3 Lent March 23 2025 Meetinghouse, Mark 10:35-52

3 Lent March 23 2025 Meetinghouse, Mark 10:35-52

Rev. Dr. Kathy Monson Lutes

Help us lord to hear your words of mercy and healing, compassion and grace, and 

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

   be acceptable to you,

   O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Teacher, we have something we want you to do for us, James and John ask Jesus. And Jesus responds, “What is it you want me to do for you?” Arrange it, they say, so that we will be awarded the highest places of honor in your glory - one of us at your right, the other at your left. James and John ask Jesus for something Jesus has shown no desire to give, placing some above others. Or giving some more or better attention. 

James and John are not ill-informed or ignorant. They’ve witnessed Jesus’ miracles and listened to his teachings. James and John are doing what humans do so well, hoping and praying that the world has not and will not change as much as it already has and as much as they know it will. The society in which they lived was built on a structure in which those who had much got more, and those who were like fisherpeople 

scraped for whatever they could get. They really did understand the world as a limited quantity, like that pie, if you get a bigger piece, I get a much smaller piece. And James and John wondered if what Jesus was saying about how the kingdom of God worked, not a pie, but overflowing love, more than enough for all, really was true.

 

This misunderstanding follows the third time in Mark’s story that Jesus tells the disciples the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes and will be condemned to death. The disciples, even though this is the third time they’ve heard Jesus say this, find this news astounding, alarming, and frightening. And equally as astounding, I think it causes James and John especially, and the others as well, to be confused about their own calling, their own part in this story, and confusion about who Jesus is. James and John seem to think this is about seating order at a party, not life in God's kingdom. They don’t seem to remember that Jesus has just taught them about laying down their life, or about what greatness looks like, or the words about being last of all and servant of all. And so Jesus has to tell them again. Jesus says, this is hard, are you willing to accept that? Are you willing to drink the cup I will drink? Are you willing to be in this all the way to the end? Are you willing to participate in this earth shaking change? Are you willing to receive my love, my gift, for your freedom? You see, Jesus’ love for us, God’s beloveds, washes over all of us no matter what.

 

For James and John and the other disciples, and for us, there is no going back to life before they met Jesus. For us, there is no going back to life before the realities of hurt and dismemberment in this church and in the world. In our civic lives, there is no going back to any good old days. 

But we try. And we have been trying. Hoping and praying that everything will just get back to normal.  We are more like James and John than we care to admit. We fall back on what we know—what’s comfortable; how the world always worked. The “used to be’s”. For James and John, that meant glory as hierarchy and power as prestige. For the 21st-century church and world, it’s no different, with a bushel of denial of the truth 

and a doubling down on a kind of privilege our culture never should have exercised in the first place.

 

But the world changed for James and John. Jesus went to the cross. The world has changed for us. What once was, is not working anymore. What is happening now, is not working either. We know that. Deep in our hearts and souls. What we do know, is that Jesus’ love for us, God’s beloveds, washes over all of us no matter what.

 

And we are a lot like James and John. I imagine Jesus saying to James and John, since when did you think this was about you? Since when did you think this is about your power, your prestige, your privilege? You see, it’s about Jesus’ love for us, and we are God’s beloveds. It’s about Jesus’ call to us to love our neighbor. Sometimes I think we have lost our way. We get frightened and confused about our calling as citizens of God’s kingdom, and we forget who Jesus is.

 

Jesus’ love for us, God’s beloveds, washes over all of us no matter what. The call that James and John seem to be missing is right there in front of them, and is really good news, whoever wants to be great must become a servant. In the household of God, 

no one can claim privilege of place; we are all adopted children by our baptism. Jesus asks James and John if they are willing to dive into the water with him. "The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized." 

Jesus’ journey in the gospel of Mark began in the waters of the Jordan, in baptism, and that journey will be to the cross and resurrection. The grace in this story is that Jesus is the one who comes and shows the way of love, Jesus shows the way of vulnerability all the way to the cross. You see, speaking and acting in terms of who deserves what, who deserves health care or housing or hospitality, who deserves eternal life, who deserves to be on Jesus’ right hand, misses the point that all are worthy in God’s kingdom. The grace in this story is that Jesus, with his very life, death, and resurrection, puts himself in our place, in your place, and in my place, and says, every one of you is worth my love.

 

Jesus’ love for us, God’s beloveds, washes over all of us no matter what.

