First reading: Jonah 3:1-5,10
Psalm: Ps 25:4-9
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Gospel: Mark 1:14-20

“This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

Or as St. Paul would say, the times they are a changin’.

There are two camps

There are two camps in the world. As Christians we belong to the camp of the other. The rest of the world belongs to the camp of self. That’s not to say people who do not know Christ are totally selfish. Aware or not, they are formed by God and have an innate awareness of the other. At the same time we cannot say that everyone who bears the name Christian lives for the other. Aware or not, they haven’t broken free from the world’s mold. They haven’t repented, they haven’t learned to act as they profess to believe.

We understand that there are two camps, and we know that we, as Christians, must live our call, our mission, and our life in accord with Jesus’ call, His mission, and His life. Jesus’ way is the way of perfection. Jesus’ way calls us out of our protective shell, away from selfishness, and into a life that is other-centered.

Jonah emerges but missed the point

Jonah is a pretty bad example. He’s placed in today’s readings for that very reason, so we can learn from his bad example. In Jonah 2:10 we see the fish literally spew Jonah back on shore:

And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

God had asked Jonah to go to Nin’evah, to preach to that city. God wanted Jonah to spare no effort in bringing Nin’eveh to repentance. Jonah didn’t much care for the Ninevites and ran in the other direction. Jonah focused on himself. He was self-centered, running from God, from God’s direction, and from God’s call to serve this people.

Here’s Jonah, back on dry land, promising God that he had learned his lesson. God tells him to go to Nin’evah, to do what God had asked, to bring a message of repentance to these people. Jonah did it and was successful. Seeing his success Jonah was — now wait for this — angry. Jonah was so ticked that he literally asked God to kill him. Jonah was angry because God loves, because God forgave the repentant Ninevites, because God used him to minister to others.

Jonah emerged from the fish, knowing that he had to carry out God’s will, yet he never saw the purpose. He didn’t understand that carrying out God’s will means that we love, serve, and consider others because God values them.

Jesus calls the fishers of men

As Jesus walks along He makes His picks: Simon and his brother Andrew, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. He asks them to follow Him and they get up and leave everything behind. That message gets repeated over and over again, and is often repeated in very blunt terms as in Matthew 10:37-38:

He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Or in addressing the rich young man in Mark 10:21

And Jesus looking upon him loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Jesus asked them to detach themselves, not from people per-se, but from everything that kept them from serving others to the fullest. Remember what He said in Luke 9:2-3

—Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics.—

Through Jesus’ instruction eleven of the twelve that were called came to see what Jonah missed. Their work was for others, for others even to the giving of their lives for others. Jesus taught them to detach, to take nothing, have nothing, to detach even from father and mother, son and daughter, house and home. Detach from what you have, want, need, or desire and focus on others. Do this and be happy, live forever.

Paul says: The times they are a changin’

St. Paul emphasizes this message in telling us that the times have changed. Christians can no longer count on their personal perception of what is. As people we are limited in our focus. We see the here and the now. Paul tells us to look beyond the current state of things. We have to act outside of ourselves and our desires, our personal feelings, our state and status in life. We have to act on a greater and larger plane, at the level of the coming kingdom.

In that kingdom we do not own or posses, we do not marry or give in marriage, we are not Jew of Greek, slave or free, wealthy or debtor, we all live outside ourselves, in a state of love and union, united with all our brothers and sisters.

By Christ’s coming life has changed, time has changed, our perspective has changed. What was inwardly focused is now outwardly focused. We give, not just money or time, but of ourselves, of our being, of all that we are, because we bear the name Christian. Because we follow Christ we do not count the cost.

OK, how much?

We ask ourselves, —Ok, how much?— How much do I have to give? How much is enough? Where’s the cut-off point?

There is one simple answer to that, —Our lives.— That is why calling oneself Christian is so radical, so different from the world.

Certainly worldly people give. The rich give. They give when it is convenient and to a level that feels comfortable. Anyone can charge a $50 donation to the Red Cross, Heart Association, the PAL, or the local firehouse. It isn’t all that difficult, volunteering a few hours at a soup kitchen or at a Habitat for Humanity site. That kind of giving is certainly good, but all too often it is done to make the giver feel good, to please the giver and help them a little on their tax return.

No, for us the question is very different. For us nothing counts, not even our lives. Like the apostles we are to be present, laying down our lives, all of our time and treasure, for the good of others. That’s why we have priests, who forego so much to serve, who leave their families at dinner, on Christmas morning, in the middle of the night, because someone is in need. That is why we have firemen and police officers who lay their lives on the line for others. That is why we have nurses and doctors who tend to the sick and dying, not just with medicine and science, but with compassion and care. That is why we have faithful husbands and wives who live their marriage vows, who don’t check out when the going gets tough. That’s why we have parents who accept God’s gift of children without a thought as to ‘choice.’

A Christian man or woman counts nothing as valuable accept to live as Jesus Christ taught. In so doing we attain everything. St. Paul, addressing the Philippians, explains it in this way (Philippians 3:17-21):

Brethren, join in imitating me, and mark those who so live as you have an example in us.
For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, live as enemies of the cross of Christ.
Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
But our commonwealth is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which enables him even to subject all things to himself.

What is fulfillment

Jesus said: “This is the time of fulfillment.—

That doesn’t mean that it is time to cash in those coupons, or redeem those rebates. This isn’t the time for relying on an earthly definition of fulfillment. We are detached from those worldly worries, worries over our bellies, the worldly things we think we hunger and thirst for. As Christians we have decided that we will not live like horses, chasing a carrot on the end of a stick, a carrot we will never reach. We will not chase the carrots of personal fulfillment, personal gain, personal happiness, personal choice, only to be sorely disappointed.

Christ’s fulfillment is different. It exists in recognizing the Kingdom at hand, in repenting and believing in the gospel. That gospel sets us apart from the world, the carrot chasers, the give while it feels good crowd. It differentiates us from Jonah — who missed the point. It puts us in line with the apostles, the disciples, the saints and martyrs, the holy confessors, all of whom saw the other — serving them even to the cost of their lives. In setting ourselves aside, in sacrificing our desires for God’s way and our brother’s need, we live radically different lives. Doing so we reach for the gift only God can give, the gift of fulfillment.

So repent and believe

Repent and believe — what powerfully misunderstood words. If we consider our sin to be a list of occasional wrongdoings we can attept to make ammends, to fix the core problem. Yet somehow we, like Jonah, miss out on the core problem. I eat too much, I’m gluttonous, I need more discipline, I’m sorry for that sin. Now if I get thin I’ll show that I’ve repented. That, my friends, is the road to a perpetual diet, and we will never get thin. Recognizing that the sin is deeper, and involves thinking inwardly, will lead us to lives lived for others, it will lead us to love for all from greatest to the least. It will take us off the road to a perpetual diet and put us on the road to perpetual life.

Repent and believe — the times have changed because the gospel calls us to live for others, to live radically as witnesses to a giving that goes beyond what we can count. We are to live the witness that says: I live in the camp that is for the other. My life is for you because God loves you.