective.’*

Jesus’ proclamation may leave us wondering: What does it mean that the kingdom of heaven has come near? At the end of today’s gospel we see the meaning more fully:  “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people” (4:23).  This text goes on to say: “And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan” (4:25). 

In light of this, we might better understand Jesus’ proclamation to mean:
Change your hearts, for God’s healing reign of love has come near. 

As people experience Jesus and his ministry they are changed by God’s love. Very quickly there is an unstoppable movement of followers - and as we know even the cross, an instrument of torture and death - will not stop this Jesus movement. 


Seeing the urgency and the great need for God’s love in this world - then and now - makes it easier to understand why the disciples accept Jesus' invitation. Jesus said to them: “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people” (4:19) And they do. They leave their nets, their boats, even their families. Their hearts and minds have been changed by their encounter with the living embodiment of God’s reign of love and they are ready to spread the Good News. 

When we choose to be baptized or confirmed, when we reaffirm our faith as a follower of Christ, we generally do not need to walk away from our lives in quite the same way. Yet in committing our lives to help further God’s reign of love, we are expected to change our perspective, particularly from that of the dominant culture.  We are called to leave behind our ambitions, agendas, and egos; to surrender our will for God’s will; to forgo the patterns of selfishness and self-hatred. And then we are expected to do the wildest thing of all. We are called to love ourselves as God loves us, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Because love is the way God’s reign can be most fully known and experienced. 

There is one more piece of today’s text that is especially interesting. Matthew makes a point to remind his listeners that Galilee was once the ancient territory of Zebulun and Naphtali. A region which has a rich history as an ethnically diverse mix of Jewish and Gentile communities.* Those who called this region home were accustomed to living under Roman occupation, just as their ancestors living in the region endured Assyrian occupation.**The Assyrians exiled Israel’s leadership.*** Just as in Jesus’ time, Jewish leaders had to submit to Roman rule, if they were to continue in positions of leadership.***


Matthew goes on to quote the prophet Isaiah. In our lesson from the Hebrew scriptures, we get to hear this passage more fully:****

    “The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness--
on them light has shined…
For the yoke of their burden,
and the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian” (9:2,4).

God abides with them and will break the rod of their oppressor. This promise was a glowing ember for the people of Israel during Assyrian occupation. Just as the promise held during Roman occupation, and speaks truth to us even now. Assuring us that God is always with us, and willing our world, and us, to bend towards justice.
While Matthew draws upon Isaish to highlight the way these verses are fulfilled in Jesus, it may be more helpful to think of God’s fulfillment in stages:

• Beginning with the promise of God’s abiding presence, as described in Isaiah; 
• Embodied in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, as seen in Matthew; 
• Continuing with the Spirit’s movement in and through the Church and God’s world, as seen in Corinthians, and in our own lives. 

The work of bringing about God’s reign of love began in creation, and the work will go ever onward until time is no more. 

Because as long as there is mortal life, there will be death. And as long as such death remains, the threat of it will be used to dominate, control, and oppress others. As was seen in the Assyrian and Roman occupations, as was seen in Nazi Germany, and as we are seeing right now with ICE, Customs, and Border Patrol. Faith leaders will mark today as day 53 of ICE’s occupation of Minneapolis. 

Last night, the Rt. Rev. Craig Loya, offered more words of wisdom since those I shared last week. He reflects on the state of things, and shares how those living beyond Minnesota can help bring about God’s reign of love at this tender moment. He writes:

“Things are impossibly hard in Minnesota right  now. We are a state that feels under siege, and the people of this place are doing everything possible to resist…

“But there is also something much more powerful,  and not as widely reported, happening. We are mobilizing for revolutionary love. Vast networks of care, compassion, and solidarity, organized by churches to deliver food and supplies to those who cannot leave their homes. People are documenting the violence being used against us in a way that puts their own lives at risk. People are standing guard outside schools and daycares, and at bus stops to protect our children from real risks of harm.... A rich web of underground care and hidden love is taking deep root, and it’s amazing to think what fruit that might bear when this occupation ends…

“Minnesotans cannot do more than we are doing. Here are a few ways you can help. 

1) Please flood your US senators with appeals to not to further fund ICE, by rejecting a bill the US House has already passed. Please flood all your members of congress with calls for deescalation in Minnesota; for ICE, Customs and Border Patrol, and other federal agents to leave Minnesota now; and to write and pass legislation that requires proper and extensive training for all those working for the federal government in our states and local communities.

2) Organize peaceful demonstrations in your cities and communities…What is happening to us here is happening to all of America, and it is eroding the last remaining threads of our democracy. Minneapolis and Minnesota have been a model for the entire country over these past two weeks, with tens of thousands standing together in deep cold to peacefully protest the violence being used against us. 

3) You can help nurture the Diocese of Minnesota’s primary engine of underground care and subversive love by donating to Casa Maria, which is providing much-needed food, supplies, and community to those rightfully afraid to go about their daily lives amidst the violence…

“The greatest danger we face right now is not the very real threat to our safety. It’s not even the erosion of democracy. The greatest threat we face as a nation is the assault being waged on hope. We must not give in to despair. We must not be consumed by the very justified anger we feel. The only way hatred can be effectively resisted is doubling down on love. The only way darkness can be defeated is light. The only way the forces of death can be overcome is by embracing, every moment of every day, God’s unstoppable life.” *****

The revolution of love Bishop Loya describes in Minnesota reminds us what God’s reign of love looks like, and it is how perspectives and minds are changed. It is how God’s will helps us bend towards justice in the long moral arc of the universe. And more immediately, for those moved to do so, he has offered some concrete ways to take action in addition to our prayers.  As we prepare to head back out into a bitter cold world today, let us reflect with a greater sense of urgency than we might normally, what it means to embrace God’s unstoppable love, and to embody God’s reign of love right here, right now.  Amen. 

Scripture Text:
Isaiah 9:1-4 | Psalm 27:1, 5-13| 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 | Matthew 4:12-23

* Working Preacher Podcast, https://www.workingpreacher.org/podcasts/1065-third-sunday-after-epiphany-january-25-2026, accessed 1/24/2026. 

** Anna Case-Winters as quoted in The Christian Century, January 2026, “January 25 Third Sunday after the Epiphany”, p. 29. 

*** The Christian Century, January 2026, “January 25 Third Sunday after the Epiphany”, p. 29. 

**** Collin Cornell, Commentary on Isaiah 9:1-4, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-after-epiphany/commentary-on-isaiah-91-4-7, accessed 1/24/2026.

***** Craig Loga, Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/craig.loya, accessed 1/25/2026. 
Episcopal News Service story about it here. 
Donations can be sent to the address below or made here. 
ST. NICHOLAS EPISCOPAL CHURCH
& Casa Maria Food Shelf/Food Share
7227 Penn Ave S, Richfield, MN 55423

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