 

You are God’s beloved. You are baptized into Jesus' life, suffering, death, and resurrection. 

Taking Jesus' cup is about diving into the waters of our own baptism, waters that bring the dead to life, waters that fill an empty soul, waters that give a heart the only thing worth living, and worth dying for. We get completely wet in these holy waters. There is grace in diving into the waters of baptism, and receiving the unconditioned, undeserved, underrated love that is God’s love. When we take the cup that Jesus drinks, 

when we are washed with the waters of baptism, we, God’s beloveds, are called to respond to Jesus’ love, with love. We are called not to the seat of power, but to the posture of service. And our lives are made new, our lives are transformed, our lives become the wave of change. The wave of change, the wave of love, the wave of mercy, the wave of kindness.

 

The world has changed forever, there is no going back to life as it may have been, as it once was. But remember that when the heavens were ripped apart, the Spirit was let loose into the world, descending from firmament’s fissure and into Jesus.

 

It would be that same Spirit who would be present with Jesus in the wilderness, on the cross, and in that cold, dark, and seemingly hopeless tomb.

 

It would be that same Spirit who would stir the hearts of Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome to go back to that grave and look death in the eye once again.

 

And it is that same Spirit who is in and among us, with us and beside us, calling us to change our perspective, to see what can be, to trust that the kingdom of God has come near and still is.

 

It is that same Spirit who is inspiring God’s church once again to lead from and preach the gospel we know to be true: our God is here. Believe in the good news.

 

And then we continue with the gospel of Mark in the shadow of Jerusalem, on the way to the cross. We've been on this road for a while now, partners with those in the story who are also on the way. Before the followers of Jesus were called Christians, they were, as we are, people of the way. This story of the blind Bartimaeus is the last story of Jesus’ ministry before the cross, the passion, and resurrection. I think this story of Bartimaeus is in stark contrast to the story about James and John. James and John ask Jesus for power and status, Bartimaeus asks Jesus for healing. God lavishes love on them all, Jesus calls them as followers, and yet each of them must let go of something they’ve been holding on to, to live fully free, fully alive.

 

"What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asks Bartimaeus, it’s the same question that Jesus asked James and John only a moment ago. But the gulf between the request that James and John make, and the request Bartimaeus makes is cavernous. 

James and John were somewhat confused, they ask Jesus for power, they think the kingdom is about a seating chart at a party. But Bartimaeus, Bartimaeus asks to see. 

Nothing like the power and status, the place at the table that James and John were all about.

 

Imagine Bartimaeus, sitting in the road, probably at the main gate of Jericho, day after day, all day, in the hot sun, begging. Bartimaeus knows who Jesus is, he’s listened to the talk, he calls out to Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Let me see.

 

One thing here that is so unlike the James and John story; the request, have mercy on me, heal me. Have mercy on me, Bartimaeus asked, mercy. You know what mercy means? A heart for other people’s troubles. Bartimaeus was asking Jesus to have a heart for his troubles. That’s all, hear me, see me, and if you’ve got it in you, heal me. 

And that’s what Jesus did, Jesus heard him, Jesus saw him, and having a heart for his trouble, Jesus healed Bartimaeus.

 

So once Bartimaeus is healed, what does he do? Bartimaeus’ profession is begging. Once he is healed, his life is changed, he can’t go on begging anymore, so he follows Jesus. Just like the others, he gets up and follows. Bartimaeus exchanges a life of begging, a life of blindness, a life of being on the margins, for this life of following Jesus. And you and I know where that’s going, straight to the cross.

No matter how much we think we have, no matter our wealth, our status, our power; or no matter what we think we don’t have, our lack of health, our lack of wealth, our lack of support, we leave it all behind when we follow Jesus, none of that matters. We get so wrapped up in our own shortcomings, or we spend so much time valuing our worth 

by what others think is important, that we forget that we are God’s beloveds, and we forget to have mercy, a heart for other people’s troubles.

 

Jesus calls us to follow, Jesus calls us to surrender things that poison us, or things that keep us from seeing what is around us, Jesus calls us to be merciful, to have a heart for other people’s troubles. Jesus' call to us, the call to be followers, is to open ourselves up, to surrender the stuff that insulates us from our neighbors, to let Love win.

 

You see, I believe the healing in Bartimaeus’ story is not so much regaining sight, but in being restored to the community. In every one of the healing stories, that is the point. 

