So,
I saw in the news this week that the Bulletin of Atomic Sciences has set the
Doomsday Clock up two minutes so that it now reads three minutes to midnight. Supposedly,
that’s a bad thing. The Doomsday Clock is a big, symbolic timepiece that
certain nuclear scientists and environmentalists came up with during the Cold
War to alert us all to how near we are to a second nuclear age or even world
annihilation.
I
know: real cheery concept, right?
To
calculate where we are on the Doomsday Clock, the scientists take into
consideration things like the proliferation of nuclear warheads, the military
tensions between major world powers—and now they even include data on climate
change—to estimate the world’s proximity to some kind of meltdown or age of destruction.
On the clock, midnight symbolizes that terrible moment. We’re not really three literal
minutes from destruction or whatever, but the idea is that things have gotten
to the point that the world is supposedly nearer now than we have been in a
long time.
Although
the Cold War officially ended almost two and a half decades ago, some people
apparently think the Doomsday Clock still has a purpose in getting our
attention. Does it get yours? I’m not sure it gets mine, but it is an interesting
concept. Even if I did buy into what it said, I’m pretty sure there is nothing
I could do about it. If that day comes, I guess I’ll just be swept along with
everyone else.
This
concept of a certain time finally arriving—the nearness of big change and the
start of a new era—is exactly the message Jesus brings once John the Baptist gets
arrested and Jesus arrives back in Galilee from his baptism. It’s like God has
pushed the minute hand to midnight, except this isn’t a Doomsday Clock that
Jesus is holding up. In fact, it’s the total opposite. It’s a Good News Clock. With
Jesus’ arrival, we’re talking about total world reconciliation, not total world
obliteration. When Jesus shows up in Galilee, calling disciples to follow him, we’re
looking at the arrival of a bright new future, not the end of it.
“The time is fulfilled,” Jesus proclaims, “and the kingdom of God has come near.”
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| Jesus calls his first disciples (mosaic, Ravenna, Italy) |
With
these uncomplicated words, Jesus begins his ministry. And they’re meant to get
our attention…and, unlike the Doomsday Clock, we can do something in this time change. This news affects us on our
level, down to the in-and-out of our daily lives. You and I, ordinary people
that we may be, can join up. As New Testament Scholar N.T. Wright says, “the
news what God has done in and through Jesus creates a whole new world, and we
are invited into that world.”[1]
The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of
God has come near. Repent, and
believe in the good news.”
For
first-century Jewish folks, and for the Christians that Mark and the other
gospel writers were first addressing, this first announcement about the kingdom
of God’s arrival would have been loaded with meaning. They would have heard
Jesus’ words and immediately thought of the ancient prophet’s words and God’s
coming reign of glory and power. That’s what a gospel was, to be sure. In our
text it is exchangeable here for “good news.” Somewhat like a newspaper
headline on the day after an election, a gospel was a general announcement about
the reign of a new leader or emperor, a change in regimes. Announcing a gospel
provided the one who heard the gospel the opportunity to change their loyalty, to
surrender to the new ruler. So, when Jesus comes announcing the gospel about
the nearness of God’s kingdom, then they would have understood it was time to
align their lives with that new regime.
That
might be one reason it’s so easy for Jesus to attract those first followers. Mark,
who is the one telling this version of the story, likes to drive home that
Andrew, Peter, James and John all respond immediately. There they are, just
fishing with their dad, mending the nets, and…bam!...they leave everything to
follow Jesus. Some Christian scholars suggest that in that day and age any
young man would have jumped at the chance to be called into service with a
rabbi. Since they were working as fishermen (the theory goes) we can assume
that they weren’t accomplished enough in their study of the law to make the
cut. Therefore, when Jesus the rabbi comes along and offers them a spot, they
immediately seize the chance to follow, like it was a no-brainer. Other
scholars claim that leaving their station by the fishing boats would have
entailed a real sacrifice for them. Some recent archaeological findings suggest
that fishermen were comfortable middle class folks. This might have been a
profitable family business and a semi-respectable position in the community they
were leaving behind.
