Urgency
Commentary
It's fair to say that any sense of urgency about their faith is missing among a good many contemporary Christians. That is surely the case with most of the mainline Protestant denominations. The note of urgency sounded in these lessons falls on deaf ears in many congregations. There is simply nothing to be urgent about! Christian faith is a lifelong pilgrimage that ends only when we die, so why the urgency? Or, some might ask, what's the hurry? Maybe when I know I am about to die I will feel some sense of urgency, but not now.
The cause of this depletion of urgency is found in the simple fact that many of us have no confidence in the idea that God is about to end history and bring us all to judgment within a matter of days or weeks. After all, we have heard preachers claiming that the last days were upon us for years -- no, for centuries. The New Testament teachings about the last days seem anachronistic and irrelevant. The church has lived for two thousand years, and the end has not yet come; why should we think it will come now in our lifetimes? If there is no final end in sight, what is there to be urgent about?
Maybe still another cause contributes to this exhaustion of urgency. It is just that -- an exhaustion of urgency. Our lifestyles have become increasingly fast-paced. In their work, some live from one crisis to another. Raising children these days seems to produce numerous and endless crises. Marketing agents try to make us believe that there is an urgency about grabbing this or that deal before it's too late. Maybe contemporary life in North American culture already provides us too much urgency. As a result, we want our religious faith to be a quieting, peaceful time and certainly not another urgent matter.
The consequences of this depletion of urgency are dire. The absence of urgency yields a kind of complacency and apathy that stifles enthusiasm and drains away all zeal. Surely this is one of the problems contributing to the grievous condition of mainline Protestant churches today.
Can we regain a sense of urgency without resorting to the scare tactics of the "last days" preachers? Is there a sense of urgency to be found within a different interpretation of what the last days are and of what God's design for us is? Is there a religious urgency that doesn't simply sound like another marketing gimmick? That is, we think, one of the crucial problems facing the church today. Call it, if you will, an honest urgency. That is to say, it is a sense of gravity that arises from a critical study of Scripture and a thoughtful theology. This Third Sunday After the Epiphany seems like a good opportunity to tackle this problem, as difficult as it is. The three lessons all suggest that urgent times come in the lives of people and that God is at work in these crucial times. Can we nurture an urgency in our congregation through the word that arises from these lessons?
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Jonah entered Nineveh with an urgent message: "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" Amazingly, his message was successful. It was so successful that even the cattle put on sackcloth (see 3:8 beyond the reading itself). This brief short story about a reluctant prophet is a literary and theological masterpiece. Unfortunately, its power and its message have been lost amid the preoccupation with whether or not a human could live three days and nights within the stomach of a "great fish." It is actually a wonderfully humorous satire on bigotry and prejudice. Its author probably published it to counteract a growing sense of exclusiveness within Judah. The point of the story is, of course, that God cares for our enemies as much as God cares for us.
The reading really needs to be set within the context of the whole story, so we preachers ought first to reread the complete story before working on this text. God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach repentance, but instead he takes a boat ride in the other direction. He has no interest in participating in the salvation of the hated enemies of his nation, the Assyrians. You know the story. A storm threatens the boat and crew. Jonah admits that he is running from his God, and the crew reluctantly throws him overboard to save the ship. (The kindness of the Gentile crew is probably a backhanded swipe at the stereotypical view of such people in the author's day.) A great fish (not necessarily a whale) swallows him, and he lives there in the intestines of the fish for three days and three nights, praying his heart out. Finally, the fish spits him out. Now the Lord comes to him a "second time" where our reading begins. Perhaps it should properly begin, "Now will you get up and go...?"
God calls Jonah to a prophetic task on behalf of Nineveh, "that great city." Later, in God's last speech and the last words of the book, we learn that Nineveh had a population of "more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons ... and also many animals" (4:11). The reluctant prophet finally obeys God and goes -- albeit begrudgingly -- into the city. There Jonah recites his message, the shortest sermon recorded in the Bible. These eight words (in the English translation and actually only four in the Hebrew) have an amazing effect. The whole city repents! We are told specifically that the people believed and expressed their sorrow for their sins through fasting and wearing sackcloth. Jonah 3:10 simply informs us that God received the faith and repentance of the people of Nineveh and "changed his mind" about punishing the city.