Jesus calls people from the margins back into the community. Bartimaeus is called, and healed, and follows Jesus. 

We are called, healed in obvious ways and not so obvious ways, and we follow Jesus. Not in a transactional sense, but in a deepening sense. The journey to the cross is as difficult as it is exhilarating; following Jesus is not for the faint of heart. But the good news is that we are all in this life together. When we are in this life together, the burden of a broken heart and a broken body becomes a bit lighter. Hope is born in and among us, Jesus is born in and among us.

 

And that is where mercy and love grow. Mercy and love and compassion grow out of the broken places. It’s like when you are hiking on the granite rocks of Lake Superior, and in the middle of all that hard rock, there is a fissure, a crack, and out of the crack there grows a tree. The good news is seeing, seeing, the grace, the joy, the wonder, in all that life throws at us. And unlike Bartimaeus and the others, we know the end of the story. We know that resurrection happens. We know that life always wins over death. We know that we are part of resurrection. 

There is hope.

How about you? Now that you have embarked on this journey with Jesus, taken up your cross, even been healed, what do you do?

Let us pray,

Beloved God,

Help us to lay down our desire 

to be at the head of the table; 

help us to invite all of God’s beloveds

to the table. 

Help us to have a heart for people’s troubles,

help us to merciful. 

Help us

reach out to your beloveds, 

those who sit with us in these pews 

and those who are not yet in these pews 

and show forth your love, and mercy, and compassion.

Oh God of grace,

we pray this in your most holy name.

Amen.

 

Last Sunday after the Epiphany Yr C March 2 2025 St. M and M

Last Sunday after the Epiphany Yr C March 2 2025 St. M and M

Exodus 34:29-35, 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2, Luke 9:28-36, Psalm 99

When I read the story from Exodus, it’s hard to keep the image of Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments out of my head. When I read the story from Luke of Jesus turning dazzling white with Elijah and Moses appearing at his sides speaking with him, it’s hard to keep the image from Star Wars out of my mind, when at the end Obi Wan Kenobi, the transformed Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker, and Yoda all appear in some sort of dazzling array of wisdom. There is some dazzling display in this story we call the transfiguration, but if that’s all there is, we miss the point. There is glory indeed, but there’s a whole lot more going on as well.

The newer translation of this story in the New Revised Standard Updated Edition, replaces “they appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure”, with “they appeared in glory and were speaking about his exodus, which he was about to fulfill in Jerusalem.” This seemingly small change in word usage becomes very important as it calls to our minds Moses leading his people from the wilderness to the promised land, from wandering to freedom, from enslavement to liberation. Because that is exactly what God is doing in Jesus, and it terrifies the disciples.

What happened on this mount of transfiguration is that God shows Godself in no uncertain terms in and through Jesus. If Peter, James and John, or you or me, had any doubts about who Jesus is, doubt no longer. Not only is Jesus’ visage changed, Jesus is also clearly accompanied by Moses and Elijah, the two pre-eminent Jewish prophets. Again we are reminded of Moses coming off the mountaintop and the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. The story of the transfiguration intentionally calls that story to mind, to show us that Jesus is in the line of these prophets, and to tell us that this is God’s son, we are to listen.

And, this story of transfiguration is bookended by Incarnation, God taking on our skin, in the beginning of the gospel, and by the last supper, later in the gospel. These stories show us what God’s inbreaking kingdom looks like. Luke makes sure we know the glorious event of Jesus’ birth. The angels, and the shepherds announce Jesus’ arrival. The star in the sky even points the way for the wise people. Jesus, God’s son, is now present, pay attention. 

Peter, wonderful Peter, wants to make it all permanent. He wants to build a tent and keep the moment alive. But you see, if we stay in that moment, and we yearn to be there, we miss God now. God reveals Godself in this transfiguration, and Jesus finds us in the ordinary moments. The ordinary stable, the ordinary bread, the ordinary wine. Pay attention, or you’ll miss it. Expect God in the ordinary, expect Jesus in the people you meet, expect the Holy Spirit in the wind and the rain. Expect the still small voice. Each day we are transfigured. Change is a constant presence in our everyday life.

Something extraordinary is happening here, God is breaking into time, and it changes us, it transfigures and transforms us. It may even change the world. It is that extraordinary experience that we must bear witness to. There is no staying on that mountain, Peter and James and John went back down the mountain, utterly changed. We too, accompany them down the mountain, and bear witness to God’s extraordinary shining.

