January 15, 2012
1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20
Today’s lesson from 1 Corinthians and Mark is about time and our place in it.
In Mark (1:15) Jesus proclaims: "The time (kairos) is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." The waiting is over. It’s now time to act. We’ve been waiting for God to do something, for God’s reign to appear on the scene. Jesus says it has, and it’s now time to do something. There is a bit of urgency in what he says.
In 1 Corinthians (7:29), Paul speaks with the same sense of urgency, "… brothers and sisters, the appointed time (kairos) has grown short." Speaking also of time (kairos), Paul thinks Christ’s return, in his glory, will happen soon, when "the present form of this world" passes away (7:31). When Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthians, everyone expected Jesus’ return to be ‘just around the corner.’ For them, the end of the world – an end to everything they knew and loved – was coming soon. This, then, is the context for the advice Paul is giving. Therefore, it makes all the difference in the world how we should live.
Both Jesus and Paul focus on time, because for both of them, the time is important (kairos). It is significant, it is appointed, and it is critical. Whether it is the moment when the reign of God over all things dawns upon the earth, as proclaimed by Jesus, or the moment at the eve of Christ's coming in glory, as proclaimed by Paul, the time it is matters.
Followers of Christ should live, Paul says, "as though not" (hōs mē) married, "as though not" mourning, "as though not" rejoicing, “as though not" making purchases (for the future) In summation, they should live “as though not" dealing with the world in general. In other words, they were to disengage from the world – free themselves, because the world is fleeting, brief, and short-lived. A life lived ‘in the world,’ Paul said is only temporary. Life changes. So, why be consumed or preoccupied or even entangled with life and its concerns, when the "present form of this world is passing away" becoming something else.
Paul calls us to disengage from the world and its ways of living. It’s easy to be entangled or captive to a ‘worldly existence,’ that prevents us from living a new life in Christ. And yet Paul recognized we live in the world and have to deal with it. So his solution was for us to free ourselves from focusing on the world and its standards, and instead engaging the world from the perspective of someone living "in Christ" – as if ‘the time’ had already come.
However, how many of us actually have a sense of the imminent coming of Christ? Perhaps, we would rather it not happen today, or even tomorrow. We’re so busy living our day-to-day existence in the world, living the ‘American dream’ or what we imagine it to be. No need for Christ to come yet. We’re on top of things, or soon will be, right? Everything is under control. Why even think of living ‘as though not’ dealing with the world when we’re so into it!
However, how many of us actually have a sense of the imminent coming of Christ? Perhaps, we would rather it not happen today, or even tomorrow. We’re so busy living our day-to-day existence in the world, living the ‘American dream’ or what we imagine it to be. No need for Christ to come yet. We’re on top of things, or soon will be, right? Everything is under control. Why even think of living ‘as though not’ dealing with the world when we’re so into it!
After all these years it doesn’t seem so urgent, does it? The time may not seem quite as important for us. Yet God still calls us to place the cares, concerns, and routine of our daily living into a proper context. Our daily existence, with all its stress, should never get in the way of who is first in life. It is important we know and understand – nothing in this world is to be more important to us than the eternal fellowship we have with God and Christ.
Paul wrote to the church at Corinth about detachment and the urgency to detach oneself from a daily routine. He did not deny the necessities of doing the things life requires in daily living, he only warned against being obsessed with such things to the point they keep us from God. In an uncertain world, Christians, Paul suggested, need to stay focused on their long-term goal. God was to be first – everything else was to be secondary.
Paul is saying: reduce the distractions and you will cope better with the challenges you meet as people living in this critical time. That’s good advice for everyone, whether you believe the world is going to end soon or not. Because it’s true, we easily become distracted by all the things we want to do to the point of losing track of what really matters, and therefore find ourselves not doing anything well? The pressures and distractions of life become like 'other gods' we serve.
Because of that, Paul says, its important to stay centered, connected with God in our living, knowing ‘this life is not all there is’ and instead look to the eternal beyond this world.
And yet we must to a point be engaged in the world and deal with it the best we can because there are people depending upon us. Those who pray for the kingdom to come and who expect Christ to come in all his glory are obligated to be engaged in the world and its struggles. The time is now.
Remember what ‘the disciples to be’ were doing when Jesus found them? Mark tells of Jesus going out and finding them busy about their daily work. It is from their daily life in the world he calls them to something greater. The early Christians in Rome would not have heard of Jesus had not Peter, Paul, and their companions travelled to them and brought the Good News to their world.
Like the ‘disciples to be’ in today’s Gospel, they would have been going about their daily work. Even though they may have been interested in spiritual things, they had not gone searching them out - rather, the Good News came to them living in their daily world and they heard the words of Jesus: the time has come – turn back to God – and believe.
Jesus and Paul declare it is a very critical time, a time of decision and life long commitment. For the ‘disciples to be’ on the shore of Galilee, it was time to choose – their nets or following Christ. For the ‘disciples to be’ in Rome, it was time to choose – their daily work or following Christ. For the ‘disciples to be’ here today, it is time to choose – the things that are important to us in this world, or following Christ into the world to come. And to sustain us along the way, the promise, as Henri Nouwen says, that "the same Lord who binds us together in love will also reveal himself to us and others as we walk together on the road."
Jesus and Paul wanted their listeners to know that this moment, right now, is a critical time, an important time. It is a ‘urgent’ time because the time has come – and may not come again. The kingdom is near! The time is now!
