“By Turning, Turning We Come ‘Round Right”
Jan 22, 2012
Scriptures: Jonah 3:1-5, 10
The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.”So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
Mark 1: 14-20
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.
Sermon: By Turning, Turning We Come ‘Round Right
Rev. Doreen Oughton
Has anyone here ever gotten chain letters? Does everyone know what it is? …. Those of you who do not use the computer probably haven’t had one in a while, because the internet is a far superior way of sending out such letters. I receive them quite regularly. I decided early on to make it a policy not to forward anything. If you are someone who wants to cover the bases and forward them people in your address book, feel free to include me, but know that I won’t send it back or send it on, even when they say I will either lose out on some good luck that could come my way, or worse, earn myself some bad luck.
The ones I struggle with the most, though, are the ones with somewhat threatening religious overtones. Not because I worry that God will curse me for not passing on an e-mail, but because I worry that so many people receiving these messages will have their worst fears about religious people confirmed – that we worship a God of punishment and retribution, that we are judgmental and self-righteous. I received one of these e-mails once that begins with a quote from Galations: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” It then goes on to list some men and women who mocked God and what they reaped for their impudence. There was the journalist found burnt beyond recognition after saying that the bible was the worst book ever written; the movie icon who said she didn’t need Jesus, then died of an overdose a week later; the pop star who declared his band more famous than Jesus and was shot to death 14 years later. The message seems to be that God punished these mockers, and maybe you’d better think about that before you mock God. The message ends by asking me if I have the courage to forward this message to others
I don’t know about you, but that is not the God I worship, and threatening people with a punishing God is not a method I would use to, in the words of Jesus to the disciples, fish for people. In our Gospel passage today, Jesus proclaims the good news of God – that the kingdom of God has come near. Jesus calls to the people to repent and believe. When Simon and Andrew and James and John drop their fishing nets to join him, it is not because Jesus has told stories of God’s wrath. The word “repent” can sound threatening to some, but the Greek word, metanoi, means to turn, to turn away from one thing, and turn toward another. Turn away from the ways of the world as we know it, and turn toward the ways of God. The story of the start of Jesus’ ministry, his work to fish for people, to inspire people to turn and believe in the good news of God strikes me as the antithesis of the fishing method of the chain letter. The letter seems to try to keep people on the hook in fear, while Jesus call us to freedom from the hook of fear – fear of not having enough, fear for our physical safety, fear of death.
On the other hand, the story of Jonah strikes me in many ways as congruent with the threatening chain letter. God has had it with Ninevah – their wickedness has gotten so out of hand that God can’t ignore it anymore. God calls to Jonah to go and cry out against the city. But Jonah doesn’t want to do it, and turns, turns away from God in the exact opposite direction – for Tarshish. We aren’t told why Jonah doesn’t want to do as God asks until later, until after God’s mind is turned regarding the destruction of Ninevah. Then Jonah let’s God have it. “See,” he says, “I knew you were gracious and merciful, that you wouldn’t really go through with it, that you wouldn’t destroy those awful Ninevites when it came right down to it.” Jonah wasn’t afraid of bringing bad new to Ninevah, he was resentful about bringing good news.
Now I don’t want to make Jonah seem completely whiny and unreasonable. We have to understand the context for Jonah here. We have to get a better sense of what God was asking Jonah to do. Ninevah was a huge city in Assyria. The Assyrians had conquered Israel, plundering, looting and burning its cities and deporting its people. To the Israelites of Jonah’s time they were like the Nazis to the Jewish people after World War II. Imagine God asking the child of a holocaust victim to work with Nazi war criminals to show some remorse, which might make things go easier in court. Or imagine you are a person of color, and know that your recent ancestors were seen as property, you know about the harassment and violence experienced by your parents, maybe experienced harassment and violence yourself. Then you are asked by God to go to a gathering of the Ku Klux Klan and cry out to them in God’s name. You can see why you might not want them to get off lightly, to escape judgment and retribution. You can see why God’s grace and mercy might not always feel like good news.
It makes me wonder about what kind of mixed feelings went into the creation of that chain letter. Certainly people who dedicate themselves to God and God’s ways can be mocked, harassed, ridiculed, even persecuted. It might be comforting for some to think that God will see to it that the wrongdoers are punished one way or another. We might think that in the punishment of others, our own suffering is lessened, that we are somehow vindicated. Certainly that’s part of the argument for capital punishment or for maltreatment of prisoners. And while such retribution might provide momentary satisfaction, studies and experience show that it does not bring any substantial relief, and may, in fact, keep us stuck in our suffering. Jonah certainly seems stuck in resentment and self-pity. Jesus tells us, it is forgiveness that brings relief, it is forgiveness that brings freedom and new life. Jesus doesn’t just tell us, he shows us.
It’s interesting to me that Mark’s gospel portrays the disciples as responding so immediately and positively to Jesus’ call, that they are role models of how we are to respond. Because a great deal of the gospel of Mark portrays the disciples as clueless and inept. It is a road full of turns as we follow Jesus. We do great at one point, completely blow it at another point. We turn away from God, and are turned back by God’s insistent attention. Our heart may not be in what we do for God, yet God’s power still turns things around. We may proclaim our love and devotion to Christ, then deny him in our actions. But God knows the power of forgiveness. Christ knows that the way to full life and freedom comes on the trail he blazes of compassion, mercy, love and reconciliation. That’s why Jesus doesn’t give up on the disciples when they don’t get it, when they doubt, when they say the wrong thing or fail to do the right thing.
That’s why God doesn’t give up on Jonah when he tries to run away to Tarshish, when he does the barest minimum when he realizes he can’t avoid God’s call. I’m sure God could have called someone else to go to Ninevah. But it wasn’t just Ninevah that God wanted to save. It was Jonah. God did everything to get Jonah to turn, from storming the ship he ran away on, to getting a fish to swallow him. God kept calling to Jonah – not just once, not just twice, but over and over: “Go to Ninevah, tell my why you are angry, don’t be angry, look how you loved your tree, that’s how I love my people, even more.” And even with Jonah’s reluctance and resentment, look at the results for Ninevah. This was an incredible success, the king and all the subjects, even the animals repenting, hoping for God to show them love and mercy, doing all they could think of to get in right relationship. We can trust God to bring about change. God doesn’t rely on our obedience, our reverence, or even our willingness. But how wonderful that God wants to make us part of work of healing the world.
The story of Jonah tells us something about what God wants, and I believe that is for people to be in right relationship with each other and with God. God wants our salvation, not our destruction. God wants this so badly that God keeps sending messages and messengers. God wants us, as imperfect as we are, as imperfect at least as Jonah and the disciples, to be messengers. We don’t need to say that the end is near, but rather that God’s kingdom is near. This is our great commission, our call to discipleship.
Perhaps you will be like Simon and Andrew, James and John, dropping your work and following immediately. Or maybe you will be like Jonah and try to run in the other direction. Maybe you will head out to follow Jesus, but get confused along the way, notice all kinds of human failings popping up. Maybe you will find resentment and self-pity in your heart. The thing is, these stories that include such human foibles are not really about how bad we are, and how much we need to turn to God, however true that may be. But they are stories about how wonderful God is, how God is turned to us. They are stories of God’s generosity, God’s steadfast love and mercy. They are stories of a God who is willing, even eager to forgive and love the Ninevites and Jonah and Peter and Judas, the Romans, the vaguely threatening chain letter writers and even me. These are stories of a God who is eager to forgive and love you, each of you, no matter what. So I ask you as I was asked in the e-mail, do you have the courage to forward this message? May it be so.
