Mark 1:14-20
“Only a Matter of Time”
January 24, 2021
Timing is everything.
Those of you who are at least three quarters of a century old know that tomorrow you or someone you know with a computer will be trying valiantly to get a time scheduled for your COVID vaccine.
Computers don’t know your individual anxiety or your medical history.
Witnessing the process my own parents in New York State went through recently with 3 of my relatives working for over a week to get them a time for their vaccine, often coming up with times in April over 100 miles from their home, it was only with diligence and perseverance that my niece suddenly was able to get them a time yesterday only 30 minutes from their home.
In today’s passage from Mark, Jesus has just been baptized by John followed immediately by 40 days spent in the wilderness where Satan tried mightily to tempt him. John, his baptizer, has just been thrown into jail.
If we read Eugene Peterson’s version, he offers that Jesus preaches here saying, “Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message.” This is a different take on time. Not the minutes or hours on Monday attempting to get a vaccine appointment – as important as that is.
Rather, this time that Jesus is proclaiming, and living is God’s time and what is right in front of these 4 men pulled away from their boats is a life with a whole different perspective on time.
This will be Kingdom time as Jesus’ ministry takes off.
And that repenting – that call to change one’s life that Jesus is sending forth, that invitation to discipleship –
it is not so we can be ready for a time of redemption at some point in the distant future.
We have all that we need from God in this time.
It is only what we do with it that will shine forth the Kingdom of God. And yet if this Kingdom of God that Jesus ushered in is so wonderful, why is our world so bent on its own destruction in body, mind and spirit?
Are we just clueless?
Are we choosing to ignore the pain and suffering?
Maybe we are paralyzed with a sense of being overwhelmed? What will it take to answer yes to the call that God is still offering us to be disciples?
Maybe we need a little less routine and predictability and a little bit more shaking us out of our comfort zones.
This is a great reading for this Annual Meeting Sunday when we will soon consider where this most unusual past year has taken us and where we are going in the year to come as the church of Jesus Christ.
Is there a question we should be answering yes to with new energy, dropping the nets of safety and security in favor of an opportunity to act on the knowledge that we are dwelling in a Kingdom that we are a crucial part of creating?
What will church look like when we once again move back into our buildings?
How will we stay connected with those of you, who because of distance or life circumstance, will need us to find a way to include you on Sunday mornings as well as in other events and opportunities in the life of this church?
What have we done with this “time” of doing church differently and what lessons have we learned from it?
We heard today in the Gospel lesson about four men who made the choice to walk into the light and follow Jesus.
They left the safety and security of their nets which represented a way of life they knew and had, at least we know for James and John, been passed down as the family business.
They are answering a call that comes on the heels here in Mark’s gospel account of Jesus’ pronouncement that the Kingdom of God has arrived. It is here. There is a new world order and life will never be the same again.
We have a unique opportunity in this new time to forge a new path that balances the beauty and strength of the church we have known with a chance to look to the future boldly and forge a path that recognizes our changing world.
Jesus announces that what it will take is both repentance and a belief in the good news. This is a bold statement and gets those fishermen then, and all of us now, ready for something different. No more business as usual.
This radical pronouncement calls for dramatic action – answering a call.
The good news shared demands action, a response, a stepping up to the plate.
We would be right to assume, I believe, that in choosing working class men who made their living with their hands and the strength of their backs, they were not selected because they had special intellectual abilities.
They certainly were not chosen for their status or wealth.
This is a huge part of Jesus’ message.
Common, hardworking, everyday people, regardless of wealth or earthly status, are called to follow.
Saying yes to this risky endeavor may seem like a long shot, but I am guessing that as with all strong calls that come from God, resistance is futile.
It would be more difficult to say no, although all practical experience would indicate otherwise.
The timing may have seemed, at first blush, to be lousy for these men, who had to walk away from a decent living and family and community, but we must bear in mind that what we’re talking about here is God’s time.
God was retaking God’s own world back and Jesus was there to do it. Of course, Jesus would face a lifetime of resistance because he was upsetting the order that life under Herod had fallen into. Herod had rebuilt the impressive temple of Jerusalem. He had constructed great cities as a way of kissing up to Caesar Augustus. The powers that be in Jesus’ time were heavily staked on this earthly dominion.
Jesus on this day calls these four new disciples to help spread his message that there is no use for the old system. These four men and the eight others, together, would take a chance with Jesus that would be a threat to their very lives. This call is so important, though, that any chance of personal danger is worth the risk. They must abandon the old ways for a new way has arrived.
What will we embrace in this new time, God’s time?
What will we let go?
God is at work in us, still, through all the hard stuff that has been thrown in our way.
May 2021 AD, anno domini, which after all means the Year of the Lord, be our time to turn challenge into opportunity for all our sakes and for God’s sake. Amen.