Remember the old recruiting posters that showed Uncle Sam pointing a finger directly at you and proclaiming: “I want you” for the U.S. Army?
It was a personal yet indiscriminate call to citizens to consider doing something of significance which would benefit the nation–to be a part of something bigger, greater than the individual; and it was an invitation , a challenge to become something other—to become a soldier as well as a citizen.
Something like that is happening in the gospel reading today, Jesus comes up to a group of fishermen and calls out to a few of them :”I want you”, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And surprisingly they drop everything and follow him.
Like the poster, it is personal, but seemingly indiscriminate. There is nothing particularly outstanding about these guys: Peter, impetuous, and hot tempered; his brother Andrew, an inquisitive and thoughtful man who followed John the Baptizer.
James and John, the sons of Zebedee; known as the Sons of Thunder, probably not because of their patience and even tempers. Their outbursts must have been legendary to have been given that epithet.
But they knew something of Jesus.
He had come into the town lately and had been teaching in the synagogue. There they might have heard about him being the son of a carpenter from the insignificant little town of Nazareth and about some strange events surrounding his birth.
Because of Andrew’s connection to John the Baptist, they would have heard how the Baptizer was preaching a message to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins in anticipation of the coming messiah.
they would have heard how Jesus went to John and was baptized, and how John pointed to Jesus, calling him the lamb of God, signifying that Jesus was the very one for whom the Baptizer was preparing!
In the synagogue and around the town they would have heard Jesus proclaiming his message: “The time has been fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has drawn near.” “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”
Different from John’s call, this call was not about preparation and anticipation. Jesus’ message was of urgency and fulfillment: of immediate decision.
In proclaiming the “time has been fulfilled”, Jesus speaks not about a linear measurement of time, but of a particular moment, a timeless moment, a “kairos.”
Kairos was Greek word meaning a time for decision. It was a moment when certain circumstances came together to provide the opportunity for action and decision; to let it pass by would be to your personal detriment.
For instance, during the planning for the Normandy Invasion during world war two, there were only a certain number of days per year that had all the right tides, moon phases, and weather to allow for a successful invasion.
If they missed that window of opportunity, that kairos, it would be a year before the time, the kairos, would again be right.
Jesus proclaimed a time for decision, a time to seize the moment. Not to do so would be to lose an opportunity that might not occur again.
Not only does kairos signify a time of decision, but it is also understood to be a time of God’s particular movement in history.
In the Hebrew mind, the word kairos was particularly associated with acts of salvation history; episodes in which God’s purpose and presence with his people was made manifest.
It came to be understood in terms of the future and final manifestation of God in history—the establishment of his kingdom—- when Messiah would reign over all, establishing justice and mercy for his people, and judging and punishing his enemies.
When Jesus preached: “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand”, he was not preaching a message of preparation, or of expectancy. He was preaching a message of fulfillment and urgency: the time is now upon you.
The kingdom of God is at hand because in Jesus, the king and his kingdom are here. A faithful response to the proclamation of the gospel is imperative.
John the Baptist commanded repentance because the kingdom was coming. Jesus commanded repentance and belief because it was here.
Simon, Andrew, and the Zebedee brothers dropped all they were doing to follow Jesus. They heard the gospel that Jesus preached. They saw in Jesus himself the gospel proclaimed, and they responded immediately.
Imperfect though they were, they responded to that kairos moment and were transformed from men who caught fish for a living, into men who lived to catch men for Jesus.
Jesus’ message is the Church’s message: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel.
Jesus’ call is the churches call; to follow Jesus.
Today the call is still open, the time is still right. We should ask ourselves, have we responded to Jesus’ call? Is he my Lord? Do I know him? Have we traded our lives for his?
And are we following him? Making him and our relationship to him the priority in our lives? We really should ask ourselves:
Is there anything on earth more important in my life right now, than following Jesus? because now is the time.
Just like the poster, Jesus is looking directly right at us, pointing his finger at each one of us and saying: I want you!
Sermon preached by the Reverend Richard C. Marsden
The Church of the Redeemer
The third Sunday after Epiphany
25 January 2015