And all of those experiences, the extraordinary and the ordinary, inspire us to respond to the needs of God’s beloved people with renewed energy, confidence, and determination. God’s glory, Jesus’ presence really begins to matter when we pay attention to the times and people where we can really make a difference. Instead of erecting tents on the mountaintop, we can carry that glory of Jesus into the neighborhood, and make a difference in ordinary lives, with ordinary things, food, water, shelter.

The glory that is shone forth in this story of transfiguration is a touchstone. We may return to it, but we can’t control it, and that can be rather disquieting, actually terrifying as reported in this story. We come to worship and sing God’s praises; we come to find stability in an unstable world. We come to hear the story of our faith that has not changed over time. And yet God’s word and our worship are not comfortable, they are not static. God’s word and our worship are growing and changing, becoming the creation that God has intended for it. 

The glory that is shone forth should cause us to be terrified, as in filled with awe - or awful - to go down the mountain and to do what Jesus calls us to do, to pay attention and do what’s right, love your neighbor. The glory that is shone forth in this story of transfiguration pushes us out into the world so that we may get going with God’s mission in this world. God’s mission is not about preserving the status quo; God’s mission is not about sitting in these chairs. God’s mission is not defending the tradition; God’s mission is not doing things the way they’ve always been done. God’s mission is not putting Moses, Elijah, and Jesus in a box or under a tent. God’s mission is of healing and reconciliation. God’s mission is about putting fractured souls back together in this broken and fragmented world. God’s mission is about loving and serving your neighbor, especially when we don’t feel like it, especially when it is uncomfortable, even when it seems impossible and down right scary.

Where are the places in your life where you must advocate for the least, and the lost, and the lowly? Where are the places in your life where you must care for your neighbor as yourself? Where are the places in your life where you must preach God’s word of equity and justice? 

Because the glory that is shone forth in this story of transfiguration promises to accompany us into our ordinary lives. We carry that glory into our work and our school and our play, it becomes the spirit that inspires and creates us, it becomes the life that gives us life. It is that which is in the eyes and souls of those whose paths we cross. It is in the respect and dignity with which we treat everyone we meet; everyone God creates. 

Let us pray, that in this bright, shining moment, we may be those who bring change into places and spaces we live. Amen 

February 23, 2025, Meetinghouse Church, God’s Amazing Grace, Jonah 3:1-10, Luke 15:11-24

February 23, 2025, Meetinghouse Church, Rev. Dr. Kathy Monson Lutes

God’s Amazing Grace, Jonah 3:1-10, Luke 15:11-24

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

    be acceptable to you,

    O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

What a story Jonah tells us. A storm, a big fish, and as Christian reminded us last week, a city of truly horrible people, all in our bible, our sacred scripture. And we just heard Lisa read, God saw the Ninevites’ efforts to renounce their evil behavior. And God relented, God relented. Well, that sure made Jonah mad. It’s hardly believable, most of us are with Jonah on this one. How could God relent? They were monsters, and monsters have no place in God’s kingdom, right? 

Monsters. We have so much trouble with this. How can God relent, and not punish those who are monsters? We see it all the time in our news delivered to our inboxes. Monsters who we want to see punished for what they’ve done, those who gun down innocent people, those who kidnap and torture, those who put people who are “other” into detainment camps. These are people and regimes to be feared, and they should be punished, never to be granted compassion or mercy. Isn’t that what justice is all about? 

Or the ones who have lived a life of causing misery for others, the ones who have done unspeakable harm to others, the ones who have never said or been sorry in their entire life, they surely do not deserve forgiveness, or mercy. Or how about the one who just disagrees with us? That person who can’t see it your way? 

Again, as Christian reminded us last week, Jonah needs to be reminded who the God of Israel is. We need to be reminded who God is. God doesn’t act like an expected vengeful, punishing God. Instead, this God relents. Again and again the Old Testament witnesses to the fact that God is responsive to God’s creatures. As people change, as history develops, God is responsive to what is happening. God’s will is to save God’s people. God will always act in ways that bring God’s people back to Godself. God’s dream is to bring all creation to Godself, Ninevites, Israel, Jonah, you, me. Even when repentance doesn’t look like what we expect it to look like. This is a story about that God. This is a story about the God of love, the God of wholeness, the God who desires us to be in relationship with God, with creation, with one another. 

