Now Is A Very Acceptable Time

In recent months, there’s been a significant decision that I have been trying to make. I have considered a lot of factors, tried to do my research, talked to people, etc. Mind you, I am not one to usually make quick decisions. For example, it takes me a while sometimes to even buy a pair of sneakers because I want to make sure I have ‘done my research’! So, for me, knowing when to ‘just do it’ is not always an easy proposition.

I know that the same can be true for me in the realm of ethics and faith. There may be stirrings in my life – things I want to do, actions I want to take, things I want to say, rearrangements in my life or priorities – that I feel inclined towards but am reluctant to put into action for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they may not fit with my conditioned understandings of what is “prudent” or “realistic” or “rational” in a given situation.

Our first reading from 2 Corinthians 6, however, offers some counsel about the timing of our decisions. In it, Paul says, “Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” 

Like Jesus, Paul knew that ‘there is no time like the present.’ But I don’t think he meant it in the colloquial sense. He meant that acting on behalf of God’s kin-dom often requires something of us in the moment. Jesus frequently invited his followers to trust their instincts in the moment, and Paul likely shared this belief that the present moment is where God is.  Paul knew well that the kin-dom of God is already here and now (Lk 17:21) and a failure to act in the present often led people to miss a substantial encounter with God (and God’s presence in others).

Paul goes on to affirm that the community of faith that he is writing to has gone through a lot on behalf of their discipleship – “afflictions, hardships, constraints, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, vigils, fasts…”

That is quite a list!

Passages like this always get me thinking about what risks I have taken or am willing to take on behalf of my faith convictions. What powers have I honestly confronted lately on behalf of what I believe? What actual, real world consequences have I faced related to what my faith may be asking from me in this moment?

As if that were not enough to chew on, Paul goes further. He then describes what the dominant culture thinks about and says about the community of believers.  “We are treated as deceivers and yet are truthful; as unrecognized and yet acknowledged; as dying and behold we live; as chastised and yet not put to death; as sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many; as having nothing and yet possessing all things.”

I can’t help but think of the current political moment in our country where truth is often labeled a falsehood, empathy is named as weakness and justice is denigrated as “wokeness.”

It’s clear from Paul’s writing that he assumes that the believers will be at odds with the dominant culture due to their beliefs-in-action, and that the dominant culture will not understand the community of believers and will mock and chastise them.

I think about people like Elon Musk who recently referred to groups of people as “NPC’s” (non-player characters). It’s a video gaming term which refers to “background characters” who are participants in but not shapers of the games in which they appear. Musk and many other people in power view most of the population in this light. They consider so many people to be NPC’s in the political, social and economic landscapes.

Paul and the early followers of Jesus were considered NPC’s in their day as were the people they associated with and ministered to. And yet it is these very groups of people – the ones who have been rejected and excluded – that Jesus said are the most important in the kin-dom of God, and our attention to them determines a lot of the state of our spiritual lives.

Let’s hold all this as we think about the gospel for the day.

In Matthew 5, Jesus is starting his familiar “you have heard it said…but I say” discourses that turn the conventional wisdom of his day on its head. In today’s reading, he says, “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on  your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.”

Clearly there is a lot in this reading that we could focus on! I wonder what catches your attention?

For me, I’ll generally say that Jesus is pointing out that he does not subscribe to “conventional wisdom.” He is operating from a deeper place that does not compute with the taken-for-granted assumptions of his time (which we witness as lived in Paul’s reflections) – assumptions which can often support the maintenance of the the systems of power, privelege, inheritance and injustice that we exist in.

I wonder what you might name as some of those taken-for-granted assumptions for our time right now?

I say all of this to say that if we take our scriptural tradition seriously (which I hope we do), then it is calling us to say and do counter-cultural things that actually make us visible to the powers-that-be AND make us visible to those who are rejected and left out. It tells people, “we see you and your reality,” and it makes us visible to the powers that be.

Now I can’t tell you what those actions and words might look like in your life, but I do know that they often appear in the present moment as a thought that crosses our mind.

“I should say something…”

“I should pull over and check on that person…”

“I should help somehow…”

When I read the biographies of so many who changed history or made a difference in the lives of others, they often speak of doing something in the present moment that they did not overthink or let conventional wisdom overrule. They just did what was needed in that moment. Often it led them to feel the real world consequences that Paul spoke of, but it also strengthened their resolve to more deeply immerse themselves in collective struggles and movement work that made a significant impact to the people in their midst (and sometimes for generations to come).

This week, moments will find you where you are invited to say or do something. May we all remember that “now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation,” reject conventional wisdom that keeps us immobile (and keeps systems of harm intact) and live into God’s kin-dom as fully as we are able.