“Follow His Excellence”

January 22, 2012: The Third Sunday of Epiphany

Jeremiah 3: 21 - 4: 2/Psalm 130/1 Corinthians 7: 17 – 23/Mark 1: 14 - 20

Bishop Ricardo M. Alcaraz

Praise be to God!  Once again, we are in the Season of Epiphany. When we talk about Epiphany, it is talking about manifesting what was once hidden. It is a revealing of; a revelation of.  As God has not hidden His salvation from us, so we are to display and manifest in and through our lives the greatness of our God most especially in a world that is troubled by so many things.  When we talk about those things, I am not just talking about the general atmosphere, but the events we read and hear about in the news.  These are real, tangible things.  It seems that these are the things being seen.

In the CEC, Charismatic Episcopal Church, one of the things that God told us was to make visible the void or make visible in the void the rule and the reign of God.  In the midst of all of these things that are happening around us, there are people who are asking questions:  where is God in all of these?   Basically, we are to reveal or to show where God is in the midst of all these.

The first reading in Jeremiah talks about the people of God – responding to Him positively.  As long as they do not respond to God positively, then, a series of judgments will take place.  When we, as the Church, begin to do what God told us to do, there are many things that can be avoided.  It is not up to the scientists, to the inventors, the think-tank of the world that we need in order to avoid all of these things.  It is up to the church of God.  As we follow our Creator, understand He has rule and reign over the elements.

Scriptures says that when God created Adam, for as long as Adam was walking under the dominion of God, he was walking in the dominion of God.  He was a little god of the garden for as long as he walked with God.  When he disobeyed, then this was the time that he lost this particular dominion.  That is the time that creation lost the peace, the harmony that it had at that particular time.  It is still the same thing again. We are people who have received God’s kingdom.  We have received His life.  It is more than just the forgiveness of sin. Thank God for that!  It is more than just the promise, the hope of heaven one day.  Thank God for that!  It is being able to bring forth the dominion of heaven down here on the earth where we live as we live under God’s holy dominion.

Some people say that many disasters might take place in 2012.   The question is, “What do we, as the Church, say?”  Do we just deny that? Do we just say, “Okay, that is not going to come to past.”   I believe we have to add our voice in the mix.  Praise be to God! It is not just saying, “It is not going to happen.”  It is saying, “Yes, to God!”  It is living under the dominion of God that the dominion of His kingdom might be seen in our world today.  All of creation groans until the sons of God are manifested.  This is the time; this is the hour for us to rise up to the expectations of the Almighty.

I remember the story in Esther.  A decree from the king came out that on a certain day, the Jews would be destroyed.  Mordecai came to Esther and said, “Esther, this is what is going to happen to us. Can you not talk to the king?  Can you not ask for something to be done?  Esther said to Mordecai, “It has been quite some time now since he has called me.  You know that rule of the king.  If no one is summoned before his presence, and someone dares to come to his presence, and he does not extend his scepter, that person who dared barge in his presence would be put to death.  He has not summoned me.  If I just go there and he does not extend his scepter towards me, I might be put to death.”

Mordecai says, “Esther, if you do not do this, salvation shall come somewhere for the Jews.   It is not going to negate our salvation. You are placed in the kingdom for such a time as this.  This is not the time for second-guessing yourself.  This is not the time from shrinking from the responsibilities before you.  This is not the time to give in to caution.  If there was ever a time that you needed to rise up for your people, this is the time and this is hour.  If you do not do this, salvation will come from somewhere.  You will not be used and you will not be saved wherever you tried to hide yourself.”

We are seeing these things right now in the world, in the church arena, in the western world.  There are many ideas that are trying to invade the thinking of the western church.  There are different ideas from man. There are different kinds of philosophies trying to blend in and dilute the truth of God’s word in us.  The churches in the east, instead of brainwashing, instead of false philosophies, the enemies are using brute force.  Certain churches are being burned.  Certain families are being assaulted and some of the enforcers who are supposed to keep the peace are allowing these things to happen.  Some go through physical violence and it seems like the church is being attacked right now.

This is not the time to be defensive. This is not the time to say, “Well, those things are not happening so I am not going to pay attention to them.”  Understand this:  salvation is going to come from God.  Whether we are part of that salvation or not depends on us.  If we say that we don’t really want to get involved, and we think that we can be saved there, this is not what the Scripture is saying to us.  To whom much is given, much is required; and much has been given to us.

In 1983, when I was working for a life insurance agency, my boss talked to me and said that he was impressed with the sales that I was getting.  He said, “I am going to make a deal with you.  Don’t say this to anyone.  I want you to know that I am going to give you your own agency.”  That was a secret between him and me.  At that time also, I was beginning to find about the things of God that He has given to us.   One day, I heard that he was sick.  I was going to go somewhere.  I had my own agenda – a time for me to do something that will be pleasing to me.

In the middle of time, I remember the Holy Spirit telling me, “Go visit him now and pray for him now!”   Those were the earliest times that I heard about praying for the sick, laying hands on the sick.  I was arguing with God, “I am just learning about these things.  Why don’t you send somebody like the guy who taught us?  Why don’t you send someone who is already experienced in this?  I haven’t done this thing.  Besides, he is my boss.  He might think I am weird.  He might change his mind.  He might not give me my agency anymore.”

I was being selfish.  I was trying to think of my own interest.  I was getting this impression from the Holy Spirit, “Go there now and pray for him now.”  I said to God, “Lord, I am going somewhere.  I have my own schedule to perform.  I will visit him tomorrow.”  I did not obey the voice of the Lord at that time. I was just new to this, but I did say to Him, “Okay, I will do it tomorrow.  Right now, I want to do something.”

The thing is, tomorrow came for me, but tomorrow did not come for my boss.  Before the appointed time that I said to the Lord that I would visit him, he passed away.  He died before I got to visit him when I said to the Lord, “I will do it tomorrow,” and I meant 24 hours.  The Lord talked to me in the evening; I meant tomorrow evening I will visit him.   Sometime between my doing my own thing – watching a movie and visiting my boss – my boss died.

The question asked:  would it have mattered?  Would it have made a difference if I prayed for him?  I believe he might have been alive.  But then, there is really no way of knowing right now.  When I said to God that I would be going there tomorrow, that was too late.  If God spoke to me at about 6:30 that day in the evening, the 6:30 of that day compared to the 6:30 the next day, even though it is the same hour, basically, is not the same.

That was the significant moment!  That was the time to act.  That was the time to seize the moment. Not after that, but at that particular time. Not only because my boss died, but the plan that he told me was just between him and me.  Not only did he die, his family suffered; I couldn’t even tell them that he made a promise to me.  Even my own financial promise at that time was affected because I put off for some time what God said for me to do at that particular time.

As we go to the theme, “Follow His Excellence,” recognize God’s timing and respond immediately to His call.  When God’s appointed time comes for something to be done, we need to take action.  Mark 1:14-15 from the New King James, “After John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel’.”

The word “time” has two words:  one is kairos and the other is chronos.  Chronos is regular time.  9:00 a.m. today is like 9:00 a.m. tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Kairos is a significant moment where action needs to be taken because whether you do something or not will determine the outcome of events.  For me, my kairos moment was when God said, “I want you to visit your boss today.”  I said, “I am busy today.  I will do it tomorrow.”  I ignored my kairos moment.  Though 6:30 p.m. is chronos, the same 6:30 p.m. the next day, because of the urgency of the situation at hand, is not the same.

Kairos is the decisive moment.  Kairos is the “strike the iron while it is hot” moment.  Kairos was what Sammy Davis Jr. sang, “This my moment.  My destiny calls me.  Today I will do great things.” To miss chronos is merely to be inconvenienced.  To miss your kairos is to miss your opportunity of a lifetime.  In the gospel, Jesus Christ is talking about, “The kairos is at hand.  The moment to act is upon you.  The time to make a significant contribution is now upon you.”

I am reading a book “Escape from Davao” that talks about a former soldier who survived the Death March in Bataan.  Then he was incarcerated in the Davao Penal Colony. The Japanese took that and made it for their POW – the prisoners of war. They called it the PECOL.  The soldier escaped that and nobody knew what has happened to them.  Nobody knew the kind of maltreatment that they were going through.  One of their goals if they escaped was that they would be able to go back to America and they would tell the story there.

