Immediately
Genesis 12: 1-9; Matthew 9:9-13,18-26

June 9, 2002

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a single word can open up a universe which keeps expanding. Such a word lies snuggled into the narrative, both in plain daylight and in anonymous presence. The word is “immediately,” and along with several closely related unobtrusive words reveals to us a bit of the Gospel.

In the shortest and first Gospel of Mark, the evangelist uses this short word 40 times in 16 chapters. In a number of places it is obvious that the choice of the English word “immediately” is not the precise equivalent for the context. Still, the notion of immediately, right now, at once, instantly is the time frame of the Gospel narrative.

Mark’s word does not appear in the Matthew story read today, but the same idea keeps appearing: God’s action and people’s response to it takes no time at all.

Jesus was just out walking when he saw Matthew sitting behind the tax booth. “Follow me,” he said, and without a comment, Matthew got up and followed. Is this version trying to imitate the time when God just strode up to Abram and asked him to go where he would lead him, and Abram likewise just went? Neither story adds an adverb to Abram and Matthew’s rising motions to follow the Word of God. But there are no words of hesitation or pondering.

Jesus is eating with tax collectors and sinners and enjoying himself when he is challenged first by the Pharisees and then by disciples of John the Baptist about having too much fun in the wrong kind of company. Then “suddenly” a leader of the synagogue enters this unsavoury environment to plead with Jesus to come heal his desperately ill daughter.

On the way to the synagogue leader’s house, suddenly again the woman suffering from 12 years of hemorrhages touches the fringe of his cloak. Jesus turned and affirmed to her that her faith has made her well. Instantly, she was made well.

Finally at the house, the daughter had apparently died and Jesus’ opinion that she was only asleep was met with laughter and derision. He took the girl by the hand and she got up. No adverbs, but no moment wasted.

Whose time do we really live in? Time is what makes us human - the ticking away of seconds and hours, the cycle of years and the limited decades of life. When we see time, all we see is the present in front of us.

God does not see time in such a way. Eternity is not really forever or everlasting or unending, though in a way it is all these. God sees all our time and times at once, so from our perspective it appears to be condensed into nothing.

Many Christians have taken this appearance quite literally. One is supposed to be born again in an instant, usually pinpointed to an exact date and time. The correct response of faith is to answer without hesitation, without real thought, without any doubt, and without any time intervening. When one is healed by faith, there is no gradual knitting of the bones or closing of wounds. Immediately one is made well. When a person hears the call of God to ministry, that summons is heard and responded to in an instant and lasts a lifetime. One does not have time to argue with God.

We prefer to take our time on Godly matters. God works through time to heal. God accepts our doubts and doubts generally take more time than we expect. God’s call to so many of us in the priesthood of all believers manifests itself not so much in a lightning flash at which we can only jump in alarm, but as a nag in the back of our minds, an itch which refuses to be scratched away. God has all the time.

Matthew and Mark throw in the words immediately, suddenly, instantly as an inadequate way to point towards something they cannot express or time. Almost always the word immediately refers not to Jesus, but to the response of others to him. When we are caught up in God’s world time does not really matter.

Many of our lasting good decisions are made immediately without discernible time passing, but we know that we are right. Usually, we comprehend in an instant that something or someone is right or wrong, unjust or just. The full explanation may follow, but does not change the decision. Love, which is an act of faith, renders time meaningless. Not the love of chocolate or a calculating love designed to manipulate another person to do what you want, but a love which is lost completely in the act of loving does not bother to count.

Albert Einstein tried to explain his theory of relativity by explaining how different two minutes can be. If one is sitting on a hot stove for two minutes it seems like forever. If you are kissing your beloved, two minutes is like no time at all.

Immediately, you are in the present completely with God. There is no other world worth counting. If you have been immediately in the presence of God, you have no patience for injustice which wastes human time and energy in hatred, discrimination and anger. You can no longer wait for all people to be free, for in God’s world, why not now? For people to be given dignity and self-worth, they need to be loved now, at once, with no time limits.

And suddenly the sermon ends. Immediately, we are called to stand up and follow God’s odd call to go to the odd places God wants us to go at the oddest of times.

Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan