Responding to God’s Call

In Greek there are two words for “time.” Chronos is the time of chronology. It is calendar and clock time. If you look at a calendar of the church year, we are currently in one of the blocks of time called “Ordinary Time”…the time in between the special seasons of the church year, the color of the paraments, the cloths on the pulpit and lectern and Communion Table is green. When I first began in ministry, I bought this stole to wear during Ordinary Time because it is a general stole, for use in all seasons…and because I don’t like wearing green. To be honest, I wasn’t a big fan of ordinary time. Its name seemed to say what it is – ordinary. We celebrated Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, and it’s not quite time for Lent, so we have a few weeks of Ordinary Time.

When I plan worship service themes and sermons I tend to plan in series, and I often have a name for that series. But, when Doug, our Director of Christian Education, who does the editing for our worship services, asked me the theme of this series of four weeks between, I just shrugged, on Zoom of course, and said, “There isn’t one. It’s just a few words that pulsed at me from the pages of Scripture as I read the lectionary texts.” Last week we read the 139th Psalm and the story of Nathaniel meeting Jesus. Known…the word pulsated…you are known… God is closer to us than our next breath, knit us together in our mother’s womb, knows our story, and loves us still. This week our Old Testament Scripture tells the story of Jonah’s call and then our New Testament reading tells the story of Simon, Andrew, James, and John being called by Jesus. Called…You are called, reverberated from the pages. God calls us, and we have a choice about how we respond. Next week we hear about how we are Emptied and Refilled for God’s purposes, and the theme the fourth week in Ordinary time is Healed. Known, Called, Emptied and Refilled, Healed – Ordinary words, for ordinary time…or are they? It occurs to me that they may be words of the other kind of time in Greek – Kairos time. Kairos is the time of fulfillment, the right time, these words describe the movement of God in our lives – we are known, we are called, we are emptied of self and refilled with God’s Spirit, we are made whole, healed.

I had in my sketched out plans that today I would share several contemporary call stories – stories of ordinary people who responded to God’s nudge to leave behind the life they had known behind. Some have left behind careers. Some have left behind security. Some have left behind what they knew how to do and learned a whole new skill set. But, I realized they are chronos stories – a particular person at a particular time called to a particular task or ministry. And “You are called,” is a Kairos story. “You are called” is not just a message for those who go into full time ministry or who establish non-profits or who travel to serve a mission. God isn’t just speaking to a few people.

God KNOWS us all; God calls us ALL. Jesus enters Galilee after his baptism and the 40 days of temptation in the wilderness, he comes into Galilee “preaching the gospel of God, the time has come for things to be done God’s way. God knows you and is closer than your next breath, “repent, and believe.”

Jesus doesn’t use the word “chronos” here. Instead he says the “Kairos” has come, the perfect moment, the right time. “The time has begun to ripen and ripens now for God has begun to reign in this world and reigns now…” says Jesus.

Dr. Lamar Williamson was a Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at my seminary; he passed away just last July. I love the way he sums up what happened there as Jesus walks along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, “As soon as Jesus announces the Kingdom of God,” he writes, “he calls persons to enter it (‘Follow me’) and to invite others to enter it, too (‘I will make you become fishers of men’). The Kingdom of God is communal. It is relational. God KNOWS us, and God CALLS us together. We don’t call ourselves the Farmington family because it brings us warm fuzzy feelings. We are the Farmington family because we are a particular part of God’s family, called to follow together.

Mark tells us that Jesus passes Simon and his brother, Andrew, fishing. He passes James and his brother John in the family boat with their dad mending the nets. “Follow me,” he says, “and I will make you become fishers of men.” Follow me, literally translated, Jesus said, “Come after me.”

When I look at Chronos time, I see a lot changing in our world. Some are excited. Some are dismayed. There are whole books now about pastoring in what is being called the “Purple church” as church people struggle with one another over politics and some are red and others are blue. It was the same in Jesus’ day. They weren’t Republican or Democrat, Protestant or Catholic. The people of Israel, Jews, were divided into sects: Samaritans and Zealots, Publicans and Scribes, Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, and Nazarenes. But, when Jesus says the Kingdom of God is near and says “Come after me.” It is a call to repentance. Turn away from agendas, replace your worldly loyalties, and turn back to a true loyalty to God.

They had a choice. How would they respond? Immediately, they followed. What about you?

Entering the kingdom is not something that happens in chronos time. It is not something that you put a sticker on the date to remember. It is not about it being Ordinary Time or January, or even the every four year in our nation inauguration of a President. Entering the kingdom happens in Kairos, a fulfillment in time. It is a leaving behind of worldly loyalties, and following where you are led by Jesus. It is a letting go of agendas. It is being willing to put down all you’ve ever known like Simon and Andrew. It is being willing to get out of the boat with your dad and set out on a whole new life, like James and John. It is being willing to get on a boat going someplace you really don’t want to go, to save people you really don’t want to be around, because God KNOWS them and has CALLED you, Jonah. Some of us will be called to specific ministries at specific time and place– ministries of compassion, of preaching, of justice, of service.

For all, the Kairos time has begun and ripens even now. All are called to come after Jesus, invited to enter the Kingdom of God, and all will be made into inviters into the Kingdom of God. Thanks be to God! Amen.