After the soldier got back there, the story was not told until one year later.  When the people found out exactly what was happening there, that was the time that they marshaled their forces to come back to Bataan.  In one of his statements, Edwin Dyess, an American, said that the battle of Bataan is a story of too little, too late.  When the battle of Bataan started, they only had nine planes.  They were asking for supplies, for reinforcements.  That little army of Bataan, both made up of Americans and Filipino guerillas, fought a great battle because they were able to hold back for one year.  Before the fall of Bataan took place, they held back the enemy.

Someone said that it is like the 300 Spartans who battled in Thermopylae when they held back the thousands of Persians.  It is like the 200 to 500 knights of John of the Cross when they held the Island of Malta against the forces of Sulaiman.  This was a small force. They were losing their planes, their ammunitions and their supplies.  They were losing their men, and yet the command was, “Hold on.”  They said, “We are holding on.”  Although they had a will that was made of steel, yet they discovered that their flesh gave in also as they were being attacked.

Eventually, the command was given for them to surrender.  It says that the Fall of Bataan took placed far longer than it should have.   For one year, they did not receive any replies or supplies.  I was thinking while he was telling the story, for every one thousand planes to the European Theatre War, if they have only sent one hundred, or even fifty planes to Bataan; for every one million men, if they have only sent a hundred thousand or even fifty or even twenty five thousand to Bataan; for every one thousand tanks they sent to Europe, had they sent only ten thousand or even five thousand tanks to Bataan, Bataan might not have fallen.

They missed their kairos moment.  Eventually the supplies came.  Eventually, the attention came.  Eventually, they won the war.  But what could have made a difference?  The difference would have been that they would have won the war with many of the lives the soldiers saved.  They won the war later, yes, but some of the soldiers died because he said, “It was too little, too late.  When we started, we only had nine planes and they fought to the end; even with one plane made up of different kinds of parts, they were still able to fight with that.   They were willing to fight to the end until the order came for them to surrender.  He said, “If only they had given us a tenth, of even a fifth of what they were sending to Europe, Bataan might not have fallen.  It could have changed the course of history.”   If they had seized on the kairos moment to act, then, history would have ended a different way.  But because they missed it, he says that it is too little, too late. They missed their kairos moment.

Jesus Christ is saying, “This is our kairos moment right now.” This is the time to display the kingdom of God right now. This is the time to rise up and do what Esther did for her generation.  Right now, people are afraid.  Let us show them our God.

I was talking to a priest just three months ago.  He was talking about his problems. His church was old, the debt about 65,000 pesos. He said he was not having enough and he had all those pressures.  We talked about certain things – tithing, trusting God, and praising God in the midst of these things.  We uncovered certain things.  He had a hidden resentment against God; holding Him at fault.  I told him that God is never at fault.  He is not the One who is withholding things from us.

We talked about the tithing.  Because he had resentment, he did not want to give God his tithe.  I said, “It doesn’t work that way.  If you don’t give God your tithe, God doesn’t suffer.  If you don’t give God your tithe, heaven does not crumble.  If you don’t give God your tithe, the operations of heaven don’t stop. They continue.  God and the Kingdom will never suffer if you hold back your tithe.  You think that you are hitting God that way by withholding your tithe?

I said to him, “Look, you need to forgive God.”  It may sound weird.  “God hasn’t done anything wrong to you but you are holding something against Him.  You are a priest.  You, of all people, should understand that.”  The priest said, “Okay, I understand now.”  He was really repentant and he said, “God, I am really sorry.  I am going to trust you again.”

One thing that he started doing was bringing his tithes again and after two or three weeks, he came to me again and he was smiling this time. I said, “What happened now?” He said, “These kingdom principles really work. I used to think that because of the recession, there was no way for us to get ahead.  I just started doing what we discussed in the Holy Scriptures. God surprised me.”

