3^rd Sunday After Epiphany

January 22, 2006

Jonah 3:1–5, 10 / Mark 1:14–20

An Urgent Word

There’s an old saying, “Why do today what can be put off until tomorrow!”

No, wait. I think that’s supposed to be, “Why put off until tomorrow, what you can do today?”

I’m afraid the first version is often closer to the way I approach life. I admit. I am a procrastinator. Unless something is really urgent, I tend to put it off until tomorrow.

Now, a lot of times, that works out just fine because some of the things that get put off really aren’t important. We all have more to do than we can possibly get done. So putting off, or even ignoring some demands for the sake of others is simply a form of time management – as long as I meet my obligations and keep my promises. Right?

But on the other hand, who knows what windows of opportunity I may pass by and never get a chance to open again?

Life is a never-ending series of options and decisions. Events, circumstances and inner and outer voices are constantly putting choices before us – offering, demanding, inviting, challenging, requesting. Sometimes it’s hard to know what REALLY is urgent and what isn’t. And whose voice I should listen to.

In the readings for today, the voice that is speaking is God’s voice. God speaks to Jonah and, through Jonah, to the Ninevites; God speaks to the Corinthian church through Paul, and God speaks to some fishermen through Jesus.

In each instance, there is a sense of urgency that demands a response. Let’s take a closer look.

In the first reading, the first thing we hear is that, “The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, ‘Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you’.” Those of you familiar with the story of Jonah know that, the first time the word of the LORD came to Jonah, he didn’t just procrastinate, he simply refused. He bought a ticket on a boat headed not to Nineveh, but to Tarshish – away from the presence of the Lord.

But, in Jonah’s case, the LORD gave a second chance. After surviving a storm at sea and being thrown overboard and swallowed by a huge fish, riding around in its belly for three days and finally being thrown up on dry land, Jonah was ready to do the LORD’s bidding.

Then, the Ninevites heard the word of the Lord from Jonah’s lips: “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” Now there’s a sense of urgency. What if I told you, “On March 3, the whole town of Nauvoo and surrounding area is going to be destroyed because of all the bad things you people are doing here.” I’d be pretty surprised if anyone paid attention.

The Ninevites, however, responded immediately to God’s word. They believed God, we’re told, and they repented in a big way. And because they did, “God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.”

In the gospel, Jesus – who HIMSELF IS the Word of God made flesh – is proclaiming God’s word: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near, repent, and believe in the good news.”

The good news is that God was about to fulfill His promises to save His people – to restore the broken relationship between heaven and earth caused by sin. Through the work of Christ on the cross, God’s kingdom was about to break through.

We know that many people did respond to Jesus’ teaching, including a key group of 12 disciples who Jesus begins recruiting in the very next verses.

He saw Simon and Andrew on the job fishing and said, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” They responded without ANY procrastination or resistance. “Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

He went a little father, saw James and John, called them to follow and got a similar response. “And they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.”

That is so amazing – how they would just drop everything and completely change their lives to follow Jesus. Surely the Holy Spirit was at work. Jesus knew he had a short time to fulfill his mission and there was a definite sense of immediacy to his invitations, and a major transformation in the lives of those who responded.

Now, back to the second reading, which is actually forward in time about 20 years. Here, the Apostle Paul is speaking with some urgency to the church at Corinth – to people who had heard and responded to the good news of Jesus Christ and formed a community of believers.

After an introductory statement announcing that “the appointed time has grown short,” he tells the people to pretty much live in just the opposite way as they have been, closing with a reminder of the urgency of his message, “For the present form of the world is passing away.”

Paul is addressing problems in the church brought about by bad choices being made by believers who were not living out their faith in their daily lives.

At that time, the leaders of the early church believed the second coming of Christ would happen soon – certainly in their lifetimes, which added to the sense of urgency. But, as it turns out, Paul’s message is urgent for ALL believers at ALL times.

It’s as if he is saying to the Corinthians and to US here today: “You have been saved by grace – redeemed by the blood of Christ already in the here and now – freed from the bondage to sin. Why don’t your lives reflect that change?

“If you are not living in that awareness that Christ paid the price for your sins – that the Kingdom of God has come to earth IN YOU – that you are called to reflect God’s presence and advance God’s Kingdom – then, whatever you are doing, stop!

“Turn around, repent! And be prepared to do just the opposite if that’s where God’s call should lead you.”

There are three things I want to emphasize that stand out in all three of these readings:

First: God DOES speak to us – through the Scriptures, through the Holy Spirit, through the acts of others, and even through people like me standing here. God’s Word is alive in our midst.

Depending on where you’re at in your relationship with God, you may hear a different word than your neighbor, for God’s word meets us wherever we are.

Through the work of the Holy Spirit, a certain Scripture or comment or reading or song based on Scripture may jump out with a word for you: repent, listen, follow, come, go, love, believe, trust. God calls his children by name and speaks to us personally.

Second: God’s Word demands a response. Whatever the Word we hear, if we DON’T respond, like Jonah, God will continue to pursue us, but in the meantime, we are missing the opportunity to live in God’s loving presence and to be used by God to fulfill His mission.

Third: There is a sense of urgency to God’s call. By faith in Jesus Christ, we are headed for eternal life with God, where time doesn’t not exist in the way we know it here on earth. But HERE, time is passing and once a minute or an hour goes by, we can’t get it back.

People all around us are hungering and thirsting to know the Lord for the first time, or to be reminded of God’s love and forgiveness, to be called back to Jesus, to receive comfort and healing.

The message is urgent. God loves you, God forgives you and God needs you. Right now! Don’t delay. Respond.

And may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen!