This week's lessons:Jonah 3:1-5, 10 Psalm 62:5-12 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 Mark 1:14-20

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Opening

Opening prayer by leader, or invite another participant to pray, or us:

Almighty God, who has caused all Holy Scripture to be written for our learning, open our ears and hearts today to learn from your word and from one another, we ask in Jesus' Name. Amen

Set the calendar-clock to the right date. Pentecost is ....

Today, the Gospel reviews for us ....

Review of Last Week

What was the sermon on? - God's call to Samuel and to each of us

What was the Gospel lesson? - Jesus' choosing Philip and Nathaniel

Did anyone have any insights about...

1.1.What does the role of Eli in this story say about how we understand what's old, established, and traditional in relation to the new and different world in which we find ourselves?
2. What does the "middle of the night" say about when and where God still speaks to us?
3.When God calls out to you, who helps you (as Eli helped Samuel and Philip helped Nathaniel) to discern God's voice, or are you like Philip able to discern God's voice yourself?
4.What prejudices operate today to prevent hearers from listening to an evangelist's message, in the way that Nathaniel was unwilling to listen for “anything good coming out of Nazareth? How do we get the story out in AD 2006?
5.What positive things do we see in our community that help us be effective in witnessing to others?

Memory Passage

Bible Passage

Mark 1:14-20

Jonah 3:1-5, 10

3:1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying,

3:2 "Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you."

3:3 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.

3:4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's walk. And he cried out, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"

3:5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

3:10 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.

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Psalm 62:5-12

62:5 For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.

62:6 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.

62:7 On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.

62:8 Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah

62:9 Those of low estate are but a breath, those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath.

62:10 Put no confidence in extortion, and set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, do not set your heart on them.

62:11 Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God,

62:12 and steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord. For you repay to all according to their work.

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1 Corinthians 7:29-31

7:29 I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none,

7:30 and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions,

7:31 and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

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Mark 1:14-20

1:14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God,

1:15 and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."

1:16 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.

1:17 And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people."

1:18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

1:19 As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets.

1:20 Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

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Comments

Revised Common Lectionary Commentary

Third Sunday after Epiphany - January 25, 2009

Saint Dominic contemplating the Scriptures

Saint Dominic

contemplating the Scriptures

Comments have been prepared by Chris Haslam using reputable commentaries, and checked for accuracy by the Rev'd Alan T Perry, of the Anglican Diocese of Montreal. While not intended to be exhaustive, they are an aid to reading the Scriptures with greater understanding.

Comments are best read with the lessons.

Feedback is always welcome.

Lessons for this week from the Vanderbilt University web site

PDF file

(Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

DOC file for Palm OS.

(Requires Palm Pilot, Handspring Visor or compatible with a DOC reader).

Jonah

Jonah is a prophet, but he is unlike any other for whom a book is named in the Old Testament. Some (e.g. Jeremiah) heard the word reluctantly but then fully embraced the ministry to which God called them, but Jonah tries his best (and his worst!) to avoid doing God's will: he is a caricature of a prophet. The book opens with God's call to Jonah: "Go at once to Nineveh ... and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me." Jonah's reaction is to try to escape God's presence. When called a second time, he does travel to the capital of Assyria, and its residents repent of their waywardness. A message of this book is that God does care about other peoples, even those who are Israel's enemies.

Jonah 3:1-5,10

Jonah is the archetypical reluctant prophet. Earlier, in 1:2, God has called him to “‘Go at once to Nineveh ... and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me’” but he has tried to escape by sailing to the ends of the earth. God has punished him by having a large fish swallow him.

Now God commands Jonah a second time: God is not going to let him off! He now obeys: he goes to the capital of Assyria, (this being a book of exaggerations) “an exceedingly large city” (3:3). (Excavations show that it was about 5 x 2½ kilometres.) He goes into the city, but only part-way (“a day’s walk”, 3:4): half measures are good enough for him. The first readers probably identified “forty” with either the Flood or the Exodus. Nineveh will be “overthrown” or destroyed. In 3:5, the residents react to this oracle: they believe God (in the person of his prophet) and acknowledge their godlessness. 3:6-9 (not part of our reading) tell us the king’s reaction and edict: he dons “sackcloth” and sits in “ashes” – traditional signs of mourning and repentance; he decrees three stages of repentance for all:

# admission of guilt, by way of outward signs,

# change in each person’s attitude to others (in turning away from evil and violence),

# acknowledgement of God’s freedom in how he responds to repentance (“he may turn from his fierce anger”,

3:9) Then 3:10: God does change his mind: he accepts their repentance and delivers them.

Obviously this is a story, but it is one that teaches; it is a parable. It illuminates an issue of its time, the waywardness of Israel. God is central and powerful. He can favour whomever he chooses, even hated enemies of the past.

Psalms

Psalms is a collection of collections. The psalms were written over many centuries, stretching from the days of Solomon's temple (about 950 BC) to after the Exile (about 350 BC.) Psalms are of five types: hymns of praise, laments, thanksgiving psalms, royal psalms, and wisdom psalms. Within the book, there are five "books"; there is a doxology ("Blessed be ... Amen and Amen") at the end of each book.

Psalm 62:5-12

This is a psalm of trust. Vv. 5-7 are the psalmist’s example, which (in v. 8) he invites others to emulate. In God he finds his hope for deliverance, his reference point in life and his “refuge” from enemies. Both poverty (“low estate”, v. 9) and power (“high estate”) do not endure. “Extortion” (v. 10) and “robbery” are means of acquiring rank. Do not depend on wealth; it too is worth little. The bottom line is in vv. 11b and 12a: the psalmist has heard God say that power and “steadfast love” (loyalty to the covenant ) belong to him: he has learnt this well (“twice”). God does reward everyone based on his or her actions.

1 Corinthians

Corinth was a major port which also commanded the land route from the Peloponnesus peninsula to central Greece. An industrial and ship-building centre, it was also a centre for the arts. Its inhabitants came from far and wide. In this epistle, Paul answers two letters he has received concerning lack of harmony and internal strife in the Corinthian church, a church he had founded. Paul wrote this letter from Ephesus (now in Turkey), probably in 57 AD.

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

In the Revised English Bible, v. 29 begins: “What I mean ... is this: the time we live in will not last long. While it lasts, married men ...”. V. 31b fits naturally: “For the present time is passing away.” We live in the era between Christ’s first and second coming. This is the era in which God calls his church to bring as many as possible to believe in him and to follow his ways. This is an enormous task, and not one to be taken lightly – it requires maximum effort from a few. Paul expected the era to end in his own lifetime, so to him every minute of each day counted in a big way: time spent on other activities was time lost.

Paul’s advice to married men (v. 29b) – to behave as though they have no wives – must be taken in context, so let us look at the whole chapter. Vv. 32-33 tell us why he wrote vv. 29-31a: “I want you to be free from anxieties ... the married man is anxious about the affairs of the world, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided”. Paul is saying that, at a very critical time in history, when all effort is needed to bring people to the Lord, some need to devote some effort to other matters. We need to examine v. 29b in the context of this letter:

# In this chapter, he identifies what are God’s commands, his commands, and his suggestions; our reading contains suggestions.

# In v. 2, Paul recommends that (to avoid sexual deviances) “each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

” Each has “conjugal rights” (v. 3); each has authority over the body of the other. Then v. 5: “Do not deprive one another except perhaps by agreement for a set time, to devote yourselves to prayer ...” He continues: “This I say by way of concession, not command. I wish that all were as I myself am [i.e. single]. But each has a particular gift from God ...” (vv. 6-7). Marriage is important.

So what is Paul saying in vv. 29-31? Given the magnitude of our mission, we need to devote as much effort as possible to God’s work. What we do in the world (e.g. commerce, “deal with the world”) is of transitory value. Our focus should be on preparation for Christ’s second coming.

Symbol of St Mark

Mark

As witnesses to the events of Jesus life and death became old and died, the need arose for a written synopsis. Tradition has it that Mark, while in Rome, wrote down what Peter remembered. This book stresses the crucifixion and resurrection as keys to understanding who Jesus was. When other synoptic gospels were written, i.e. Matthew and Luke, they used the Gospel according to Mark as a source. Mark is most probably the John Mark mentioned in Acts 12:12: his mother's house was a meeting place for believers.

Mark 1:14-20

Mark has just told us, briefly, about Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. Now he returns to Galilee. His message begins with “the time is fulfilled” (v. 15): the time appointed by God, the decisive time for God’s action, has arrived. “The kingdom of God has come near”: the final era of history is imminent. Numerous sayings of Jesus support Paul’s view that the end is near, but Jesus did say that no human knows when he will come again, and he will not come when expected (13:32-36). He also said that “the kingdom of God is among you” (Luke 17:21), and that the kingdom has begun. Jews believed that when they individually and collectively admitted the error of their ways and returned to God’s way (“repent”, v. 15), the Messiah would come. We too are called to adopt God’s way, to “believe in the good news”. The whole of Mark is an expansion of this verse.

In vv. 16-20, the first four disciples are called: they immediately leave their previous occupations, and follow Jesus. Jesus expresses his command in their terms (v. 17). (Immediacy of response is a mark of this gospel.) These disciples owned nets (v. 19) and had employees (“hired men”, v. 20), so they were people of rank. They gave up security and family (“left their father”, v. 20) to devote themselves to Christ’s mission.