In the conclusion of the story, Jonah is angry because he was successful in his mission. He would have rather had God blow them all away. In a delightful passage, he cries out that he knew God would do something like this, because the Lord has "an abounding steadfast love" (4:2). God confronts Jonah and expresses the divine concern for these foreigners. The story ends with God's words of care and concern ringing in our ears.
The message of the book of Jonah is that God's love transcends our own prejudices, hates, and grudges. The divine will is not confined by the silly barriers we humans create among ourselves. In articulating that message, however, the author must tell us how the people of Nineveh were brought to a crucial moment by Jonah's message. It was a moment when the people were ready to hear the convicting words of the prophet. The brevity of Jonah's message in Nineveh is part of the humor of the story. Yet it also suggests a readiness on the part of the people to change their lives.
The people of Nineveh were ready for that urgent moment that sometimes comes in life, when everything seems suddenly to hinge on what we do or fail to do in that moment. Jonah's message brought that critical moment for them. God often acts among humans to evoke that kind of urgency. It is a moment in time when we reach a crossroads and must decide which direction we should go. The urgent moment is like the vocational decision that will make or break our professions. It is like the decision to have or not to have children -- a decision that will affect our whole lives. It is like the decision to speak to a friend about his drinking problem; it could make all the difference in the world.
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Paul believed that such a moment was upon the Corinthian Christians and the whole world. This is one of the several passages in which Paul speaks clearly as if he believed the last days were near. The whole of chapter 7 of this epistle deals with one question: Upon their conversion, should Christians change their social position and role because they are now believers? Paul first asks the question of marriages. Should Christians dissolve their marriages? Should they quickly marry? Then Paul addresses other social situations with basically the same message. He believes that Christians should remain in their offices, roles, and situations. "Remain as you are" is his message.
In this context, Paul then gives his reasons for believing as he does about remaining in your present condition. "The appointed time" is surely the time God has chosen to bring creation to its finale. The Greek word here is kairos, which usually means the critical and decisive time. With that ultimate time looming close, Paul urges the Corinthians to focus their entire attention on that moment and let nothing else distract them. Marriage, bereavement, celebration, ownership, and business should all take a second place in our lives, so that our whole energies are directed toward God's final revelation. This radical otherworldliness results from one simple fact for Paul: "the present form of this world is passing away" (v. 31b).
Paul is really talking about a realignment of priorities. He believes that the approach of the last days necessitates that we put first things first and second things second. If this form of the world is temporary, then we ought to have as highest priority the things of the world to come. We think Paul misunderstood God's plan. The radical transformation of the world that Paul anticipated, and on which he based the whole of chapter 7, did not occur. Consequently Paul sounds as if he demeans our responsibilities in this world in favor of those in the next world. Paul obviously did not see how marriage, for instance, could make a positive contribution to our Christian life and faith. For ourselves, we have to reject Paul's radical otherworldliness expressed in this passage.
However, Paul is absolutely right that there is an urgency about getting our priorities straightened out. What he wants the Corinthians to do is put certain things in their lives into proper perspective. The urgency to do that, for Paul, is the fact that he thinks the present form of this world is passing away. The same urgency, however, arises from other considerations. It is urgent that we get our priorities straight, that we know what is most important in life, and that we live those priorities out in our daily lives. Why is it so pressing that we order our goals? Because they determine both our minor and our major decisions. We never know when we will be faced with an important decision, so we had better know what's most important to us. We know, too, that we make decisions every day and even every hour -- decisions that also require a clear set of priorities. Do I work late again tonight, or do I go home to spend time with my children before their bedtime? Priorities. The Jesus of Matthew addresses the same issue when he asks that we "seek first the kingdom of God" (Matthew 6:33).
Mark 1:14-20
The basic message of the ministry of Jesus called for the same kind of urgency. Nearly all the scholars agree that the heart of Jesus' teachings and preaching, according to the synoptic Gospels, is the coming of the kingdom or dominion of God. The Greek word usually translated kingdom (basilea) refers to the rule rather than the region over which the rule is exercised. So, the kingdom of God (or, according to Matthew, "kingdom of heaven") does not have to do with heaven or something that happens in the next world. It has to do with God's exercising the divine authority in this world and this history.
In Matthew (but not in Mark or Luke) the nearness of the kingdom was part of the message of John the Baptist (Matthew 3:2). In Mark the portrayal of John is different. However, Mark is careful not to have Jesus begin his ministry until John is first arrested and his ministry ended. It is as if Mark wants to suggest that Jesus steps in to take John's place. The evangelist then gives us a reader's digest version of Jesus' preaching. The first element in that summary is the claim that this time is the crucial and decisive moment. "The time is fulfilled" sounds very much like Paul's phrase, "the appointed time," and both expressions use the Greek word kairos. Time had run its course, and now was the moment when God would reassert the divine will in the world.
It was good news to hear that God's immediate and effective rule was near. That meant that all other rulers would be overthrown, and authority would be exercised exclusively by God. Especially a people living under the oppressive rule of the Romans would welcome the time when God would displace all such human tyrants. However, if this new divine reign was about to begin, humans are then responsible for certain actions. Repentance carries the ancient Hebrew connotation of "turning around," "turning about-face." It has more to do with the direction of life than the sorrow we may feel for our past lives. "Believe in the good news" means only that we trust Jesus' proclamation to be true: The kingdom of God is indeed near.
With this summary introduction to Jesus' preaching before the reader, Mark then proceeds to tell the story of the calling of the first disciples. The connection between these two segments (the summary of Jesus' teaching and the calling of the disciples) is important. Jesus begins to gather a community around the good news of God's approaching rule. We are probably startled by the way Simon, Andrew, James, and John so quickly drop everything to follow Jesus. It doesn't seem very realistic. However, if you assume that they had heard Jesus' message, the urgency of the call makes sense. If God's dominion is about to become a reality, then fishing looks far less important than it had once appeared to be. Jesus offers Simon and Andrew another occupation. "I will make you fish for people" (v. 17). Jesus appeals to the pair with a metaphor they would understand. The idea of gathering people as one might gather fish in a net pops up again in Jesus' parable of the net (Matthew 13:47-50), although with a different twist. The image of fishing for people reinforces the idea that Jesus understood his ministry in terms of collecting a band who looked for the near advent of God's rule.
All this takes place around the Sea of Galilee. According to the synoptic Gospels, Jesus' ministry was conducted almost exclusively in the region of Galilee. That region was notorious for the fact that Gentiles lived near at hand and that some of the Jews were regarded as only marginally faithful, at least so far as the Jerusalem leaders were concerned. Jesus originated and worked first of all in this region, his home country.
Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom implies an urgency. It is as if the course of history had converged at this moment and in this place in the announcement that God was just about to reclaim authority over the creation. That same urgency is evident throughout Jesus' ministry, however short it may have been. When God is about to take control, people are expected to respond at that very moment.
Even though we pray every Sunday that God's kingdom will come, we often lack an urgency about its coming. We suppose that it is far into the future and not really a pressing matter right now. In fact Jesus tried to convince people that the kingdom was so near that it was already a reality in this world. That's why Jesus is sometimes credited with saying the kingdom is still in the future as well as with claiming the kingdom is already here. (Compare, e.g., Luke 17:21 and 19:11.) God's dominion hovers nearby, breaking in at unexpected times. The kingdom comes when the hungry are fed and the naked clothed. It comes when nations work out a peace accord that sticks. It comes when the depressed and dejected hear a word of genuine love. The rule of God is present, if not fully and if not continuously. It is present when Christians embody it in their lives.
There is then an urgency about this Christian life, because any moment in any place we are liable to have the opportunity to let God rule in a specific place at a specific time. We never know when such a "fullness of time" will occur. We cannot anticipate and plan those crucial moments. So, we must be ready to claim the kingdom whenever and however it may appear in our midst. It is urgent that we be focused on the possibilities of the rule of God in every situation. There is an urgency about every moment of Christian life!
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
In preaching on this text from Jonah, we must never forget that it is set within a narrative context. The temptation is to rush in and to draw the sermon simply from the brief text itself. But the text takes its full depth from the context within which it is set.
Though written late in Israel's history, the story of Jonah is set within the time of the eighth century B.C., when the Assyrian Empire was the great power that had conquered the little states of the Fertile Crescent. Assyria was known for its cruelty, because it systematically deported the populations of conquered territories and replaced them with foreigners. That had been the fortune of the population of northern Israel when it fell to the Assyrians in 721 B.C. They were deported to Mesopotamia and replaced with the people who became known as the Samaritans. The Assyrians were therefore a hated people, and Jonah shared that hatred.
