On the Clock
Mark 1:14-20
It is a little early to be thinking about this, unless you are a senior in high school or college, but graduation season is coming in just a few short months. With graduation season comes graduation speakers. And with graduation speakers come clichés. The future lies before you. This is not an ending but a beginning. Take care of the small things and you will be able to deal with the big things.
Some of the speakers will say these things in a way which is more humorous, or more serious, or more urgent, but the message is essentially the same – which is why we identify these statements as clichés. Be proud of what you have accomplished. Thank the people who helped you on your way. Pay it forward.
There is nothing particularly wrong with any of these speeches. We all could stand to be reminded from time to time to listen to good advice. We could all stand to be reminded that we are not done in this life, that there is always something new for us to do if we take the next step – whether it is in faith, or in relationships, or in work, or in our community. We could all stand to be reminded, from time to time, that it is not all about us and what’s in it for us, but what’s in us that can be offered for others.
So, there is nothing wrong with these speeches. What I have found missing in them, however, is what I call the truths which surprise you after you graduate. For example, other than perhaps the admission office, no one in college cares about what you did in high school. If you go into military service, no one cares about how popular you were in your fraternity. If you go into the work force, no one cares about that amazing thing you did once in choir, or in the science lab, or on the field trip. All the things we like to think are so important about us are not that interesting to people who are going to be part of the next step in your life journey.
All they really want to know is if you can do the class work now. They want to know if you can become the person they need you to become now. They want to know how you can impress them at work now. Like the fine print at the bottom of investment firm and lawyer commercials, the world knows that past performance does not guarantee future success. They want to know what you can do for them now.
Which leads us to the second surprising truth – you are on the clock now. What you have done before may have been great preparation for what comes next, but now is what you will be measured by. You are now going to be accountable to yourself and to others in new ways which have greater consequences.
The truth is that we all have reached this point in life with at least some achievements, some past struggles, and some interesting stories. Whether the marking point is graduation, or marriage, or a new job, the important thing is not where you have been, but where you are going from here. And until you reach this point about moving forward, about taking the next step, the world’s expectations for you are different. But once you reach this point, you are on the clock.
This is nothing new, of course. While in our culture, we sometimes do place great emphasis on what has happened to us in the past to make us who we are today, for most of the world and for most of human history, childhood and young adulthood were times of preparation, not accountability. This was particularly true in ancient cultures, like we find in the Bible.
Even for the main characters in the Bible, like Abraham, Moses, and Elijah, the stories which were considered important enough to share are from when they are on the clock for God. We might get one or two brief stories from their childhood, but for the most part, no one cares about their previous life.
If you spend any time at all reading the gospels, you know there is not a lot of information about Jesus after he is born until he begins his ministry when he is about 30 years old. Now, this doesn’t mean that Jesus had nothing to say about God before he was 30. It doesn’t mean that what he said wasn’t worth listening to and heeding. It isn’t as if Jesus never said or did anything which would indicate he was the Son of God before he was 30. It is just that no one would have been given much value to what Jesus said or what he did until he was “on the clock.”
This is part of the reason we only have a few stories of Jesus before he begins his ministry. We are told that he is taken to the Temple when he is 8 days old. We are told that he went to Egypt and then to Nazareth while he was still a child. We are told that when Jesus was 12 years old he spent extra time at the Templewhile his family was headed home. And that about sums up all that the gospel writers thought was important for us to know about Jesus before he was 30.
If we read the gospels closely, there is a suggestion that Jesus worked as a carpenter or mason as a young adult, which we only learn about when his authority is questioned. There is also the implication that he has siblings, when Mary comes to take him home after people questioned Jesus’s teachings. Other than that, there really isn’t much of anything else said about these missing or unknown years of Jesus.
But that doesn’t mean that some people haven’t wondered about what the Son of God was like before his story was told in the gospels. Over the centuries, people have tried to fill in that gap. And how those gaps got filled often says more about the storytellers than it does about Jesus.
There are, for example, infancy gospels where Jesus kills children who displease him. Jesus turns clay pigeons into living birds, and sets them free. Jesus even turns salted fish into living fish so he can catch them again. Jesus brings the dead children back to life, but then blinds their parents for being upset with him for killing their children. He carries water without the need for a jar, and then fixes the jars that are broken when the other children try to copy him. He creates a feast from a single grain of rice. Jesus stretched a piece of wood to make it fit a project he was doing with Joseph.
The healing miracles of the infant Jesus include neutralizing the poison of a snake bite and fixing a foot injured by an errant swing of an ax. In addition to the children he killed and raised, the boy Jesus brings back to life a construction worker who fell off a roof. His pets are lions, who also serve to keep awaythe children he doesn’t want to play with.
