Living in Changing Times

Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Psalm 62:5-12; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20

My friends, as most of you know, my son Ian visited from China last month. While he was in, we had to take a quick trip over to our house near Marietta, the one we are trying to sell. We are still throwing away the accumulated trash of 25 years of marriage, but at least now we are working on the 40 x 40 foot building we used as a warehouse for our ink business.

Ian had not been back to the house since we moved here a year and a half ago. When he left the house, it still had many items in it – the U-Haul truck we brought could not hold everything that was in a house much larger than the parsonage.

But now he returned the home and he was deeply moved by his visit. You see, this was the house that was his home from age 11 through age 21. The longest he had ever lived in one place before that was 3 years. And, like most people, he sort of expected that this would be the home to which he would one day bring his wife and children to show them the trees he had helped plant, the attic room which he had helped enclose, and the place where he had sledded on snow.

When he returned to the house, the shock of the change hit him full force and he needed some time alone with the house, which we gave him.

50 years ago, a man named Alvin Toeffler wrote a book with the title “Future Shock” which described the way rapid change upsets people. Change upsets people.

And once again, we live in changing times.

For many years, the world was stable. We knew who the bad guys were – they were the Russians and the Chinese. We knew who the good guys were – they were the Canadians, the English, the French, even the Germans and the Japanese. Other countries were generally not important in the scheme of things, or were easy to categorize – the Arabs provided us with oil and generally liked us, the Brazilians provided us with rubber, India bought our food, Vietnam was where there was a long war between Russian-backed enemies and American-backed friends.

But then, in 1972, China switched sides. By 1990, Russia no longer was an enemy. Indeed, the USSR split apart into a dozen different countries we’d never heard about. China soon opened up to us, students from China came here and tourists from here visited China. Peace seemed to be breaking out all over.

But the last fifteen years have brought tremendous change.

Today, we have found that a group of people in the Middle East are very dangerous. Following a particularly aggressive form of Islam, ISIS, or the “Islamic State”, as they prefer to call themselves, truly wants to recreate the Islamic powerhouse of the late 600’s, when a group of Arabs, starting in Mecca, conquered first the cities around them, then proceeded in the name of Islam to conquer all of the Middle East, all of North Africa clear to the Atlantic Ocean, all of Spain and only stopped when they ran into French knights in southern France. To the East, they conquered Persian (Iran), Afghanistan, Central Asia, India, and Indonesia. To the north they conquered the remains of the Roman Empire that was still based in Constantinople, Turkey, and then conquered Greece and Serbia, Hungary, and marched to the gates of Vienna, Austria before they were turned back.

This is what the Islamic State wants to recreate – an Islamic Empire that runs from the Atlantic to the Pacific, that includes most of Western Europe this time around and commands the loyalty of nearly half the people in the world. And they consider Jews and Christians to be their enemies. How shall we stop this? Can we stop this? Should we stop this?

Once again, our biblical readings today intersect with our modern world.

In our first reading, we see that Jonah has been told by God to go to Nineveh and tell the Ninevites that God was angry with them and would destroy the city. Now Jonah did not like the people of Nineveh. But Jonah knew God’s character – that if God warned a people, God was truly giving these people a second chance. Jonah didn’t want to give the people of Nineveh a second chance. He hated those people so much that Jonah hopped a boat for Spain so they would not hear God’s message delivered through Jonah.

But we know the rest of the story. A great storm was sent by God and the crew of the boat grew fearful that the boat would sink. And Jonah knew that he was the cause of God’s anger toward the boat. So he tells the sailors this and after trying every other method of lightening the boat, they finally dump Jonah overboard, where he is swallowed by the great fish for three days and finally vomited up on a beach. Jonah realizes that he has to go to Nineveh and tell “those people” what God wanted him to tell them.

Jonah walked to Nineveh. It was a big city and it took him three days to visit all the neighborhoods in the town. At the time of our story, around 760 BC, Nineveh was a very large city. Beginning in 668 BC, for fifty years, Nineveh was the largest city in the world. The population is given by the Bible as 120,000 people. At the time of Jonah, Nineveh was indeed a large and powerful city, located across the Tigris River from modern day Mosul in northern Iraq. The ruins show that walking around the outside of the city was 7.5 miles. Did you catch where this hated city was, this city that Jonah hated more than anything? Across the river from Mosul, in modern Iraq, the heart of ISIS country.