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Comments

Revised Common Lectionary Commentary

Clippings: Third Sunday after Epiphany - January 25, 2009

Saint Dominic contemplating the Scriptures Saint Dominic contemplating the Scriptures

Author's note:

Sometimes I have material left over when I edit Comments down to fit the available space. This page presents notes that landed on the clipping room floor. Some may be useful to you. While I avoid technical language in the Comments (or explain special terms), Clippings may have unexplained jargon from time to time.

A hypertext Glossary of Terms is integrated with Clippings. Simply click on any highlighted word in the text and a pop-up window will appear with a definition. Bibliographic references are also integrated in the same way.

Jonah 3:1-5,10

Here is the introductory paragraph most of which I clipped out:

Jonah is a prophet, but he is unlike any other for whom a book is named in the Old Testament. Some (e.g. Jeremiah) heard the word reluctantly but then fully embraced the ministry to which God called them, but Jonah tries his best (and his worst!) to avoid doing God’s will: he is a caricature of a prophet. The book opens with God’s call to Jonah: “Go at once to Nineveh ... and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.” Jonah’s reaction is to try to escape God’s presence: he boards a ship for as far away as possible. But God brings a storm, the sailors toss Jonah overboard, and a large fish swallows him. Jonah repents of his waywardness, and the fish “spew[s] Jonah out upon the dry land.” (2:10).

1:3: “Tarshish”: Most scholars think that this was a city in the western Mediterranean, possibly in Spain; however it may be Tarsus, where Paul was later born. [Jan Dijkman] Tarsus is in the north-eastern corner of the Mediterranean. In Genesis 10:4, a brother of “Tarshish” is “Kittim”; Josephus, in Antiquities of the Jews, identifies “Kittim” with Kition or Kitti, a Phoenician city on the island of Cyprus. In the Old Testament, “Kittim” appears to have included all the islands of the Aegean Sea. [HBD] In the genealogical table in Genesis 10, the names of brothers are often names of neighbouring territories. “Ships of Tarshish” are mentioned in 1 Kings 10:22; 2 Chronicles 9:21; Isaiah 23:1, 14; 60:9; Ezekiel 27:25. If Tarshish is Tarsus, Jonah wasn’t fleeing very far, but 1 Kings 10:22 is particularly interesting: “... the fleet of ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks”. Perhaps Jonah was planning on boarding a ship of Tarshish to flee to Africa. Perhaps v. 3 has been abbreviated.

3:3: “an exceedingly large city”: The great city of Nineveh has been shown by excavations to have been very large. That the population was more than 120,000 (as stated in 4:11) is fully credible. [CAB] The author draws on legendary reports of the size of the city (and its wickedness), which had grown in the popular imagination since its demise in 612 BC. (Some scholars date this book to the late fifth century BC although others see it as having been written anywhere from the sixth century to the early Hellenistic period.) [NJBC]

Comments: Excavations show that it was about 5 x 2½ kilometres i.e. about 3 x 1½ miles.

3:4: The lack of enthusiasm on Jonah’s part, coupled with the enormous size of the city and the impressive magnitude of its violence and cruelty heightens the enormity of the miracle of its sudden and total conversion. The actual oracle of Jonah which effects this astounding change consists of only five words in Hebrew. [NJBC]

3:4: “overthrown”: The use of the word hpk, meaning to destroy, overturn (as in Genesis 19:25) and other parallels (Jonah 1:2 and Genesis 18:21; 19:13) call to mind the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18-19. [NJBC]

3:5: The author begins with a summary statement of the totality of the city’s conversion thus highlighting the contrast with the half-hearted efforts of the reluctant prophet. Then be backtracks in vv. 6-9 to rehearse in more detail the various stages in which this conversion takes place. The author is clearly a skilful narrator. [NJBC]

3:5: “believed God”: NJBC: believed in God. The people go beyond believing Jonah’s words of warning. The Hebrew word used here, ’mn, also occurs in such key texts as Genesis 15:6 and Exodus 14:31, where Abraham and the people of Israel respectively respond with true faith in God. [NJBC]

3:6: “covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes”: See also 2 Samuel 3:31 (David commands Joab and those with him); Job 42:6 (Job); Daniel 9:3 (David turns to God in supplication); Matthew 11:21 (Jesus warns Chorazin and Bethsaida). [NOAB]

3:7-9: The reaction of the “king of Nineveh” (v. 6) is modelled on Jeremiah 18:7-10: “... but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it ...”. He sets a better example than Jonah! [NOAB]

3:8: “Human beings and animals”: The incongruous picture of the animals joining in donning sackcloth and crying out to God lends a comic note and underlines the totality of the city’s response. [NJBC]

3:9: “Who knows?”: Like the ship’s captain and the sailors in 1:6, 14, the king does not expect God to react automatically and inevitably to their repentance: see also Jeremiah 18:7-10. [NJBC] It is pagans, rather than God’s people, who have such extraordinary insight into the sovereign freedom of God. Jonah, after all, is one of God’s people.

3:10: Repentance and deliverance are themes dominating the story of Jonah and its use by Jesus in the New Testament: see Matthew 12:38-41 and Luke 11:29-32. [NOAB] Augustine of Hippo noted that Nineveh was indeed overthrown: “overthrown in evil, but rebuilt in goodness”.

Psalm 62:5-12

This type of psalm (the song of trust) probably developed as an expansion of the expression of trust that is a common feature of the laments. [NOAB]

Confidence is warranted in God alone, since human beings attack others by word and action. Only God provides true security: human conditions of wealth and poverty are alike of no enduring significance: “power belongs to God” (v. 11). [CAB]

Superscription: “Jeduthun”: He is a temple musician mentioned in 1 Chronicles 25:3; he “prophesied with the lyre”. [CAB]

Verses 1-2,5-7: God is the psalmist’s only help. [NOAB]

Verses 3-4: The psalmist’s situation: cursed by enemies. [NOAB]

Verses 4,8: “Selah”: This word is probably a liturgical direction, added to the original text of the psalm. It may mean lift up, either to indicate the lifting up of the voices of the singers in a doxology, or to call for lifted-up instrumental music in an interlude in the singing. [NOAB]

“Selah” is one of the greatest puzzles of the Old Testament. Its meaning seems to be connected with rising or lifting. But it is not clear whether the congregation rises or lifts up its hands, head, or eyes, or whether the music rises at the indicated points. The word probably indicates that the singing should stop to allow the congregation an interlude for presenting its homage to God by some gesture or act of worship. [ICCPs]

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

I think it useful to bring together the changes in earthly state that Paul suggests should preferably be avoided; he presents these as his opinion (not as a “command of the Lord”, v. 25, “by way of concession, not of command”, v. 6):

* Being married (vv. 2-4, vv. 10-11, 27), even if the partner is an unbeliever (vv. 12-13)

* The unmarried (vv. 1, 8, 25-26, 27)

* The widowed (v. 8)

* Circumcised and uncircumcised (v. 18)

* Being a slave or being free (v. 21-24)

Verses 17-24: Because the end of the world is fast approaching (see vv. 26, 29-31), it is better for everyone to remain as is and not to try to change his or her outward situation. But believers are free from bondage to this world. [NOAB]

Social status (such as slavery) and religious condition (such as circumcision) are of no significance for those who are among the people of God, and they should not seek to heighten their status in the new community.[CAB]

Verse 22: In terms of response to the divine call, it does not matter whether one is a slave or a free person. [NJBC]

Verse 23: “You were bought with a price”: The idea of redemption evokes the pre-baptismal nature of slavery to sin. In Romans 9:3, Paul writes: “For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh”. [NJBC]

Verse 23: “slaves of human masters”: This is not a criticism of slavery as such, but of the attitudes of fallen humanity.

Verse 25: “virgins”: This group, about whom the Corinthians had asked, may refer to unmarried but engaged couples, or possibly a couple married but ascetically committed not to have sexual relations: see vv. 28, 34, 36-38. Note v. 1, a quotation from the Christians at Corinth, “‘It is well for a man not to touch a woman’”. [NOAB] We cannot be sure who Paul means by “virgins” here and elsewhere in the rest of this chapter. [NJBC] The same Greek word, parthenos, is translated as “fiancée” in vv. 36-38.

Verse 28: “you do not sin”: This seems to imply the breaking of a vow and thus points to spiritual marriage. See comment on v. 36. [NJBC]

Verse 28: “distress in this life”: NJBC offers affliction for the flesh. He sees this as meaning at least a more complicated life, but perhaps also criticism from the ascetics at Corinth. [NJBC]

Verses 29-30: Paul considers that it would be silly to make new commitments when all is going to end. On the imminence of the end, Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 “For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever” and in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 “Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed”. [NJBC]

Verse 29: “the appointed time has grown short”: i.e. the time before the end of the era, before Christ comes again.

