I Corinthians 7:29-31; Jonah 3:3-5; Mark 1:14-1

Does anybody really know what time it is?

The texts for today bounce us around the Bible, from Paul’s letters to the Corinthians to the minor prophet Jonah and back to the Gospel of Mark.  The first tells us that tomorrow doesn’t matter.  Even the formal relationships you have will not matter. All that matters is that you act righty according to your Christian faith right now. Jonah, the reluctant and cranky prophet who has tried to run away in the opposite direction from where he was supposed to go, Jonah calls the people of Nineveh to repentance.  Their past must be dead and their present must be radically different if there is to be a future.  Jesus, in Mark, reminds us that all is fulfilled, that the kingdom has come. now  Again tomorrow is a shaky subject. The future is an after thought.

Friends, we cannot be so pretentious as to assume that we know what Jesus was thinking. We can say with near certitude that He did not think the future of the world as we know it would go one for a long time.  This is certainly true of Paul, who is definitely seeing himself live in the end of days.  As for Jonah and the future, he just doesn’t care. Jonah lives just for Jonah.

Eight days ago we woke up in Hawaii and enjoyed the sunrise..  Then came that text message about an incoming missile and a brief but not very loud siren.  Carolyn and I talked about whether we should take it seriously. We decided not to.  It said “take shelter,” but where: “Under a coconut tree?” I decided to have breakfast instead and kind of forgot about it. Everything was too peaceful. Yes, for a moment you think: what if I see a mushroom cloud on the horizon.  It just didn’t seem real.  Sure enough it was a false alarm.  But others did not stay calm like that.  For them it was 38 minutes of terror. As one late night comedian said (JimmY Fallon?). They managed to scare the most laid-back state!”  It’s true, in Hawaii, being mellow and calm is an important cultural value.  They say on the Big Island if someone honks their horn, they’re probably from the mainland. Anyway that same day someone was already selling T shirts with the false alarm printed on it. 

But, friends, what if it hadn’t been a false alarm, but there had really only been the 38 minutes. One family was wondering about that I heard. They al got into bed together and decided to watch cat videos. In our Bible texts however, everybody really lived with a 38 minute mentality, or 38 hours or 38 days, weeks, no more than 38 months for sure.  Forget the past, the future is not guaranteed, so this moment becomes crucial. If the James Bond movie title “tomorrow never does” is wrong and tomorrow does indeed die, then what?  Talking about T shirts, you may have seen the T-shirt with the words: “live each day as if it were your last.”  I don’t know how well that would work, because nobody would fix their heaters or change their tires.  But you get the point: tomorrow doesn’t exist.  So we are dealing with scarcity here. If you are out of paper you are going to use what you have left very carefully. If as the citizens of Cape Town South Africa are experiencing you are approaching “day zero”  when the city will run out of water, then every drop of water counts.  If you have no time, each second counts.

However, friends,, is that how we are living?  As people for who every second counts. I don’t think so. We mostly live by generational concerns. Kids want to play and any chores or school works as a distraction. The young focus on their careers and wondering about partners in life.  Young families worry about nest eggs and college funds and finding some time for enjoyment. Retired people catch up on the travel they never had time for.  The rock and (later) pop group Chicago had some great songs on their first album which was an apparent reaction to the 1968 riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.  One of them was “Does anybody really know what tome it is?”  The song answers that question in the negative: no, nobody cares. The deeper message is that nobody seems to care what is happening. And this was the year both Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were shot dead and the Vietnam War was burning out of control.  The singer decries the lack of urgency of the moment. We could ask that question today: do we care what time is is.”   

Friends, let us examine our sense of urgency. Let us examine our sense of urgency as we think about each day we have and what we do with it. Peter Bell has decided to live his life that way it appears. Lets also. Let us examine the sense of urgency of this congregation: what can we do with our skills, our time and our compassion?  Let us examine what we can do for the community , for people around us and around the globe which we are slowly rendering unsustainable?  May we act with hope and optimism and resolve. May God give us wisdom and guide us.