Jonah was commanded by God to journey to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, and to preach the Word of God to its inhabitants in order that they might repent of their sins before God destroyed them. In short, God gave the hated Ninevites a chance to turn and live. But to Jonah, that was a totally onerous task. He did not want Nineveh to be forgiven. He wanted it destroyed. He therefore initially refused God's commission and journeyed on a ship in exactly the opposite direction, to Tarshish, which was probably on the coast of Spain. In reaction, God swamped the ship in a great storm, and when they discovered that Jonah was the cause of God's wrath, the foreign sailors of the ship threw Jonah overboard. Jonah was swallowed by a great fish, but after three days, God caused the fish to vomit up Jonah safely on shore. As has been said, "three days of undigested Jonah!"
We should not get hung up on the episode of the fish when we tell this story, however. Jonah is simply a tale through which the author is telling us important things about God, and we should just concentrate on listening to the story.
At this point, our text enters the picture. Jonah is given the same command that he was given initially to arise and go to Nineveh to preach. This time Jonah relunctantly obeys. Why is Jonah so hesitant? He drags his feet because he knows the character of God. He knows that God is "a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love" (4:2) and that such a God will forgive even Ninevites. But in Jonah's eyes, that destroys the whole structure of justice in the world. Those who are clearly evil will not be punished as they should be punished, and those who are good will not be rewarded. And if that is the way God's world is, then Jonah just wants to die, because nothing makes sense any more. "Take my life from me," he tells God, "for it is better for me to live than to die" (4:3, 8). Jonah wants justice, but God is merciful.
However, the reluctant prophet journeys to Nineveh and preaches the words that God has given him. In forty days Nineveh will be overthrown and destroyed by the wrath of God. So powerful is that word that Jonah has to preach it only one day before it has its effects on the Ninevites. They immediately believe God's word and proclaim a fast of repentance, in which they cease all work, don sackcloth, prostrate themselves in the dust in prayer, and beg God for forgiveness of their great sins. When the news of the repentance of the populace reaches the king of Assyria, he too enters into the fast, foregoing food and water, and commanding that even the animals be included in the rituals of repentance.
Several characteristics of our God are revealed to us by this stated text. One is the incredible patience of God, and the recipient of that patience is first of all Jonah himself. Jonah never does repent of his anger and rebellion against God in this story. Despite the fact that he finally goes to Nineveh, he really does not deserve that second chance. He had not obeyed God in the first place, but God had graciously preserved Jonah's life by the instrument of the great fish when Jonah was cast overboard by the sailors. And even at the end of the story in chapter 4, God is still dealing gently with his rebellious spokeman, patiently pointing out to him the issues of life and death and mercy that are at stake. Jonah does not deserve God's patient grace, but nevertheless, throughout the story, Jonah is the recipient of that steadfast love.
Then there are the Ninevites. Certainly they deserve God's destroying punishment for their crimes against humanity. But God does not immediately destroy them. Instead, he announces through his prophet that Nineveh will be destroyed in forty days. That pagan population has time to repent! God gives them a period of grace in which they can turn and be saved.
Could it be that God shows such patient mercy to us also? Think of the sins and wrongs that daily we commit against him and our neighbors. Think of the many, many times when God's will and presence are the farthest things from our mind, even though they are supposed to be in the center of our existence and actions. But God gives us time to turn, good Christians. Every Sunday he lets us come into this sanctuary and confess our sins, and then he graciously accepts our prayers of confession through the mercy of his son Jesus Christ. He gives us time, week after week, instead of punishing us as we deserve for our unfaithfulness. Our God is an incredibly patient and merciful God, abounding in steadfast love, and surely our response to his grace should be our thanks and our renewed determination to walk in his ways and to obey his will.