Verse 32: “free from anxieties”: Anxious concern is a characteristic of unredeemed existence. [NJBC]

Verse 33: Paul has in mind the complete absorption in one another, to the exclusion of all other loving relationships, of the newly married. A married man, being a member of the Christian community of love, his wife has the first, but not the exclusive, claim on his affection, [NJBC]

Verse 34: Note Paul’s view that men and women are equal: he says precisely the same thing to the woman as he has said to the man. [NJBC]

Verse 34: “the unmarried woman and the virgin”: This formulation suggests that parthenos (virgin) is being used (at least in this verse) in a technical sense. If so, it can only mean one who has entered into a spiritual marriage. See Shepherd of Hermas, Similitudes 9:11. [NJBC]

Verse 35: Paul gives clear advice but does not impose solutions. His attitude stands in vivid contrast to the doctrinaire positions adopted by some at Corinth. [NJBC]

Verses 36-38: The NRSV translation assumes an engaged couple; note v. 9: “But if they are not practising self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion”. Others, less likely, have interpreted “he’, “his” and “him” as referring to a father and his daughter (note that the NRSV footnote says that “fiancée” is literally virgin), or a master and his slave, and her suitor; the father gives her in marriage (v. 38). A third possibility is a couple pledged to virginity in a spiritual marriage, who now wish to enter into normal conjugal relationships (vv. 3-5). Paul’s preference, in any case, is consistent with vv. 7-8, 24, 26-28. [NOAB]

Verse 36: “his fiancée”: The Greek, parthenos (literally virgin) can be taken as meaning his daughter, his fiancée or his spiritual wife. Considering each meaning in turn:

* Though the most traditional, daughter is the least likely; its only support is gamizein (translated by some as give in marriage).

* The probability of parthenos meaning fiancée is seriously diminished by the allusion to sin in v. 28: why should anyone have thought it sinful for an engaged couple to marry? Moreover Paul has dealt with this problem in 7:8-9.

* So Paul is thinking of spiritual marriage. Paul advises that if they cannot control their sex drive they should have no scruple about entering into a normal married relationship. He wants them to be “free from anxieties” (v. 32) and undistracted (v. 35). [NJBC]

Verse 37: “being under no necessity”: Those capable of sustaining a spiritual marriage should maintain their commitment. [NJBC]

Verse 38: It is a question of what is good for the individual, not of what is better in principle; however Paul cannot resist mentioning his personal preference for the single state: see vv. 7-8. His reason is not intrinsic superiority but the imminence of the end of the era. [NJBC]

Verse 39: “free to marry”: Paul moves, through association of ideas, to the issue of second marriages even though he has already dealt with it in vv. 8-9. Marriage is permanent, but death gives the surviving partner full freedom to remarry. In Romans 7:2, he says “a married woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning the husband”. [NJBC]

Verse 39: “only in the Lord”: i.e. remembering that she is a Christian. [NJBC]

Verse 40: “I think that I too have the Spirit of God”: To NJBC, a massive understatement tinged with irony; however recall v. 25: “I give as my opinion”. Perhaps Paul is saying that he is fairly sure that what he has said is inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Mark 1:14-20

Verses 14-15: See also Matthew 4:12-17 and Luke 4:14-15. [NOAB]

Verse 15: “kingdom of God”: This is equivalent to Matthew’s “the kingdom of heaven”. Jesus means that all God’s past dealings with his creation are coming to climax and fruition. Jesus taught both the present reality of God’s rule and its future realization. [NOAB]

Verses 16-20: The parallels are Matthew 4:18-22; Luke 5:1-11 and John 1:35-42. [NOAB]

Verse 16: “Sea of Galilee”: Other names for this lake are Sea of Tiberias and Lake of Genesaret. It is 20 kilometres (12 miles) north to south and 12 kilometres (8 miles) east to west. [NOAB] Mark usually refers to it as “the sea”: see 2:13; 3:7; 4:1; 5:1, 13, 21.

Verse 16: “Simon”: He is variously named Simon and Peter, the latter being the nickname connected with his character. Andrew is a shadowy character in this gospel: see also 1:29; 3:18; 13:3. [NJBC]

Verses 16-20: That the first disciples were uneducated arises from a too literal reading of Acts 4:13: “Now when they [the Jerusalem sanhedrin] saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized them as companions of Jesus”. [NJBC] The Zebedee family ran a fishing business “with ... hired men” (employees).

Verse 17: “fish for people”: The metaphor is best interpreted against the background of their occupation rather than in the light of Jeremiah 16:16 (“I am now sending for many fishermen [to the Israelites], says the LORD, and they shall catch them”) or early Christian tradition. [NJBC]

Verse 18: “immediately”: So compelling were Jesus and his call that no preparation or getting used to the idea was necessary; the first disciples required little or no deliberation to make an enthusiastic commitment. It was customary for Jewish students to approach a distinguished teacher and attach themselves to him (see John 1:35-42); here Jesus summons the students. [NJBC]

Verse 18: “followed”: The Greek word, akoloutheo, is the technical term for discipleship in the New Testament. [NJBC]

Verse 19: “James son of Zebedee and his brother John”: With Peter, these two disciples form a kind of inner circle among the Twelve: see 1:29-31; 3:16-17; 5:35-43; 9:2-13; 10:35-45; 13:3; 14:32-42. [NJBC]

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Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Commentary on First Reading by Beth Tanner

Today is the day to tell the story of Jonah, for this is its only appearance in the regular lectionary cycle.

Jonah is often thought of as a children's story complete with a whale, but the real message of Jonah is an adult one with an opportunity to stretch our understanding of God and salvation. The focus text is of God's second call to Jonah and his less than enthusiastic response. However, the story of Jonah is a whole piece and needs to be told from beginning to end.

One key to preaching Jonah is to not get wrapped up in historical concerns. If Jonah is a historical figure, the telling of his story is not for historical purposes. The story of Jonah is a moral tale, much like Aesop's fables, and is designed to teach the audience something about themselves. Some background, however, is necessary for a modern audience to understand the conflict within Jonah's heart and soul.

God's instruction in both 1:1 and 3:1 is "to go to Nineveh, the great city." To an Israelite like Jonah, this would be equivalent to announcing today, "Go to Osama Bin Laden's compound." Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, the nation that destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and held the southern kingdom of Judah as a vassal for almost one hundred years. Assyria was more than an enemy; it was a brutal occupying force that forever changed Israel's fortunes. Jonah is called out by God to go and prophesy to the enemy. For the story to work as it is intended, we must look through Jonah's eyes. We should not stand off on the sidelines and judge, but think of how we would feel in the same situation. I cannot imagine a worse position! Jonah is told to go into the enemy city and announce God's judgment.

We are not told why Jonah runs. Maybe he feared for his life, or perhaps he thought the enemy did not deserve to be offered a chance. Either way, Jonah leaves town on the first boat out. We all know that Jonah ends up in the fish, and it is only here that Jonah finally does something. He calls out to God; however his words are ones of a psalm that does not exactly fit the situation. Even inside the fish, Jonah does not use his own words to speak to God! Deep irony for someone whose job it is to speak to others.

The lectionary text is God's second command to go to Nineveh. But it appears that Jonah only learned a very small part of his lesson. He goes to Nineveh alright, but gives the wimpiest prophecy ever recorded. Again, instead of condemnation, we need to see the world through Jonah's eyes. Would we be any more enthusiastic? These folks are mortal enemies and the chance of instant death is great.

The response of the people, like the sailors in chapter 2, is hyperbolic. The king declares that everyone and every beast fast and be covered with sackcloth and ashes. Imagine the picture; all the people and all the cows and all the sheep fasting with sackcloth tied to their backs! The image of the enemy is transformed from one of fierce occupier to comic supplicant. Just as God has transformed their hearts, their appearance is markedly changed. Jonah should be ecstatic; he is the greatest prophet of all! With a couple of words, he turns a whole nation to God. He should be headed for the evangelism hall of fame.

The crux of Jonah's story is in the fourth chapter, for the point of the narrative is not about the conversion of an entire enemy population. It is about Jonah's reaction to that amazing conversion. He is not happy, and the reason is because God is being consistent to God's own self. The NRSV plays down his anger with the words "this was very displeasing to Jonah and he became angry" (4:1). The Hebrew reads roughly, "it was evil to Jonah, a great evil, and his anger burned." The "it" of Jonah's anger is the heart of the matter. He tells God why he ran, "for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and ready to relent from punishing" (4:2). Jonah is angry at God for the very attributes that Israel has always depended on for its own salvation (Exodus 34:6-7)! God speaks to Jonah, trying to explain, but the book ends without resolution and Jonah goes away mad.

The Book of Jonah is read in the Jewish calendar on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when Jews confess their sins against God and neighbor. Offering Jonah to the congregation yields the same type of contemplation on God's attributes that we too depend on for salvation. How willing are we to let God be God? Salvation is pure gift and grace and Jonah's story reminds us that we do not own that grace, nor is it ours to dole out as we wish. God will be forgiving because that is the very heart of God.

So the story of this old prophet is much more than a whale tale. Its message is meant for those mature enough to understand the ways of God, and to face the ways we try to lay claim to God and God's gift of grace. My father always told me that if I did not believe that God would save the most foul of humans, then I did not really believe in God's power to save my own soul. The book of Jonah puts Dad's words into action and demands that everyone who hears it contemplate God's attributes and the meaning and power of salvation.

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Psalm 62:5-12

Commentary on Psalm by Wendell Frerichs

Psalm 62 has elements of a Psalm of praise, thanksgiving, lament, and wisdom.

