First Presbyterian Church
The Time is Now
January 25, 2009
by Pastor Susan Barnes

Our reading from Psalm 62 is in unison. Please turn to page 526 in your pew Bibles. For this psalmist, the faithful trust in God, rather than in their own resources. The psalmist recognizes how insignificant people are, compared with God. On the balances of a scale, they weigh less than air, even the rich people. God is the one who has the power.

Listen for the word of God as we read it together in Psalm 62:5-12.

5 For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.

6 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.

7 On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.

8 Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us. Selah

9 Those of low estate are but a breath, those of high estate are a delusion;
in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath.

10 Put no confidence in extortion, and set no vain hopes on robbery;
if riches increase, do not set your heart on them.

11 Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God,

12 and steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord.
For you repay to all according to their work.

This ends our reading from the psalm. That last line can also be translated “You shalom a person according to his or her works or attempts.” ‘Shalom' there can mean ‘make complete,' ‘bring peace,' ‘make safe,' ‘restore,' or ‘make good.' Extortion and robbery are not going to lead to shalom for the extortionist or the robber. God is the one with power for shalom. God is the refuge. Let's listen to the choir interpret the psalm.

Anthem

Our gospel reading is on page 35. In the first chapter of Mark's gospel, John the Baptizer baptized Jesus, then Jesus was taken by the Spirit into the wilderness, where he was tempted for forty days, where angels waited on him. Then abruptly, Mark tells us about the beginning of Jesus' ministry. Listen for the word of God as it is found in Mark 1:14-20.

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

16 As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea-- for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

19 As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

This ends our gospel reading. So when we listen to that text, we could dismiss it as just the description of Jesus calling his first disciples, who followed him. But what's noteworthy about the text is that Simon and Andrew were casting a net into the sea, standing in the water to catch fish. They were working-class fisherman. And then there were James and John, with their father and the hired men in the boat. James and John came out of a bigtime fishing operation, the heirs to their father's business. And they followed Jesus.

Simon, Andrew, James and John are not in the same social class, but they all became Jesus' disciples. Mark does not elaborate on how these four got along, but Simon and Andrew bring them all to their home on the Sabbath. Again, no word from Mark how James and John reacted to being in this humble home—because for Mark, the story is all about Jesus.

For Paul, too, it is all about the Lord Jesus Christ. In our section from the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul is responding to the Corinthians' debate about whether it is better for a man who is a believer not to touch a woman. Shouldn't they stay the way they were when they were called, when they became followers of Christ? Were they allowed to get married, or not? What about people who were already married? What about people who were already circumcised? What about people in the middle of elaborate business transactions? What about people who were slaves? Should they try to buy their freedom or not?

Paul told them slave or no, they could make use of their present condition. Married couples should give each other their conjugal rights. But Paul is also worried about an impending crisis in Corinth, and advises them not to concern themselves about the world. Our reading is on page 170. Listen for the word of God as it is found in 1 Corinthians 7:29-31.

29 I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none,
30 and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions,
31 and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

This ends our reading from First Corinthians.

When I prepare a sermon, I look hard at the cultural background of the scripture, and I pass on what I learn to you. It makes it easier to understand what's going on in the text, but it takes more work on our part.

And we miss out on the entertainment value of taking scripture out of context. In verse 29, Paul says, “Live as if you don't have any wives.” Surely that means you should pretend to be single, even though you are a married man. Take off your ring, go to a bar, act like all those guys in the movies who pick up a beautiful woman and assure her they're single.

We all know Paul doesn't mean that. If you read the next chapter, you read that Paul says marriage is good and necessary, although, according to Paul, the person who remains unmarried can serve the Lord better, given the present circumstances.

We know a little about the circumstances in the area a few years before this letter was written. Jews had been expelled from Rome. Sosthenes, the Corinthian synagogue leader, was beaten by the authorities for his association with Paul. So it wasn't an easy time to be Jewish, or a Jewish Christian in those days. Paul perhaps wanted the church members to focus on the Lord during these hard times.

