Today's Old Testament Lesson is from the Book of Jonah, beginning at the 3rd Chapter, and the 1st Verse:

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you." So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth.

Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he cried, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God repented of the evil which he had said he would do to them; and he did not do it.

Today's Epistle is from the 1st Letter of Paul to the Corinthians, beginning at the 7th Chapter, and the 29th Verse:

I mean, brethren, the appointed time has grown very short; from now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the form of this world is passing away.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel." And passing along by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men." And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and followed him

Today's Readings call us out of our comfortable routines, send us out the door onto the Way of the Lord, and challenge us to change our lives. The Word of the Lord calls, beckons, and drives us -- as Jonah could not stay away from Nineveh, as Paul on the road to Damascus could not resist Jesus' call, and as the sons of Zebedee left their father, so too, we must go.

Now Jonah did flat not want to go to Nineveh -- the first time the Lord called him, he ran off and took a ship for Tarshish -- and wound up in the belly of the fish when the Lord sent a storm after him. Having gotten back safely home, he learned his lesson, and the next time the Lord called, he went.

The Lord is patient with us -- as Jonah says in the 4th and last chapter, the Lord is a tender, compassionate God, slow to anger, rich in faithful love. How many of us appreciate that, how many of us listen to his loving call, and change our lives?

The people of Nineveh did -- or so the Bible would have us believe. They heard the voice of the prophet saying "Repent", and "the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them."

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God repented of the evil which he had said he would do to them; and he did not do it. So, too, we are promised by the Gospel -- if we repent, if we reach out to God, who is reaching to us through Jesus Christ, then we too will be saved from "being overthrown".

In today's Gospel, "Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel.'" He calls Peter, and Andrew, and James, and John out of their comfortable lives as fishermen, and makes them "fishers of men".

Just so, he calls us out of our comfortable ruts -- our habits, our routines, our passions and attachments to the world; calls us to follow him; calls us to abandon the way of the world, and walk on the Way of the Lord. The path is difficult; it is strange; it is scary -- yet at the end is the Glory that is God's, which we shall share in, rejoicing and praising Him from whom all love and grace flow.

In today's Epistle, Paul tells the Corinthians that "the appointed time has grown very short", that "the form of this world is passing away". What he is saying is that the Last Days -- the Eschaton -- are not in the future, they are not yet to come, but are now.

We tend to think that the Last Judgment is going to be some indefinite time in the future -- it wasn't last New Year's Eve, but maybe next, or maybe another 1,000 years -- somewhere off in the cloudy future. Paul is saying NO -- it is now. Jesus is coming in glory NOW, in the hearts of every believer. In Jesus, the dead already walk, in Jesus, the Glory of the Father shines through to us.

In another place, Jesus says that He is the "Way, the Truth, and the Life". He is that Way for every one of us, in every time and every place -- every bit as much for thee & me in the year 2000, as for the Corinthians that Paul wrote to in the 50s or 60s. A.D. The Gospel and the Church's teachings are the Truth -- also Jesus -- we celebrate and proclaim him to all Nations, bringing them to the Way through the Word. He is the Life -- as we say in the Liturgy: "...through Him, and With Him, and in Him.." we live, and move, and have our being, for as the Gospel of John says: "Without Him was made nothing that came to be".

The oldest self-description of Christianity (even before we were called "Christians") is "the Way" -- the Way of the Lord. We must step out of the door of our ordinary life, onto that path to Glory. The Lord calls us -- the Father as much as Jesus -- for it is a call to loving transformation.

We cannot and need not wait to some vague future time to step out on that Path -- it is coming to us now, in the cracks between moments, if we just notice. Gabriel is blowing the "Last Trump", if we but stop to listen. The Signs and Portents are in every life, in every day, in every Christian.

Jesus is busting loose, the Father is pouring through, grace is abundant, and the day of the renewal is upon us -- if we but grasp it, open ourselves to it, throw ourselves upon it. Let us step out the door onto that great Way...

In the Name of

The Father +

And of the Son

And of the Holy Spirit

Amen.