There is another prominent note in our text, however, and that is the fact that God changes his mind. When God sees the Ninevites' repentance and their genuine turning from their evil ways, he withdraws his judgment upon them and does not destroy them. Now we must not misinterpret that. Our repentance does not coerce God, and you note that the king of Assyria knows that. He says, "Who knows, God may yet repent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we perish not" (3:9). Repentance does not guarantee forgiveness. God is sovereign and free, and he will be gracious to whom he will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom he will show mercy (Exodus 33:19). It's up to God, and we cannot command him by our actions any more than Jonah could command him. In other words, good Christians, God is the Lord of the universe and all who are in it. In the story of Jonah, God commands the sea, the storm, the fish, the plant, and the hot desert wind, and our proper stance before him is surrender, throwing ourselves entirely upon his mercy. But the good news is indeed that the Lord is a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
The cause of this depletion of urgency is found in the simple fact that many of us have no confidence in the idea that God is about to end history and bring us all to judgment within a matter of days or weeks. After all, we have heard preachers claiming that the last days were upon us for years -- no, for centuries. The New Testament teachings about the last days seem anachronistic and irrelevant. The church has lived for two thousand years, and the end has not yet come; why should we think it will come now in our lifetimes? If there is no final end in sight, what is there to be urgent about?
Maybe still another cause contributes to this exhaustion of urgency. It is just that -- an exhaustion of urgency. Our lifestyles have become increasingly fast-paced. In their work, some live from one crisis to another. Raising children these days seems to produce numerous and endless crises. Marketing agents try to make us believe that there is an urgency about grabbing this or that deal before it's too late. Maybe contemporary life in North American culture already provides us too much urgency. As a result, we want our religious faith to be a quieting, peaceful time and certainly not another urgent matter.
The consequences of this depletion of urgency are dire. The absence of urgency yields a kind of complacency and apathy that stifles enthusiasm and drains away all zeal. Surely this is one of the problems contributing to the grievous condition of mainline Protestant churches today.
Can we regain a sense of urgency without resorting to the scare tactics of the "last days" preachers? Is there a sense of urgency to be found within a different interpretation of what the last days are and of what God's design for us is? Is there a religious urgency that doesn't simply sound like another marketing gimmick? That is, we think, one of the crucial problems facing the church today. Call it, if you will, an honest urgency. That is to say, it is a sense of gravity that arises from a critical study of Scripture and a thoughtful theology. This Third Sunday After the Epiphany seems like a good opportunity to tackle this problem, as difficult as it is. The three lessons all suggest that urgent times come in the lives of people and that God is at work in these crucial times. Can we nurture an urgency in our congregation through the word that arises from these lessons?
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Jonah entered Nineveh with an urgent message: "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" Amazingly, his message was successful. It was so successful that even the cattle put on sackcloth (see 3:8 beyond the reading itself). This brief short story about a reluctant prophet is a literary and theological masterpiece. Unfortunately, its power and its message have been lost amid the preoccupation with whether or not a human could live three days and nights within the stomach of a "great fish." It is actually a wonderfully humorous satire on bigotry and prejudice. Its author probably published it to counteract a growing sense of exclusiveness within Judah. The point of the story is, of course, that God cares for our enemies as much as God cares for us.
The reading really needs to be set within the context of the whole story, so we preachers ought first to reread the complete story before working on this text. God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach repentance, but instead he takes a boat ride in the other direction. He has no interest in participating in the salvation of the hated enemies of his nation, the Assyrians. You know the story. A storm threatens the boat and crew. Jonah admits that he is running from his God, and the crew reluctantly throws him overboard to save the ship. (The kindness of the Gentile crew is probably a backhanded swipe at the stereotypical view of such people in the author's day.) A great fish (not necessarily a whale) swallows him, and he lives there in the intestines of the fish for three days and three nights, praying his heart out. Finally, the fish spits him out. Now the Lord comes to him a "second time" where our reading begins. Perhaps it should properly begin, "Now will you get up and go...?"
God calls Jonah to a prophetic task on behalf of Nineveh, "that great city." Later, in God's last speech and the last words of the book, we learn that Nineveh had a population of "more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons ... and also many animals" (4:11). The reluctant prophet finally obeys God and goes -- albeit begrudgingly -- into the city. There Jonah recites his message, the shortest sermon recorded in the Bible. These eight words (in the English translation and actually only four in the Hebrew) have an amazing effect. The whole city repents! We are told specifically that the people believed and expressed their sorrow for their sins through fasting and wearing sackcloth. Jonah 3:10 simply informs us that God received the faith and repentance of the people of Nineveh and "changed his mind" about punishing the city.
In the conclusion of the story, Jonah is angry because he was successful in his mission. He would have rather had God blow them all away. In a delightful passage, he cries out that he knew God would do something like this, because the Lord has "an abounding steadfast love" (4:2). God confronts Jonah and expresses the divine concern for these foreigners. The story ends with God's words of care and concern ringing in our ears.
