THE TIME IS HERE and NOW!
Psalm 25: 4-9
MARK 1: 14-20
January 24, 2021
This week in numerous places I heard the phrase “It’s Time to Grow Up.”
Now, that might seem like something a parent would say to their teenagers who are slouching in the sofa or focused on living life for the sake of video games but the concept of growing up … to be an adult … to live life the way life should be lived … is a concept that all too many adults here in the 21st century have forsaken … In fact, adults were the subject of this week’s assignment … “IT’s TIME TO GROW UP.” And, frankly I think that is a call to adults of all age groups because so many adults have been latching onto junior high school behavior over these last few years rather than living as thoughtful adults with a purpose. As adults who care for all of their neighbors and who seek the common good for all, which is after all an adult virtue that teenagers have to learn.
And, when it comes to our walk with Jesus Christ all too many Christians have chosen the easy out … the sofa or the lounge chair or they have blocked out the messages that God clearly presents about living life so yes, Christian friends and members of the greater St. Paul’s church family around the globe … in these moments on the fourth Sunday of 2021 it is time to grow up … I want you to consider whether this is the time to discover or perhaps rediscover the person you are meant to be … the person I am meant to be … for God … for Jesus Christ … and to adapt our lives so that we are always welcoming to the Holy Spirit as our guide. The time is most definitely here and now!
We heard today about the call of Simon soon to be known as Peter and of his brother Andrew. Jesus … Scripture teaches us was just passing alongside the Galilee Sea and He called out to those fisherman saying, “Come, follow me … I’ll show you how to fish for people.” Right away they followed Him and they left their livelihood … they left their nets behind. Mark writes, ‘’after going a little further he saw James and John … Zebedee’s sons. They were repairing nets alongside their father. He called them …’ and James and John became disciples and followers of the Son of God. Soon many others would discover the Messiah and follow Him.
Friends, Jesus had not yet become the miracle worker we know Him to be. Jesus had not yet faced down the religious leaders of His time by standing up for justice … the lessons of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son had yet to be told. Jesus’ repeated admonition to love God and love all of their neighbors had not been spoken. Jesus had not gone to the cross … He had not died there but then been resurrected so they did not follow Jesus because HE IS RISEN … they just knew in what they saw in Jesus that Jesus mattered more than their work …. In James and John’s case they actually left their dad in the boat with the hired workers … they knew that the time was here and now to do more than just acknowledge that Jesus was there before them … they chose to actually follow Him.
There is truly a difference between acknowledging someone … you know, when you admit that someone has a presence that you have noticed and perhaps you even know something about who they are … that is not the same as changing your life because … what you have discovered is so powerful and amazing that when you start to consider your options seriously … you know you have to change. You just have to.
Last night, I was watching an early Bogart movie, ‘The Black Legion.’ In that 1937 film Humphrey Bogart’s character has to make several life altering decisions. Now, this is a spoiler alert … but at the end of the movie Bogart’s character Frank Taylor has decided to just go along with what he was being told to do and he even was lying in court to fit in with others. Until he sees his wife’s face; the truth countering his own plans shone back at him. That was Frank Taylor’s ‘The Time is Here and Now’ moment and he made the choice … obviously, it was a movie and even though his decision had severe consequences for his character … he made the right choice; the honorable choice.
But, we live in a world where we are offered a cafeteria line of options and choices as to how we live each day. It is so easy to make choices with no apparent consequences either good or bad they just are the choices that move us further along in the game of life. It’s almost as if most people spin the spinner and watch the random outcome that indicates how many spaces to move on each turn. It’s almost like the choices for television viewing … I was with Megan and Donna yesterday and I turned on the tv. There was a channel hidden amidst all the other many channels called the PLUTO CHANNEL. Now, I have visited that channel before but as I clicked on it I realized that the PLUTO CHANNEL has hundreds of choices … so I sat on the couch with so many choices for TV viewing <CLICK CLICK CLICK> … to take my mind off of the world <CLICK CLICK CLICK> … the game of life <CLICK CLICK CLICK> … filling a space in time <CLICK CLICK CLICK> … so I could casually and easily move to the next <CLICK CLICK CLICK> … dinner <CLICK CLICK CLICK> … car ride <CLICK CLICK CLICK> … a Bogie movie <CLICK CLICK CLICK> … by the way it came down to watching either the Beverly Hillbillies or the Adams Family and I chose Gomez and Morticia; the doctor had to come to their house because Uncle Fester wasn’t feeling very well. It had a happy ending <THE ADAMS FAMILY ‘snap snap’>.
