Sermon: 3 Epiphany (25 January 2009)
(Jonah 3:1-5, 10/Psalm 62:5-12/1 Corinthians 7:29-31/Mark 1:14-20)
The Time Is Short
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
It is sometime around 55 A.D. – only twenty-five years since Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension – when Paul writes a second letter to a troubled Corinthian church. There is a sense of urgency in the letter: Paul believes the end of all things is near – that the return of Jesus is imminent – and he expresses as much to the saints at Corinth. Paul is wrong.
Some two millennia later we are still waiting, a testimony not so much to Paul’s error as to the patience of God: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pe 3:9, NKJV). Nevertheless, “the time is short,” Paul believes, and so he writes.
29 But this I say, brethren, the time is short, so that from now on even those who have wives should be as though they had none, 30 those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they did not possess, 31 and those who use this world as not misusing it. For the form of this world is passing away (1 Cor 7:29-31, NKJV).
The time is short and the form of this world is passing away. If there is an ounce of human error in Paul’s timetable, there is surely also a pound of divine truth. Brothers, sisters, the Spirit speaks now as then: “The time is short,” and I have only begun to take notice.
I do not know the day of our Lord’s return: no man does, neither the angels in heaven, nor even the Son, but only the Father in heaven. By God’s gracious forbearance two more millennia may pass. But this I know: soon I will meet the Lord face to face. Soon I will stand before him. If, by virtue of grace and strength, I have a long life, some thirty or forty years may yet stretch before me. But now from this half-century vantage point, that time seems so short, as the form of this world is passing away. The time is short, and I have only begun to take notice. The time is short, and I am not ready.
Do not misunderstand. I have been washed, and I have been sanctified, and I have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor 6:11b). I have put on Jesus in baptism – have died there to sin in water and Spirit and have been raised in new creation to life everlasting. I have become a partaker of the divine nature and have been adopted as a beloved son of God Most High – a son in whom He is well-pleased. I believe that by God’s grace and power – should our Lord tarry – I shall fall asleep in the Lord and shall be raised on that last, great day to be forever with him. And yet – and yet the time is short, and I am not ready.
38 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”
41 And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:38-42, NKJV).
The time is short and I am not ready in precisely the same way Martha was not ready that evening in Bethany: she was worried and troubled about many things, but the one needed thing – the good part which her sister Mary recognized and grasped – the one needed thing Martha abandoned for pots and pans and bread. Martha loved this world and her place in it, loved her usefulness, loved her reputation as “the responsible one” far too much to abandon it all and simply sit at Jesus’ feet. For Martha the time was short and she was not ready: there was food to prepare and a table to set and a meal to serve. “Martha,” Jesus said, and again to get her attention as she bustled about distracted and angry, “Martha. You are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed.”
Martha loved her world as I love mine. And that love kept her from fully embracing Jesus – kept her from the intimate communion that her sister knew – as does my love for the world. The time is short and I am not ready because I have not chosen the one needed thing, the good part, the union with Jesus that comes from forsaking the world and sitting at his feet. The time is short and I am not ready because I have not learned to love the Lord my God with all my heart and all my soul and all my mind and all my strength. The time is short and I am not ready because I have not fulfilled my purpose and calling as a human being – the purpose lost in the Garden – the union of man and God through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit – through the grace of God at work in the life of man.
I will never fulfill this purpose until I loosen my fierce hold on the world, until I prefer nothing to Christ (Prologue, The Rule of Benedict). This was Paul’s message to the Corinthians.
29 But this I say, brethren, the time is short, so that from now on even those who have wives should be as though they had none, 30 those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they did not possess, 31 and those who use this world as not misusing it. For the form of this world is passing away (1 Cor 7:29-31, NKJV).
We know our purpose, our calling: union with God through Christ. We know the great challenge, the obstacle: love of the world. It is not Paul only who so encourages us and warns us, but Peter and John also.
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever (1 John 2:15-17, NKJV).
