St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
January 21, 2024
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
Getting Into the Stream of Grace and Power
In today’s Old Testament lesson, we heard just a snippet from the Book of Jonah.
Jonah is one of my favorite Bible stories.
It’s a tale that we often share with children, I guess because there’s an animal involved.
The story goes that God tells Jonah to go to the great city of Nineveh and call its residents to repent, otherwise God will destroy the city.
But Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, an enemy of Israel. And so, Jonah, quite understandably, does not want to go to Nineveh and, frankly, he’d be perfectly happy if God just destroy the city and all the people who lived there.
Jonah doesn’t just refuse God’s command, though. He runs off in the opposite direction of Nineveh, gets himself on a boat, and hopes to somehow outdistance God.
Well, as Jonah learns, God is everywhere.
And God can be quite persistent.
And so God stirs up a fierce storm. The others on the boat figure out that passenger Jonah is the cause of the storm. Jonah confirms that they’re right and, very generously, he offers to have himself thrown overboard to spare the crew. To their credit, at first the sailors refuse to do this but the storm continues to wail, threatening all their lives and so, reluctantly, they do throw Jonah overboard.
And, in the most famous part of the story, Jonah is swallowed by a big fish and spends three days and nights in its belly.
After Jonah prays some fervent prayers, God commands the fish to, well, disgorge Jonah onto the shore.
And then, God basically, says to Jonah: Let’s try this again?
And although Jonah’s still not happy about it, he goes to Nineveh, and warns them of their impending doom.
And to Jonah’s dismay, the people, from the king on down, they accept Jonah’s call to repent. They change their ways and God spared the great city.
It’s a wonderful story because Jonah is such a recognizable figure.
For perfectly understandable reasons, Jonah resists God’s will.
I don’t want to go to Nineveh.
I don’t care what happens to the people who live there.
But God cares about Nineveh and its people.
And there are consequences to resisting God’s will. It must have been awfully dark and smelly and scary in the belly of the fish.
But when Jonah accepts God’s will, even when he didn’t really feel like it, even when he wished that God had asked him to do some other task or to go somewhere else, the people Nineveh heard Jonah’s message – heard God’s message - and they changed their ways and they were saved.
Well, despite the big Ravens game – and, wow, what a game it was – and despite the bitter cold and lingering ice, I was so pleased that so many people heard the call to come to the third edition of our Shoemaker Speaker Series yesterday afternoon.
And there were a good number of people watching at home and I’m sure many more have and will watch the recording.
If you haven’t seen it, I hope you will.
Dr. Jamie Marich offered us much wisdom on applying the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous to healing from trauma – trauma, which, unfortunately, touches most, if not all, of our lives.
And my friend and colleague the Rev. Arianne Rice asked Dr. Marich thoughtful questions, both her own and from the audience.
As most of you know, the idea behind the speaker series is to honor and remember Sam Shoemaker, son of the Greenspring Valley and probably the best-known Episcopal priest of the mid-Twentieth Century, and also, in some small way, to extend Shoemaker’s ministry into our time.
Sam Shoemaker is best remembered for providing the spiritual foundation for the Twelve Steps of AA – a huge contribution, of course. But he was also a faithful pastor, tireless evangelist, highly regarded preacher, and prolific author.
I’ve been making my way through some of his many books – yes, this is what I do for fun – and I came across this quote:
“Our religion is a stream of power and grace flowing out from God, to us, and then through us. When we get into that stream, we are carried along by it. It bears us and lifts us and moves us and guides us. But we must commit ourselves to it, and immerse ourselves in it.”
Our religion is a stream of power and grace…and we must immerse ourselves in it.
At first, Jonah resisted that stream of power and grace, and with unpleasant consequences.
But in today’s gospel lesson we hear the story of Jesus calling his fishermen disciples, the two pairs of brothers, Simon Peter and Andrew and James and John.
And one of the striking features of this story is how these fishermen – these seemingly ordinary people with no fancy theological education – no formal education at all, probably – they practically jump out of their boats and immerse themselves in God’s stream of power and grace – the stream that they recognized and joined, in and through Jesus.
Peter and Andrew and James and John, they got out of their boats and into God’s stream – and we know some of what awaits them – they won’t be perfect, they’ll mess up, and there will be sacrifice and suffering – but ultimately they will experience the New Life of Easter – a far more powerful sign than surviving three days and nights in the belly of a big fish.
In a few moments, I’ll have the joy and privilege of baptizing Edward Welbourn V – that’s Skip to you - the latest in a long line of people who have taken the plunge right here at St. Thomas’.
Now, Skip’s baptism may not look like immersion but make no mistake, he is being placed into God’s stream of power and grace.
And, for the rest of his life, Skip will be called to live out his baptism promises made on his behalf today.
Over and over, he will be called to step into God’s stream of power and grace - the stream that will guide him as he prays and asks forgiveness – the stream that will carry him as he proclaims the Good News by what he says and does, as he loves his neighbor as himself, even when he doesn't feel like it.
The stream will carry him as he looks for Christ in everyone, even the people we’re taught to fear and hate, even the people of Nineveh.
And, no matter how long ago we were baptized, you and I are called to step into God’s stream of power and grace, just like the reluctant Jonah, just like the flawed but faithful fishermen brothers, and just like Sam Shoemaker who, with God’s help, led so many people to New Life in Jesus Christ.
Amen.
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