I
don’t think we’ll ever know the full of it. The fact remains that their call is
immediate; they hear the word “gospel” and they perceive that they are being
invited into a whole new world. That is, they sense the minute hand has hit the
moment of God’s grace, and they go with it. Even if it does come across as very
abrupt, the initial disciples give us a powerful, real life illustration of
what it means to repent—change direction—and believe in the good news. It gives
us an idea that the new age has finally come and that anyone may respond.
This
is crux of the church’s life: to proclaim in word and sacrament that the new
age has begun. It’s to point people to the fact that God, in Christ, is in
charge, and that we all are invited to go with it. The church’s ministry, whether
we’re talking about things we do as a group or as individuals in the world, is
to bring to everyone’s attention the news of this gospel. “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near.” Sometimes
it will look like it’s not. The world will seem dark and doomsday-like, which
reminds us that while the time has come for the kingdom to begin, the kingdom
itself is not quite fully here. When times are difficult, God’s kingdom is more
hidden, operating by stealth in many instances, but it is still near at hand.
It doesn’t mean we turn a deaf ear to those who call for nuclear disarmament
and care of the environment and the like, but we certainly operate out of a
sense of hope and love, not fear.
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| Photo source unknown |
When
we start to wonder and doubt, it is important to remember that those first
brave disciples were not always clued in, either. What begins so clearly and
optimistically on the beach in Galilee quickly dissolves into the anguish of a
hopeless Good Friday. But this is precisely how God’s kingdom likes to occur. Its
grace forces and sneaks its way in to the brokenness of the world. God will not
be frightened by the mess we make of things, or the mess we make of ourselves. Remember
what precipitates Jesus’ announcement of the gospel? The arrest of his cousin
John. Yes, each and every moment, as mundane or as frightening as they may
seem, is a chance to proclaim that God is victorious, that Jesus is risen, and
that the time has come to believe, to respond, to turn around and follow.
One
of my good friends visits a Waffle House every Sunday morning before he goes
into church. It’s basically intended as his alone time, a chance to have a
quiet breakfast and morning devotion by himself before the fun craziness of
church. Several months ago, the cook at the stovetop noticed my friend’s
collar, and he walked over to my friend’s table to share that his sister had
been diagnosed with cancer and was beginning treatments. Things didn’t look
good, and the cook asked my friend to pray for her. So he did, and my friend
asked some folks at church to include her in prayer, as well.
Last
week my friend walked in for his quiet breakfast and saw the cook standing
outside, and asked how Stella was doing. The cook shared that she had died
right before Christmas. My friend expressed his sympathy and spoke with him for
a minute. Later, as he went to settle up at the cash register, the waitress
said that it had already been paid for, and the cook, behind the counter, gave
him a wink.
To
think that God’s kingdom would have occurred only if that sister had survived
the cancer misses the point. Quite the contrary: that Waffle House cook
recognized that God had come near in the presence of a stranger who willing to
listen and express interest in her well-being, in the existence of a community
who cares enough to remember her life. In fact, the 2nd grade Sunday
school class here last Sunday was asked to put the Lord’s Prayer into their own
words and one girl wrote “thy kingdom come” as “make my community more like
heaven.” In some way, it was that day for that cook and my friend, standing on
the sidewalk, and a meal of grace marked the occasion.
That
is the call of a disciple, of one who heeds the gospel and repents and who
believes our communities can be more like heaven precisely because Jesus has
come. We may not know much about the credibility of this Doomsday Clock, but
the Spirit gives us faith in a risen Lord Jesus. His time has started, and all
may follow. Don’t let the drastic job change of those first followers trick you
into thinking that the call to follow only comes in the form of major career or
educational changes, although it often may. Jesus approaches each one of us,
sometimes by the door of Waffle House, and bids us to pay attention to the new
age that is at hand.
As
a matter of fact, you may even have an opportunity to hear the good news and
respond with your own life even before…tick, tick, tick…this sermon is over.
Thanks
be to God!
The Reverend Phillip W.
Martin, Jr.
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