Time’s Up!

Mark 1:14-20

It is easy to ignore God, or at least for most of us in this country at this time.  We may not have all that we want, but most of us have what we need.  It is easy to go about our days, doing all that we need to do, turning on the radio for the morning report, getting lost in the words of the world news in the paper, looking into the television for the latest update or newest idea.  It is easy to live our minutes, to fill our moments so tight to the top, that we have no space or place or way to hear the voice, the whisper, the sacred lure…it is easy to ignore God…that is until we can’t. 

Even if we have plans to pay attention, it is easy to move without intention just because we are so busy living.  But from the days I have lived thus far, it seems to me that there comes a time when the yearning for harmony in the heart becomes so profound no efforts at filling days can satisfy.  There approaches a time when the human soul yearns for the something else, the Great Beyond, the Holy Mystery that we Christians call God.  And this hole, this longing can only be filled by God.  But we human beings are stubborn, we have a track record of saying no, of choosing our own way, of deciding that we know best how to achieve the stillness of peace that we so desperately need.  So we tend to require drama, we need a break or a startling moment where we are not just invited but sometimes compelled to turn around and face our God.  It happens in different ways, it is God’s bell ringing, no more waiting, time’s up moment where we can no longer ignore that feeling, that voice, that pull, that energy, that is our God.  I have heard some of your stories about God breaking through.  I have heard God bursting on the scene and breaking through in emergency rooms.  I have heard of God breaking through in silence where a voice is echoes deep in the heart.  I have heard God knocking down the wall simply by making the dissonance so strong that it is no longer possible to live in the tension that will never bring wholeness.  It is easy to ignore God…until we can’t, because the story of the human heart is one of longing.  We long for a life soaked in peace but we often fail to do the things that bring it our way. 

And so it was with the guys in the boat floating on the rolls of the Galilee. They were busy living, busy doing the things that fill a life, busy living to work, busy living their minutes, busy filling their moments so tight to the top, that they had had no space or place or way to hear the voice, the whisper, the sacred lure … They had plans to be faithful, to follow God with abandon, but then life happened and the years wore on and there they were living life without breathing it in.  And then it happened, it was their God’s bell ringing, no more waiting, time’s up moment where they could no longer ignore that feeling, that voice, that pull, that energy, that is our God.  Jesus found them in their boat and on the shore and said with all the force an invitation could have, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news…Follow me and I will make you fish for people."

Although the Gospel of Mark is full of confused people who later turn into disciples, in that moment, they didn’t ask any questions or ask for clarification or time enough to prepare their little worlds to be rocked.  Perhaps at the very least the two new recruits might have wanted to follow out of sheer curiosity or maybe they knew that the life they had was not the life they wanted or the life God wanted for them. "Jesus sweeps through Galilee and takes it by storm ...”   The time is now, Jesus announces: his very first words of proclamation are "The time is fulfilled", words which Eugene Peterson translates as "Time's up!" And for some reason they didn’t hesitate.

Scholars, theologians and poets throughout history have wondered how these neophytes could possibly drop everything to follow.  It is so drastic and irrational.  Katy Huey writes, “We can't help putting ourselves in that boat, or on that shore, doing our everyday work, casting our nets and minding our own business, fulfilling our commitments and dealing with the reality of having to work just to survive.”  We can’t help but to wonder if we are missing something or if there was something they knew on that day in that moment that we don’t know now.  But it seems to me that God’s attempts to get to us, God’s constant efforts to offer us abundant life and peace are less about whether we are willing to drop everything and follow and more about God’s willingness to turn our hearts to wholeness.  Barbara Brown Taylor argues that asking how those in the boat could drop everything and follow is the wrong question.  She says that the miracle of the story is really about "the power of God--to walk right up to a quartet of fishermen and work a miracle, creating faith where there was no faith, creating disciples where there were none just a moment before." It is easy to live our minutes, to fill our moments so tight to the top, that we have no space or place or way to hear the voice, the whisper, the sacred lure…it is easy to ignore God… until we can’t.

And yet here we are.  It is easy put ourselves in the boat and to feel anxious, to tell ourselves that we might never be able to stand up and follow.  It is easy to dismiss the fishermen as different than we are, so we can go back to doing what we were doing before we felt the pull of the Spirit.  It is easy to ignore God because the simple words, “Follow me,” strike a chord of utter fear within us.  Follow you... where, how, why?  But as Ted Smith tells us, Jesus does not give them one more task, one more “to do”, one more thing to stay up late worrying about how it will fit in, instead Jesus invites them into a new way of living, a new way of being, he invites them to move their center to the love that is our God.  Jesus does not give them a new list of things to do but "a new identity....and a whole new life."

I have read this story countless times and each time I find that I would rather stay in the boat.  I find that I like the comforts of the place on which my feet have been planted.  But there is restlessness in the air in this place, in this church, in this community of faith and I think it is holy.  This year, in this moment, in this time, I hear Jesus’ words with urgency, time’s up!  I hear this as an invitation not to leave behind who we are, but to dare to believe that who we are now is not the end of the story.  I wonder if Jesus called them right out of the boat immediately so they could begin to imagine something else.  He didn’t give them much time to think about what they were leaving behind; he simply invited them to follow.  As much as I like this boat, I believe that God has something truly amazing in mind for this sweet community of faith that is our spiritual home.

It is easy to ignore God, we could tell ourselves that Simon and Andrew are not like us, that they were something special and thus more able to leave it all behind.  It is easy to go about our days, doing all that we need to do, it is easy to live our minutes, to fill our moments so tight to the top, that we have no space or place or way to hear the voice, the whisper, the sacred lure…it is easy to ignore God…that is until we have taken the first step, that is until we have decided that the Great Beyond, the Holy Mystery, our God is the only way to satisfy the yearning of our hearts.  Beloved of God, I think that we are being called out of this boat, each of us is being invited, perhaps compelled to stand up and turn in a new direction, this church is being called out of the place on which our feet have been planted and Jesus is whispering, maybe even shouting to us, “Follow me…Come out of the boat, time’s up!”  Amen.

William Abraham, quoted by Kate Huey in WEEKLY SEEDS

An in-depth reflection on next Sunday's Bible reading, Follow Me (Jan. 19-25) i.ucc on Sunday, January 18, 2009 :: 1660 Views