This is not a story about vengeance or punishment, but instead, God shows forth God’s amazing love and grace. 

And then, to make love, and mercy, and grace, even more clear, God takes on our skin, God shows up. God walks, laughs, and even dies among us. God breaks through our lives, our experience, the holy stoops into our lives and meets us in our ordinary places. Jesus takes it all to himself, binding us to God's presence in all times and all places. Jesus bears God's life into our world. 

Where does the holy meet you? Around your kitchen table, as you grab one moment for all of you to be together in the midst of your busy and distracted lives. In the hospital room at the birth of a child. Falling in love. A quiet night at home with your beloveds. In the deep grief of the death of one you love. In joy and companionship. The veil between us and the holy is lifted, God takes on our skin, and we, every one of us, monsters included, are part of God’s kindom. 

This incarnation is so important Jesus can’t stop talking about it. Consider a shepherd who leaves his sheep to find the one that is lost, and when that sheep is found, he lays it over his shoulders and rejoices. Or a woman who has lost a coin, she lights a lamp, sweeps the house, and searches carefully until she finds it. And when she does, she calls together her friends and neighbors to rejoice.

Or the  man who has two sons. One of those sons demands his inheritance and runs off with it only to squander it all on debauchery and loose living. This son realizes his folly and returns home. While he is still far off, his father sees him and is filled with compassion. His father orders a party, a celebration, because the son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. 

Does not God rejoice with the Ninevites, does not God rejoice with you and me, we have been lost, and we are found. We have so much trouble with this grace. Whether we identify with the older or the younger son, we have trouble accepting the grace freely given. It’s the same for the Ninevites as for us. Grace is not earned, but freely given. Grace is forgiving and nourishing.

We often have trouble accepting the intimacy of love no matter what, from this God who is willing to bring those nasty Ninevites back into Godself, or to run out into the field to welcome us home. But we forget that this is a God who freely chooses us. God continually chooses God’s people even when we have apparently wandered far away.

There is nothing we can do that will keep us from God’s embrace, from God’s love, from God’s grace. And yet, we are so good at keeping our gaze away from all of that. Repent means to turn around, so maybe sin is when we turn away from God, sin is when we set our sights on that which is not God, sin is when we fool ourselves into believing that God does not care. God cares, God loves, God embraces, all we have to do is turn around and let the embrace enfold us.

Have you ever felt like that one who is lost? Have you ever wandered, wondered, if you would ever be found again, scooped up in the arms of anyone who loves you? You may know what that embrace feels like. But maybe not, maybe that return and embrace is yet to come. The one who waits, the shepherd, Jesus, anticipates your return.

The joy of the one who welcomes back the lost, and the celebration that ensues, shows us what the Kingdom of God looks like. It includes the outcasts and sinners, it includes the expanse of time and space. It includes the fellowship we have around our kitchen tables, our communion tables, and our soup kitchen tables. It includes even the one who would rather not be included.

I’m reminded of a movie I watched with my kids, over and over. Hook, with Robin Williams, the kingdom table is piled high with all the wild and wonderful things that can be imagined. And the people sitting at that table, are lost boys, battered, bruised, lost, and found.

God’s kingdom table is populated with all those who have turned from God and returned to God. God’s kingdom table is populated with all those younger children who have been reckless, and all those older children who have been loyal. God’s kingdom table is populated with all those who stand on the margins and look in, and those in the center whose gaze is nearsighted. God’s kingdom table is populated with those who wish to be first, and those who are always last. God’s kingdom table is populated with all of us who are scooped up by the joyful, compassionate one, and ride on those shoulders all the way to the celebration. 

And what’s so very difficult about it is that most of the time we are pointing in the approximate direction, not the opposite direction, but almost the direction of God. We are full of good intentions. You know what this is like, But the reality is that we are human, and we will continue to make mistakes, we will continue to suffer the consequences of our decisions to turn away from God. We will continue to miss the mark. The Good News is that in the midst of our mess, God never gives up on us, God never gives up on us, God takes us back, even when we give up on ourselves, even when we give up on each other.

God’s love is available to all, even those who don’t look like us, act like us, sing like us, pray like us. Our job as followers of Jesus is to go out and be God’s light and life in the world. Our job as followers of Jesus is to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God’s amazing and abundant love. We must carry into the world God’s love and the reality of God’s forgiveness; we must show that no one is ever outside of God’s embrace.