The message of the book of Jonah is that God's love transcends our own prejudices, hates, and grudges. The divine will is not confined by the silly barriers we humans create among ourselves. In articulating that message, however, the author must tell us how the people of Nineveh were brought to a crucial moment by Jonah's message. It was a moment when the people were ready to hear the convicting words of the prophet. The brevity of Jonah's message in Nineveh is part of the humor of the story. Yet it also suggests a readiness on the part of the people to change their lives.
The people of Nineveh were ready for that urgent moment that sometimes comes in life, when everything seems suddenly to hinge on what we do or fail to do in that moment. Jonah's message brought that critical moment for them. God often acts among humans to evoke that kind of urgency. It is a moment in time when we reach a crossroads and must decide which direction we should go. The urgent moment is like the vocational decision that will make or break our professions. It is like the decision to have or not to have children -- a decision that will affect our whole lives. It is like the decision to speak to a friend about his drinking problem; it could make all the difference in the world.
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Paul believed that such a moment was upon the Corinthian Christians and the whole world. This is one of the several passages in which Paul speaks clearly as if he believed the last days were near. The whole of chapter 7 of this epistle deals with one question: Upon their conversion, should Christians change their social position and role because they are now believers? Paul first asks the question of marriages. Should Christians dissolve their marriages? Should they quickly marry? Then Paul addresses other social situations with basically the same message. He believes that Christians should remain in their offices, roles, and situations. "Remain as you are" is his message.
In this context, Paul then gives his reasons for believing as he does about remaining in your present condition. "The appointed time" is surely the time God has chosen to bring creation to its finale. The Greek word here is kairos, which usually means the critical and decisive time. With that ultimate time looming close, Paul urges the Corinthians to focus their entire attention on that moment and let nothing else distract them. Marriage, bereavement, celebration, ownership, and business should all take a second place in our lives, so that our whole energies are directed toward God's final revelation. This radical otherworldliness results from one simple fact for Paul: "the present form of this world is passing away" (v. 31b).
Paul is really talking about a realignment of priorities. He believes that the approach of the last days necessitates that we put first things first and second things second. If this form of the world is temporary, then we ought to have as highest priority the things of the world to come. We think Paul misunderstood God's plan. The radical transformation of the world that Paul anticipated, and on which he based the whole of chapter 7, did not occur. Consequently Paul sounds as if he demeans our responsibilities in this world in favor of those in the next world. Paul obviously did not see how marriage, for instance, could make a positive contribution to our Christian life and faith. For ourselves, we have to reject Paul's radical otherworldliness expressed in this passage.
However, Paul is absolutely right that there is an urgency about getting our priorities straightened out. What he wants the Corinthians to do is put certain things in their lives into proper perspective. The urgency to do that, for Paul, is the fact that he thinks the present form of this world is passing away. The same urgency, however, arises from other considerations. It is urgent that we get our priorities straight, that we know what is most important in life, and that we live those priorities out in our daily lives. Why is it so pressing that we order our goals? Because they determine both our minor and our major decisions. We never know when we will be faced with an important decision, so we had better know what's most important to us. We know, too, that we make decisions every day and even every hour -- decisions that also require a clear set of priorities. Do I work late again tonight, or do I go home to spend time with my children before their bedtime? Priorities. The Jesus of Matthew addresses the same issue when he asks that we "seek first the kingdom of God" (Matthew 6:33).
Mark 1:14-20
The basic message of the ministry of Jesus called for the same kind of urgency. Nearly all the scholars agree that the heart of Jesus' teachings and preaching, according to the synoptic Gospels, is the coming of the kingdom or dominion of God. The Greek word usually translated kingdom (basilea) refers to the rule rather than the region over which the rule is exercised. So, the kingdom of God (or, according to Matthew, "kingdom of heaven") does not have to do with heaven or something that happens in the next world. It has to do with God's exercising the divine authority in this world and this history.
In Matthew (but not in Mark or Luke) the nearness of the kingdom was part of the message of John the Baptist (Matthew 3:2). In Mark the portrayal of John is different. However, Mark is careful not to have Jesus begin his ministry until John is first arrested and his ministry ended. It is as if Mark wants to suggest that Jesus steps in to take John's place. The evangelist then gives us a reader's digest version of Jesus' preaching. The first element in that summary is the claim that this time is the crucial and decisive moment. "The time is fulfilled" sounds very much like Paul's phrase, "the appointed time," and both expressions use the Greek word kairos. Time had run its course, and now was the moment when God would reassert the divine will in the world.