But it also lacks elements of each of these. Thus, I consider it a mixed-genre Psalm. In its outline, it is divided into three parts, which the occurrence of the word 'selah' does.

Who wrote the Psalm and when is impossible to say. Jeduthun, mentioned in the superscription (cf. 1 Chronicles 16:41-42), is more likely the forebear of a liturgical family credited with authoring specific melodies used to chant the Psalms.

The first strophe is essential to a proper understanding of Psalm 62. True, the utter reliance on God voiced in verses 1-2 is virtually repeated in verses 5-6. The first word of the Psalm, translated variously as yes, yea, or truly, occurs six times, helping to tie the whole together. After seeking for other avenues to a safe foundation in life, this Psalmist has come to a remarkable conclusion: only Israel's God, not any other, is utterly reliable.

Various words are used to describe this conclusion: salvation, rock, fortress, hope, help, shelter, refuge, power, grace. This person puts his mouth and his words where his heart and soul are. But it may not always have been so. Verses 3-4 make abundantly clear that, in the past, his friends, colleagues, or family members were also trusted and relied upon. Just what undermined this relationship is not stated. But it was a lesson not to be forgotten.

Why these folks turned on the Psalmist we do not know, but they did it in a devious way, pretending still to be friendly and supportive. The poet was caught off-guard and was devastated. Thus, if we cut out verses 3-4, which our lectionary suggests, we are left without a clue as to what led the author to the remarkable faith statements in the rest of the Psalm. Now, no one can reach him to destroy him. Once he may have been like a building about to collapse, which anyone could demolish. Not anymore!

Strophe two (verses 5-8) begins as did strophe one, with powerful words of confidence in God. It surely is remarkable, given the tenor of verses 3-4. God will not go behind one's back, destroying those who rely upon him. In the final analysis all strength and power come, not from nourishment or physical exercise, but from God. We may need to reassure our souls of this repeatedly! Perhaps the poet, using the law of asylum, has experienced this personally by fleeing to the sanctuary and hanging onto the horns of the altar. In any case, the author is not vengeful or angry (verse 7), only at peace. Accordingly, this peace becomes the basis of a call to others to share in this great discovery (verse 8). In the ancient world a plethora of gods was available for help in time of need. But only the God of Israel's assembled congregation is their refuge. So, says the author, do what I did: pray and call for help. You too will then become as confident as I am. Here we reach the high point of strophe two, if not of the whole Psalm. Remember this insight when troubles come, as they surely will.

Strophe three (verses 9-12) does not begin as the previous two did. Instead of reflecting the negative experience depicted in strophe one, the author now evaluates all humans as unable to provide security. Compared to God, humans are nothing. Even those who have amassed a fortune and those who exercise power cannot be relied upon. These are illusions which may quickly disappear. Further, how was this wealth or power accumulated? No doubt at someone else's expense. Like the Wisdom Literature, these verses remind and warn those who rely on such things to beware.

God has often spoken of such matters (verse 11, cf. the Prophets). But not all have heeded. Thus, once again the people are told and God (verse 12) is finally addressed. Praise is not just advised for others, but given to the Faithful One, the gracious God of Israel. For centuries this was the central message of the Temple worship services. Sacred history, too, interpreted the past and present as the arena where God was active on their behalf.

All of us need friends, family, and community to rely on. But sometimes they let us down, hopefully not as absolutely as the Psalmist experienced. It can be disillusioning. One may be tempted to lash out, to give up hope. Here is a text which shows the way out of such a predicament. There is someone whom we can rely upon completely. Our Lord is reliable when others fail us. It may also be our IRA's, or investments, which prove to be less than secure. What we have laid aside for the future may have eroded considerably. We lose confidence in capitalism, in CEOs. But should we also lose faith in God?

From experience and the Bible, we learn that this world and the people in it are unreliable. Yet our experience and the Bible also testify that God is a secure foundation upon whom to build. The sermon should be personal testimony to the congregation, as this Psalm is. It should include God's promises to us, as well as talk about God. Confident witness is not narrow-minded bigotry. People need help in living in the real world.

The last two lines, depending upon the translation, may be a problem for evangelical Christians. Are we rewarded according to our deeds? This author is not speaking about the afterlife or eternal salvation which we know is given by grace alone. Jesus Christ did die for our sins. That makes the witness of this Psalm even more profound.

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Wendell Frerichs

Professor Emeritus

Luther Seminary

St. Paul, MN

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1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Commentary on Second Reading by Arland J. Hultgren

The Second Lesson prescribed for any given Sunday in the Revised Common Lectionary does not usually cohere with the core message of the Gospel for the Day.

Except on special occasions, it is typically a passage that is part of a continuous reading within Acts, an epistle, or Revelation, and given attention over several weeks.

But there are fortuitous occasions when the Second Lesson does cohere thematically with the Gospel for the Day. This day is one of them. The lesson from 1 Corinthians, like the Gospel (Mark 1:14-20), has to do with time and the place of the believer within it.

In Mark 1:15, Jesus proclaims: "The time (kairos) is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." The moment is one of urgency, for God's reign is breaking into human history. Our reading begins with similar urgency: "I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time (kairos) has grown short" (1 Corinthians 7:29). Paul expects the imminent arrival of Christ in his glory, when "the present form of this world" passes away (7:31), and that makes all the difference in the world as to how one should live.

The Greek term kairos carries several nuances within the New Testament. Among its most widely used meanings, the word can mean "significant time," "appointed time" (a time determined by God), "critical time," or even some combination of these. Within the two texts assigned for today, all of these meanings are present. The time is significant, appointed, and critical, whether it is the moment when the reign of God over all things dawns upon the earth, as proclaimed by Jesus, or the moment at the eve of Christ's coming in glory, as proclaimed by Paul.

What Paul writes in 1 Corinthians is a response to questions from the community of believers at Corinth. Prior to the passage assigned for today, he has taken up a series of issues. He writes that the single life is better, but recommends marriage to help prevent sexual immorality (7:1-9). He urges that believers not divorce one another, although conceding that divorce might be necessary in some cases (7:10-16). And he counsels those who become Christians not to make changes. For example, slaves should not think that they must become free, but accept freedom if it is offered (7:11-24).

Now Paul turns again to the matter of singles and married couples. He recommends that they remain in their present state (7:25-28). The basis for his recommendation is: "in view of the impending crisis, it is well for you to remain as you are" (7:26). In short, Paul's imminent eschatology (his sense of the end of all things coming soon) governs all that is being said. It is the foundation for the way of life that he recommends.

This entire discussion leads us to the brief passage assigned for today. It is especially important to notice Paul's use of the words "as though not" (hōs mē) five times over in these three verses. So, Paul says, one is to live "as though not" married, mourning, rejoicing, making purchases, and (in summation) dealing with the world in general.

Basic to his thinking is that one is to disengage from the world, for all is transitory. There is no point in becoming consumed or even entangled with the world and its concerns, for the "present form of this world is passing away."

However, this approach is not the sum and substance of everything Paul has to say concerning life in this world. There is plenty more. In Romans 12:9-21, Paul provides a sustained discussion on Christian behavior within the community of believers (12:9-13) and in the larger community outside (12:14-21). In Romans 13:1-10, he urges that believers should be subject to the governing powers and should practice love for one another. In Philippians 4:8-9, he endorses and commends basic values and virtues as giving guidance for the Christian life. Twice in his letters, he sums up the Ten Commandments with the Love Commandment (Romans 13:9-10; Galatians 5:14).

Amidst these examples, it is helpful to put side-by-side two words: "disengagement" and "engagement." In his ethical thinking, and in our passage for today, Paul calls upon persons of faith to disengage from the world and its ways of living. One should step back and see how being entangled with it can be a captivity preventing one from living the new life in Christ. But that is not the end of the matter, for we continue to live in this world and have to deal with it. In Paul's way of thinking, disengagement is not an end in itself. Rather, being disengaged and set free, a person can engage the world from the perspective of being one who is "in Christ." And Paul provides a lot of exhortation in his letters concerning that life, as mentioned above.

People who hear this passage read at worship will find it puzzling. They do not have a sense of the imminent coming of Christ, and they can hardly live day-to-day "as though not" having dealings with the world. It is important therefore, if this text is the basis for a sermon, to set it in the context of 1 Corinthians and within the larger framework of Paul's ethical teaching, as done here.

In the end, the primary message of this text is that nothing in this world can compare to the eternal fellowship we have with God and Christ. Dealing with the world is inevitable and important  we need to deal with it well for the sake of our families, our nation, and ourselves. But we need to maintain an "eschatological reserve," knowing that this is not all there is, for we look to the eternal beyond that which is passing away. Still, we should remain invested in the world and its ongoing concerns. Indeed, those who pray for the kingdom and expect Christ to come in glory are bound to be engaged in the world and its struggles. Knowing the certainty of God's ultimate reign beyond history, we work to align the present and future with it.

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Arland J. Hultgren

Asher O. and Carrie Nasby Professor of New Testament

Luther Seminary

St. Paul, MN

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Mark 1:14-20

Commentary on Gospel by Stephen Hultgren

The text consists of two parts: a summary of Jesus' preaching in 1:14-15; and a call story in 1:16-20.