Jonah hoped that Nineveh would burn. Jonah, if he lived today, would have hoped that God would drop a nuke on Nineveh. In fact, after Jonah delivered his message inside the city, he went east of the city and found a great place to watch the city – from a distance. Jonah just couldn’t wait to see the city go up in flames.

But the people of Nineveh listened to Jonah and believed in God’s warning. Their king ordered everyone to show signs of sorrow and repentance. The city changed. And – to Jonah’s dismay – God relented and did NOT destroy Nineveh. In the last verse of the book of Jonah, God says, “ And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

Just because those people did not know good from bad was no reason for God to destroy them. They were listening to God and God’s messenger – that was enough for God. Things changed for Nineveh that day. God is not a God that blames you for being ignorant of right and wrong today – He is happy when you finally turn around and begin to listen to God, for God knows that people who listen can change. God has plenty of time to work with you if you will follow His Messenger – His Son. God will save even the people of ISIS if they will repent and follow Him.

The ancient symbol for Nineveh meant “Place of fish”. Did you notice that Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days, and also spent three days in Nineveh telling people about God? I guess that if you have spent three days in the belly of a fish, you can spend three days doing anything, no matter how disgusting. Even bringing the Word of Salvation to people you hate.

Our Psalm talked about the power and love of God once again. Power belongs to you, God, 12 and with you, Lord, is unfailing love”. God is the unchanging rock for us in the middle of a changing world. We need to hold unto that idea.

Many years later, Jesus began His ministry in the northern part of Israel known as Galilee, the area to the west of the Sea of Galilee, a great place to fish in ancient times and today.

Jesus kept telling people that times were changing.

15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.

And about twenty or thirty years later, the Apostle Paul wrote of that time – and the time which is still in our future:

29 What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; 30 those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31 those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

Three of our four readings tell of change. For Nineveh, the way to avoid a nasty change was to change instead and listen to God. And for years, this helped the people of Nineveh. But they eventually returned to their old ways, and about 150 years after our story, the people that Nineveh formerly enslaved in their Assyrian Empire rose against Nineveh, and in 616 BC attacked the city and massacred the inhabitants. Archeologists have found many unburied bodies from this time. Within four years, the city was essentially uninhabited and two hundred years later had disappeared. The Ninevites only temporarily changed. God did not.

For the disciples, the presence of Jesus in their lives changed their lives tremendously. Our Gospel reading shows that those fishermen immediately dropped their nets and followed Jesus. Now, their decision isn’t quite as sudden as it appears – the other Gospels, particularly the Gospel of John, make it clear that the four central disciples had known Jesus for several months, meeting Him at the Jordan River soon after He was baptized by John.

But still, these men left behind their boats and followed Jesus when He called. Why did they do this? After all, none of them had recognized Jesus as God yet – only as a great teacher, a Rabbi that might be the Messiah.

I have a theory. That theory is this: Each of those men had become so certain already that Jesus was the Messiah, the Savior of Israel, that they saw their one chance in life to be part of something great, to be there when great evil is overthrown and good takes over, to walk where great events unfold. And they took it.

Paul tells the people of Corinth to do the same, to act as though the normal things of this world are meaningless, which they are because “this world in its present form is passing away,” as Paul wrote. “This world in its present form is passing away.”

“This world in its present form is passing away.” It has been said that the only constant is change. Thirty years ago, who would have expected that we would each be carrying a computer in our pocket that has more computing power that the entire Apollo program did? Who would believe that I can stand here and get a video feed of my son in Shanghai when I want to talk with him? Who would have believed that there are people in Nineveh with swords beheading journalists simply because they are Europeans or Americans?

Times have changed.

Times will continue to change. But God is constant. God is our fortress. The world will change and we must change with it, holding onto God as our rock. God doesn’t change, but we must change.

