Mark 1: 14-20

Jesus was proclaiming the good news of God, the gospel of the Kingdom. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.” Repent, in the original language, means to think differently. Think differently about yourself, your neighbor and your community and believe the incarnation, God in flesh, and God’s kingdom have come. The good news is that the time of the Messiah has come, and God’s kingdom is here. In the New Testament, time is referred to by two Greek words, chronos and kairos. Chronos is the understanding of time in a chronological format, in years, months and days. Kairos time is an understanding of a significant moment in time.

The old story goes like this. A piano virtuoso entertained a friend in his apartment one evening. The musician told his friend he could tell time by his piano. His friend was incredulous about such a claim, so the virtuoso volunteered to demonstrate. He pounded out a crashing march. Immediately there came a banging on the wall and a shrill voice screamed, “Stop that noise. Don’t you know it’s 1:30 in the morning?”

Our Christian worship calendar is on a chronos timeframe, but each significant event commemorated is the recognition of a kairos event for a person, family, nation or world in the biblical record. It is Kairos time, a special time, an opportune time, a significant moment, when God arrives. Our worship calendar cannot merely be a celebration of chronological events like birthdays or anniversaries over a 12 month period. Our worship calendar calls each worshipper to hear again of God intervening in human history time after time and urging each of us to think differently and believe the good news of God’s kingdom being near, at hand, within reach because Jesus has come and is now fully engaged in our lives and in our world. This is good news.

So often in our lives, things occur not on our timing, but on God’s timing. When I was a boy, my older brother owned an electric football game. The neat thing was you could order separate teams dressed in the uniforms of your favorite teams. I had some money from my birthday or Christmas, so I ordered a team of my own. I so looked forward to my own team arriving by mail. My brother knew I made the order and was anxious about its arrival. He couldn’t help but tease me. When I got home from school one day and looked for what came in the mail, I met Brian in the kitchen. He said, “Ya know what came in the mail for you today?” I said I didn’t know. He said, “Come on, Jeff, do ya know what came in the mail for you today?” I said, “No, tell me.” With a glint in his eye and a sheepish grin, he said, “Nothing!” Eventually, time was fulfilled, and I got my team in the mail. In Galilee, time was fulfilled, the kingdom of God drew near in the person of Jesus from Nazareth. It was now time to repent and believe.

The story then shifted from a proclamation to a region to a personal invitation to individuals. Jesus’ invitation to the fishermen along the Sea of Galilee required a response and a related promise. “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Fish were not enough for these men. They wanted something more. Simon Peter and Andrew were casting their nets in hopes of catching something when he invited them to do something else. James and John left their father and the hired men and followed Jesus. Fish were not enough for them. Did they know anything about Jesus or where he was going? We can surmise some things. I believe these men were aware of the time. This story doesn’t depict a chronos understanding but a kairos understanding because something had changed and someone or something was now fully engaged in their lives and in their world. He was standing in front of them, inviting them to something greater. Here we are again talking about greater things.

Fish were not enough for these men. Zebedee and the hired hands were apparently content on that day to stay with the boats and the nets. James and John were not. Simon and Andrew were not. In this season, light had come into the world and began inviting inhabitants of this world to draw close and follow this manifestation of God’s glory wherever it went. The fish in the sea were left for others to catch. This manifestation of glory wanted company to teach and share his life with and to bear witness of his truth. The incarnation of God, this Jesus of Nazareth, wasn’t about to travel through this world alone. A solitary life was not enough for him. The gospels writers do not describe Jesus as a lonely rabbi, but as one who called many, but few were chosen. This is not a commemoration of a day of invitation but of a moment when fishermen yielded to a greater glory and left their nets, boats and family behind. Fish were not enough to keep them from following the King of Glory.

We’re seeing a lot of discontentment in our world, right now. What we have and what we need are not enough. So many long for things and attitudes and positions they hope will satisfy or alleviate what ails them. This story is meant to bring us hope by displaying for us a series of moments when God arrives and invites people like us on a path of unrivaled and unexplainable experiences of God’s deeds and God’s words. There is hope in encountering this same Jesus. He still moves among us to invite us along to where he might lead. We know fish are not enough for us. He is our only hope and our only light. Alleluia.

Preached at Lincoln UMC in Lincoln, AL, January 24, 2021