It was good news to hear that God's immediate and effective rule was near. That meant that all other rulers would be overthrown, and authority would be exercised exclusively by God. Especially a people living under the oppressive rule of the Romans would welcome the time when God would displace all such human tyrants. However, if this new divine reign was about to begin, humans are then responsible for certain actions. Repentance carries the ancient Hebrew connotation of "turning around," "turning about-face." It has more to do with the direction of life than the sorrow we may feel for our past lives. "Believe in the good news" means only that we trust Jesus' proclamation to be true: The kingdom of God is indeed near.
With this summary introduction to Jesus' preaching before the reader, Mark then proceeds to tell the story of the calling of the first disciples. The connection between these two segments (the summary of Jesus' teaching and the calling of the disciples) is important. Jesus begins to gather a community around the good news of God's approaching rule. We are probably startled by the way Simon, Andrew, James, and John so quickly drop everything to follow Jesus. It doesn't seem very realistic. However, if you assume that they had heard Jesus' message, the urgency of the call makes sense. If God's dominion is about to become a reality, then fishing looks far less important than it had once appeared to be. Jesus offers Simon and Andrew another occupation. "I will make you fish for people" (v. 17). Jesus appeals to the pair with a metaphor they would understand. The idea of gathering people as one might gather fish in a net pops up again in Jesus' parable of the net (Matthew 13:47-50), although with a different twist. The image of fishing for people reinforces the idea that Jesus understood his ministry in terms of collecting a band who looked for the near advent of God's rule.
All this takes place around the Sea of Galilee. According to the synoptic Gospels, Jesus' ministry was conducted almost exclusively in the region of Galilee. That region was notorious for the fact that Gentiles lived near at hand and that some of the Jews were regarded as only marginally faithful, at least so far as the Jerusalem leaders were concerned. Jesus originated and worked first of all in this region, his home country.
Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom implies an urgency. It is as if the course of history had converged at this moment and in this place in the announcement that God was just about to reclaim authority over the creation. That same urgency is evident throughout Jesus' ministry, however short it may have been. When God is about to take control, people are expected to respond at that very moment.
Even though we pray every Sunday that God's kingdom will come, we often lack an urgency about its coming. We suppose that it is far into the future and not really a pressing matter right now. In fact Jesus tried to convince people that the kingdom was so near that it was already a reality in this world. That's why Jesus is sometimes credited with saying the kingdom is still in the future as well as with claiming the kingdom is already here. (Compare, e.g., Luke 17:21 and 19:11.) God's dominion hovers nearby, breaking in at unexpected times. The kingdom comes when the hungry are fed and the naked clothed. It comes when nations work out a peace accord that sticks. It comes when the depressed and dejected hear a word of genuine love. The rule of God is present, if not fully and if not continuously. It is present when Christians embody it in their lives.
There is then an urgency about this Christian life, because any moment in any place we are liable to have the opportunity to let God rule in a specific place at a specific time. We never know when such a "fullness of time" will occur. We cannot anticipate and plan those crucial moments. So, we must be ready to claim the kingdom whenever and however it may appear in our midst. It is urgent that we be focused on the possibilities of the rule of God in every situation. There is an urgency about every moment of Christian life!
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
In preaching on this text from Jonah, we must never forget that it is set within a narrative context. The temptation is to rush in and to draw the sermon simply from the brief text itself. But the text takes its full depth from the context within which it is set.
Though written late in Israel's history, the story of Jonah is set within the time of the eighth century B.C., when the Assyrian Empire was the great power that had conquered the little states of the Fertile Crescent. Assyria was known for its cruelty, because it systematically deported the populations of conquered territories and replaced them with foreigners. That had been the fortune of the population of northern Israel when it fell to the Assyrians in 721 B.C. They were deported to Mesopotamia and replaced with the people who became known as the Samaritans. The Assyrians were therefore a hated people, and Jonah shared that hatred.