But are you willing to change?

As the fishermen at Galilee did, are you ready to leave your job and trust in the Lord to provide for you as you learn about Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit? If you are retired, are you ready to devote the rest of your life – 10, 20, 50 years even – to spreading the Gospel to all people? You know, 60 years ago, retirement meant the end. Now, you may have as many productive years ahead of you on the day you retire as the years you worked. And now you have social security and perhaps a pension to pay most of the bills! What an opportunity for ministry!

Let me tell you a bit about myself and the changes I’ve experienced in my life and in my priorities toward God.

As many of you know, when I was young, in high school, in college, and until I was 34 years old, I was an atheist. I actually thought quiet a lot about God – but I could not see any reason to believe. After all, it seemed quite ludicrous and crazy to believe that the world was created in seven days and was only 5000 years old when all the scientific evidence pointed to a universe much older than that. Of course, I was so hung up on Genesis 1 that I never read all that stuff with red letters, that stuff that Jesus said.

For you see, I wasn’t ready to listen.

Later on, I began to date Saundra and when we became engaged we made a deal – she wouldn’t nag me about going to church and I wouldn’t keep her from going to church.

Over time, I’d ask a few questions and she’d answer those questions. I worked in the Factory Automation business with several different companies. Finally, we moved to Atlanta, where our new neighbor asked us to come with them to church. When I visited his home, his two teen-age boys stood up, introduced themselves politely and welcomed me to the neighborhood, turned off the television, and left the room. I was in shock! And so, I told Saundra that we’d go to church so our children could meet a better than average group of kids to hang out with.

Sitting there listening to Doug Macintosh, I learned that there was much more to Christianity than the question of how long did creation take. I found out about Jesus Christ and after a year, I became a believer. A couple of years later, I was baptized.

After I became a believer, I entered what I call the “peanut-eating stage” of Christianity. Have you ever eaten salted peanuts? One leads to another, then another, then you’re eating handfuls and after an hour or so you look up and the jar is gone. That was the way I was with Christian ideas. I showed up for main service, Sunday school, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening. I began to read authors that Doug recommended. We had friends from the church and hosted two other couples in a study at our home. I sang in the choir.

After a few years, we had to move our business, then our home about 20 miles away from the church. We began attending another church and Saundra and I quickly found that we were helping the Wednesday evening teacher teach the class. During this time I began to write a book about common myths that people believe about Christianity. And so, they asked us to teach a class the next year, but we had to join the church first – it was their rule. So we joined, but within a week we heard that our home in Ohio would close within a month. So we moved to Ohio.

In Marietta, we tried one church and then settled at another church, where I began to read the liturgy – doing the lay leader’s job – and then Saundra and I organized a Wednesday evening dinner and taught a class while the children’s choir was practicing. I sang in the choir and sang my first vocal solo. The pastor asked me if I had considered the ministry – and then I began to study with him some basic theology.

After a while, I realized that we had some basic disagreements over the theology of the church and we decided to church shop. We even tried to start an independent church. Eventually we settled at Williamstown First United Methodist. Once again, I was soon teaching an adult Sunday School class, while Saundra taught a Sunday school for International Students from China. I became a local lay speaker, then a certified lay speaker, and was elected lay leader. I also became worship leader, leading the songs, and preaching a couple of times a year. During this time, Saundra taught a woman’s midweek study and we had a dozen or more International Students over to our home every couple of Friday evenings. Several came to know the Lord and two were baptized. More attend churches around the world today. Over five years, we probably affected 60 or more college kids for Christ. I wrote another book.

Finally, one day I called up the District Superintendent and told him I’d like to talk about moving into full-time ministry. We talked and he appointed me assigned supply pastor to two small churches in Pleasants County, I entered the official ministerial candidacy process, and started seminary. For the next three years, I would teach full-time at Parkersburg Catholic High School, take a full-time seminary load online, pastor two churches, including mid-week studies, and teach one or two college courses many semesters. Saundra worked at Taco Bell for a while, and handled our inkjet ink business from home.

