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“When God Calls Us By Name"
Epiphany 3B
January 25, 2009Mark 1:14-20;
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
In the Name of Jesus. Amen. How do we feel when the expansive height and width and breadth and depth of God’s heart expose the smallness of our own? when God’s mercy for those we think unworthy undercuts our claims to privilege? when Jesus calls us to love, rather than kill or torture, our enemy? when God calls us, like Jonah, to places we’d rather not go, to proclaim God’s love to people from whom we’d rather keep a safe distance? Our Old Testament lesson this morning (a very, very small portion of the story of Jonah), and our Gospel lesson (the calling of Peter, Andrew, James, and John) give us two different responses when God calls us by name. Both give us views of ourselves. Jonah hears God’s call to go preach to despised enemies of the Jews – in modern-day Iraq, as it turns out – more specifically, Baghdad. He, like most of us I suspect, Jonah responds by fleeing in the opposite direction. God lets him but, in the end, has His way, and Jonah ends up exactly where God called had him to go. Against Jonah’s better sense of religious justice, he barely enters the city – not going all the way to the seat of power, just to the suburbs – calls the people to repent. And, totally contrary to Jonah’s will, the people AND those in power DO repent! God then shows them the same unconditional love he has shown to Jonah, the same mercy and grace God has shown throughout the history of Israel. Scripture says, “God changed his mind” when he saw them turn from their evil ways, and did not punish them after all. The story of Jonah goes on to describe Jonah’s anger and disgust at God for doing so – even though Jonah himself disobeyed God by going precisely in the opposite direction when God called him to go to Nineveh. The story ends with God trying to persuade Jonah to see things God’s way. The story ends before we find out if Jonah is ever convinced. The gospel reading is short and to the point. Four fellows minding their own business, doing an honest day’s work, are called by Jesus to “repent, and believe the good news.” Actually, the original language says, “Keep on repenting; keep on believing the good news...that the Kingdom of God has come near to you.” In both stories, repentance is central. In the Jonah story, it isn’t only the Ninevites who are called to repent. Remember the literal meaning of repent? – to change direction and go another way – to follow the ways of God? Jonah was also called to repent – but he kept going his own way – the opposite direction of Nineveh -- until God prevailed, and set him back on course. The Ninevites, Peter, Andrew, James and John, all respond in a totally opposite way than Jonah did. The Ninevites immediately repent. Peter, Simon, James and John “immediately left their nets and followed Jesus,” probably not even knowing for sure where Jesus would lead them. All of these people – Jonah, the Ninevites, and the disciples – learned the same lesson: that repentance is an “I can’t” experience rather than an “I can” experience, without the gracious invitation of God. As one commentator has written, “If repentance is promising God ‘I can do better,’ then we are trying to keep ourselves in control of our lives [which is what Jonah tried to do]. If we can do better, we don’t need a gracious God, only a patient One who will wait long enough for us to do better. When we come before God confessing, ‘I can’t do better,’ then we are dying to self [which is what the Ninevites did]. We are giving up control of our lives [which is what the disciples did]. We are throwing our sinful lives on the mercy of God. We are inviting God to do what we can’t do ourselves... namely to raise [us from] the dead, to recreate us.” When Jesus heals us, forgives us, teaches us, loves us unconditionally while we are yet sinners, and then says, “Follow me,” He is calling us to a life’s occupation, a purpose in life which transcends all other roles and goals we may set for our lives; a vocation for which, God knows, we all need continuous vocational training. When Jesus calls us to repent, to change down to the very depth of our souls, to start over fresh and new, do we believe him? Is there really a power at work in our world greater than we can grasp on our own? more pure, more perfect, more possible than any power of the world? Notice that in today’s gospel, Jesus is never identified as the promised Messiah. Nevertheless, the disciples immediately leave their nets and follow him. They don’t know for sure who he is, or where he will lead them, or why. They don’t know what the cost will be, except that of leaving their livelihood and families and the comfort of a familiar community. In the course of following Jesus, these disciples break with the values of almost every human community known to earth, including our own in the 21st century United States, and they adopt the values of God’s kingdom. But they don’t “get it” all in one shot. They learn from Jesus as they go – they learn love which transcends the limits of families and communities and patriotism; they learn hard work and loyalty with the only payment being knowing they are working with and being faithful to God’s purposes. The Bible proclaims that God makes all things new. But do we believe it? Are we willing to let God make us new? Are we willing to let God make Lutheran Church of the Cross new? Every time we turn on the radio, watch the news, or read the newspaper and hear about the economy, the future is cast for us as something frightening, out of our control, rolling steadily forward, one huge NO; leaving us in the role of helpless victims, looking for a savior, someone to bail us out. Times like these encourage us to turn in on ourselves, to circle the wagons and “protect!,” to hold others at arm’s length, to make decisions based on fear rather than on hope. Every time we read Scripture, however, the future is cast for us as something hopeful, in God’s control, God’s great YES; putting us in the role of beneficiaries of God’s unparalleled love and mercy. Scripture encourages us to walk into the future with our arms open wide not only to receive, but to give; to make decisions based on the biblical hope which believes in what it cannot see because of what we can see in Jesus. Neither Jonah, the Ninevites, nor the disciples knew what the future held for them. Jonah is our reality therapy, reminding us that following the Lord isn’t always as easy, as romantic as it may sound. The Ninevites and the disciples are our faith therapy, reminding us that faith is really a matter of suspending the illusion that we control our own stories, our own future; that our salvation is a matter of our deserving, that God will forgive us anything but draws the line with other people. Faith is suspending the illusion that God’s heart is only the size and capacity of ours. We are called to have a heart as large as God’s. We are called to look at the future and see not a black hole of fear, but to see Jesus calling us, leading us, making a way for us. We are called to live in that sacred hope which, as Paul writes in Romans 5, does not disappoint us because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. This afternoon, after feasting at a congregational potluck, we will be reflecting on God’s call of this community of faith, to continue in both powerful and quiet ways to bear witness that the Kingdom of God has come into the world in Jesus. And let’s not kid ourselves. In the real world, much of that takes money. Will we gather for that meeting gripped by the fear we are encouraged to feel by the commentators of our culture?; or freed by the hope we see in this morning’s Scripture? Will we look at the coming year as a black hole and ourselves as victims; or as a sacred opportunity with ourselves as beneficiaries of riches of God’s love and grace? We are called to follow Jesus. Are we ready, willing, to enter into training for that sacred vocation? God knows it doesn’t come naturally. It doesn’t come easily. But if we trust God’s promises, if we trust Jesus, perhaps we too will feel the urgency to immediately leave our old stories behind to follow Jesus, to hang on to Jesus’ every word, to ponder Jesus’ every action, and continue becoming ambassadors for Christ. As God called Jonah, the Ninevites, Peter, Andrew, James, and John – God has called us to this very thing. Amen. Rev. Joan Gunderman, Senior Pastor
Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa, Minnesota |
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