These two parts are connected by the sense of urgency brought on via the proclamation of the reign of God.

Mark tells us that after John was "handed over" (paradothēnai), Jesus returned to Galilee and began to preach the gospel. The NRSV translates paradothēnai as "arrested," however, the Greek verb has a much fuller sense. It includes an allusion to John's death, for the verb paradidōmi is used in Mark and elsewhere in the New Testament to speak of Jesus' being handed over to death (e.g., Mark 14:21; Romans 4:25; 1 Corinthians 11:23). Consider the evidence linking these two men's deaths. Both men were prophets who offended the powers that be. Both died violent deaths. Moreover, Mark placed similar passages questioning the identity of Jesus before the account of John's death (6:14-16), and before the first of the three passion predictions (8:27-30), which suggests that he saw a parallel between the two men's deaths. As has been long observed, the cross of Jesus casts a long shadow over the Gospel of Mark. Thus, already in Mark 1:14 the mention of John's being "handed over" raises the specter of Jesus' death. For Mark, Jesus' kingdom ministry takes place, from the very beginning, under the shadow of the cross.

In 1:15 there follows a summary of Jesus' preaching. Such summaries are common throughout the synoptic gospels (cf. Matthew 4:23; 9:35). Mark appears to have constructed this summary on material from Jesus' preaching. The very fact that Mark places this summary of Jesus' preaching of the gospel after mention of John's being "handed over" may be based on tradition containing Jesus' view of history such as is recorded in Luke 16:16, namely, that "the law and the prophets were in effect until John came; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed." With the end of John's ministry comes the end of one stage of history. Now, Jesus and his gospel come to center stage. Jesus' ministry is the center of all history.

The reliance on traditional material is evident in the rest of 1:15. The proclamation that "the kingdom of God has come near" (ēggiken hē basileia tou theou) is found elsewhere in Jesus' sayings (Matthew 10:7; Luke 10:9, 11). In addition, Jesus' healings and exorcisms were particularly connected to the coming of the kingdom (Matthew 12:28, Luke 11:20; cf. Matthew 10:7-8, Luke 10:9). It is unnecessary to enter the old debate of whether Jesus meant that the kingdom of God had actually come (realized eschatology), or whether the kingdom of God was near but not yet here (future eschatology). It is possible that Jesus thought that both were true. Wherever he conducted his ministry, there God's reign was actively coming into being, even if the kingdom might not come fully until the future.

The announcement that "the time (kairos) is fulfilled (peplērōtai)" also has the ring of tradition. Luke similarly begins his account of Jesus' Galilean ministry with Jesus preaching in his hometown synagogue in Nazareth about the "year of the Lord's favor" that Isaiah had prophesied (Isaiah 61:2). Jesus then said, that time had been fulfilled (peplērōtai) in the people's hearing that very day (Luke 4:19, 21).

Interestingly, Isaiah 60:22, coming just before the part of Isaiah quoted in Luke 4, speaks of the time (Greek: kairos) when God would bring about the restoration of Israel. Possibly this is the source of the statement about the kairos in Mark 1:15. It is likely that the latter half of Isaiah lies behind Jesus' eschatological vision, and is the source of his understanding of the kingdom. Isaiah 61:1 characterizes the time of the Lord's favor as a time of preaching the good news (Greek: euaggelizesthai). Isaiah 52:7 connects the preaching of good news with the proclamation of God's reign. Thus, the good news of the kingdom of God is that the one true God, with his life and peace and truth, is about to establish his rule over the world. All other opposing powers—whether human powers or sin or evil or death—are destined to end their rule.

We have seen that the announcement that the kingdom of God is near also appears in Matthew 10:7 and Luke 10:9, 11. Closely connected with this announcement in the tradition known to Luke (a so-called Q tradition), was the call to repentance (Luke 10:13). Perhaps the juxtaposition of the announcement of the reign of God and the call to repentance in the summary of Mark 1:15 is rooted in similar traditional material. In any case, the theological basis for the juxtaposition is clear. Announcing that God's reign is near has the consequence of an urgent call for repentance, that is, aligning one's values and way of life with God's ways. In today's epistle reading (1 Corinthians 7:29-31) Paul similarly calls for an examination of our priorities in light of the kairos.

The second section (Mark 1:16-20) then illustrates what the urgent call of the kingdom looks like. Jesus, walking along the Sea of Galilee, sees the two brothers Simon and Andrew, fishermen, casting their nets in the sea. He calls them to follow, and immediately, in obedience, they leave their nets and follow him. The same happens with James and John. The kai euthys ("and immediately") of 1:18 and 1:20, a favorite turn of phrase of Mark, gives expression to the urgency of the call. The time is here, God's kingdom is near; there is no time to lose!

It is striking that these four men would drop everything to follow Jesus if they did not already know him. Indeed, some scholars have speculated that they actually knew Jesus, or knew about him, before he called them into discipleship (cf. John 1:35-40). Whatever the history of the relationship between Jesus and these four men may have been, however, the story gives effective expression to the urgency of the call to discipleship.

Consider also that Mark portrays Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom coming not only as a gift ("good news"), but also with a demand ("repent"). Writing as a Lutheran, I find this a salutary warning that we dare not limit the force of Jesus' preaching of the kingdom by imposing upon it a rigid Law-Gospel grid. If we try to impose such a grid on his preaching and teaching, we will not understand them in their integrity. To be sure, the indicative ("the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near") precedes the imperative ("repent and believe in the good news"). What humans do comes as a response to God's prevenient action. Still, we must not overlook that the one who promises the kingdom to sinners is the same one who calls sinners to repentance and who calls disciples to give up all that they have to follow him. To put it in Pauline terms, Christ is my life (cf. Philippians 1:21); my life is a total gift from him. Therefore I must also be willing and prepared to forfeit everything for him (Philippians 3:7-8; cf. Mark 8:35). Since in Jesus everything is given to me, in Jesus everything is demanded of me. The four disciples' willingness to throw in their lot completely with Jesus illustrates that attitude.

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Stephen Hultgren

Assistant Professor of Theology

Fordham University

New York, NY

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Lectionary Commentary

January 25, 2009

Third Sunday after the Epiphany

Ecumenical Sunday

Commentary by Bruce G. Epperly See also: [2006][2003][2000]

Jonah 3;1-10

Psalm 62:5-12

I Corinthians 7:29-31

Mark 1:14-20

Today’s scripture readings invite us to explore the interplay of decision and transformation on both a personal and corporate basis. Decision-making is inherent in human, and all creaturely, experience. Each moment arises from our creative response to our environment, previous decisions, personal health and history, the call of God, and other conscious and unconscious factors. While we are greatly determined by our environment and the impact of the past, each moment provides the opportunity to choose anew and take a small step toward personal and communal transformation. Small steps toward transformation, grounded in our ability to respond to the data of experience, may eventually lead to great changes for us and our communities. Life is a dynamic “call and response” in which we creatively respond to God’s call in every moment of existence. Our response is seldom “perfect,” but faithful choosing allows us to inject positive values that contribute to the healing of the persons and communities with which we interact.

Much to our surprise, God inspires our creativity and decision-making. God has not pre-determined our choices, or chosen the most important events in our lives without our input (Rick Warren), but rejoices in the holy adventure of human creativity and partnership with God. (For a spirituality of creativity, see Epperly, Holy Adventure, Upper Room, 2008).

In order to get the full impact of the Jonah reading, I suggest that the preacher reflect at least indirectly on Job in its entirety in her or his study, sermon preparation, and in the passages of the day, rather than limiting her or himself to the passages from the lectionary (Jonah 3:1-5, 10), as an example of the interdependence of divine call and human response. (At the very least, he or she should include Jonah 3:1-10, or, better yet, the entirety of chapters three and four, as an example of God’s universal love.) The reluctant prophet Jonah presents Nineveh with the call to decision. One path leads to destruction; the other to peace and prosperity. While we may hesitate to identify divine activity with the destruction of nations, we can definitely affirm that the actions of persons and nations have consequences for good or for ill. This was the case of “godless” Nineveh and it is surely the case for the nations of the earth, including the United States of America and Canada. In the interdependence of life, we often reap what we sow, personally, congregationally, and nationally. The ongoing economic crisis, terrorist threat, unease in the Middle East, starvation in Africa, and global climate change are hardly accidental, but the result of decisions made by political leaders, nations, everyday people, and corporate entities. We are now reaping a harvest, seeded by greed, individualism, nationalism, resentment, short-sightedness, and materialism. Can we choose life rather than death when faced with such complex and intricately connected threats?

The United States of America has just inaugurated a new president. Will the audacity of hope triumph over the passivity of entropy? Faithfulness to God calls us to choose again and again, and take new paths toward life rather than destruction for our planet, nation, and ourselves.

Jonah predicts destruction for Nineveh in its entirety. For once, the people hear God’s call and in response, the king assumes the role of national theologian—“Who knows? God may relent and change [God’s] mind; [God] may turn from [God’s] fierce anger, so that we do not perish.” While we may not attribute our current crises to the hand of God, the king’s question and affirmation invites us to see ourselves as decision-makers whose choices shape the future, rather than passive victims of fate. The passage from Jonah implies that the future is still open, both for us and for God.

