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3rd Sunday after Epiphany (cycle b)

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Texts & Discussion:

Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Psalm 62:5-12
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Mark 1:14-20

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Commentary:

Matthew Henry,    Wesley

Word Study:
Robertson

This Week's Themes:
Called to Proclaim God's Grace
Living in Light of Eternity
Following Christ/ Discipleship

 

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Sermons:

____________________________________________________________

Responding to the Call
based on Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Mark 1:14-20
Rev. Karen A. Goltz

Jonah spoke eight words to the people of Nineveh, and every man, woman, child and animal in that city responded by turning from their evil ways, proclaiming a fast, and putting on sackcloth and ashes as a sign of their repentance. Jesus spoke ten words, and Simon, Andrew, James and John responded by abandoning their livelihoods, the tools of their trade, and their families to embark on a journey of intense discipleship. If I were to split the difference and preach a sermon of nine words, how would you respond?

Some of you might call the bishop and complain; others of you might tell me it’s the best sermon I’ve ever preached, and I should do that more often. (Unfortunately for those of you in the second group, I’ve already spoken over a hundred and twenty five words, and I’m just getting started.) But in either case, it’s unlikely you’d make as dramatic a change as the Ninevites or fishermen did.

Why not? Is there a single statement I could make that would cause you to upend your lives and submit your entire beings to God? Perhaps in the style of Jonah: Forty days more and New Hampshire will be overthrown!

I think most of us would respond to that by asking for more information. Overthrown how? By whom? The entire population, or just the government? Local, state, federal, or all of the above? Will we become part of Vermont? Or worse, Massachusetts? Who are you, and who sent you, and how do you know this?

No, I don’t think the Jonah approach would work here. What about the Jesus approach, more inviting and less threatening? Follow Jesus, and he will make you gather even more people to follow him.

I think we’d question that one, too. Follow Jesus where? Why should we? For how long? What about my job, my house, my family? What’s the point of gathering more people? Why me? No, I don’t think I could get away with the Jesus approach to the single statement sermon, either.

Part of the problem is the messenger. I’m not putting myself down, but I’m not Jesus. I’m not Jonah, either. Or I don’t know, I could be, actually. We don’t really know who Jonah was. We only know what happened to him. God told him to go to Nineveh, and Jonah ran as fast and as far as he could in the opposite direction. God caught up with him and gave him a three-day time-out in the belly of a whale to think about it, and then told him again to go to Nineveh. This time he went.

We laugh at Jonah, and it is kind of funny, but he also deserves some compassion. The impact of what God wants him to do is lost on us, but you’ve got to understand: one of the few things we do know about Jonah is that he’s a Hebrew, and we know that Nineveh is the capital of Assyria. Assyria had conquered and virtually destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel, and then kept the southern kingdom as a tributary for nearly a hundred years. Assyria, including Nineveh, was hated and feared by the Hebrews. God telling Jonah to go to Nineveh is roughly the same as God telling any one of us to go to the Taliban’s compound. How many of you would try to run if God called you to do that? I know I would. [continue]