Jonah was commanded by God to journey to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, and to preach the Word of God to its inhabitants in order that they might repent of their sins before God destroyed them. In short, God gave the hated Ninevites a chance to turn and live. But to Jonah, that was a totally onerous task. He did not want Nineveh to be forgiven. He wanted it destroyed. He therefore initially refused God's commission and journeyed on a ship in exactly the opposite direction, to Tarshish, which was probably on the coast of Spain. In reaction, God swamped the ship in a great storm, and when they discovered that Jonah was the cause of God's wrath, the foreign sailors of the ship threw Jonah overboard. Jonah was swallowed by a great fish, but after three days, God caused the fish to vomit up Jonah safely on shore. As has been said, "three days of undigested Jonah!"
We should not get hung up on the episode of the fish when we tell this story, however. Jonah is simply a tale through which the author is telling us important things about God, and we should just concentrate on listening to the story.
At this point, our text enters the picture. Jonah is given the same command that he was given initially to arise and go to Nineveh to preach. This time Jonah relunctantly obeys. Why is Jonah so hesitant? He drags his feet because he knows the character of God. He knows that God is "a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love" (4:2) and that such a God will forgive even Ninevites. But in Jonah's eyes, that destroys the whole structure of justice in the world. Those who are clearly evil will not be punished as they should be punished, and those who are good will not be rewarded. And if that is the way God's world is, then Jonah just wants to die, because nothing makes sense any more. "Take my life from me," he tells God, "for it is better for me to live than to die" (4:3, 8). Jonah wants justice, but God is merciful.
However, the reluctant prophet journeys to Nineveh and preaches the words that God has given him. In forty days Nineveh will be overthrown and destroyed by the wrath of God. So powerful is that word that Jonah has to preach it only one day before it has its effects on the Ninevites. They immediately believe God's word and proclaim a fast of repentance, in which they cease all work, don sackcloth, prostrate themselves in the dust in prayer, and beg God for forgiveness of their great sins. When the news of the repentance of the populace reaches the king of Assyria, he too enters into the fast, foregoing food and water, and commanding that even the animals be included in the rituals of repentance.
Several characteristics of our God are revealed to us by this stated text. One is the incredible patience of God, and the recipient of that patience is first of all Jonah himself. Jonah never does repent of his anger and rebellion against God in this story. Despite the fact that he finally goes to Nineveh, he really does not deserve that second chance. He had not obeyed God in the first place, but God had graciously preserved Jonah's life by the instrument of the great fish when Jonah was cast overboard by the sailors. And even at the end of the story in chapter 4, God is still dealing gently with his rebellious spokeman, patiently pointing out to him the issues of life and death and mercy that are at stake. Jonah does not deserve God's patient grace, but nevertheless, throughout the story, Jonah is the recipient of that steadfast love.
Then there are the Ninevites. Certainly they deserve God's destroying punishment for their crimes against humanity. But God does not immediately destroy them. Instead, he announces through his prophet that Nineveh will be destroyed in forty days. That pagan population has time to repent! God gives them a period of grace in which they can turn and be saved.
Could it be that God shows such patient mercy to us also? Think of the sins and wrongs that daily we commit against him and our neighbors. Think of the many, many times when God's will and presence are the farthest things from our mind, even though they are supposed to be in the center of our existence and actions. But God gives us time to turn, good Christians. Every Sunday he lets us come into this sanctuary and confess our sins, and then he graciously accepts our prayers of confession through the mercy of his son Jesus Christ. He gives us time, week after week, instead of punishing us as we deserve for our unfaithfulness. Our God is an incredibly patient and merciful God, abounding in steadfast love, and surely our response to his grace should be our thanks and our renewed determination to walk in his ways and to obey his will.
There is another prominent note in our text, however, and that is the fact that God changes his mind. When God sees the Ninevites' repentance and their genuine turning from their evil ways, he withdraws his judgment upon them and does not destroy them. Now we must not misinterpret that. Our repentance does not coerce God, and you note that the king of Assyria knows that. He says, "Who knows, God may yet repent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we perish not" (3:9). Repentance does not guarantee forgiveness. God is sovereign and free, and he will be gracious to whom he will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom he will show mercy (Exodus 33:19). It's up to God, and we cannot command him by our actions any more than Jonah could command him. In other words, good Christians, God is the Lord of the universe and all who are in it. In the story of Jonah, God commands the sea, the storm, the fish, the plant, and the hot desert wind, and our proper stance before him is surrender, throwing ourselves entirely upon his mercy. But the good news is indeed that the Lord is a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