Some scholars think that this advice has to do with Paul expecting Jesus to return soon. Our pew Bibles say, “The appointed time has grown short.” But I think it can also mean something like “the time is now.” This is the time to start living a life that pleases the Lord. The rest of Paul's letter includes his plans for taking up a collection for the church, as well as his future travel itinerary. If Paul expected Jesus to come back so soon, would he have bothered making these plans? I don't think so. I think he wanted the Corinthians to safely weather the current political crisis in Corinth.

I don't know why Paul didn't equate being good to your spouse with serving God; certainly the love we share with others comes from God; as long as we treat each other honorably, we are pleasing the Lord. But perhaps Paul was thinking about all the social obligations married people in Corinth had to meet. Perhaps there was a lot of entertaining and patronage that had more to do with keeping up with the Joneses than it did with keeping their baptismal promises. Or it could have been that because the society was dangerous, Paul didn't want couples bringing any more children into the world.

What does this ancient text hold for us? For one, I think those of us who are married should behave as if we were married. Our circumstances allow us to grieve or rejoice, as we need to do. But what about Paul's words “ those who buy, [living] as though they had no possessions”? At that time, maybe businesses, at least for the Corinthian believers, were in trouble, and Paul didn't want the business leaders to think their wealth would insulate them from the problems. That might have more direct application to us.

Maybe Paul's words meant, even in economically risky times, doing what God wants, without being pragmatic or planning or second-guessing – maybe it means taking the godly risk now.

This is news to those who find their worth in their investments, properties and possessions. Behave as if we had none – don't let them control us, don't derive our worth from them.

How do possessions control our behavior?

I knew a man who always parked his car at the farthest point in the parking lot so no one will park next to him and ding his car. It didn't matter that his family member was sick and couldn't walk easily. He still parked far away.

I read an advice column letter where the writer was upset because she wanted her grandchild fed in her kitchen, instead of having him at the table for dinner with the rest of the family. She had new white carpet and new white upholstered chairs in her dining room that she wanted to keep clean. The advice columnist gently told her that her white carpet was not going to stay white for long because it was in the dining room, where people usually eat together.

A long time ago I read a story about two farmers who had just hired a new farmhand, and the three of them were out repairing fences on a rainy morning. The new farmhand, wearing brand new overalls, wasn't getting much done. The farmer who hired him was getting on in years, and lost his grip on a fencepost and it fell into a mudpuddle so all three of them got muddier than necessary. The other farmer asked him privately if he was all right, since he'd never seen the man do anything that careless before. The answer was, “Our farmhand was more interested in keeping his new overalls clean than he was in fixing the fences. After that mud baptism, he started working much harder!”

Sometimes we are so busy protecting our possessions, we don't do what we are supposed to be doing. We let our possessions control our behavior.

A long time ago, I read a biography of two new Christians who were concerned about just that – about letting their possessions control them. They had just bought a new car. They came up with a solution: the husband hit the hood with a hammer, to dent it and crack the paint. Now that the car wasn't perfect, they didn't have to worry about it. I always wondered about their solution. Scratching the paint meant that the metal would rust – denting the hood could mean it wouldn't close properly. I always wondered about the stewardship of deliberately wrecking something for wrecking's sake. If it had been my car, I know I would have dinged it soon enough on my own anyway.

Serving the Lord is more important than possessions. Living as though we had no possessions doesn't mean we don't take care of them, it just means we don't let them dictate our lives.

The disciples Simon, Andrew, James and John, didn't ask Jesus any questions—they just left their nets and followed him so they could fish for people. One pastor wrote that she is astonished and terrified about this story from Mark, because the disciples didn't ask any questions; apparently they left their nets without a backward glance. She said, “Following Jesus is life-giving and transformational – but we don't get to draw the map or have our questions answered before we start walking. We have to listen to Jesus' call and take the first step. It can be downright uncomfortable. Jesus stands on shore giving an invitation that makes real promises with real demands. The one thing that makes it possible for us to follow is that we know he will walk the entire way with us, leading the way right into the kingdom.” 1

So we who follow Jesus can risk trusting him, knowing that God is our refuge, our salvation, and our hope.

1Anderson, Cynthia, “Living by the Word: Reflections on the lectionary,” Christian Century, January 13, 2009, p. 21.