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life: these are the marks of one enthralled by the world, and too often the hallmarks of my life.
The lust of the flesh – all the sensual pleasures which so entice us: ease, comfort, distraction, sloth, gluttony, drunkenness, unbridled sexuality – or just the ordinary, run-of-the-mill immoderate pursuit of any of these.
The lust of the eyes – all the material goods which stir up in us a spirit of greed, avarice, and covetousness – or just the ordinary, run-of-the-mill dependence upon our possessions for security and status.
The pride of life – all the awards garnered and accolades won, all the competitors bested and honors bestowed, all that brings glory to self and not to Christ, all that is ego, all that struts about and proclaims, “I am,” – or just the run-of-the-mill desire to get ahead on your own terms and for your own reward.
And the question echoes: What will it profit a man if he gains all these – all sensual pleasures, all material desires, all fame and glory, all the world – and so forfeits his soul? For what will a man exchange his soul? The time is short, the world is passing away, and I am not ready. There is one needful thing and I act as if there are legion.
How different are the brothers in the Gospel: Simon and Andrew, James and John.
14 Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
16 And as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 17 Then Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” 18 They immediately left their nets and followed Him. 19 When He had gone a little farther from there, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets. 20 And immediately He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after Him (Mark 1:14-20, NKJV).
Jesus called and the brothers left everything: business, family, home, identity, security, comfort. One thing was needed – to be with Jesus – and they chose that good part, forsaking the form of the world which was even then passing away.
The shortness of the time, the need to forsake the world and choose the good part: these have been right there in Scripture all along in stories like Mary and Martha, Simon and Andrew, James and John, and in the words of Jesus; but, perhaps we have not seen them clearly enough, or having seen them, we have ignored them. “Blessed are the pure in heart,” Jesus says, “for they shall see God” (Mt 5:8, NKJV). And what is purity of heart if not integrity, single-mindedness, undivided purpose and devotion? How can one who is torn between the things of the world and the things of God be pure of heart? How can one still trying to serve God and Mammon be pure of heart? How can one consumed by the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life be pure of heart? And, if not pure of heart, how shall one see God, how shall one fulfill the human purpose and calling of union with God? How hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. How hard it is for a divided man to enter the kingdom of God. How hard it is for one who is worried and troubled about many things to enter the kingdom of God.
So what must we do to be saved – saved from the world and saved for our true calling? We do what the saints before us have done. We do what the church teaches. We listen to and follow Paul who said:
8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
17Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body (Phil 3:8-21).
Where do we start? We cultivate the habits of heart and mind and spirit that call us to repentance – to a change of mind – habits which tell us that wherever we are in Christ, there is more and better ahead. We count every earthly thing that draws us away from Christ as loss and rubbish. We forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead – the transformation of our minds and bodies into the glorious likeness of Christ. We embrace the suffering of the cross that we might know the glorious power of the resurrection.
Where do we start? We cultivate the habits of body and mind which conquer the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – habits taught in Scripture, preserved in the practices of the church, and witnessed in the lives of the saints: unceasing prayer; fasting and feasting with the church – especially fasting; meditation in Word and silence; humility, service, suffering. We love when it is difficult. We forgive when it painful. We persevere when it is beyond our ability.
Where do we start? We struggle against the temptations which bind us to the world and distance us from Christ. We cultivate the wheat of righteousness and root out the tares of sin so the harvest might be pure and holy. We confess our sins before God and one another and seek his mercy and our amendment of life.
Hard, hard work: that is the life of faith that leads to union with God through Christ. It is all by grace – God working in us to will and to do his will – but it will not happen apart from our cooperation, our determination, our effort. Is it worth it? The saints tell us so, and they have walked the path before. My heart tells me so. What could be compared to knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, to becoming like him in his death, to attaining to the resurrection from the dead? What is worth more than fulfilling our purpose and calling of union with God?
The time is short and I am not ready, but I have begun to take notice. Now the goal is clearer than ever and the path, though narrow, is well marked. Let us walk it together in the communion of saints.
