Sermon for SMHP, Year B, Epiphany + 3, Jan. 21, 2024
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
The word of
the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2“Get up, go to
Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” 3So
Jonah set out and went to
5And the people of
6When
the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his
robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7Then he had
a proclamation made in
10When
God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God turned away
from the calamity that God had promised to bring upon them; and God did not do
it.
14Now after John
was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15and saying,
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and
believe in the good news.” 16As Jesus passed along the
What’s this gospel lesson about? [call of the disciples]
It’s a call story, right? Almost all of it is about the call of two
sets of brothers—Simon and Andrew, and James and John. But as the lesson opens, there is an
important detail that we can’t just glide by.
It’s going to happen a lot this
year. As we go through this year of
emphasis on Mark’s gospel, we’ll want to read carefully. Mark drops vital details in little dependent
clauses—details that take the other gospel writers whole paragraphs. There are a couple of those nuggets in the
first line of today’s lesson. We’re told
that Jesus “came to Galilee,” which is one of Mark’s signature geographical
grounding details. Mark likes us to know
where we are.
And before that there is a little
phrase—a little dependent clause—that contains an incredible detail that must
be held in tension with the rest of the lesson, and--since they are paired by
the wisdom of the lectionary folks--with the Jonah lesson as well.
“Now,
after John was arrested…”
This is a call story. This is the story of how Jesus went down to
the lakeshore and got him some disciples.
Called them and immediately they left their boats and joined
Jesus in fishing for people. ‘Cuz this is Mark and things happen fast!
Call story. I’m supposed to talk about how you
should also drop your nets and go out fishing for people.
It’s a call story…
…that begins with four words about
something completely different. With the
inclusion of those four words, the call of Jesus—“repent and believe the good
news”—is anchored by its time and place.
The time is somewhere around 26 CE, and the place is the tetrarchy of
Herod Antipas. None of that is given,
but it is the text underneath the text that is “after John was
arrested.” The gospel writers, all of
them, are clever about including the historical context in their opening
narratives. These are, ultimately,
political stories, as much as so many church folks want to believe there is a
world in which you don’t “preach politics.”
The gospel is political. The gospels are political. Sorry, church folks.
Remember
how Luke opens the story of Jesus’ birth? In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world
should be registered. 2This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was
governor of Syria.
Luke starts
with the politics of the whole Roman Empire—its leadership structure, its unfair
system of taxation.
John starts
with politics of the church, with Jesus driving the moneychangers out of the
temple in Chapter Two of that gospel, followed by the visit of Nicodemus the
Pharisee under cover of darkness.
And
Matthew, like Mark, starts with Herod.
Only in Matthew it’s Herod the Great, who goes on a murderous rampage to
prevent being usurped by a baby.
Politics.
In Mark, the initial, grounding conflict
is with the son of Herod the Great, Herod Antipas, who has arrested John the
Baptist.
Anybody remember why? [He was publicly decrying Herod Antipas—son
of Herod the Great—for divorcing his wife and marrying his sister-in-law Herodias.]
John was undermining Herod. Rulers don’t like that. Scripture is full of stories of our heroes of
the faith finding themselves on the wrong side of the kings and tetrarchs and
Pharoahs of their time.
What I like about the Jonah story is
that it subverts those standard narratives.
God calls the prophet, Jonah, to go to Nineveh and tell them exactly
what we hear Jesus announce in our gospel text:
“the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and
believe in the good news.”
At first, Jonah refused to go. Because he hated Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital of the evil Assyrian
Empire, and Jonah didn’t want to go there and certainly didn’t want to take a
chance on them repenting and returning to God’s good graces. But finally, after quite the fish story,
Jonah went to Nineveh to tell them that God was coming to smite them. Then he figured he’d withdraw to a nearby
ziggurat, pop some popcorn, and watch the balls of fire come down from the sky. Good times.
But that’s not what happened, is
it? No, “When the news reached the king
of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with
sackcloth, and sat in ashes.” Then he
ordered a fast and a time of prayer.
That dude’s no Herod. And Jonah’s no Jesus or John, because his
response to the Word of God flowing out of him and bearing fruit in the King of
Nineveh and his people is to get really mad and ask God to kill him, since God
wouldn’t smite the Ninevites.
It doesn’t seem, at first glance, that
this story is related to Mark’s story of the call of all the fishing bros down
at the Sea of Galilee. What ties them
together is a rather surprising and occasionally subversive way of
understanding power.
Who actually has power in the Jonah
story? God, of course. God is going to wipe Nineveh off the face of
the earth for their sinfulness. God’s
prophet Jonah gets to make that threat, which gives him some power. And
finally, the king finds his power—not where kings usually find it, in lording
over everyone else, but in recognizing that God has the ultimate power, and
then showing obedience to the word of God.
All of the people find their power in obedience to God, which is why
Jonah, who is exemplary in his disobedience for a prophet, winds up sitting
under a bush pouting as the story comes to an end.
The disciples also find power in
obedience to the call of Jesus. It takes
a while, and you will notice that they struggle a lot to be faithful to the
call, and the Word. But ultimately, they
become powerful prophets in their own right, because they stand on the solid
rock of God’s word.
God’s word of truth.
God’s word of justice.
God’s word of mercy.
God’s word is a rock for us all…and
we’re gonna need it. Because we are
heading into a political season that is going to test our values and our
patience and maybe even our faith. And as people who are answering the call of
Jesus—which we are, right?—we don’t actually get to say, “Oh, I don’t do
politics”…and then, what, go sit under a bush?
There will be lots of people talking
about faith in Jesus Christ over the next nine and a half months. Some of them will be Jonahs—people who twist
God’s word into a call for hate and destruction. Some of them will not.
Your task as a disciple is to make
sure you know the difference, and that you yourself are standing on, and
standing for the Word of God. There will come a time in these coming
months—let’s call it a Nineveh moment—when you will be called to defend the Word.
To preach mercy in the face of vengeance.
To preach love in the face of hate.
To preach peace in the face of violence. Or to stand with someone else who is defending
it. Plan now for how you will respond.
I pray that you will
respond. That you will recognize the
moment to speak up and speak out for the Way of Jesus. God’s story, our story, is embedded within a
political reality that we cannot ignore.
We are called to live honestly and faithfully within that reality, but
always, always, to hold to the word of God. The word needs our faithfulness and
we need the word.
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