Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Mark 1:14-20
January 21, 2018
First Presbyterian Church, Sterling IL
Christina Berry
Our first reading today comes from the Old Testament, a little book, tucked way in the back, among the minor prophets. Even though Jonah is a small book, it may be among the more familiar stories, even to people who aren’t religious. That’s because of the part about Jonah being swallowed by a big fish – familiarly called a whale, though that isn’t the term in the story. It’s also not exactly the point of the story.
Here’s a Cliff’s notes refresher. (Kids, Cliff’s notes were what we use before the internet, when we hadn’t read the book but needed to pretend like we had. They sold them at bookstores, little black and yellow booklets… not that I ever used them….anyway…) Jonah, son of Amittai, is called by God to carry a message to Nineveh. He’s supposed to go tell that wicked city to repent, or God will smash them. But Jonah doesn’t want to go to Nineveh. Not at all. So instead he goes to Joppah and catches a boat to Tarshish. That’s the opposite direction from Nineveh.
But there’s a problem.
The God of all creation doesn’t think much of Jonah’s travel plans, so God sends a terrible storm. The sailors are all terrified. They’re praying to every God they can think of, and tossing all the cargo off the ship in an effort to save it, and their lives. Jonah, meanwhile, is snoozing. The captain comes and wakes him, and tells him to get up and pray. Then the sailors and the captain figure out that this Jonah fellow is the source of their problem – it is HIS God that is angry!
So they follow Jonah’s instructions to toss him off the boat, the big fish swallows him, he sits there for three days to think about it, and then the fish vomits Jonah up on dry land, and he decides to obey God and go to Nineveh. He delivers the message, and that’s where our part of the story begins. Let’s listen for God’s gracious word to us in Jonah 3:1-5, 10:
The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, "Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you."
So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD.
Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days' walk across.
Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's walk.
And he cried out, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"
And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
God’s word for God’s people.
Our gospel reading today is about another call, this time from Jesus, and it takes place in the first part of Mark’s gospel, right after Jesus is baptized and tempted, and right after Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist, is arrested by Herod. Let’s listen for Jesus calling disciples, and God’s word to us, in Mark 1:14-20:
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."
As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea--for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Would anyone like to join me in confessing that they have never read Herman Melville’s great novel, Moby Dick? Anyone?
It’s available online now, for free, or I’m sure you can still get Cliff’s notes. I’ve never managed to get all the way through it. Most of us know that like the book of Jonah, the book Moby Dick concerns a whale, but it is not about the whale. Indeed, Melville, in the ninth chapter, which is about as far as I’ve ever gotten, has an amazing sermon on the book of Jonah. And if I thought I could get 100% show of hands that you hadn’t read it or seen the movie, I’d use that sermon!
Melville knew his Bible, and he knew how to preach. At the beginning of the sermon, the preacher climbs up into a pulpit that looks like a boat, and proceeds to introduce the scripture reading this way: “Shipmates, it is a two-stranded lesson; a lesson to us all as sinful men, and a lesson to me as a pilot of the living God. As sinful men, it is a lesson to us all, because it is a story of the sin, hard-heartedness, suddenly awakened fears, the swift punishment, repentance, prayers, and finally the deliverance and joy of Jonah. As with all sinners among men, the sin of this son of Amittai was in his wilful disobedience of the command of God— never mind now what that command was, or how conveyed—which he found a hard command. But all the things that God would have us do are hard for us to do—remember that—and hence, he oftener commands us than endeavours to persuade. And if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists.”
If we obey God, we must disobey ourselves… isn’t that something?
Those men who followed Jesus, who dropped everything to go with him,
somehow knew that they were obeying God, didn’t they?
What must have gone through their minds?
Do you suppose that, like Jonah, they considered running the other direction?
Think of what they were giving up!
They were walking away from their livelihoods – from the family business.
The sons of Zebedee were at least prosperous enough to have hired hands.
They had their own boat, for goodness sake.
But immediately – so much in Mark’s gospel happens immediately! they dropped what they were doing, and followed Jesus. They followed with unhesitating, unquestioning obedience.
Unhesitating, unquestioning obedience – that’s not a popular concept for us. While in prior generations, that kind of obedience was a virtue, it is nowadays not something that we think highly of. Just consider what that kind of behavior has brought about. Consider a national leader who demands unconditional loyalty and defines that loyalty as obedience, toeing the line, with question. To violate that demand brings swift and harsh punishment. That leader regards anything other than 100% loyalty and obedience as betrayal, insubordination, and grounds for dismissal.
We’ve seen it in the not so distant past – in Germany, in the 1940s. It created an atmosphere of fear and oppression, and of fierce nationalism, and anyone who dared to speak against it was swiftly punished.
We see now, in hindsight, that that kind of obedience is not desirable. In fact, it was so dangerous and destructive that German soldiers now may freely disobey an order “If the order denies human dignity to the armed forces member or the order’s target, it must not be obeyed.”[1]
But here in these texts, we have a theme going –God calls Jonah, and Jonah disobeys, and suffers for it. Then Jonah obeys, and because of God’s mercy, the entire city of Nineveh is saved.