Amen.
(Jonah 3:1-5, 10/Psalm 62:5-12/1 Corinthians 7:29-31/Mark 1:14-20)
The Time Is Short
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
It is sometime around 55 A.D. – only twenty-five years since Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension – when Paul writes a second letter to a troubled Corinthian church. There is a sense of urgency in the letter: Paul believes the end of all things is near – that the return of Jesus is imminent – and he expresses as much to the saints at Corinth. Paul is wrong.
Some two millennia later we are still waiting, a testimony not so much to Paul’s error as to the patience of God: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pe 3:9, NKJV). Nevertheless, “the time is short,” Paul believes, and so he writes.
29 But this I say, brethren, the time is short, so that from now on even those who have wives should be as though they had none, 30 those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they did not possess, 31 and those who use this world as not misusing it. For the form of this world is passing away (1 Cor 7:29-31, NKJV).
The time is short and the form of this world is passing away. If there is an ounce of human error in Paul’s timetable, there is surely also a pound of divine truth. Brothers, sisters, the Spirit speaks now as then: “The time is short,” and I have only begun to take notice.
I do not know the day of our Lord’s return: no man does, neither the angels in heaven, nor even the Son, but only the Father in heaven. By God’s gracious forbearance two more millennia may pass. But this I know: soon I will meet the Lord face to face. Soon I will stand before him. If, by virtue of grace and strength, I have a long life, some thirty or forty years may yet stretch before me. But now from this half-century vantage point, that time seems so short, as the form of this world is passing away. The time is short, and I have only begun to take notice. The time is short, and I am not ready.
Do not misunderstand. I have been washed, and I have been sanctified, and I have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor 6:11b). I have put on Jesus in baptism – have died there to sin in water and Spirit and have been raised in new creation to life everlasting. I have become a partaker of the divine nature and have been adopted as a beloved son of God Most High – a son in whom He is well-pleased. I believe that by God’s grace and power – should our Lord tarry – I shall fall asleep in the Lord and shall be raised on that last, great day to be forever with him. And yet – and yet the time is short, and I am not ready.
38 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”
41 And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:38-42, NKJV).
The time is short and I am not ready in precisely the same way Martha was not ready that evening in Bethany: she was worried and troubled about many things, but the one needed thing – the good part which her sister Mary recognized and grasped – the one needed thing Martha abandoned for pots and pans and bread. Martha loved this world and her place in it, loved her usefulness, loved her reputation as “the responsible one” far too much to abandon it all and simply sit at Jesus’ feet. For Martha the time was short and she was not ready: there was food to prepare and a table to set and a meal to serve. “Martha,” Jesus said, and again to get her attention as she bustled about distracted and angry, “Martha. You are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed.”
Martha loved her world as I love mine. And that love kept her from fully embracing Jesus – kept her from the intimate communion that her sister knew – as does my love for the world. The time is short and I am not ready because I have not chosen the one needed thing, the good part, the union with Jesus that comes from forsaking the world and sitting at his feet. The time is short and I am not ready because I have not learned to love the Lord my God with all my heart and all my soul and all my mind and all my strength. The time is short and I am not ready because I have not fulfilled my purpose and calling as a human being – the purpose lost in the Garden – the union of man and God through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit – through the grace of God at work in the life of man.
I will never fulfill this purpose until I loosen my fierce hold on the world, until I prefer nothing to Christ (Prologue, The Rule of Benedict). This was Paul’s message to the Corinthians.
29 But this I say, brethren, the time is short, so that from now on even those who have wives should be as though they had none, 30 those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they did not possess, 31 and those who use this world as not misusing it. For the form of this world is passing away (1 Cor 7:29-31, NKJV).
We know our purpose, our calling: union with God through Christ. We know the great challenge, the obstacle: love of the world. It is not Paul only who so encourages us and warns us, but Peter and John also.
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever (1 John 2:15-17, NKJV).
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life: these are the marks of one enthralled by the world, and too often the hallmarks of my life.