“God changed [God’s] mind!” While mortals cannot fully fathom the divine intentionality either in the affairs of persons or nations, this passage presents us with the image of a lively, decision-making God, who is not bound by the past, who can do new things, and bring forth new possibilities. God calls to Nineveh through the words of Jonah, but God also responds to their decisions. As we look at our personal, communal, and planetary lives, what divine possibilities and dreams are we thwarting as a result of our passivity, habitual behaviors, and individualism? What new energies of transformation might be released if we turned from our self-centeredness to earth-centeredness and God-centeredness? The living God is “new every morning.” New things can happen to both God and humankind that call upon new decisions in the divine-human adventure.

Psalm 62 counsels us to listen for the voice of God in times of turbulence. Trust in God calls us to be patient and await the guidance that we need. Sometimes the best spiritual advice is “don’t do something, sit there” until the way ahead becomes clear. God’s steadfast love embraces us and will provide us with a way of transformation even in challenging times. Our hope is not in individualism, materialism, or social standing, but in the faithfulness of God who is our refuge and salvation. With faith in God, we can creatively respond to the personal, congregational, national, and global crises that currently confront us. Liberated from the confines of self-interest, we can intuit the outlines of God’s vision of Shalom for ourselves and the planet. We can embrace a larger sense of self and personal well-being that includes the well-being of the whole earth.

On January 13, my wife Kate and I celebrated our 30th anniversary. You can be sure that the passages from I Corinthians 7:29-31 were not read at our anniversary dinner, wedding, or any wedding I have witnessed. “Those who have wives be as they have none” is Paul’s counsel in light of his belief that he was living in the last days of planet earth. While Paul’s timetable was obviously inaccurate, still, there may be some wisdom in Paul’s admonitions. First, he tells us that “the appointed time has grown short.” Even those of us who are not looking toward the literal return of Jesus can find wisdom in this passage, for we have heard that the time is short and we experience threats in abundance. As we look at the possibility of global catastrophe, many of us wonder if the time is short, not only for us, but more significantly for our children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces.

The shortness of time, the quickly passing moment, calls us to wise decision-making. Perhaps, the Corinthians passage is an invitation to take this moment seriously as the meeting place of past, present, and future; history and possibility; the impact of past decisions and the hope of transformation. In light of the perpetual perishing of each moment’s experience, the passage calls us to sit lightly with the world. Creative detachment enables us to proclaim “this is the day that God has made” and then embrace the new possibilities God presents us in each moment’s birth. Decision requires letting go of the past, even the good past, in order to embrace the new creation God is imaging for us, our congregations, and the world. This morning, as I look at my the blazing fire in our living room, it is clear to me that creative transformation always requires change and destruction, a new configuration of wood to fire, or old habits to new adventures.

Mark’s gospel presents the power of divine call and response. Following John’s death, Jesus proclaims a gospel of transformation and repentance in light of God’s coming reign. Turn around, embrace new life, and live toward God’s future.

While we might suspect that Peter and his friends have an ongoing relationship with Jesus prior to his call to decision, eventually they must choose to stay where they are or move forward on God’s holy adventure. They must let go of old patterns of relationship, occupation, and faith in order to embrace new possibilities. No doubt, there was plenty of internal and relational resistance before they laid down their fishing nets. We hope they consulted with their spouses and business partners. Still, there comes the moment to decide and while these moments of decision may come over and over to us, there are times when we can no longer sit on the sidelines, but must say “yes” to God’s dream for our lives. In saying “yes,” we let go of one world, one set of values, habits and practices, to embrace a new world with new behaviors.

God calls us to decision and our decisions will make a difference. While the call of God may not be as immediate and crisis-laden as that of revival preachers such as Jonah and Billy Graham, God is always calling us to decision – to choose for life, beauty, and justice—in the context of the complexities of our current historical and personal context.

Today’s preacher needs to remind the congregation that God wants us to be creative and that God seeks novelty and adventure. We don’t need to worry about perfection or achieving all of our goals, openness and fidelity to God’s adventurous vision is enough to open new pathways of creativity in our churches and our lives.

On this “Ecumenical Sunday,” celebrating the Week of Christian Unity, preachers can remind their congregations that we can choose to affirm creatively both unity and diversity in matters of faith. We can say “yes” and thus learn from different worship styles or theological positions. We can choose to integrate the gifts of our own tradition and theological perspective with the insights of other traditions and theological perspectives, thus creating new and adventurous forms of faith and action for our time.

Bruce Epperly is professor of practical theology and director of Continuing Education at Lancaster Theological Seminaryand co-pastor of DisciplesUnitedCommunityChurch. He is the author of fifteen books, including the recently-published Holy Adventure: Forty-one Days of Audacious Living (Upper Room), a progressive Christian response to the Purpose Driven Life; The Four Seasons of Ministry: Gathering a Harvest of Righteousness (Alban) and Feed the Fire: Avoiding Clergy Burnout (Pilgrim).

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weekly reflections and commentary on the revised common lectionary texts

epiphany 3B

January 19, 2009

Jonah and the whale

Jonah and the great fish

Jonah 3: 1-5, 10 NRSV text

Psalm 62: 5-12 NRSV text

1 Corinthians 7: 29-31 NRSV text

Mark 1: 14-20 NRSV text

Jonah or Jesus? Which of these is the prophet after the heart of God? We are spoiled for drama with this week’s texts. On the one hand, we have Mark’s play that hurtles us from scene to scene with dramatic suddenness, and on the other, the second act of the drama of Jonah - surely the highest point of biblical comedy. And in all the parallels of the prophetic announcement of Good News, the thing that stands out most clearly is the fact that Jesus is himself part of the Good News he announces, whereas Jonah decidedly is not!

Reluctant prophet of Yahweh (Jonah 3: 1-5, 10)

Act 2, Scene 1: The Beach. The curtain rises on a huge pile of the stomach contents of a whale (yes, let’s call the great fish a whale, shall we? It makes for a whale of a story, anyhow!). Suddenly, the voice of Yahweh is heard: “Jonah, let’s talk about you and Nineveh again, shall we?”

Act 1 began almost identically. Yahweh calls Jonah to go to the “great city” of Nineveh and prophesy against it. Jonah foolishly responds by trying to flee from Yahweh. There is a delicious, hilarious irony to the chapter. Imagine trying to hide from Yahweh! We see Jonah, crouched among the sailors on a ship, apparently hoping that Yahweh won’t spot him! Jonah ends up in the belly of the fish, which is his place of conversion. He refers to the belly of the fish as the belly of Sheol - the grave (2:2). He prays, and Yahweh causes the fish to vomit Jonah up on to dry land! Imagine it - the fish swims into the shallows of a bay, and from several yards offshore, gives a mighty heave of the stomach. And in the fountain of stomach contents that fly through the air and land on the shore, there we see the prophet of Yahweh. Well, we probably don’t, at first: he’s indistinguishable from the rest of the stomach contents! And Yahweh addresses the pile of dead fish, plankton, seaweed, shells etc: “Jonah, get up!”

Now the pile begins to shake and dissolve, and a bedraggled, stinking human being emerges. It is Jonah! This time, Jonah’s only response is to set off for Nineveh without a word.

He arrives at the “great city”. Everything in the story is in hyperbole, exaggerated for comic effect. The city is apparently three day’s walk across - some 108 miles! The irony, of course, is that this is precisely the length of time that Jonah has wasted in the whale’s stomach!

But look at his sermon - all of 8 words long! Hardly a great sermon - but note how astoundingly, ridiculously effective it is. The people believe, proclaim a fast and put on sackcloth. Everyone! And when the news reaches the palace, the king decrees that even the animals must don sackcloth and repent. Has there ever been such a wholehearted response to the word of the Lord? And so, in verse 10, Yahweh changes his mind about visiting calamity on the city.

The whole focus of the book, however, is not Nineveh, or the success of the prophet’s message. Rather, it is about the prophet himself. In the very next verse (4:1), Jonah is displeased! He goes into a grand sulk, and rails at God.

“I knew it! I knew this would happen! I knew you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and ready to relent from punishing! That’s why I ran away in the first place! And see? I was right all along! No fire from heaven, and all that satisfying judgement! Instead, you’ve let them off!”

Jonah is furious because Yahweh is loving and merciful, so that what he fondly hoped would be Bad News to the people of Nineveh turned out to be Good News after all. God’s love and mercy mean that God always desires the best for us. This is a book about a prophet who bitterly resents the fact that the God whom he serves is a God of love and salvation. It is a comedy about the contrast between God and one of God’s people. The book ends with Yahweh chiding Jonah: “Jonah, isn’t it right that I be concerned about Nineveh? After all, there are more than 12,000 people there, and many animals!”

“Come, follow me!” (Mark 1: 14-20)

martin-luther-king-jr1

Today is Martin Luther King Day

We’re in Act 1, scenes 4 &5. This is a very different sort of play. “Scenes” is actually a misleading term: “vignettes” is more accurate. We’ve been hurtled from the Prologue to Scene 1 (the appearance and preaching of John outside Jerusalem) to Scene 2 (the appearance and baptism of Jesus) to Scene 3 (Jesus wrestling with Satan and the wild animals in the wilderness). Here in Scene 4 (Galilee), the stage is cleared of John, that other great character. He’s been arrested. He’s offstage. Mark begins his focus on the great central character of his drama, Jesus. Here in v14 is the Man and his Message - his Gospel. This is a summary statement of Jesus’ message:

“The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God has drawn near. Repent and believe in the Good News!”