And, we may invite them to the party. We may invite them to this place where we gather together to celebrate God with us, where we are made into God’s body as we pray together, as we hear the word together, as we turn our sights back toward God, as we stand side by side and receive the gift of bread and wine, the gift of life, and are transformed into the people God creates us to be.

I think these stories from the bible that we hear today, and all that Jesus says and does, asks us to consider what kind of party we throw and who is really welcome at the banquet. 

And what kind of people God calls us to be. Not only are we people who are God’s beloveds, we are people who bring our tarnished, messy, forgiven selves into this place of worship.  We are called to welcome all 

Beloved God,

you love us even when we don’t deserve to be loved;

you extend your grace even when we cannot see clearly enough 

to be full of grace ourselves;

you put on our skin so that we may follow you.

Forgive us

when it seems we have done the unforgivable.

Forgive us 

when we look with disdain at those who can’t possibly be forgiven.

Help us

turn our eyes, and our hearts to you.

Help us

reach out to your beloveds, those who sit with us in these pews (seats) 

and those who are not yet in these pews (seats) 

and show forth your love, and mercy, and compassion.

Oh God of grace, 

we pray this in your most holy name.

Amen. 

 

Jonah/Mark 1:14-18, February 9 2025

Jonah/Mark 1:14-18, February 9 2025, Meetinghouse Church

Rev. Dr. Kathy Monson Lutes

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

    be acceptable to you,

    O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Sven and Ole go fishing. It’s such a great day, they rent a boat so they can fish from the middle of the lake. They row out, drop their lines, and before you know it, they're catching fish, one after another after another. They can’t believe what a great fishing spot they found. Sven says, “This is the best fishing spot in the county. It’s just too bad we didn’t bring some paint.” Ole asks, “Paint? Why should you want paint to go fishing?” “Well Ole, don’t you see, so we can paint an “X” in the bottom of the boat, so we can find this spot next time.” Ole laughs at him. “Sven, don’t be so silly! Next time, what if they give us a different boat?”

Fishin’ stories often are about the one that got away, or as Sven and Ole show us, the ones who aren’t all there. The fishin’ stories we have before us today are about the ones who do the fishin’. These are stories about how individuals and communities are transformed and changed by the God who welcomes all, the God who reaches out to even those like the Ninevites - who really have nothing to do with Yahweh, who is the God of the Hebrew people. These are also stories about saying yes to God’s welcoming call, saying yes to God’s embrace, saying yes even when that seems hard or even impossible. Jonah himself is transformed from a reluctant prophet to a messenger of God, and then a whole community that was transformed. In Mark, Simon and his brother Andrew, and James and John, heard Jesus’ call, and were transformed; they left what they were doing and followed Jesus. These stories are about change, and these stories are deeply hopeful, they are all about not being stuck in the old patterns, but about the willingness to respond to God’s call to transformation and change, personally, but more importantly, the whole community of faith. 

Jonah is a reluctant prophet. Going where God tells him to go is the last thing he wants to do. And then, when he finally gives in, he’s all hot and bothered that God saved those evil Ninevites without so much as an I’m sorry or forgive us. The story opens with Jonah fleeing to Tarshish. He hides from God on a ship, and when a mighty storm comes up the crew throws Jonah into the sea to stop it. Jonah didn’t die in the sea because the fish swallowed him. Jonah was delivered from the belly of that fish quite apart from whether Jonah deserved to be delivered. Jonah was delivered from the belly of that fish to bring God’s message of love and forgiveness to the Ninevites, apart from whether they deserved to be delivered. Jonah is the recipient of God’s grace in a way that is no different from what will be the case for Nineveh. 

I wonder what happened In the belly of that fish. I wonder if Jonah remembered who he was, I wonder if he remembered that God was God, I wonder if he remembered his relationship with God, and that’s what saved Jonah. I wonder if Jonah remembered that God’s grace was available to him whether or not he deserved it? 

Remembering who you are in the belly of a fish seems like a fishy story to me, but there is truth somewhere in that experience. 

When have you been in the belly of a fish? 

When have you had an experience that would either kill you or transform you? 

When have you struggled with a decision, struggled with discernment of what you should do? 

When have you had to surrender to guidance from outside yourself?

