OUR TIME IS UP...THIS NIGHT YOUR LIFE WILL BE DEMANDED OF YOU!

Gary Johnson

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’” (Luke 12:13-21)

My brothers, sisters, and siblings in the struggle and Christ.

Let me speak like a trumpet on fire, because the times demand more than soft words, quiet prayers, and comfortable Christianity. We are watching a world where religion has been hijacked, truth trafficked, and justice crucified again on the altars of greed, power, and white supremacy.

There is a person-yes, it could be me, it could be you- who lifts the sacred bread in worship—yet refuses to walk with God. This person’s steps are not ordered by the Lord—they are choreographed by political puppeteers, economic elites, and the architects of empire. They bow not before the Lamb of God but before the image of a president, a party, a flag, and a system built on the backs of the poor and maintained through lies.

And to this person, God is saying: You fool, your time’s up!

We call ourselves Christian, but we quote Jesus and live like Caesar. We take communion on Sunday and vote to crush the vulnerable on Tuesday. We say “In God We Trust,” but trust more in money, race, and military might. We call for law and order, but never for love, justice, and reparations. We lift the Bible while stepping on the necks of those the Bible commands us to defend. And still, we dare to act like heaven is our assured destination.

But Jesus told a story—yes, in Luke 12—of a prosperous farmer. In our present day, this person is a power-thirsty president, a religious leader, a partisan judge, a sports megastar, or a tech billionaire- each one thought they were secure in their folly. These recipients of great gifts built bigger barns, made greater plans, and said to themselves, “Soul, take your ease.” But God interrupted the party and said, “You fool! This very night your soul will be required of you.”

And to every fool who confuses privilege with salvation, God says: You fool, your time’s up!

Because we can’t hold the Bread of Life and live a lie, we can’t claim Christ while we cling to a supremacy other than all people as one in Christ. We can’t consume the Body of Jesus and reject the bodies of the broken, the Brown, the Black, the poor, the immigrant, the prisoner, the stranger, and the least of thee. There is a crisis in the church and a contradiction in the country. And it won’t be healed by silence. It won’t be fixed with ritual. It won’t be saved by slogans. God is calling. The Spirit is shouting. The time for fence-sitting and silence is over. Time’s up!

But here’s the good news: God’s voice still speaks—not with condemnation, but with a call to come home. And if today we hear His voice, harden not our hearts. Because the window of mercy is still open, the gates of grace swing wide.

The fool doesn’t have to stay foolish. We can wake up. We can repent—not just with our lips, but with our lives. We can drop the idols of nationalism, capitalism, racism, and individualism, and pick up the cross of Christ, which is always heavy with justice, soaked in love, and pointing toward liberation.

But don’t you wait. Don’t think you’ve got forever. Time’s up!

It’s time to stop using Christianity as camouflage for cruelty.

Time’s up on professing bonds of fellowship in communion rituals while refusing the practice of loving as Jesus loves in the public square.

Time’s up on building bigger barns while the world is burning down.

The trumpet is sounding. The Spirit is moving.

And if today you hear God’s voice, don’t you dare harden your heart.

Time’s up on playing church. It’s time to be the church.

Time’s up on empty rituals. It’s time for genuine repentance.

Time’s up on faking faith. It’s time for justice to roll like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Let the church say Amen.

Let the fool say Forgive me.

Let the world hear us cry:

Time’s up!

Author: Gary Johnson is a native of Savannah, GA, currently residing in Omaha, NE. He is a St. Benedict the Moor Catholic Church member, the only predominantly Black Catholic Church in Nebraska. He is a member of the Parish Council, Youth Ministry, Lector, and Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion. He has recently completed the New Frontiers in Preaching Program at Aquinas Institute of Theology and the Contemporary Black Catholic Spirituality Program at Loyola Marymount University.

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