; Jonah 3:15; Mark 1: 14-20

Stepping into the moment

A rancher in Texas had a bull named Chance.  One day Chance went out into the pasture and didn’t come back.  He had died and the rancher and his wife were very sad.  They had heard about cloning and they decided to go to Texas A and M University about an hour and a half away and convince to clone the bull. It took some convincing and the university took the bull’s tissue and DNA and at last a very similar looking bull was born.  They had to think of a name and they came up with the most obvious one: Second Chance.  The new bull had the same mannerism as the old bull, For instance. He would eat with his eyes closed.  So the couple assumed that their old bull was back, as much as the scientists told them that this was not the case. The bull might make very similar choices as much as bulls can make choices.  But he was much more a twin than the same animal.  Nevertheless the rancher and his wife felt that they had another chance at the relationship with their Bull through Second Chance.

Much of the book of Jonah is about someone evading his responsibility.  He runs off in the other direction.  He doesn’t want to deal with God gives him a task of warning the people of Nineveh to change their ways.  He doesn’t see how that is any of his business.   But all kinds of misfortune befalls him and he finds himself sitting under a withering tree feeling sorry for himself.  But then Jonah gets a second chance. He gets a second chance at his task and today’s passage, he grasps the second chance, he steps into the moment and the great city is saved. A beautiful story.

Hillary Clinton has some thinking to do. Does she want to run another campaign.  She is the Democratic frontrunner.  Mitt Romney is thinking of running too again and he is throwing his party into disarray.  His party is trying to dissuade him. There have been second chances in campaigns. But there is only one moment that it is going to work.  The media want another showdown between a Bush and a Clinton.  There’s a lot of money in that for them.  Like the Yankees and the Braves.  They may be able to engineer that.  Friends, whose moment is it to step into?  Who can ride the momentum?  Only time will tell.  Have Romney and Clinton missed their moment or is it still ahead of them?

The disciples had only one chance at following Jesus. Mark is pretty matter of fact about it.  Jesus comes, the disciples follow.  Mark was probably interested in conveying whether they were eager or doubtful.  He wanted to tell the essence of the story of Jesus the Christ.  But these disciples stepped into the moment. They took their one chance of following Jesus.

The film “Selma” is all about moments, crucial moments, horrifying moments, graceful moments.  It has become controversial because former members of the Johnson administration are disputing the portrayal of the President.  This is unfortunate in a way and healthy in another.  A historical film has to be accurate, but there is always an interpretation also.  Did Johnson step into the moment or was he dragged into it?  Did he want the voting rights act or did he think it was too risky and as a result he would endanger his own agenda of poverty relief?  The truth is not yet clear. That Martin Luther King, who is portrayed very humanly, stepped into the moment is abundantly clear, however.  It was a time of great turmoil: the assassinations of John F Kennedy was not far behind them and Malcolm X was gunned down in the middle of all this. King and Robert Kennedy were to follow.  One of King’s great insights was that not just doing something was a choice, but so was not doing anything. The whole American society had to make a point and step into the moment.  Moments like that are not always as clear and as urgent.  But there are always these moments: whether to go to war or not with a whole bunch of countries in the US, whether to support Gay and Lesbian emancipation, whether to step into the combat of global warming we are now feeling so clearly in California, whether to speak out against the cozy relationship between big government and big business.

But recognizing the moment, friends, isn’t always something massive or macro.  It isn’t always about saving a whole city or country or the whole world.  Sometime it is about caring for a single soul.  For if we as Christians really believe that human beings are souls, how great the burden the task of caring for them becomes.  How sacred our relationships become.  How urgent stepping into the moment becomes.  We can never underestimate the impact we have on people’s lives.  We may be going through life missing one moment after another, living our life as if in a fog.  May God give us the wisdom to discern and recognize the moments we must step into. Thanks be to God!