The lust of the flesh – all the sensual pleasures which so entice us: ease, comfort, distraction, sloth, gluttony, drunkenness, unbridled sexuality – or just the ordinary, run-of-the-mill immoderate pursuit of any of these.
The lust of the eyes – all the material goods which stir up in us a spirit of greed, avarice, and covetousness – or just the ordinary, run-of-the-mill dependence upon our possessions for security and status.
The pride of life – all the awards garnered and accolades won, all the competitors bested and honors bestowed, all that brings glory to self and not to Christ, all that is ego, all that struts about and proclaims, “I am,” – or just the run-of-the-mill desire to get ahead on your own terms and for your own reward.
And the question echoes: What will it profit a man if he gains all these – all sensual pleasures, all material desires, all fame and glory, all the world – and so forfeits his soul? For what will a man exchange his soul? The time is short, the world is passing away, and I am not ready. There is one needful thing and I act as if there are legion.
How different are the brothers in the Gospel: Simon and Andrew, James and John.
14 Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
16 And as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 17 Then Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” 18 They immediately left their nets and followed Him. 19 When He had gone a little farther from there, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets. 20 And immediately He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after Him (Mark 1:14-20, NKJV).
Jesus called and the brothers left everything: business, family, home, identity, security, comfort. One thing was needed – to be with Jesus – and they chose that good part, forsaking the form of the world which was even then passing away.
The shortness of the time, the need to forsake the world and choose the good part: these have been right there in Scripture all along in stories like Mary and Martha, Simon and Andrew, James and John, and in the words of Jesus; but, perhaps we have not seen them clearly enough, or having seen them, we have ignored them. “Blessed are the pure in heart,” Jesus says, “for they shall see God” (Mt 5:8, NKJV). And what is purity of heart if not integrity, single-mindedness, undivided purpose and devotion? How can one who is torn between the things of the world and the things of God be pure of heart? How can one still trying to serve God and Mammon be pure of heart? How can one consumed by the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life be pure of heart? And, if not pure of heart, how shall one see God, how shall one fulfill the human purpose and calling of union with God? How hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. How hard it is for a divided man to enter the kingdom of God. How hard it is for one who is worried and troubled about many things to enter the kingdom of God.
So what must we do to be saved – saved from the world and saved for our true calling? We do what the saints before us have done. We do what the church teaches. We listen to and follow Paul who said:
8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
17Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body (Phil 3:8-21).
Where do we start? We cultivate the habits of heart and mind and spirit that call us to repentance – to a change of mind – habits which tell us that wherever we are in Christ, there is more and better ahead. We count every earthly thing that draws us away from Christ as loss and rubbish. We forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead – the transformation of our minds and bodies into the glorious likeness of Christ. We embrace the suffering of the cross that we might know the glorious power of the resurrection.
Where do we start? We cultivate the habits of body and mind which conquer the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – habits taught in Scripture, preserved in the practices of the church, and witnessed in the lives of the saints: unceasing prayer; fasting and feasting with the church – especially fasting; meditation in Word and silence; humility, service, suffering. We love when it is difficult. We forgive when it painful. We persevere when it is beyond our ability.
Where do we start? We struggle against the temptations which bind us to the world and distance us from Christ. We cultivate the wheat of righteousness and root out the tares of sin so the harvest might be pure and holy. We confess our sins before God and one another and seek his mercy and our amendment of life.
Hard, hard work: that is the life of faith that leads to union with God through Christ. It is all by grace – God working in us to will and to do his will – but it will not happen apart from our cooperation, our determination, our effort. Is it worth it? The saints tell us so, and they have walked the path before. My heart tells me so. What could be compared to knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, to becoming like him in his death, to attaining to the resurrection from the dead? What is worth more than fulfilling our purpose and calling of union with God?
The time is short and I am not ready, but I have begun to take notice. Now the goal is clearer than ever and the path, though narrow, is well marked. Let us walk it together in the communion of saints.
Amen.
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