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It was the Fall of 2012, and I had recently moved from Washington, D.C. to Helena, Montana so that I could intern for my mentor Heidi at the Cathedral out there. One of the first events that Fall was with the church youth group. Heidi made it very clear to me that I had not been hired to serve as a youth minister. However, since she had to be there, I had to be there too.
For a state capital Helena is pretty rural and insulator, so when I showed up, the only person these hyperactive middle school boys didn’t know, I was looked on with some suspicion. Rather, I was ignored. Having served the previous year in a 5th-6th combined classroom as part of my City Year service in D.C., it actually didn’t bother me that much. I just waited my time for a good opening.
Fortunately for me, these kids were huge geeks, and I am too. That meant after we got some ice cream and came back to the Parish Hall to eat them, they were all sitting around talking about nothing other than Star Wars.
So I took my opportunity and used my Yoda impression with the character’s famous words: “Ah, Yoda you seek. Take you to him I will.” The reaction was that all the boys jaws dropped with an amazed “Whaaaaat?!” After that, I didn’t have to worry about being an outsider anymore.
With that moment these boy’s world changed. They started taking our time and work together more seriously. They continued developing their Faith. They listened in ways that hyperactive middle school boys are not prone to do.
That moment changed my life as well. Heidi took this opportunity to have me think through some movies the youth group boys would like that could also be connected with the message of Jesus. My preparation here led to some of the work I would do early in my ordained ministry which would eventual lead, from these secret origins, to my project the Gospel according to Superheroes.
Heidi’s outlook changed as well. She saw the impact having a positive male role model had on the kids, and she took that into serious consideration while looking for a youth group leader the very next year.
We all have these life changing moments, for good and for ill. We also see what is going on around the world and that impacts our view of things too.
Change, no matter how good or bad it is, can be scary. We never know what to expect.
Yet as Paul tells us, we have to be ready for change, “For the present form of this world is passing away.” Now Paul said this to the Corinthians here specifically because he thought Jesus was going to be returning very soon and the world would be over. While Jesus hasn’t come back yet, we still see lots of change around us. It is safe to saying, looking at everything happening around us and in the news, that “the present form of this world is passing away.”
Paul from the start of our passage from 1 Corinthians is reminding us to be ready, and God provides for us that opportunity to be prepared for the old world’s passing away. We see this in Jonah, where God sends the prophet to the Ninevites, his greatest enemy, in order to deliver a message of doom. The crazy thing is that these sworn enemies of God’s Chosen People repent and turn to the Lord.
We see God reaching out in our Gospel too to see if those called are ready. Here we witness Simon and Andrew and later the sons of Zebedee in the middle of their jobs, working for their livelihood. Jesus calls them and they immediately go and follow Him.
Doing that is not easy. In fact, Jonah, at the very end of the book that bears his name in the very next chapter after what we read today (Jonah is a very short book. You can get through it in one sitting, and I highly recommend that you do) is angry and spiteful that God has granted the Ninevites, the sworn enemies of his people, a chance at redemption. He stays outside the city for days, waiting for God to destroy them. Enough time passes that God has a tree sprout forth to give Jonah shade. More time passes and the tree dies, with Jonah distraught over this loss. The book ends on a cliffhanger with God asking Jonah that if he loved that tree, which he did nothing to make grow, so much, how much more does God love the Ninevites, creatures that are a part of God’s Creation?
In our Psalm today, we hear that “God has spoken once, twice have I heard it.” If we can live into those words and have that a double take when we hear what God has to say, then we don’t have to be like Jonah. If we can listen to what God has said again, then we can follow Paul’s words and be prepared for the passing of the old world. If we can take the time to go back and hear what God has said before, even all the way back in Scripture, then we can be ready to repent like the Ninevites or respond immediately to God’s call like Simon, Andrew, and the sons of Zebedee.
The world is changing around us, and we have to change to meet it. Our message stays the same, as it always has and it always will, but the way we deliver it will change so that we can meet the new world emerging and ensure that they too know the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ.