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.

What is Good in Nazareth?

1Sam3:1-10
John 1: 43-51

All of us our searching for something. We all have dreams and goals that we work our whole life toward. We tell ourselves as children that we can be whatever we want, we can accomplish anything. As we get older, some of those dreams and goals fade away, partly because we have changed and so they no longer are something we want. Then there are times when we let our dreams and goals go because we think they are unrealistic. We tell ourselves it was a stupid thought, a foolish wish, or unrealistic expectation and it is time to grow up.

Jesus comes along right at this time in these four men’s lives. They have settled into their lives. They were no longer children with fancy dreams; they were grown men with careers. They had responsibilities and bills; they had families to take care of. They didn’t have time to hold onto dreams that might never come true, they had to put food on the table and make sure there was a roof over their family’s heads.

But Jesus is walking along and he chooses to head to Galilee. The text does not tell us if Philip is the first man Jesus sees or what Jesus was looking for. All we are told is that Jesus saw Philip and he told him “Follow me.”  So Jesus sees Philip and extends him an invitation to come on the journey. The word ‘see’ right here means more than Jesus looked at the outward appearance of Philip. Jesus saw inside of Philip; he saw the character, the flaws and the strengths that made up the man standing before him. Jesus proves that when he tells Nathaniel the kind of man he is and Nathaniel is amazed at his insight.

Jesus comes along in our lives right when we are about to give up our hopes and dreams. Jesus turns to us and reminds us of the joy we have in trying to fulfill our goals. Jesus fills us with faith, the faith that Jesus has in God and the faith he has in us.  This is one of the reasons why we seem to feel Jesus’ presence the most strongly when we are at our darkest moments. This is the reason that so many persecuted Christians seem to have such a strong, vivid faith. We have faith in the happy times of our life, but we really need and we really depend on God the most when we are at our lowest moments.

The first thing Philip does after Jesus issues him an invitation to follow him isn’t to accept the invitation. He doesn’t run home and pack his bags. He doesn’t go to the bank to get his savings. He does not kiss his wife and pat his kids’ heads and say he’ll be back when the journey is over. The first thing Philip does is he finds Nathaniel and issues an invitation.

He tells Nathaniel, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Philip’s first instinct when he encounters the Messiah, when he finds the Word of God is to SHARE THE GOOD NEWS!

 The Gospel of John avidly reminds us of several things. We are given deeper glimpses into the human part of Jesus, but the Gospel of John never lets go of the divine half of him either. No, we are forced to mesh the two together until they are inseparable. It is why we proclaim that Jesus is both human and divine without any division between the two. He is fully human, and he is fully divine. This Gospel also reminds us that our first response to this amazing insight should not be to hold it close, but to share it with the world!

In the previous verses, Jesus sees Andrew and tells him to follow. Andrew goes immediately and finds Simon Peter and tells him, “We have found the Messiah!” And we see it again when Philip immediately finds Nathaniel and tells him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about!”

Are you sharing the Word of God with others? Are you telling people about the one who holds all the hope for our future? And if you aren’t – WHY?!

Why are we so afraid to share the Gospel with those around us? Why are we so afraid to live each day in the grip of excitement and joy that the Holy Spirit brings when we pay attention to what she is doing around us? Why do we hide who we are, why do we pretend we are happy when we are not, why do we allow ourselves to grow dull and weary when God promises renewal and excitement?!

Many of us allow our fears to stop us from doing these things. We fear what others will think. We fear what others will say and do. We fear ourselves. We fear God. If many of us are honest with ourselves, we will admit that we are afraid to give ourselves to the Lord because we fear we will lose who we are. We do not want to give God everything because then we wonder what will be left for us to enjoy. If I’m always doing something for God, when will I have time for me?!

Jesus understands these fears, but that doesn’t mean that he excuses them.

You will not lose yourself if you give everything to God. The Lord does not suck us up and wring us dry like an old dish cloth. What happens when we give our all to God is that we find out who we really are. We are given a freedom to be exactly who we are without restraint. It seems like an impossible dichotomy.  However, what we always forget is that God loves us more than we could ever measure in human ways. Why would God who loves us beyond reasoning, take from us the very essence of whom we are?

God wouldn’t. But God would give us the ability to find deeper meaning in all that happens around us, God would give us the chance to find out more about God and ourselves. God would open up for us a new world with so many possibilities that we are left speechless and amazed.

Philip knew that. He had to share what he had found with Nathaniel because it was the most precious, the most perfect, and the most wonderful moment of Philip’s life. Something like that is not meant to be hidden away for an hour on Sunday. The Lord our God is not meant to be an afterthought. The Lord Our God is the one who gives us back all that we have previously lost in our lives. The Lord gives meaning to the saddest moments as well as the happiest ones in our life.

If you are wondering what to say to people, then follow Philip’s example. Nathaniel asks him in doubt, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?!” And Philip simply responds, “Come and see”.