Throughout these childhood stories, Jesus is not particularly well-liked by the other children or adults, but he is feared and respected. The emphasis is on the power of Jesus as God, who can bring both life and death, and who has power over the things of creation.
In the writings sometimes called “the lost books of the Bible,” there are stories of Jesus from those missing years between 12 and 30. I should point out that these writings are not called the “lost books” because the church didn’t know about them or couldn’t find them. They are the “lost books” because they lost the argument about who Jesus is. These are the books which declared that Jesus only appeared to be human but was only a spirit, so he didn’t really suffer and die on the cross, and he didn’t really rise from the dead on Easter morning. These are the books which declared that Jesus passed on to his mother Mary, or to Mary Magdalene, or to some other character, secret knowledge which was identical to that of cults in other faiths. These are the books which tried to legitimize their own teachings by putting them on the lips of Jesus.
That is why they include stories of Jesus traveling the world as a young adult, in order to learn the secrets and wisdom of other faith leaders. There are stories of Jesus studying with the Essenes and the Pharisees. There are stories that Jesus traveled to India and Tibet to study Hinduism and Buddhism. There is even a story, tied to the legends of King Arthur, in which Jesus traveled with Joseph of Arimathea to Britain where he studied with the Druids.
The shift in these stories is from the power of his childhood to the wisdom of his teachings. The people who tried to fill in the gaps, when Jesus wasn’t on the clock, wanted us to know that Jesus was as powerful as God and wiser than the wisest traditions.
Let me be clear: no onebelieves that any of these stories are true, except maybe the “ancient alien theorists” types who are convinced that only extraterrestrials can be responsible for things like the pyramids.
To recap, children were not held accountable for their actions until they reached the age of bar or bat mitzvah. Whatever children did was just what children did – it was how they learned, and their culture knew that some lessons were learned easily and some took a while. All that mattered was what they eventually learned and could then practice as adults. The time between bar and bat mitzvah and 30 years old were the years to perfect what it means to be an adult, as the theory was put into practice. This was the time for daily prayer, and regular synagogue teaching, and observing the festivals, so that they could become the people of accountability before God.
This is what a priest could not begin serving in the Temple until they were 30 years old. Until then, it didn’t matter how learned they were, or clever they were, or charismatic they were – they did not have the experience of life to back them up. So, whatever they said or taught before they were of age would not carry weight with the people – even if it was true. To speak about God, and to speak for God, was of the utmost importance, and so this authority was not given or recognized until a person had lived long enough, and shown dedication enough, to something this important.
To say all this in another way, you are not on the clock until you are eligible to play the game. This is what we have going on in our reading. This is the moment, at least in Mark’s gospel, when Jesus goes on the clock as the messiah.
To a casual reader, it seems as if Jesus steps in to pick up exactly where John the Baptizer dropped off. John was the voice crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord,make his paths straight.” We know from the other gospels that John preached repentance as the way to prepare the way of the Lord.
In Matthew’s gospel, repentance is doing whatever it takes to bear good fruit for the people of God, which meant keeping the Laws of Moses. In Luke’s gospel, repentance includes sharing with those who do not have, not cheating others, and not abusing power for personal gain.
Jesus, however, says, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” For Jesus, repentance is about turning towards God and believing that God has come to them in Jesus. The kingdom of God is not sometime promised far off in the future that we must prepare for in order for it to come – the kingdom of God is now. Jesus is on the clock now. And as we believe, we are on the clock now.
We know this because Jesus immediately asks Simon and Andrew to follow him now, to be on the clock now, to be part of the kingdom of God now, to help bring other people into the kingdom of God now. Jesus is not asking them to follow so he can show off his power, or to convince them of his wisdom. There is no need for Jesus to impress them with displays of worldly power and wisdom, which is what those lost books of the Bible got wrong about who Jesus is. The true power of Jesus, and the true wisdom of Jesus, is ultimately revealed in the love of Jesus for us and for God.
Power is best used when it is used at the right time. Wisdom is best revealed when it is needed at the right time. Love, however, is always on the clock. The love of God revealed in Jesus Christ is always available for us now. It is always the right time to accept the love of God now. It is always the right time to love our neighbors now as Christ has loved us.
When Simon and Andrew left behind their nets, they were declaring that they were now on the clock for Jesus. What they have done before in their lives is not as important as what they will do now for the kingdom of God. Whatever they have done in the past is past, which is what forgiveness is like when we accept the calling of Jesus to be on the clock now.
Our next hymn is specifically about the calling of Simon and Andrew, the calling of James and John, the calling of Susannah, Mary, and Mary Magdalene – and the calling of Jesus to each of us to follow him now. As we stand to sing this hymn, listen for Jesus to call you to follow, and know that the right time to follow Jesus is now!
Faith We Sing 2101 “Two Fishermen”