The Church of St. Paul and Incarnation, Jersey City NJ
January 24, 2021
Year B: The Third Sunday after the Epiphany
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Psalm 62:6-14
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Mark 1:14-20
Call and Response
If you were here last week, you may remember that we heard the story of God calling the boy Samuel, and the story of Jesus calling two of his disciples, Philip and Nathanael.
I talked about how God never gives up on seeking us out, calling to us, determined to find us, eager for our hearts to be one, which was God’s intention from the start.
God calls us to us until we are found.
And now today we continue that theme in our lessons from the Old Testament and the Gospel of Mark.
We continue that theme, but this week we shift our focus a little from God’s call - to our response.
I don’t know how familiar you are with the Book of Jonah, one of the most vivid and entertaining of all Bible stories, though one that often gets lumped in the children’s section, I guess because there’s an animal involved.
Anyway, a quick summary.
God calls to Jonah, giving him the mission to go to the great city of Nineveh, announcing that the city faces destruction unless the people change their ways.
Jonah hears God’s call just fine, but decides he really doesn’t want to do what God is calling him to do, thank you very much.
Maybe some of us can relate to that.
And, when you learn that Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire, longtime foes of Israel, Jonah’s reluctance makes sense – and you also realize just how remarkable it is that this story is in Israel’s holy book.
Anyway, instead of going to Nineveh, Jonah heads in the exact opposite direction, trying to escape God’s call.
Maybe some of us can relate to that, too.
In Jonah’s case, he ends up on a boat, heading for as far away from Nineveh as he can get.
But God is nothing if not persistent.
God sends a storm. God really rocks the boat, terrifying Jonah’s shipmates.
Finally, Jonah admits that he is the cause of this terror and he tells his shipmates that they can calm the storm by to throwing him overboard. To their credit, the shipmates don’t really want to do that, but eventually the terror of the storm leaves them no choice.
So, Jonah is thrown overboard, where he spends three days and three nights in the belly of a big fish, giving him plenty of time to pray and, perhaps, to reflect on his life choices.
And that’s where we pick up today.
Jonah has been, um, released, by the fish, and now God sort of says to Jonah, “Let’s try this again, shall we?”
Although his heart isn’t really in it, this time Jonah does go to Nineveh and calls on the people of that great city to repent. And, surprisingly enough, and, frankly, to Jonah’s disappointment, the people from the king on down, they hear Jonah’s call – they hear God’s call to repentance - and they decide to change their ways.
And, we’re told that God changes God’s mind, and spares the city.
Among other things, the story of Jonah is a wonderful illustration of God’s persistence – yes, three days and nights in the belly of a fish does seem somewhat extreme, but God will use whatever tools are at hand to get through to us.
And the story of Jonah is also a reminder that we get to decide how we respond to God’s call – not just once, but again and again.
Call and response.
And then in today’s gospel lesson we heard the story of Jesus calling four more of his disciples, the two pairs of fishermen brothers – Peter and Andrew, and James and John.
Just like what we heard last week with Philip and Nathanael, the call and response seem to happen so very quickly. Somehow, these men – regular, hardworking men – are able to hear something in Jesus’ call that inspires them to change the course of their lives – no longer fishing for fish but now fishing for people.
I should mention that we do get a hint about the cost of answering that call. For a moment, stop and imagine poor Zebedee, watching with, what – shock, confusion, anger, devastation – as his sons James and John walk away from him, the future of his family and his fishing business suddenly much different than anyone had expected.
The quickness of these call stories bring to mind the great hymn, “I have decided to follow Jesus – no turning back, no turning back.”
And it might easy for us to assume that’s how it was for these first disciples, for Philip and Nathanael and for the fishermen brothers – they decided to follow Jesus and that was that – no turning back, no turning back.
Except, of course, we may not know much about the first disciples but we do know enough to know that, yes, they may have decided to follow Jesus but they messed up all the time – they turned away from Jesus and his message – and sometimes they even ran away from Jesus.
And, each time they got off track, they had to decide again to follow Jesus.
Just think of James and John, a couple of simple fishermen who had some surprisingly ambitious ideas about where they wanted to sit in the kingdom – they so desired the places of honor – to be at the head of the table – although they must have heard Jesus say a million times that the true place of honor is the place of service.
Just think of Peter who messes up repeatedly and, finally, catastrophically, abandoning Jesus in his moment of need – and, not only that, denying that he even knew Jesus, not once, not twice, but three times.
Imagine the weight of Peter’s betrayal, the shame of his lies.
Yet, despite all of that, Jesus still called to Peter – and Peter decided to follow Jesus, again and again, to the end.
Call and response.
When we look back over our lives, we tend to remember the big moments of decision – perhaps moving to a new place or leaving one job and starting another – maybe finally working up the courage to ask the one we love for the commitment of a lifetime or choosing to end a union that is no longer healthy and life-giving.
After the events of the past few weeks, both destructive and hopeful, it’s hard not to think about the big moments of decision for our country – deciding who will lead us, deciding how we are to live together and among the peoples of the earth, deciding how we will care for the most vulnerable people.
And, yes, those big moments of decision are crucial, for sure, but the truth is that for all of us, and especially us Christians, it’s always decision time.
Every day, Jesus calls us to follow him – when we’re at work or school (or on Zoom while we're at work or school) or in the supermarket or driving down the road or sitting on the bus – when we’re deciding how we spend our time and how we spend our money – when we’re with the people we love or the people who are “Nineveh” for us, the ones we don’t like or trust at all - each moment presents a choice to follow Jesus or perhaps turn back, or maybe even sail in the opposite direction.
It’s always decision time.
Call and response.
Amen.
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