When you invite someone to hear the Good News, to find out what is going on here at Trinity, all you have to say is “Come and see”. Let Jesus do the rest. Jesus will look deep into each of our hearts and will know what we want, what we need, and Jesus will restore us, transform us so that our hearts beat in time with God’s. That is what happens when we give ourselves to the Lord. We will abide in God and God will abide in us. We will dwell in Jesus and Jesus will dwell in us. The Holy Spirit will live in us and we will live in the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Day and Night

Genesis 1:1-5
Mark 1: 4-11

I doubt many of us think too much on the concept of day and night. We take for granted that when we go to bed at night that the sun will rise by the time we wake up and will fall again as evening comes. Perhaps some who have lived for extended periods in Alaska where the darkness lasts well into the day in winter and the daylight lasts well into the night in summer, will understand a little more the significance of twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of night.

We order our lives around the concept of day and night. In the mornings we wake up, we go to work and in the evenings we come home, make dinner and go to bed. There is order in having both day and night. There is a distinction between what we do in the daytime versus what we do in the night time. Some people, particularly women, will even have wardrobes that correspond to those times. These things you wear in the daytime, this dress or pajamas can only be worn at night. This lipstick is a night shade, this is a day shade.

So when God created day and night, he was not just giving us light so we could see and live by, he was creating order from chaos. The world was without form, it was dark and empty. Then God gave the world light and he separated it from the darkness. He deliberately made a distinction between the two.

Too often we read this first chapter of Genesis very quickly, with barely a pause. We don’t dwell on what God was doing here. How, by separating day from night, he also created a place for all creatures to feel comfortable. When he created the fish and the birds and then the animals on land, there are some that come out only in daytime, and others that come out only in the night. Then the Lord created people and many of us are defined by the time we keep. Some of us are morning people, others of us are night owls. There is a place where we all feel comfortable, where we all feel welcome because God created those places when he separated night from day.

The passage we read today in Mark, is a reminder of Genesis, when God created night and day, he also created heaven and earth. Jesus comes to John to be baptized and as he does, the Spirit of God descends upon him like a dove and the heavens are opened. This should bring us right back to Genesis where God opens up the world, with a few words, God creates the light of the world. God gives us the ability to live and grow and survive.

Jesus does the same thing when John baptizes him. In Mark, this is the first sign we are given that Jesus is no ordinary human being. There is something different and special about him. When Jesus came to the world, he created a new light from the darkness. God created the way to eternal salvation through the giving of His Son. Jesus had the ability to penetrate into the darkest places, into the deepest pits of despair and loneliness, and bring to each person the light of his love for them.

With the coming of Jesus, with his baptism, the heavens are literally torn open. A violent rendering and the Spirit of God descends upon the world. In Genesis it says that the Spirit of God hovered over the waters of the deep and then God created light. When John poured the water upon Jesus’ head, those actions sparked just as powerful a creation as what we see in the beginning of the world. The heavens are ripped apart, no longer able to contain God’s wonderful, effervescent Spirit. The Spirit flows down to the dark world and as it falls upon Jesus God tells the world, “This is my Son.”

In the last few years with unemployment hovering at 10% and food and gas and utility bills going continually up while raises stay flat, we have learned a lot about the darkness of the world. We have seen those darkest parts of humanity as people viciously fight for jobs; we see businesses that once co-existed relatively peacefully now trying to demonize their competitors. We have watched as our government, instead of empowering its people, has turned against itself. Instead of the people we elect working together to help us; we see awful infighting not just among the many political parties, but inside the parties as well.  

We are left facing the darkness alone, without guidance from those who should be able to help us. We worry about the state of our finances; we worry about our homes, our jobs, and our pensions without benefit of anyone to relieve the burden. These times are the ones where we need to go back to Genesis 1 and Mark 1 and think deeply about their meaning. Only in God do we have safety. Only through Jesus do we have hope. The one sure thing in our world, the one place where we can find guidance and strength and the fortitude to continue on is found here in this church. The Spirit of God, hovering over the darkest places of the world, waiting to bring light and love when we open ourselves up.

When Jesus ascended into heaven, he sent the Spirit of God to help us. Jesus knew about the dark places. He knew we needed a source of never ending light. We needed an unbiased, untarnished place where we could go and be welcomed with open arms. Jesus gave us that when he gave us God’s Spirit. The Holy Spirit is here now with us. It dwells in our hearts as we dwell in Jesus’ heart.

You are not alone in your endeavors, in your struggles.

Some of us start this New Year with hope in our hearts. Others of us have more worries than we ever had before. But none of us begin this year alone. None of us are left with the unsatisfying answers given by government, our employers, and the naysayers of our community. We have been given a Spirit that restores faith, reminds us that although we are sometimes crushed, we are not defeated. That while we have burdens, we do not carry them alone. We are reminded that God who is powerful and just can create whole worlds with the power of God’s Word. We are reminded that through a few words, our sorrows may melt away.

We are the light of the world. WE bring love into the world through our faith in Jesus Christ. We are given the greatest gift humanity has ever been given and if we cling to those truths, if we hold tight to that reality, we will find the rest of the world’s darkness will not seem so dark or so deep. We will find Jesus, our light, in the most unexpected of places. After all, if we are to see the light most clearly, it has to be from the darkest of places.

The dark places of the world are the ones that everyone else shies away from. But Christians, well we know that the Lord is found in those dark places. It is there that we see the heavens being ripped asunder, and the Spirit descending upon the masses because Jesus is not done working in this world. God is not done creating the Kingdom of Heaven.

May the light of God’s countenance shine upon you and bring you peace. 

Amen.