January 22, 2012
It's Time
- Mark 1:14-20
- Rev Ruth Chadwick Moore
Mark is our shortest gospel. The gospel writer doesn't waste very many words. But he says so much in just sixteen short chapters. Our gospel lesson for today is just seven verses long, but I could preach at least seven sermons from those sentences. Mark's style is both simple and superconcentrated. Whole sermons could be preached from a short phrase or even a single word.
When you study scripture using the ancient practice of lectio divina, you read a passage over and over again and see which phrases jump out at you. Here are the phrases that stuck in my mind from this passage; "now after John was arrested," "the time is fulfilled," "the kingdom of God has come near," "repent and believe," "they left their father," or even just the word "immediately." Attending to the words of this passage involves attending to the time of the gospel and to the issue of time itself. It's like the gospel is an alarm clock that persistently blares out the time and demands a response to it.
The time is right after John the Baptist has been arrested. And Jesus begins his ministry by announcing that "the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near." "Fulfilled" seems to suggest that something is accomplished, finished, or brought to completion. And yet the gospel story is just beginning! How do we understand the gospel message that God's kingdom is near and fulfilled when we just got finished with the season of waiting and praying for Jesus to come? Boy that was quick – we wait, we hope, we pray and then bam Jesus is here and the time has been fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near. But if the time is fulfilled, shouldn't the kingdom of God be fulfilled also?
I think this is what Mark is so good in helping us understand. God's promised future is both now and at the same time not yet. We comfort ourselves with assurances that the divine help we hope for is already present; because we trust that God will make everything right at the end, and yet everything is right already. In the mystery of time, at least from God's perspective, the past, the present and the future are collapsed. They are all one to God. And then we – who are bound by space and time – try to have a relationship with this God who is eternal and not bound by time. The only way I can figure out this confusing now, but not yet complete theology of Christianity is to think of it this way. We stand upright with our feet firmly planted in the present – that's where we live our lives. But we also stretch out one arm to grasp our heritage – our past and we stretch out the other arm to lay hold of our hope in the future. So standing like this we assume the shape of the central symbol of our faith – the cross. If either hand releases its grip, spiritual disaster threatens as the sign of the cross becomes deformed.
To state it differently, both the past and the future are in some sense always being brought into our present experience. So yes Jesus has come, the time is fulfilled just like the past stories of our faith told us would happen. Our salvation is here in the person of Jesus Christ. And with the coming of Jesus the kingdom of God in all its glory is evident. Whenever and wherever Jesus was active, the time was fulfilled and the kingdom present. And whenever the gospel is preached the reign or kingdom of God draws near to those who listen, calling for a decision. But the kingdom will not be complete until the end of time as we know it. So it's no wonder that the language of faith relies heavily on ambiguity and paradox. But the time is at hand, the time is fulfilled, no matter how confusing this "now, but not yet" theology of Christianity can be. Kairos, or God's time, is always at hand and it is always being fulfilled.
Maybe the way we can understand God's time is through this passage and who Mark tells us Jesus is. The one we waited for in December has come and "the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near." So Jesus does not just announce the time. He fulfills it, in word and in flesh. And with his presence and his ministry we get a glimpse of what the kingdom of God is like.
And Jesus then calls people to respond to this kingdom. Because the time is fulfilled, Jesus calls us to "repent and believe in the good news." Because the kingdom of God has drawn near, Jesus calls disciples to follow him and be made into fishers for people. These are not just ethical imperatives for the disciples or for us, but this is the response we are asked to make to the fullness of time made present in Jesus Christ. Repenting, believing, following and fishing – these are the actions that keep time with God's work of redemption, salvation and grace.