Yikes, I just took us away from our theme and God’s Word didn’t I. Do you realize how easy it is to avoid the Gospels … to discard prayer except when we really want or need something that only a Divine intervention can supply … I didn’t win the BILLION DOLLARS by the way. I can’t tell you how many times each day I look towards God and ask a question I know I won’t get an answer back from. My question, God … are all of the people who worship with St. Paul’s opening their Bibles each day to read at least a few verses from the Gospels? Are the people of the church I pastor hearing my call to read the words of Jesus and learning from Him? I actually pose that question skyward.
Well, church … are you? Are you investing your time in God and Christ? Are the decisions that you make always couched in prayer and focused on who you are supposed to be for God in this all too short life we lead? Are you sensing, understanding, and accepting the truth that God loves every single person … that God is so loving that God will forgive our sins if we change and come to God? Are you actively living for Christ?
JESUS DECLARED in our GOSPEL lesson today … ‘NOW IS THE TIME!! Here comes God’s kingdom! CHANGE YOUR HEARTS and LIVES! And, TRUST THIS GOOD NEWS!” There are exclamation marks in my Bible after each phrase … guess the Gospel writer wanted us to know Jesus was serious and really meant these words … it’s not a Dave Delaney saying; well actually it is church because this morning I really want to emphasize that THE TIME IS HERE and NOW … today not tomorrow … for each of us to follow the Good News! I would love to be confident in my daily prayer to God that each one of you .. regardless of your age, location, your race or heritage … that you are trusting the GOOD NEWS of JESUS CHRIST but in that trust you are also spending the few moments it takes to read the Gospels … to allow Jesus directives to get you to change your hearts. This week MATTHEW 25’s call to live for Christ came up in one conversation I had but so did Jesus lesson from Luke 10. I needed to hear Jesus in John 15 and the lessons from Matthew 5 were alive and teaching me all this week.
What Gospel lesson was impacting you this week? What words from our Savior touched your heart in a way that you knew the words were alive and the Holy Spirit was nudging you to either change or to become an activist for God’s cause not the world’s?
“Jesus responded to them, “ Have faith in God! I assure you that whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea’—and doesn’t waver but believes that what is said will really happen—it will happen. Therefore I say to you, whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you will receive it, and it will be so for you. And whenever you stand up to pray, if you have something against anyone, forgive so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your wrongdoings. ” That was just a 30 second commercial break for Jesus Christ from the 11th chapter of Mark’s Gospel. You see it didn’t take very long to read that Gospel lesson. THIRTY SECONDS out of the 86, 400 seconds that we will watch go by today. THIRTY SECONDS to read God’s WORD! Now you might get curious and read a little bit more but 30 seconds … but do you have the time to open God’s Word? That took me all of 30 seconds to read to you.
THE TIME IS HERE and NOW friends … the world can no longer be taking us under the stormy waves … we need to walk on water focused on Jesus Christ! We need to see His Light and walk down His lighted path. Jesus declaring NOW IS THE TIME … CHANGE YOUR HEARTS and LIVES … and TRUST THE GOOD NEWS.” Perhaps the phrase in this quotation from Jesus we need to pay attention to most is … “Here Comes God’s Kingdom.” Because you know what … whether you or I decide to live for Christ and follow His teaching and do what God expects us to do in our actions, our interactions with others, our words, and yes, our social media postings … no matter what choices we make God’s Kingdom is coming non-stop and our lives are headed towards a moment when we will be face-to-face with the decision maker in God’s Kingdom and we will have to account for the choices we made. In that moment we won’t be able to get a ‘get out of jail free card from a friend.’ Jesus actually shares a story in the Gospels of someone who tried to get out of the bad place by saying that he had changed. He then pleads for his family members wanting to message them from the bad place so they would change how they live their lives.
In today’s PSALM, we heard David declare to God, “Make your ways known to me Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in Your truth … teach it to me because you are the God who saves me. I put my hope in you all day long.”
Friends, David had the truth of God before him and wanted to be on God’s paths. He acknowledged that God saves … friends the God of David still saves … Out of love, God gave us Jesus and Jesus saves but we are not saved by casting a casual glance in the direction of God and Christ before rushing into the mudslides of the world to get covered in muck … we are saved by allowing the cleansing waters of our baptisms to refresh us in the Salvation that changes who we are … when we are changed we will put our hope in God each and every day. That time is here and now once more …
Let us pray … God, it is my prayer that all of us want to discover your ways Lord and to be taught your paths so that we travel down them avoiding the pitfalls all around us. Help us to make the right life choices for You. AMEN