The most heart-breaking thing about the process of going into the ministry was that we could no longer continue our ministry to the International students. The travel, time, and cost demands of pastoring two churches located 35 miles from our home was just too much.

But the churches grew, people came to know the Lord, and were baptized. They grew deeply in their understanding of God.

Then Ken Krimmel and Mary Ellen Finegan asked us to move to Clarksburg.

This is the route to professional, full-time ministry. Notice that I did not follow the classic route of calling, college, seminary, and ministry. Neither did Saundra. It was a matter of gradually changing our priorities from the normal things of life – a job, a steadily increasing paycheck, a house and family – to God’s priorities – the souls of lost people, the development of Christian believers, the eternal things of life.

Are you willing to find people who are completely lost in their lives, who have bounced between drug addictions, watching television all day long, and prison, and give them a hand to lift them up, to give them a real purpose in life? Or are you willing to let them search for their purpose on the evening news, looking to destroy people who have ignored them, seeking to shoot people whom they blame for the lack of meaning in their lives?

I have said that the world is changing. The days are rapidly going away when people walk into a church to learn about God and Christ. Instead, Andy spends several evenings each week online chatting with friends from California to South Africa and the Netherlands, friends he has made online, friends that he pastors and teaches about God, friends that would never think of walking into a church.

In Australia, there is a group of people who get up every Sunday morning during the summer, meet at the lakeside for prayer, boat some, and meet back at the lakeside for a scripture reading, a short sermon, and lunch. As they start that lunch, they break a loaf of bread and share it with a cup of red wine.

A few months ago, my friend Joe started a “philosophical discussion” at the Marietta Brewery, a microbrewery restaurant and bar, on Sunday evenings at 6 pm. People gather and talk about philosophy. Gradually, Joe has led those discussions into discussions about God. Now they call it the “Pub Church”. This is where you find people who are not church-goers.

Several years back, a church in New Jersey spent some money and put in a concrete skate park. Volunteers from the church are there evenings and weekends. They pray with the kids and they take a break time with refreshments – and a bit of scripture and a short talk. And the skate park is very popular with everyone, because it is good for the kids.

As you know, Saundra has four churches. None of those churches wanted her to do a mid-week study during the winter. But one person who attends one of her churches asked her if she would hold a study at a small nursing home. Saundra now considers it to be her “fifth” church. You could do the same at the other nursing homes in town, or at the projects, or McDonalds, or in your home.

Our babysitter when we first moved to Atlanta grew up, got married, and began raising three children while her husband went to seminary. Then they packed themselves up and moved to Afghanistan as missionaries. Another couple we knew moved to North Carolina when they took early retirement, and began engineering special electronics that would work with missionaries in rainy jungle environments with an organization that does nothing except support missionaries.

As I look around this room, I see it filled with people of all ages. And we seem to have this shared idea that there is a perfect path for ministry and if we don’t follow that path, we can never do ministry. We are either too young or we are too old. But that is not what I saw in the Bible. Mark was a teen-ager when he went on his first missionary journey with Barnabas and Paul. Moses was leading a congregation until he died at the age of 120.

What I see is that God can use every single person in this room for ministry. Some of you may one day get paid by a church for your work. Others may find themselves working in a non-profit organization like a food pantry or a homeless shelter, or perhaps teach basic budgeting skills to those who need them. Some may become missionaries in Syria or Iran one day. Others may become experts at leading people to Christ through video games or YouTube videos or Facebook. Who knows? Can you rearrange your life to do work for God one day or two days a week? Can you plan your life so that you can work for God in two or three years?

My friends, we of this church have limited our ministry to within these walls long enough. It is time for this church to begin to go out into the community, to walk through the projects, to make friends in bars, to stop Satan in scouting, to lift children up in Little League, to find the hopeless, the drifting, the lonely, the purposeless, the lost, and give them the hope that we have, to make the comparisons that need made, to love those who need love.

It is time we led the change and made living in changing times a good and exciting thing, for there are people whose unchanging lives will lead them to unchanging fire eternal some day. It is your turn to change the world.

Are you ready to make good change in this world? Are you ready to move toward your own personal ministry? Begin now.