The Days are Short

Jonah 3:1-5, 10

1 Corinthians 7: 29-31


Both of our passages hold the same message, but it is directed at two very different types of people. Jonah was telling a bunch of sinners that God was about to destroy their city and all of them with it. He proclaimed, “You have only forty more days before God destroys Nineveh!” Oh yes, the days were short for those wicked, evil people. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians the same message but it is to a new church who is struggling to do what is right rather than what is wrong. Paul offers them encouragement by telling them that the days are short until Jesus comes back and so therefore they need to be prepared in mind, body, and soul for that moment.

There was a boy named Greg who was 17 years old and couldn’t have been more satisfied with the way his life was shaping up. He was on the high school football team and was one of the most popular boys in school with a cheerleader for his girlfriend, and a scholarship to go to college. But Greg had been getting headaches for several months. Vicious headaches that left him tired and weak. He had also noticed that his throat seemed to be constantly getting sore as if his lymph nodes were always swollen. But being almost a man and a big hero at the school, Greg didn’t worry about these things. He fought through it and ignored all of his symptoms, never telling anyone what was going on.

Until the day he got hit by a linebacker and got a concussion. At the hospital they did a full work up of tests and as they were doing the head scan something alerted the doctors that all was not right. After a lot more tests a doctor came in to tell Greg and his family that Greg had what appeared to be a malignant brain tumor that had spread to his lymphatic system. Greg was going to die and he was only 17 years old.

Life takes on a whole new meaning when the days are short. All of a sudden, the things that seemed so important no longer have meaning. The things that we always put off for another day are suddenly imperative that we do now. The little arguments that we got into at the water cooler all of a sudden seem childish and wasteful. Every moment spent with our family and loved ones becomes very precious. The world becomes a brighter place, and it becomes a darker one as well.

What happened to Greg rarely happens to the rest of us. Not many of us know when we will die. We live our lives happily not knowing and we take for granted the amount of time we are given. The two passages before us today are meant to jolt us back to reality. They are meant to remind us that life is about more than the routines we fall into, the comfortable feelings we have with our life, our family, and our job. When a person is told, “Your days are numbered” then each one becomes a precious gift.

The first churches understood that gift. They looked forward to Jesus coming back at any moment. They did not want to cling to the world and its ways, they clung to God and Jesus’ ways. None of us know the day or the hour when Christ is to come, all we know is that like the Corinthians Paul advised, we need to be ready for him. We need to be looking for Jesus. We need to be living as if Jesus is already here.

The people from Nineveh were a corrupted people. They had lost sight of God’s glory and power. They had accepted the world into their hearts instead of God. They were okay with murder and mayhem. They were okay with prostitution and abuse. They were okay with greed and poverty. They told themselves it was not their problem, they were required to take care of their own and the rest of the city could take care of itself. Does this sound familiar?

How many of us turn on the news at night and listen to the stories of violence with half an ear and a hardened heart? How many of us open up our newspapers and learn about a corrupt official, a fire that left a family homeless, or how twenty people lost their jobs and we read on without a thought, worry, or care? Sometimes if we read something truly horrific like a mother throwing her baby in a dryer we will pause a moment and be sad. We might even say a small prayer for the baby’s life, but it isn’t long before it is gone from our minds. We have enough to worry about after all. We can’t let the world’s problems bring us down.

Greg happened to feel the same way. It wasn’t until he faced death that he realized how out of balance the world was and how far removed he was from that world. It wasn’t until he heard someone tell him, “Your days are short” that he understood how far removed he was from God and what God wanted for his life.

It’s the question we stop asking. We grow so comfortable with who we are and what we are, we grow comfortable with the indecency and inhumanity prevalent throughout the world that we stop questioning. We stop wondering. We lose our hope and we lose our wonder. We forget to ask, “Jesus where are you? God what do you want for my life? Holy Spirit, who are you bringing into my life?”

We have the ability to make real changes with what we have right here and right now. Each of us has the ability to change a little bit of the world around us. Last weekend I was sad about some things that I couldn’t change or help and instead of hiding my head, I decided to do something. I went out and gave blood because I hadn’t given in awhile. This time of year, the blood supply drops dangerously low. I made a difference to three different people by giving an hour out of my Saturday. There are other things we can do to make a difference.

When you see someone that looks lonely, talk to them. When you see someone who looks hungry, buy them a meal. When you hear about a mission trip, go on it. They are small things. Some would say they make no difference at all. However, if we ALL did these things, what would the world be like? How different would it be if every time we saw a hungry person, we fed them? How different would the world be if when we saw someone that needs a shoulder to cry on, we offered it?

I’m telling you now that whether you live for five more days or fifty more years, your days are short. All you have been given has been given for a reason. Look around you, start asking the hard questions, and figure out what Jesus is up to. Figure out what God wants for you and for your family. It is never too late. Just ask Nineveh. When they heard Jonah’s message, from the oldest to the youngest they repented their ways and God saw, and God forgave them. It is never too late to make a change unless you wait until there are no more days left to you.

Amen.