Phophet & Loss

Sermon for Jan 22, 2012   

Jonah 3:1-5,10, Mark 1:14-20

I'd like to share a story given that you've heard the world will be coming to an end later this year.

There is a story that says the world will come to an end in three days. In three days, everything will be deluged by water and everyone will drown.

After hearing this, the pope announces on TV, “Don’t worry, if you all turn to Christ, you will all be saved.”

The head of the Zen community also goes on TV and announces, “Don’t worry, if you put your trust in Buddha, you will be saved.”

The head rabbi of Israel appears on TV and advises: “Don’t worry, we have three days to learn to live under water.

We again have 2 call stories from our bible readings today.

-       Our OT story in Jonah and one we are quite familiar with is a call story for Jonah to go to Nineveh and share God’s imperative that they turn back to God.

-       Our gospel reading from Mark is a two part call story.    

o    Part 1, Jesus says, “The kingdom of God is near, Repent, and believe the Good News.”

o    Part 2, has Peter, Andrew, James & John dropping their nets and immediately follow Jesus.

Both of our readings today are about what I’ve titled my message today, that being, “Prophet and Loss.” This is not about the monetary PROFIT, but the Prophet being spelled “P R O P H E T” noting that both Jonah and Jesus’ newly called friends are being called to proclaim and share the kingdom, and “L O S S”  being that if you don’t do what God calls… well God seems to make sure you do what God wants. Jesus sums it up in Luke 9:25… “What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose your life?”

At some point the individuals in our lectionary stories are faced with a Prophet and Loss decision.

Both of our stories I believe share 2 points of interest for us today.

-       #1… “The Kingdom of God.”

-       #2… “The Good News.”

In our first story, Jonah is called by God to go to Nineveh in an attempt to warn the Ninevites of their impending doom. God would really like them to turn from their evil ways and obey Him. Jonah… knowing how evil these people are Jonah says, “No” I’m not going, it’s too dangerous." Jonah essentially says, “They are evil people, and I’m not going.” Then Jonah then goes in the opposite direction. Of course, God has other plans…

Jonah finds himself on a boat during a bad storm and the people believe its Jonah’s fault, so they throw him over board. Then finds himself in the belly of a big fish, and then, vomited up on the shore. God tells Jonah again to go to Nineveh… Jonah obliges, and the people believe and God changes his mind. Jonah gets really angry with God and has a pity party and God says, “You are concerned about a vine you did not plant… in the city of Nineveh there are 120,000 people… do you think I should be concerned about them?”

We are asked the same question today as well. Should we be concerned about the people we are called to minister to? Should we be concerned about the kingdom of God and the Good News? Jonah was asked to go into the kingdom of God and share Good News. On the same token we are asked to do the same… or are we running in the opposite direction?

Jesus says, “The Kingdom of God is Near, Believe the Good News.”

What is the Good News that Jesus speaks?

We hear this story from a post Resurrection perspective. We understand the Good news as Jesus crucified, died, and risen for my sin and my salvation. But, is that what Jesus is saying here?

Is this what Andrew, Peter, James, and John thought when Jesus called them?

Our understanding couldn’t have been what they thought… Jesus couldn’t have even known at this point. Yet, they left everything and followed Jesus and they do it immediately.

I often have found it difficult to understand how 4 successful business men could leave everything they worked so hard for to follow someone they didn’t know…. And to do it immediately!!! That’s hard to understand. Last week Jesus invited… today God calls people to share the kingdom and the good news.

Invitation and call are two different things. Invitation means I can just check it out... I don't have to make a commitment. A call on the other hand, means there must be some action. As a called pastor to this church I have an obligation to go to where God calls me. I may want to go over here, but God wants me to go over there... akin to our Jonah story... God tends to win the argument.

What does God want us to understand today?

First… I believe that the Kingdom of God is really all around us. The kingdom really surrounds us…. When Jesus says that the Kingdom is near… I believe God is really present right here, right now. We don’t have to wait until some appointed date when we die to experience God in some far-away place called heaven. Our problem is that we often fail to open our eyes to see what God is already doing amongst us. Look at what happened with Jonah! God changed his mind because the people listened and turn back and God saved the city from destruction. I believe we get to experience this a little bit when we open ourselves to the fullness of God’s forgiveness and grace, and we can experience this goodness of God well before we enter eternity.

Second… Jesus says, “Repent” or “Turn Back” to God.

The Greek Word “Metanoia” means “To Make a Change” or to “Change Directions”

We see this with Jonah… he wanted to go the direction he wanted to go… God changed his direction. As for Jesus’ friends… there is no mention of a turn back or change in direction with them. However, they left what they were doing and followed… and believe me when I say, that is a difficult challenge to overcome for most of us.

But ultimately, for them in our story and for us… the good news is really about God’s forgiveness and grace. God didn’t destroy Nineveh… the people turned from their evil ways and God forgave them and granted grace. Our struggle with the Jonah story is our difficulty with forgiveness and grace. We are challenged because we often do not do a very good job demonstrating forgiveness and grace. We like to talk about it like we do it, but our walk is often in the opposite direction.

Perhaps the four fishermen from Lake Galilee experienced forgiveness and grace when Jesus called them to be fishers of people in a Prophet and Loss world. Perhaps, they recognized in Jesus that this was the Good News.

In closing, a recent "Dennis the Menace" cartoon caught my attention. As you know, Dennis is indeed a menace to his next-door neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, and yet Mrs. Wilson continues to be kind and gracious. This particular cartoon shows Dennis and his little friend Joey leaving Mrs. Wilson's house, their hands full of cookies.

Joey says, "I wonder what we did to deserve this."

Dennis answers, "Look, Joey, Mrs. Wilson gives us cookies not because we're nice, but because she's nice."

See You Out on the Road