Let's explore this temporal order just a little bit more closely, because its order is so different than the way we do many of our church programs and participate in personal devotions. We don't repent in order to usher in the time of redemption, but because that time is already at hand. We don't become fishers of people in order to meet a quota that will usher in the kingdom of God, but because that kingdom has already come near. And we don't follow Jesus because we hope that we'll find him one day, but because he has already come and called us. As Mark tells the time, God takes the initiative. The kingdom or reign of God is not the product of discipleship, but is the precondition of it. What do you think our church programs and individual lives would look like with that sense of time?
But going back to the beginning of this passage – John the Baptist has just been arrested and he's not going to get out of that alive. We heard in the passage from Jonah that Nineveh is on the verge of divine destruction. And what about the difficulties created by Mark's sense of time? If the time is fulfilled, how come history and present world issues seem like one disaster after another? If the kingdom of God is at hand, why bother taking care of anything or anyone in this age? And how are we supposed to keep time with a redemption that is both already present and yet is still on the way? These questions have been with the church for centuries, but they are especially worth thinking about when there is so much talk of the "end times."
The call of the first disciples grows out of Jesus' announcement of the time. In calling these fishermen to discipleship, Jesus is not just asking them to add one more task to their busy lives. He is calling them into a new way of being. Jesus is inviting these men, and Jesus is inviting us, to turn from our old life and embrace the new one he has to offer. When these men leave their nets they are leaving a way of life, they are leaving their families, they are leaving the town they grew up in – all the stuff of a new identity.
Verse 17 of this passage is translated in the NRSV version of the bible as, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." This makes it seem that fishing for people is a task, something else you are required to do. But if we following the original Greek translation more closely, it says," Follow me, and I will make you to become fishers for people." This translation makes fishing for people a new identity. "I will make you fish" is just one more activity to put on the calendar. (Ok, Jesus, I will fish for people. How about the second Tuesday of the month? Can anyone else do second Tuesdays?) But "I will make you to become fishers," – that promises a whole new life.
So if discipleship, which is part of the good news that Jesus is preaching, is not just a task, but more of an identity, what does that look like for you? What does it mean to be made fishers for people? If that is a statement about identity, then it must mean more than just coming to church on Sunday morning or participation on a church team or committee. If we can take Jesus at his word – that if the disciples follow him, he will make them to become fishers for people – then the story of the disciples shows us what fisher's lives look like. The disciples find themselves astounded at Jesus' teachings. They witness the rebuking of unclean spirits, the healing of sick people, and the cleansing of lepers. They invite us to see God's mercy, grace, pardon and second chances in the way Jesus teaches and interacts with people. Fishing – even for people – involves more than the act of casting nets and pulling in the catch. There is also the preparation, the mending of nets, and the repairing of the tools that are bound to be damaged in the process of fishing. You can't always be fishing, even it that's your favorite part!
Jesus and his disciples are active agents in leading people to experience the presence of the kingdom of God. The mission of Jesus and his disciples begins at the right time – the time when God signal's his divine intention finally and definitively to take control of this world from the powers of evil. And God in Jesus invites us to participate in this near by but not fully realized kingdom in a tangible way – by becoming fishers of people. The rest of this gospel, which will discuss over the next few weeks, offers to us a testimony to the inbreaking of the kingdom of God through Jesus' powerful words and deeds.
I know this theology of the kingdom of God and the use of non-linear time is very hard to grasp. To understand it better, you might want to read this sermon sometime so you can listen to the ideas again. But you know we hear all the time that "the time is at hand." And the specific prophesies that go along with that warning from people are often wrong. But it is true that the time is at hand. But that time is God's time. And God's time is and has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. God's time is always at hand. It is always the time to turn and freely choose new life in Christ. So no matter how desperate or difficult things may seem in our world, God's time is at hand and we are all invited to be a part of God's work. You are being invited to follow Jesus and to become fishers for people. How will you respond?
Resources:
Most of this sermon was prepared using the Theological, Pastoral, Exegetical and Homiletical Perspectives from Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol. 4, Third Sunday of Epiphany
Sojourners Magazine – January 2012, "Living the Word."