Have you ever felt like you don’t deserve God’s grace?

Are you there now?

So the people of Nineveh are about their evil ways. God knows that evil ways beget negative consequences. The job of a prophet, even a reluctant one, is to call the people to turn back to God, to turn away from greed, to turn away from idol worship, to repent. That is what God is Jonah to tell the Ninevites, God calls Jonah to tell the people of Nineveh to change. The consequences for the people Nineveh on the path they are on are dire. But they hear God’s call through Jonah to repent, and they believe God and change their ways. A whole city is willing to believe God and be transformed. But Jonah is a whole book about people who -  in Jonah’s judgement -  weren’t supposed to get it. The people of Nineveh - the reluctant prophet Jonah thought - were too awful, they could never change their ways . And yet they got it. The people of Nineveh believed God, and a whole community changed. I think it’s important to hear that through Jonah they believed God, they believed what God had to say through Jonah, and they believed God’s abundant love for them. The people of Nineveh felt their worth, and God’s grace. 

And Jonah is disgruntled. Jonah has so much trouble with this God who would save an entire city that in his judgement was not worthy of being saved. Jonah complains to God because of the leniency granted to those scoundrels living in Nineveh. 

I much more easily identify with Jonah, the reluctant prophet, the one who had to spend some time in the belly of a fish, the one who wasn’t too sure that those people of Nineveh deserve God’s love and attention, the one who wasn’t too sure about God’s love for himself, than I do with Simon and Andrew, and James and John, to whom Jesus said, follow me, and immediately they left their nets and their kin and followed Jesus. I wonder if fishing was really that bad, or if maybe they had heard about this Jesus, who Mark tells us in the first line of his story, is the Son of God. I wonder if they, like the people of Nineveh, believed God, and like the Ninevites, knew that they were God’s beloved. 

Earlier in Mark’s story, Jesus is baptized in the Jordan. And just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, the heavens were torn apart, and the Spirit descended like a dove on him, and a voice came from heaven, You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased. I think this is what Simon and Andrew, James and John knew was true, and because they believed God, because they knew that the truth was in incarnation, the truth was contained in the reality of God with us, God in our midst, they were willing to leave their livelihood and their kin, to follow this One.

And we remember the woman at the well, who on a hot desert day met Jesus and offered him a cup of cool water. In that encounter, in that living water, she knew him, and she was changed forever, rushing away to tell everyone who she met. 

When we meet God we are changed. When we meet God in our midst, God with us, we are no longer the same. This is what the reluctant prophet Jonah was telling the Ninevites, that God changes everything, and Jonah had to be convinced of that reality himself. This is the reality of what Simon and Peter, and James and John did. The story Mark tells is a story that illustrates how Jesus changes everything. That change is described in these stories that show us that everything is turned around, topsy-turvy, the first shall be last and the last shall be first, the social order of the day is changed. Who you are is no longer defined by your family; it is no longer defined by the privilege, or lack of privilege into which you are born. These followers of Jesus left their homes, they left their kin, they were changed in a very real way, whether in the belly of a fish, or while we are fishing. Therein lies the hope. Who we are is defined by God’s abundant love for us and God’s delight in us. Not by what our culture counts as value. You see, in God’s kingdom the meek shall inherit the earth, the last shall be first and the first shall be last, the merciful shall receive mercy, dieing comes before rising, compassion is strength - not weakness. And God welcomes all into this kingdom.

The Ninevites had to learn that, the original followers of Jesus had to learn that, we have to learn that.

Meeting God in our midst changes us in ways that call for a response. Jonah responds, Simon and Andrew, James and John respond. Follow me, Jesus says. What is your response? God is up to something in each of our lives, God is up to something in our community. Follow me, Jesus says. The call is to follow; how do you respond?

The Kingdom of God is not some far off place in a far off time, the kingdom of God is now. It is how our relationship with Jesus changes us and how we respond to that change. And that kingdom looks like radical love, loving those who don’t look like us, loving those who disagree with us. And that kingdom looks like mercy, and compassion. Your kingdom looks like crossing boundaries. And it looks like a church made up of people whose deepest desire is to serve one another, and to serve the least, the lost, and the lonely.

Let us pray,

Creator of the land and sea, snow and fire, fish and fowl;

Help us to hear your voice call us beloved, 

help us follow you into your kingdom, 

where all are loved, all are feed, all are welcome.

Amen.