3rd Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Our Lady of the Rosary, NOLA
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Our Lady of the Rosary, NOLA
What
gets our attention these days? A disaster? Some sort of crisis? Maybe
a name change for your favorite team gets you worked up? Or maybe
you're a fairly even-tempered soul who reacts calmly in all
situations. You're calm in a crisis, controlled, and clear-headed.
After all, what isn't a crisis these days? Global warming!
Terrorists! ISIS and Boko Haram! Ebola! The End of America! Genocide
in Nigeria and Syria! The Collapse of Europe! Open Borders! Just
about anything that happens these days (no matter how minor) is
presented to us as a crisis of earth-shattering proportions, a
disaster on par with the worst punishments visited on sinners in the
Old Testament. Digging through the hysterical rhetoric of a
hyperventilating media can be exhausting work. If you're like me,
you've come to the conclusion that “Wolf” has been cried once too
often, and that it is far better to throw in with the providence of
God and let human events unfold as they will, knowing that Love
Himself has already won the victory for us. Squeals of panic from
politicians, activists, and media talking-heads take on a whole new
insignificance when placed along side the Word of God and His promise
of loving-care. None of this, however, should close our ears to the
His call for our repentance. Though He will not destroy us again for
our disobedience, He will leave us to face the consequences of
ignoring a fair warning. “I tell you, brothers and sisters, the
time is running out. . .”
So,
what does it take to get your attention these days? The people of
Nineveh hear Jonah announce in their streets, “Forty days more and
Nineveh shall be destroyed!” Just forty days. And everything you
know and love will be gone. Does that get your attention? Apparently,
it gets the Ninevehites' attention b/c they repent and their city is
spared. What's odd about this brief episode from the Book of Jonah is
that the prophet sent by God to warn the Ninevehites never actually
offers them a deal. You know the deal: repent or burn. Jonah simply
goes around the streets yelling that the city will be destroyed in
forty days. No conditions. No hedged bets against destruction. Just a
straightforward warning. Why no conditions? Well, we might speculate
that Jonah wanted the city destroyed. Or perhaps the Lord's
punishment for his earlier reluctance to serve left him feeling a
little petulant. Regardless, the threat of destruction is enough to
send a city-wide wave of repentance through the population. Having
secured the Ninevehites' attention without offering them a deal,
Jonah secures the city for the Lord.
So,
what does it take to secure your attention? Writing to the
Corinthians, Paul announces, “I tell you, brothers and sisters, the
time is running out. . .For the world in its present form is passing
away.” Does knowing that your time will one day run out secure your
attention? Paul's warning to the Corinthians is hardly profound. The
world in its present form is always passing away. Time is always
running out. Anyone with a watch and somewhere to be knows this. What
might not be so obvious at first glance is that for time to run out,
for the world in its present form to pass away, there must be a point
somewhen in the future toward which we are moving in time. In
other words, Paul is telling the Corinthians that time and this
present world have an end and that end is swiftly coming to bear. Is
this an attention-grabber? Hardly. We're told everyday that the end
is near. It's either the ice caps melting or the scarcity of clean
air or some new genetically modified plague that's coming to wipe us
all out. . .any moment now! Just a few more minutes. . .one or two
more hours. . .or, um, in a year or two. Maybe. Telling us that time
is short is nothing new, not scary enough to open our ears to news we
do not want to hear. It will take more than the dull beat of crisis,
crisis, crisis from the media to get our attention.
So,
for the last time, what will open your ears to hear what you really
need to hear? How about this: “This is the time of fulfillment. The
kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel!” A
time of fulfillment. Not the end of time, or the destruction of your
city, but the fulfillment of God's promise to bring His kingdom to
us. We are now living in that period of human history that will
witness the keeping of a divine promise. Turn from disobedience
toward righteousness and believe that the Lord wills that all sinners
come to Him for His mercy. Notice the absence of a threat, the
absence of a deal. Notice also that Jesus doesn't warn us or nag at
us. He simply announces that the Kingdom of God is at hand and then
he invites us to turn from our sin and believe that we are forgiven.
We don't have to fast to be saved or put on sackcloth or wail our
sins in the streets. All we need to do is turn from sin and believe
that the Father loves us enough to announce the coming of His kingdom
by sending His only Son to live and die as one of us. He fulfills His
promise in the body and blood of Christ. The urgent choice we have to
make is btw receiving him as Lord, or living – in this world and
the next – with the consequences of sin.
Jesus
calls all of us to believe his gospel. Not a gospel of loss, of grief
and mourning; not of threat or bargain, or dust and fumes; nor the
gospel of city-wide apocalypse or righteous war. His is a gospel of
everlasting goodness and eternal life, permanent mercy and
all-pervading grace; a gospel of ceaseless vitality and living
strength. And it is our gospel! Our story! Our work in the
world and, if we will take it up, our dare and our charge—to be
with Christ in here and to be Christ out there. He says to Simon and
Andrew, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Follow after me and my gospel, and I will turn you into men who cast
your nets to harvest the lives of men and women who long to give
themselves to God. Simon and Andrew abandon all they know and follow
Christ. James and John leave their father in his boat and follow
Christ. And all of are made into the men that Jesus promises. How did
he get their attention? Threats of impending apocalypse? No. Promises
of damnation if they refuse? No. He simply tells them the truth. And
that truth rings in their ears louder than family, friends, career,
hobbies, or even the lure of this world's impermanent joys.
OK.
I lied. I'm going to ask one more time: what does it take to get your
attention? Sirens? Flashing lights? Threats of immediate death? How
about an invitation from Christ himself to become an heir to his
heavenly kingdom? To be a member of his Body with an eternal purpose?
If so, here's the Good News: you are so invited. All you need
to do to become a disciple of Christ, a preacher of his word, a
teacher of his truth. . .is accept his invitation and then go out and
bear witness to all that he has said and all that he has done.
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