“The time has come.”

I used to work with someone who used say always put off until tomorrow what you don’t have to do today. An amusing take on the phrase we usually use – don’t put off until tomorrow what you have to do today. It’s also said that if you want something done, ask a busy person. We live in a busy world and many people complain that they haven’t got time to do everything, even for the things we consider of real importance. If we were really honest with ourselves most of us are honest enough to recognise that we don’t manage our time very well and that we often waste time or procrastinate, looking for distractions.

 When we look at Mark’s Gospel we see from the beginning that there is a sense of urgency. Mark is keen to let us know that now is the time for action. He is forever telling us that things happened “at once”. There is no time for delay. Jesus begins his public ministry with the words “The time has come”; and the first apostles are called and follow him “at once”. This message is reinforced for us today by Paul’s insistence with the Corinthians that they should not waste time on things that are no longer of importance. We might think that he rather overdoes things, suggesting that those with wives should live as though they had not, and so on. However, it is worth reminding ourselves that Paul really did think that Jesus was due to return any day and that everyday life would soon be over and done with. In his later letters, he tempers his approach and offers a longer-term perspective on things.

 All this is in stark contrast to the story of Jonah. We hear about his arrival in Nineveh and his call to the people to repent; but remember that Jonah, like so many of his counterparts, was a reluctant prophet. He was trying to escape his commission from God when the ship he was fleeing on was caught in a mighty storm, whereupon he confessed and was thrown overboard. Only when he had been spat out on the shore did he dry himself off and accept his mission.

 There is a touch of the Jonah in most of us: there are tasks that we know await our attention, yet we find all kinds of excuses to avoid them, either because we can’t be bothered, or because we fear the consequences, or because we fear failure.

 If we do think that it is right to put off until tomorrow that which we can do today, we would do well to remember the powerful passage in the book of Ecclesiastes, which tells us that there is a time for every season under heaven; and then each evening they focused on a different aspect of the gift of time: a time for stillness, a time for healing, a time for searching, a time for growth, a time for others and a time for rejoicing. Jesus provides us with the perfect model when it comes to the use of time. For all the urgency in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus finds time to be still and to pray, he always has time for others and he is not afraid to rejoice at the appropriate time.

 When it comes to searching, isn’t it interesting that while we think it is up to us to spend our lives searching for meaning, searching for purpose, searching for God, the Gospel reminds us that actually it is the other way round? We have a God who is searching for us. Jesus says to us, as he said to his first disciples: “Follow me.”…Amen