I asked, “What kind of surprise did He do for you?”   He said, “One person came along and out of the blue, gave me one hundred thousand pesos. That takes care of the sixty-five thousand debt of our church; that takes care of the needs of my family.  The moment I set myself right with God, and the moment I start following what God said, things have just a way of happening smoothly.  There are some things that I struggle to get before. I tried to convince someone; I tried to drop a hint.  Nothing seems to happen. But then, I did it according to God’s way, to His principles, then things started to happen.  Doors are starting to open.  I used to really try to knock down those doors. They won’t open.  Now, it seems that they are opening on their own.  All that I need to do was to make a little adjustment. I told God I am sorry that I blamed Him.  I told God I am sorry that I accused Him of being unfair. I started worshipping and serving Him with joy and gladness which I should have done even from the very beginning.  Somebody just gave me an amount. Now our problems are solved.”

Isn’t this what Jesus Christ said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness?”  In our nation today, we are facing all of these things.  In my story, I was too selfish to go to that person and pray for that person.  Not only did he die but it also affected my future – my financial promise at that particular time. It is going to be same thing if we try to ignore our kairos moment at this particular time.  We don’t know how it is going to affect us.  We need to rise up to this moment to do what God is telling us to do.

One of the things that we find in Holy Scriptures when the Father tells Jesus Christ what to do, is He does it.  He acts on it.  This is what He is saying to us: this is our kairos moment.  This is not the time to miss what God is telling us to do.  I know that there are things that we want to do; people we want to meet; places where we want to go.  If all of those things fall in line in what God is wanting you to do, that is fine. But if all of these things come in conflict with God is telling you to do, then it is time to make the hard choices.  We need to say yes to God even if it means denying the other things. 

Jesus Christ said, “Follow Me. Deny yourself.”  It simply means, “Do what I am asking you to do first.”  This is not the time to deny what He desires for us.  This is the time for us to deny ourselves. Put God first.  He is not just going to be a priority in our lives. Some people say, “God is our first priority.”  He should not be just first priority.  God should be the very center around which our priorities revolved.  If time gets a little bit shorter, you’ve got to knock off certain things from your schedule because God is at your center.  He doesn’t get knocked-off! He is there in your center.

God is saying these to us that right now in 2012.  People are fearing; disasters are here and there.  My sister sent me a YouTube video of a particular preacher and this preacher was saying that if we thought that the typhoon “Sendong” was destructive, there are disasters that are in store for our nation.  He said that only when we say yes to God, only when we begin to honor God will these things be averted.   My sister asked me, “What do you think of this.”  I said, “I have never heard of this preacher before so I can’t really say anything about him.”  I listened to his message. He says to obey God the disasters will be averted.  You don’t obey God, these things will happen.

I see some similarities in Scriptures but I just don’t know how precise, how accurate he is concerning these disasters that he named. All I know is I might not know him, he might not be my friend, I might not completely agree with him, I might not like what he was saying, but the principles are there.  If we do things God’s ways, there are certain things that will be averted and some blessings will come our way.

The prophet Jonah was sent in Nineveh. Jonah knew that they will be judged.  He knew that they will be destroyed.  Jonah did not want to have to do anything to change that thing.  Instead of going there in order to preach repentance to them, he went to the other direction.  After a series of events, having his vacation inside a fish, he changed his mind.  He goes to Nineveh and instead of saying the good news that, “The great God is wanting you to know that His mercy is for you. If you will repent, if you will change your ways, then disasters will not fall on you.  God will have mercy.”  But this is not what he said.

This was a prophet but did want to do what God told him to do.  He spent more nights in the belly of the fish.  He goes to Nineveh and instead of telling them the good news, he says, “Many days from now, this place will be destroyed.”  He doesn’t tell them that if they repent, God will have mercy upon them.  He did not give them the way out.  He did not tell them how to avert that thing.  He just wants them to know, “Many days from now, Nineveh will be destroyed.”  Then, he walks off.

Somehow, the king of Nineveh says, “If wear sack cloth, if we repent, and we do these things, maybe this God that he talks about will change his mind.”  They repented before God.  God says, “You changed.  You repented. Because of that, these disasters will not come upon you anymore.”  What was Jonah’s reaction?  “I knew it. That is the reason why I did not want to come here in the first place.  I knew it!”  He wanted them destroyed.  He did not give them the full message. He just gave them half the message.