Jesus calls Peter and Andrew and James and John, and they get up and go. Because of God’s mercy in Jesus, the entire world is saved. The disciples will end up suffering for their obedience, but that is another story for another day.
We think obedience is complicated, but truly, it isn’t.
At least not where the living God is concerned.
In our everyday lives, we have to sift and sort and discern some things.
Not everything, of course.
We stop for stop signs; we read the assigned readings;
we pay for our groceries, we follow directions.
To follow God, to follow Jesus, to obey that calling, doesn’t require us to sift and sort.
It is nowhere near that complicated.
But even though it is simple, it is sometimes not easy.
To simply go where we are directed and do what we are told can be challenging, because we are directed to go out of our comfort zones, and to do something that isn’t at all easy –
to love the world the way God loves the world.
It is insufficient to simply believe as if your life depends on it,
when you do not live as if someone else’s belief depends on it.
The 19th century writer who penned our prelude pondering said it well:
“It is simply absurd to say you believe, or even want to believe in [Jesus],
It’s all about obedience.
If we are called to go fish, we go fish,
and on the way, we walk as those who have been called by Jesus himself.
Because sometimes, if we are to obey God, we must disobey ourselves.
We must set aside our prejudices, our biases, and our fears.
We must release our resentments and grudges and pride.
We simply cast out our nets of love.
And here is the word of grace for us, because most of us are more like Jonah than James, John, Peter and Andrew. The word of grace is there in the gospel and in the story of Jonah.
That word is persistence – the overwhelming persistence of God’s love.
Because Jonah disobeyed, and he paid, but when he resisted, God persisted.
If you resist, God will persist.
If those first disciples had resisted, Jesus would have persisted.
The call of Jesus to go fish for people is never a one-time opportunity.
It is a persistent, loving call, more like a mother calling you to come in the house for supper
than a commanding officer ordering you to obey.
You see, Jesus does not care where you have been,
He is interested in where you are going.
And where he wants you to go is with him,
to obey the persistent, insistent, inexorable call
to follow in his footsteps, to love the world, to reach out in grace –
to leave your nets behind and to go fish for people,
and to share God’s persistent love with them.
Go fish.
Amen
[1] http://www.history.com/news/why-german-soldiers-dont-have-to-obey-orders
January 21, 2018
First Presbyterian Church, Sterling IL
Christina Berry
Our first reading today comes from the Old Testament, a little book, tucked way in the back, among the minor prophets. Even though Jonah is a small book, it may be among the more familiar stories, even to people who aren’t religious. That’s because of the part about Jonah being swallowed by a big fish – familiarly called a whale, though that isn’t the term in the story. It’s also not exactly the point of the story.
Here’s a Cliff’s notes refresher. (Kids, Cliff’s notes were what we use before the internet, when we hadn’t read the book but needed to pretend like we had. They sold them at bookstores, little black and yellow booklets… not that I ever used them….anyway…) Jonah, son of Amittai, is called by God to carry a message to Nineveh. He’s supposed to go tell that wicked city to repent, or God will smash them. But Jonah doesn’t want to go to Nineveh. Not at all. So instead he goes to Joppah and catches a boat to Tarshish. That’s the opposite direction from Nineveh.
But there’s a problem.
The God of all creation doesn’t think much of Jonah’s travel plans, so God sends a terrible storm. The sailors are all terrified. They’re praying to every God they can think of, and tossing all the cargo off the ship in an effort to save it, and their lives. Jonah, meanwhile, is snoozing. The captain comes and wakes him, and tells him to get up and pray. Then the sailors and the captain figure out that this Jonah fellow is the source of their problem – it is HIS God that is angry!
So they follow Jonah’s instructions to toss him off the boat, the big fish swallows him, he sits there for three days to think about it, and then the fish vomits Jonah up on dry land, and he decides to obey God and go to Nineveh. He delivers the message, and that’s where our part of the story begins. Let’s listen for God’s gracious word to us in Jonah 3:1-5, 10:
The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, "Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you."
So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD.
Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days' walk across.
Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's walk.
And he cried out, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"
And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
God’s word for God’s people.
Our gospel reading today is about another call, this time from Jesus, and it takes place in the first part of Mark’s gospel, right after Jesus is baptized and tempted, and right after Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist, is arrested by Herod. Let’s listen for Jesus calling disciples, and God’s word to us, in Mark 1:14-20:
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."
As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea--for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Would anyone like to join me in confessing that they have never read Herman Melville’s great novel, Moby Dick? Anyone?
