Immediate Word

This week’s lectionary passages contain a pair of warnings about the urgency of changing our behavior -- Jonah tells the Ninevites that they have a mere 40 days before God will bring down a calamity on them and overthrow their city, while Paul writes to the Corinthians that “the appointed time has grown short.” In each case, the warning is an unpopular but necessary message to its hearers about the importance of confronting an imminent threat...