We have already been given strong hints that the Kingdom of God is something that is going to cause huge ructions. This is a message of confrontation between the powers of Imperial Rome and the religious authority of the Temple and its leaders. This isn’t a message that will be received with the enthusiasm that Nineveh showed! The message of the Kingdom will set Jesus and those who respond on a collision course with those who will oppose it. It is the beginning of a life and death struggle. This is not a message to be assimilated quietly and easily. To “repent and believe” requires a fundamental reorientation and the embracing of a whole new set of values and norms. It will change forever the way in which those who respond - the disciples - will view the world and live in it. It is a call to take up the Struggle against the Strong Man and all the powers that hold the world and its people captive - demons, sickness, hatred, discrimination, political and religious authorities.

That is the point of Scene 5 - the lakeshore near Capernaum. Jesus calls - and the fishermen get up and follow immediately! There is no demurring, or argument, or demand for further details or explanation. It’s as though they recognise in an instant both the authority of the one calling them and the truth and urgency of the message.

These first disciples show us what Jesus means by “repent”. In this context, it doesn’t mean to don sackcloth and ashes. It isn’t a call to a religious act. It takes us to the root meaning of the word - to change one’s whole way of thinking and being in the world. “Stop living how you are doing! Change your plans for your life’s work and your future! You thought you were going to be fishermen? You’re going to fish - for people! You thought you were going to live out your days in this village on the lakeshore? You’re never coming back here!”

“The time is fulfilled” (Mark 1:14/1 Corinthians 7: 29-31)

To announce “The time is fulfilled!” was political, social and religious dynamite in Jesus’ context. It meant that all that God had promised was coming to pass. The time of waiting and agonising was over. Jesus was telling the people that all they had been waiting, hoping and yearning for was about to happen. Time (as they had known it) was running out. This is the equivalent of Jonah’s “Forty days - and then it happens!”

1 Corinthians 7 is similarly Paul’s message that time is running out. Paul was expecting Jesus to return at any moment. After all, Jesus had promised that the fulfilment of everything was going to take place within the life of that very generation. We are right in the middle of one of the earliest New Testament shocks - the delay of the Parousia. In fact, this is written as expectation of Jesus’ return is reaching fever pitch, before disillusionment, puzzlement and despair, and before Paul’s Thessalonian correspondence.

Paul is not anti-marriage, or anti-sex, or anti mourning, celebration, or commerce. He’s saying, though, that these things require energy, time, priorities, reserves and long-term planning which is fine if you have time stretching ahead, but wholly inappropriate now, given that Jesus is coming back at any minute. These priorities belong to the world as we have always known it, and that world is in the very process of passing away (7:31).

Paul was wrong about timing. So was Jesus. Yet he was right about the urgency of the gospel call. The Kingdom of God is indeed at hand. We still stand at the moment of decision: are we going to live life as though the world is still held captive, nothing has changed and we can plan as we have always done, or are we going to recognise that God is at work right now, transforming the world into the Kingdom? Because if the latter is true, that requires urgent decision and change.

Living with God (Psalm 62: 5-12)

The comedy of Jonah runs the risk of disguising the fact that God is not easy to live with. God’s call radically alters life - and not necessarily for the better. That is certainly true in the sense that we are not called to The Quiet Life”! For Jonah, it involves shipwreck, spending time in a fish’s belly, and having your worst fears about your calling coming true. For the disciples and for Paul, it means leaving everything and being called to follow a person and a way that leads to isolation, suffering, grief, misunderstanding and ultimately, death.

One of the most difficult things about living with God is God! God is no more a “tame God” than Aslan is a tame lion (as Mr Tumnus the fawn reminds Lucy in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe). God is sovereign. Not only is God not in hock to our expectations and demands that God act in certain ways, but God is also curiously and disturbingly as absent and inscrutable as God is present and knowable.

Look at the experience of Yahweh reflected by the psalmist in this week’s reading: in v5, his soul “waits for God in silence”. Waiting for God to speak, to act, to reassure, to comfort, to be palpably present - behind this wonderfully faithful statement lies agony and doubt and the fear of abandonment. The decision to “wait for God” is a deliberate choice made in the face of (more reasonable?) anger and rejection. Yahweh is silent - and the psalmist is likewise reduced to dumb waiting: to holding on and to gritting his teeth until Yahweh deigns to speak and act - to “remember” the psalmist.

The ringing assertions of Yahweh’s character (”my rock, my salvation, my fortress, my refuge”) are almost a “hope against hope” - a determination that Yahweh is all these things, even though experience seems to shout out that the contrary is true. This is true of the experience of God. God does not conform to our expectations of how God should be and act, or how God should treat those whom God calls. God is sovereign - beyond comprehension and criticism.

And yet, look at what the psalmist says without any sense of irony in v8: “Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him!” This is something we can learn about Old Testament spirituality: for all Yahweh’s sovereignty and apparent remoteness, it is absolutely appropriate to pour out one’s heart to this God.

This is about honesty. It’s the honesty of a Jonah who can rail a Yahweh about his disappointment and frustration. It’s the Gethsemane honesty of Jesus, who will beg God as an intimately-known Father to let him off the hook. And most astoundingly of all, it’s the honesty of someone who believes that their feelings and experiences make a difference to how God will choose to act!

Power belongs to God (v11), but so does steadfast love (v12). “Steadfast love” is not abstract theology: it is the testimony of someone who has lived the mystery of God firsthand, and can say, “It isn’t easy. It isn’t always pleasant. But God can be trusted - because God loves, cares and listens. Trust in him at all times, O people!”

So - Jonah or Jesus?

Jonah was the living contradiction of the character of the God who called him. The messenger was definitely not part of the Good News! Part of the good news for the Ninevites was that God is not like God’s people! The people of Nineveh were being saved from precisely the sort of attitudes exemplified by the prophet. Mark presents us with a stark contrast. The Kingdom is near because Jesus is present. Jesus is the living presence of the Good News. To be committed to the Kingdom is therefore also to be committed to Jesus. Jesus is the Good News, in this sense. And therefore, like those first disciples, we are called to come and follow - to repent and believe in the Good News.

Amen.

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The following material was written by the Rev. John Shearman (jlss@sympatico.ca) of the United Church of Canada. John normally structures his offerings so that the first portion can be used as a bulletin insert, while the second portion provides a more in depth 'introduction to the scripture'.

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE

The Third Sunday After Epiphany - Year B

JONAH 3:1-5,10 One should read the whole parable

of Jonah at one sitting. Most people remember only the story of the fish

that swallowed Jonah. That was, in fact, a metaphor for Israel’s exile in

Babylon. Written as a missionary tract, the story calls Israel to a

mission of proclaiming God's saving goodness and mercy among all peoples -

even Israel's worst enemies in Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. The story

ends with Jonah getting his come-uppance for his too narrow belief that

divine compassion extends only to Israel.

PSALM 62:5-12 This poem presents the same

elements of universal justice and compassion because of the psalmist’s

confident trust in God's steadfast love.

1 CORINTHIANS 7:29-31 In this brief passage Paul appears

to counter the traditional view of Christian family values. But is he

really suggesting that marriage is not the best thing for young men and

women in the Corinthian congregation? The key words are: "...the

appointed time has grown short...." At this stage in his ministry, Paul

was looking for the imminent return of Christ in glory. He wanted all

faithful people to give themselves wholly to preparing for that event.

Marriage and family responsibilities would detract from their commitment.

So also would worldly possessions. It was excessive attachment to these

relationships, not their existence, which Paul decried.

MARK 1:14-20 Mark's version of Jesus calling his

first disciples is quite different from what we read last week in John

1:35-51. John the Baptist had been imprisoned, but Jesus took his place

preaching repentance and the good news of God's salvation. The calling of

the four fishermen occurred entirely on Jesus' initiative, not as a result

of their curiosity. This was in keeping with Mark's presentation of

Jesus' messiahship being hidden until Peter's declaration toward the end

of Jesus' ministry (Mark 8:27-33). However they were called, the

disciples' response was immediate.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS:

JONAH 3:1-5,10 It would be instructive to set aside the other readings

and spend the whole of the time for scripture during worship in reading

aloud this remarkable tale. The prayer of Jonah in 2:2-9 could be omitted

in such a reading. Scholars regard it as a later addition to the original

story because it interrupts the natural flow of the narrative and

represents the very opposite view of the basic story. On the other hand,

the prayer mocks Israelite piety exemplified in Jonah whose sole concern

was his own reputation for the accuracy of prediction or a restriction of

divine compassion to Israel alone.

There is a delightful air of exaggeration about the details of Jonah's

experiences. Ancient Nineveh (near Mosul in modern Iraq) was not so large

as to take three days to walk across. The Assyrian empire, of course, was

much larger. Although no accurate estimate has been made of the date of

the writing of the book, it is believed to have been long after the fall

of Assyria to the Babylonians (ca. 610 BCE) and the exile of the 6th

century BCE. The exaggeration serves to heighten the threat to Israel's

national existence in the same way that the exile did. The storm and the

fish that swallowed Jonah are symbolic of the exile and another

exaggeration of the prophet's experience. He himself represents those in

Israel who fear and hate their neighbors. The ironic twist of the story

comes in 3:10 when the God of Israel spared Israel's worst enemies who

they repented after Jonah had preached to them.

