Ekklesia is a Greek word. It is often translated as “church,” but it really means “call out.” For our purposes, it seems to mean the “called out.” What does it mean to be called out? Who does the calling? What are we called out of or from? What are we called to? These questions are for all of us to grapple with. They are the questions that shape our spiritual formation and the foundations of discipleship. How we answer them determines how we spend our time – even how we fundamentally understand time itself. They influence the choices we make, the voices we hear, the actions we perform, they way in which we live. We need a great deal of courage to think about these questions because they have the real possibility of changing everything about us.

Today we read about Jonah’s call to prophesy in the Assyrian capitol Ninevah, and the call to the Ninevites to hear and repent. We also read about Jesus’ call to Simon, Andrew, James, and John. Each of these was called out from something familiar into something altogether unknown. Each call brought with it disruption to the lives of folks just going on about their business, folks not seeking God or looking for anything new. Sometimes call breaks into our world and pulls us out of our every day existence. Call moments interrupt lives dwelling in chronos time and open up for us the possibility of kairos - God’s time. To be called is to be called out of one way of life into something entirely new.

Jonah responded with great reluctance to God’s call. He ran away from it and took a boat westward toward Tarshish in Spain – the very end of the known world. God interrupted this elopement, however, and tossed him into the belly of a fish. When expelled forty days later, Jonah dragged his feet, but headed East to Ninevah. He really didn’t want to heed his call, but God was more than persistent. There’s another call story in Jonah, too. The Ninevites, from the king to the last common person, heard God’s voice and repented. They were called as well. While they may not have liked hearing God’s voice from Jonah, who, by way of being a Jew, was their enemy, they found the ears to hear God speaking through him. We often overlook their calling. The four disciples responded immediately to the voice of Jesus, dropping all they were doing, and they walked off with him. Jonah was a self-righteous man – not really the type of person you’d think God would choose as a prophet. The Ninevites weren’t even Jews – not the people we assume God calls. The disciples were busy men, tending to the work of providing for their families. They had not shown themselves to be particularly holy, and they certainly weren’t out searching for a Messiah to follow.

God selects the most surprising people to do the most interesting work. Today we read about a self-righteous man, a king and a people who listened to their fiercest enemy, and four men caught up in the every day acts of life. God calls the wounded, the poor, the queer, the social outcasts, the insecure, the mentally ill, enemies, and all of the farthest margins of society to tell the world something about God’s kingdom. God doesn’t wait for us to be ready, to be pious, to be special in any way. We can only be sure that God calls all of us to step away from something that ties us down into something new that propels us forward into more life, more risk, more commitment, more work, more joy. When God calls us out, time fundamentally changes from chronos (or clock) time to kairos time. And, anything can be accomplished there.

Mark tells us Jesus’ first words. “The kairos has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” Kairos moments are those moments appointed by God for the purpose of God. They are critical junctures where this world meets, clashes, bumps into, God’s. They often call us to make critical decisions that have great impact. Kairos is also used to mean the fullness of time. “The kairos has come.” The appointed time in the purpose of God has come. The moment of the fullness of time has come. God’s world is near. Upon hearing and believing these words, the fishermen responded immediately. They dropped all they knew to follow Jesus. Such response is commendable, but not always what happens.

More of us are probably like Jonah, not really in the market for kairos time. Like him we often run the other way when the call gets too loud, the mission too dangerous, and the future too uncomfortable. It’s completely understandable, but we cannot be the ekklesia unless we heed the call.

The past week our nation paid tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a man who understood call. He also believed in kairos time. In a speech on the day before he was assassinated, Dr. King said, “We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now, because I have been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody I would like to live – a long life – longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now; I just want to do God’s will….” Dr. King knew that the people who are the ekklesia are called out of the illusions of personal safety and the restriction of temporal life into life lived in the joy of God, ready and willing to work for God’s world. “The kairos has come. The kingdom of God is near. [Turn around] and believe the good news."

Kairos moments can be fleeting– the fullness of time in one moment. We need not hold on to the illusions of safety and comfort in order to experience joy and homecoming. The clock cannot give us fullness of life, fullness of experience, fullness of time. We find these things by being called out of the staid comforts that conspire to mire us down. We find new life by stepping away from the couch, the TV, the computer, work, family pressures, fear of all of the bad things we know about in the world, even our own insecurities. We step out of the power of these things to hold us down and into the risky, hard, and messy, joyful, full, wonderful work that our call brings us to.

As a congregation, we are called to be the ekklesia. We have been called out of so very many different things in order to be gathered here today. As an assembly, we are called out of any fear that may keep us from engaging in the work of doing God’s will – striving for the kingdom. We, small in number in this little congregation, have something to proclaim, something to embody, something to disturb and dismay others for. We are called out of our self-righteousness, our transgressions, and our every day work to embark upon a journey toward Paradise, toward God’s kingdom. We are called out of our homes into this sanctuary. We are called out of our fear, prejudice, and commonplace lives to make this so. We are called to something extraordinary, something difficult, something joyful. Some of us may be more like Jonah, dragging our feet with each step. We may find the humility of the Assyrians to hear God’s voice coming even from our enemy and the courage to respond to it. We may be like the four disciples, compelled by the truth of the call before us. Regardless of how we are called, we are all called, each and every one of us. We have different jobs to do, but all important and vital. All of us are needed in order for this congregation to be the ekklesia – the called out, the assembled. God offer us kairos moments to respond to and to live in. They are justice-seeking, peace-making, compassion-filled moments. They don’t last forever, so we can’t squander the opportunities. Whatever we are called out of, whatever we are called from, we are called to believe in what we say every time we pray the Lord’s prayer: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Amen.