There is that principle there.  We can get so startled with the bad news, with the bad things that are happening.  We have all experienced that.  In Mindanao, it was Sendong.  In Manila, it was Ondoy.  In Kalibo, it was typhoon Frank.  Inside our house, there was seven feet of water.  When the water came down, there was mud with no water to clean it with.  We all experienced that.    Is there something that is going to happen again?  I am not really trying to predict which one is going to happen or what is going to happen next. All I want to do is concentrate on what God says.

When we begin to concentrate on doing what God says, not only will we be saved, but many of these things will be averted and many of the people that we come in contact with or the community that we stay in will not even know that their salvation had something to do with our obedience before the Lord our God.   We don’t care whether we get the credit or not.  All we want to do is do what God said – to bring His rule and His reign here.  We need to recognize God’s timing – when there is something that needs to be done.

Scriptures says from Verse 18-20, there are two “immediately” here.  Verse 18 says, “They immediately left their nets.” What God is saying to us when your kairos moment comes, it is not the time to say, “Lord, let me think it over.  Lord, let me submit this to a committee.  Lord, let me discuss it with my group.  Lord, I am not yet ready. Lord, tomorrow.”   If you miss a chronos moment, you will be merely inconvenienced.  If you miss a kairos moment, it could affect your life.

When I was hospitalized when my appendix burst, I develop complications while I was in the hospital. I could not breathe. I felt like I was drowning.  The doctor had already made her rounds.  Normally, what she did was that she would leave and go to her clinic which was located in another place and would return to the hospital the next day.  At about that time, as she was leaving the hospital, she felt this sudden urge to come back and visit me.  It did not make sense.  It was different from her schedule for she has followed this routine – visit, go the clinic; next day, visit the hospital again.

I am so grateful that she did not say, “I will just do this tomorrow.”  She got out of her car, went back to my room, and when she saw me, she made some orders and I was transferred for emergency treatment.  My life was saved!  That was her kairos moment.  Had she ignored that, I might have been dead.  She did not and she decided to break with her routine despite what she was feeling did not make sense.  She came to the room when I was drowning and I was not even on the water, that which I felt – fighting for air.  After the emergency was over, she said that had she come back about ten minutes, it would have been too late and it would have been all over for me.

Kairos moments – significant moments; the opportunity of a lifetime; the decisive moment; the strike while the iron is hot moment; this is the time; this is the hour; this is our moment; this is the call of destiny; this is where God wants you to be at this particular moment.

We find in the Book of Acts, Philip. He was in the midst of a revival.  Signs and wonders were taking place; demons were running to and fro.  The voice of the Spirit says to him, “Philip, I want you to go to the desert.”  Philip says, “Lord, can’t you see the excitement going on?  People are getting healed.  Demons are being cast out.  The blind are seeing.  The deaf are hearing.  Do you want me to go to the desert?”  Philip goes to the desert and stands there and there is nothing happening.  Probably, Philip was thinking, “Why did you ask me to come here, Lord?  We were having revival over there.  People were praising You over there. People are getting converted over there. I am here now in the desert where You asked me to go.  There is nothing here.”

Philip waits and then a chariot comes along.  And the Spirit says to Philip, “Go near that chariot.”  He goes near and he hears an Ethiopian reading from the book of Isaiah.  Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”  The Ethiopian says, “How could I unless someone explains it for me?” Philip gets in and a seed for the kingdom of God was planted in Ethiopia.

Kairos moment – Philip obeyed God.  It was supposed to be at that time he could have said, “God, let us wait for the revival to be over.  It is too exciting here.” But God says, “I want you to go to the desert now!”  If he did not leave at that time and not went to the desert at that time, he would not be able to catch the chariot of the Ethiopian who would be converted to Christ. 

Kairos moment – when we choose to obey God and do what He says for us today.  It is not to allow the other things to distract us from what He is telling us to do. We will be at the right place, at the right time.  We will meet the right people at the right time.  We will have the right opportunity at the right time, but we need to listen to God and recognize those moments in our lives.  Don’t miss your kairos moments. Don’t miss your significant times.  Don’t miss that moment that might change your life and the life of another; obey God!