The Time for Action Is Now

This sermon from 1/21/18 has a problem. The references to “The Sound of Music” are accurate except, the song quoted is from “My Fair Lady.” The setting for “My Fair Lady” is not the same as the setting for “The Sound of Music.” Sorry. I looked up the lyrics, but did not question my memory about where the song originated. 

The Time for Action Is Now  

• Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Mark 1:14-20

The play, “The Sound of Music” is coming to the stage of the Peoria Civic Center next month. The romantic musical is set amid the tensions of the late 1930s as the German Nazi government conscripted the Austrian population into the war machine. That serious drama is always within reach of the play’s characters. All of our lives are written in small print on the time line that is dominated by the relationships of nations and their leaders. 

Today we have a couple more call stories out of the scriptures. God reaches out and asks specific people to take on specific ministry jobs. Jonah drops his resistance and goes to Nineveh to preach repentance. In Mark’s gospel, Jesus begins his ministry after John the Baptist is arrested. 

The initial sermons of Jesus are repetitions of John’s theme, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and,” Jesus adds the element, “believe in the good news.” We all know the word Gospel means Good News, but what exactly is the Good News, and how is it different from what the people had before? 

As in days of old, people were called to repent - stop living in their old sinful patterns - and live in new ways; that are less sinful, and marked by care and compassion. Over time, the religious authority of the Temple, had interpreted this message to focus on personal piety and satisfying an angry God with sacrifices, through the intervention of the priests. 

Jonah was able to achieve a change of heart in the city of Nineveh, by the love of a good and generous God. As unlikely as it seemed, a change of heart took place in a real hurry. Foreign strangers, not even converts to the faith, heard the call to change their ways, and responded. God continually reaches out to all of creation, and does not respect the boundaries of nations, let alone the boundaries of faith denominations. 

For us to make-up with God, we have to be ready and willing to admit our sins, and willing to do our best to not fall into the same bad habits all over again. I guess the warning I would have to give you here is, do not ask God for a skinny waistline, and then stop at the store to buy cake and junk-food on the way home. To repent is to turn away from the bad habits of the past, and make room for new and better ways of living. 

To repent then is more than just saying, “I’m sorry.” If you argue with your spouse, you know that this is true. You are not off the hook with words alone. You need to say it. But repentance is not over when the words have left your lips. Your spouse knows that much and will gladly tell you so. To truly repent requires ACTION. 

John the Baptist claimed that true piety was also concerned with the matters of state. He was imprisoned for calling out Herod for stealing his brother’s wife. There is an undeniable public component to living a life of faith. There is an unmistakeable expectation that those who serve to benefit the community, have much expected of them. We live lives that have both a local and a wider dimension. 

The good news is that God loves us, and is not a meanie with an enemies list. God is not easily offended, but instead God is busy trying to encourage care and compassion in the most sentient beings in Creation. We can best “see” God when the image of God is active in our lives, active in moments of care and compassion. We can best see God in others, when they demonstrate care and compassion, especially our leaders.  

Are we expected to call out our leaders for their public immoral behavior? I am pretty sure John the Baptist would have. I am pretty sure we can name those occasions where use of the resources of our democratic state do not respect the sanctity of life on the planet, so we must call for something better. When others are authorized to represent our interests, we are expected to encourage their good and useful behavior. I think of the political pressure evident in the setting of the Sound of Music as a counterpoint to the love songs.  

Jesus seeks out fishermen to begin his collection of followers. We should note that being a fisherman was not a profession that would have been regarded as too lofty or too lazy. These would be seen as hard-working men, characteristic of the community they come from. 

We also note that fishermen, despite their rustic upbringing and direct manner of speech and dress, are accustomed to failure. They are not so full of themselves after one good catch, because they know they cannot control what they will find tomorrow night. Like the farmers who surround us here on the Illinois prairie, we all can talk about the weather, but none of us can control the weather. We all know that if the weather is not good for the crops, the crops will not be good for us. If Jesus were in the greater Peoria Area, his first disciples would more likely be farmers. 

We do have people fishing here, but it is largely a sport activity and not a commercial venture. A fisherman in our area, no matter how hard he or she works at finding trophy fish, is characterized as taking time off work, not working hard. 

We are also reminded of the classic tales of morality – fish tales if you will. “Give a man a fish and he will eat for one day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.” That might be the commercial fishing version. The sport version goes, “Give a man a fish  and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he becomes a liar for a lifetime.”   

If we truly want to love God and neighbor, we have to be willing to look at ourselves with some honesty. What do we do that keeps us from being closer to God and neighbor? Are we ready now to change our behavior? Are we ready to take responsibility for the things that we do and the things that we say? 

I am not going to go on and on, at least not today. But I have an example that I wish you would think about this week. I told the congregation in Spring Valley many years ago, that I believed sharing gossip is the characteristic sin of the Illinois Valley - and has been elevated to an art form in Spring Valley. You know better than I about how widely it exists in Morton. 

I think it has such a variety of forms and fills such a widespread catalog of needs and urges, that most of it passes undetected. It is so prevalent in our community, that we listen and pass these sinful exchanges without a second thought. It will be hard to repent of this sin, because it is going to take a lot of work to begin to even recognize it and label it. 

The HIPPA Privacy laws implemented carefully in the hospitals have helped to make us aware of how commonly we share personal information, then without permission. As a pastor, I do my best to only share what I have permission to share. It is not important to know all of the details about a person’s medical condition to pray for them. 

To repent means we have to be ready to say, “Yes, I am able to love God and neighbor better than I do today. I even know some of the things that are hurtful, that I am guilty of. I know I cannot take back unkind things I have said, but I can stop doing it anymore.” 

When we decide that we are really going to be disciples, we will end up changing our behavior. We will end up telling folks to stop in the middle of some juicy tidbit, because it is a sin to listen - just like it is a sin to spread gossip. And that, will take willpower, and that will make others look at you funny. 

But you are called to spread good news. There is no sin that God will not forgive, when you repent. You have been offered the chance to change. The word of God changes lives, the word of God saves lives. Are you ready to be saved? Are you ready to be a part of saving others? Are you ready to go from saying “I’m sorry” to be moved enough to take ACTION?   

The word from God is clear and simple, turn from your sin and be saved. In order to share God’s good news, we need to purge our mouths of those stories that reek of death and sin. Like the honest dentist I have to tell you, “I cannot deaden the area completely. This is going to hurt a little.” But the rewards are immense, and eternal. 

The gospel of Mark is so straight forward. There is no ornamentation. Be in the moment, be a part of the action. Julie Andrews sang in the Song of Music (sic), “Show Me.” The evangelist Mark would be in line with this, “Don’t talk of love, lasting through time, make me no undying vow - Show me now!”