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.