It’s available online now, for free, or I’m sure you can still get Cliff’s notes. I’ve never managed to get all the way through it. Most of us know that like the book of Jonah, the book Moby Dick concerns a whale, but it is not about the whale. Indeed, Melville, in the ninth chapter, which is about as far as I’ve ever gotten, has an amazing sermon on the book of Jonah. And if I thought I could get 100% show of hands that you hadn’t read it or seen the movie, I’d use that sermon!
Melville knew his Bible, and he knew how to preach. At the beginning of the sermon, the preacher climbs up into a pulpit that looks like a boat, and proceeds to introduce the scripture reading this way: “Shipmates, it is a two-stranded lesson; a lesson to us all as sinful men, and a lesson to me as a pilot of the living God. As sinful men, it is a lesson to us all, because it is a story of the sin, hard-heartedness, suddenly awakened fears, the swift punishment, repentance, prayers, and finally the deliverance and joy of Jonah. As with all sinners among men, the sin of this son of Amittai was in his wilful disobedience of the command of God— never mind now what that command was, or how conveyed—which he found a hard command. But all the things that God would have us do are hard for us to do—remember that—and hence, he oftener commands us than endeavours to persuade. And if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists.”
If we obey God, we must disobey ourselves… isn’t that something?
Those men who followed Jesus, who dropped everything to go with him,
somehow knew that they were obeying God, didn’t they?
What must have gone through their minds?
Do you suppose that, like Jonah, they considered running the other direction?
Think of what they were giving up!
They were walking away from their livelihoods – from the family business.
The sons of Zebedee were at least prosperous enough to have hired hands.
They had their own boat, for goodness sake.
But immediately – so much in Mark’s gospel happens immediately! they dropped what they were doing, and followed Jesus. They followed with unhesitating, unquestioning obedience.
Unhesitating, unquestioning obedience – that’s not a popular concept for us. While in prior generations, that kind of obedience was a virtue, it is nowadays not something that we think highly of. Just consider what that kind of behavior has brought about. Consider a national leader who demands unconditional loyalty and defines that loyalty as obedience, toeing the line, with question. To violate that demand brings swift and harsh punishment. That leader regards anything other than 100% loyalty and obedience as betrayal, insubordination, and grounds for dismissal.
We’ve seen it in the not so distant past – in Germany, in the 1940s. It created an atmosphere of fear and oppression, and of fierce nationalism, and anyone who dared to speak against it was swiftly punished.
We see now, in hindsight, that that kind of obedience is not desirable. In fact, it was so dangerous and destructive that German soldiers now may freely disobey an order “If the order denies human dignity to the armed forces member or the order’s target, it must not be obeyed.”[1]
But here in these texts, we have a theme going –God calls Jonah, and Jonah disobeys, and suffers for it. Then Jonah obeys, and because of God’s mercy, the entire city of Nineveh is saved.
Jesus calls Peter and Andrew and James and John, and they get up and go. Because of God’s mercy in Jesus, the entire world is saved. The disciples will end up suffering for their obedience, but that is another story for another day.
We think obedience is complicated, but truly, it isn’t.
At least not where the living God is concerned.
In our everyday lives, we have to sift and sort and discern some things.
Not everything, of course.
We stop for stop signs; we read the assigned readings;
we pay for our groceries, we follow directions.
To follow God, to follow Jesus, to obey that calling, doesn’t require us to sift and sort.
It is nowhere near that complicated.
But even though it is simple, it is sometimes not easy.
To simply go where we are directed and do what we are told can be challenging, because we are directed to go out of our comfort zones, and to do something that isn’t at all easy –
to love the world the way God loves the world.
It is insufficient to simply believe as if your life depends on it,
when you do not live as if someone else’s belief depends on it.
The 19th century writer who penned our prelude pondering said it well:
“It is simply absurd to say you believe, or even want to believe in [Jesus],
if you do not anything he tells you.”
It’s all about obedience.
If we are called to go fish, we go fish,
and on the way, we walk as those who have been called by Jesus himself.
Because sometimes, if we are to obey God, we must disobey ourselves.
We must set aside our prejudices, our biases, and our fears.
We must release our resentments and grudges and pride.
We simply cast out our nets of love.
And here is the word of grace for us, because most of us are more like Jonah than James, John, Peter and Andrew. The word of grace is there in the gospel and in the story of Jonah.
That word is persistence – the overwhelming persistence of God’s love.
Because Jonah disobeyed, and he paid, but when he resisted, God persisted.
If you resist, God will persist.
If those first disciples had resisted, Jesus would have persisted.
The call of Jesus to go fish for people is never a one-time opportunity.
It is a persistent, loving call, more like a mother calling you to come in the house for supper
than a commanding officer ordering you to obey.
You see, Jesus does not care where you have been,
He is interested in where you are going.
And where he wants you to go is with him,
to obey the persistent, insistent, inexorable call
to follow in his footsteps, to love the world, to reach out in grace –
to leave your nets behind and to go fish for people,
and to share God’s persistent love with them.
Go fish.
Amen
[1] http://www.history.com/news/why-german-soldiers-dont-have-to-obey-orders
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