So "what kind of a God is this?" becomes the fundamental issue of the

story. The whole tenor of the narrative is that of a midrash, a story

told to interpret biblical texts which raise similar questions. Three

such texts existed in the later prophetic literature: Exodus 34:6; Numbers

23:19 and Ezekiel 18:23. Is divine mercy more powerful than justice? Can

a deity actually repent and change earlier decisions? Does Yahweh's

preference to grant life rather than death extend beyond the border of

Israel, the chosen people?

Jonah represents the element in post-exilic Israel which turned inward and

became extremely exclusivist, nationalistic and xenophobic. This attitude

contrasted with the universalism of Second Isaiah, but found also in

Exodus 14:31; 1 Kings 19; Jeremiah 26 and 36; and Psalm 139. Prophetic

voices had always uttered judgment against Israel or other foreign

nations. Usually they had extended the hope of Yahweh's mercy for those

Israelites who remained faithful or repented. Generally speaking, they

predicted the destruction of Israel's oppressors. Like the Book of Ruth,

Jonah widens the embrace of divine mercy to all peoples, even those like

Assyria who had brutally oppressed Israel at different periods of its

history.

How can Christian gospel be proclaimed from this text? The Old Testament

is our book too, not merely "the Hebrew scriptures." The compassionate God

of Jonah is still Lord of history. Warring nation states on both sides of

20th century conflicts sought to use this God as a means of propaganda to

judge the conduct of their enemies. Some claimants to Christian faith

still hold to a belief in a violent outcome of a final Armageddon in which

divine forces will aid in the victory over other "evil empires."

But does God not see the history of our times through the eyes of Jesus

Christ? Are not the gifts of the Spirit enumerated in Galatians 5:22-23

the spiritual values that will determine the ultimate end of our present

world struggles? If we were in the Ninevites position, would we prefer the

end of the story Jonah predicted or the end as it is written? Could not

the mood of this anonymous poem posted a few years ago to Ralph Milton's

e-zine RUMORS (rumors@joinhands.com) be the moving spirit of our times? It

seems to say what the Book of Jonah was also saying.

Ships sail east and ships sail west

While the self same breezes blow:

It's the set of the sails and not the gales

That determines the way they go.

Like the winds of the sea is the way of fate

As we journey along through life.

It's the set of the soul that determines the goal

And not the calm or the strife.

PSALM 62:5-12 The only explanation for beginning the reading of this

psalm at vs. 5 is that, according to scholars, it had become corrupted in

some way during transmission; its original beginning lost and replaced by

a repetition of vss. 5-6 as vss. 1-2.

The poem has some relationship with the vocabulary and mood of Qoheleth

(Ecclesiastes) and the later Wisdom literature of the Intertestamental

period. This is especially noticeable in vs. 9. At the same time, it

also expresses a sincere confidence in God using traditional phrases of

the Psalter such as "my rock and my salvation"; "my fortress" and "a

refuge".

The psalm goes well with the reading from Jonah because it presents the

same elements of universal justice (vss. 9-10) and compassion based on the

psalmist's confident trust in God's steadfast love (vss. 11-12).

1 CORINTHIANS 7:29-31 In this brief passage Paul appears to counter the

traditional view of both Jewish and Christian family values by promoting

celibacy within marriage as well as outside of it. But is he really

suggesting that marriage is not the best thing for young men and women in

the Corinthian congregation?

The key words are: "...the appointed time has grown short...." At this

stage in his ministry, Paul was looking for the imminent return of Christ

in glory. He wanted all faithful people to give themselves wholly to

preparing for that event. Marriage and family responsibilities would

detract from their commitment. So also would worldly possessions. It was

excessive attachment to these relationships, not their existence, which

Paul decried.

Celibacy had received very little mention in the scriptures. For Jews it

was limited to those who through injury could not function sexually (Deut.

23:1) and those who through a congenital condition, violence or choice had

become eunuchs (Matt. 19:12). As far as we know, Paul was not married,

which was unusual for a rabbi; or his spouse had died, a not uncommon

reality in those days of poor prenatal and postnatal health care.

Christian celibacy is thought to have derived from the Essene sect of

Qumran. Philo of Alexandria and Josephus both believed that the Essenes

did not marry or practiced celibacy in marriage. A closer examination of

the cemetery at Qumran and of the Dead Sea Scrolls has revealed, however,

that while marriage was restricted, it was by no means banned by the sect.

The adoption of celibacy for clergy in the post-apostolic church depended

more on dogmatic theological attitudes to sexuality by church authorities

influenced by Neo-Platonic philosophy and Gnosticism. As the expectation

of the Parousia receded, celibacy was still praised and marriage

tolerated. The triumph of the orthodox Trinitarian formula in the 4th

century increased the cult of the Virgin Mary and led to the belief that

sexuality and marriage, while permitted, were less spiritually valuable

than celibacy for both men and women. However, this did not become a

requirement for western clergy and religious vocations until the 12th

century. It was never adopted by the Eastern Church and had not been

effectively enforced in the Western Latin Church until the 19th century.

MARK 1:14-20 Mark's version of Jesus calling his first disciples is

quite different from what we read in John 1:35-51. John the Baptist had

been imprisoned by Herod Antipas. Jesus immediately took his place

preaching repentance and the good news of God's salvation. (1:14)

The calling of the four fishermen occurred entirely on Jesus' initiative,

not as John appears to say (John 1:35-51), due to of their curiosity.

This was in keeping with Mark's presentation of Jesus' Messiahship being

hidden until Peter's declaration toward the end of Jesus' ministry (Mark

8:27-33). However they were called, the disciples' response was

immediate.

Let's face it, this has always been a problem because the decision of the

four fishermen seems so irrational. The call of the four and their

instantaneous response was intended, not to report an historical event,

but to encourage faith and to set an example for others to follow. It has

succeeded remarkably in doing so, witness the frequency with which the

story has been used in evangelical preaching and hymnody. In telling of

their call in this way, Mark appears to be saying that these fishermen are

typical true believers, not church officials as the later institution

regarded them.

In a helpful article in *The Oxford Companion to the Bible*, (Oxford

University Press, 1993. 138-9) Professor J. Andrew Overman, of the

University of Rochester, NY, points out that for Mark the disciples are

"agents of instruction for the author, but as negative examples. They

teach the audience or readers, but mostly through the things they do wrong

or fail to understand." This provides Mark with opportunities to explain

Jesus' mission. "Discipleship in Mark involves fear, doubt and

suffering.... (They) never fully understand and never quite overcome

their fear and apprehension."

If this be so, then the immediate response of the four fishermen was quite

uncharacteristic. They did not hesitate at all when Jesus invited them to

follow him and "fish for people." But that is often the case with

discipleship, isn't it? We begin with immediate enthusiastic acceptance of

the invitation. Subsequent experience knocks that out of us very quickly.

The inspiration of the moment is easily stifled and a sense of spiritual

boredom soon overwhelms us. (Cf. The parable of the sower and seed -

Mark 4:3-9.) Compare also a modern instance, of all the thousands who over

the past half century responded to Billy Graham's altar calls, how many

have maintained their initial commitment? By introducing the four

disciples this early in his narrative, Mark is setting up just such a

situation to teach his audience how difficult discipleship really is when

lived out in the real world with only faith to carry them.

Remember too, that Mark wrote in the 60s or early 70s CE when Christian

discipleship had become exceedingly costly in Rome, for both Jews and

Gentiles. The gospel may well have been written soon after the deaths of

both Peter and Paul during Emperor Nero's persecution. He blamed the

Christians for burning the city, a crime of which he himself was guilty.

If Mark wrote after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, Jews would also

have been in grave danger. At such times who would have been willing to

don the shoes of the four fishermen, humble Jews from Galilee?

please acknowledge the appropriate author if citing these resources.

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Partners in urban transformation

Third Sunday after Epiphany - Cycle B

(Third Sunday in Ordinary Time)

Jonah 3:1-10; Psalm 62:5-12; Mark 1:14-20; I Corinthians 7:29-31

Jonah 3:1-10. This chapter is short (only ten verses) and its message is simple and direct. A chastened Jonah, having been rescued from the belly of the fish, accepts the call earlier issued to him by God and goes to Ninevah, “an exceedingly large city” to proclaim the word of God to it. His message is simple: “Forty days more, and Ninevah shall be overthrown” (in Hebrew, that message consists of only five words) (vs. 4). The people and the king hear Jonah’s message, repent in sackcloth and ashes (vs. 8), and God spares them (vs. 10). It’s a simple story, but it is a most profound understanding of the misuse of power and how God can work to transform those seduced by such power.

To understand this story, one must first ask and answer the question, “What was Ninevah?” Ninevah was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire, the dominant political and military power in the Middle East from 880 to 620 BCE. They conquered most of the nations along the Fertile Crescent (including Israel) and mercilessly harassed both the kingdoms of Judah and of Egypt. They were a warlike people, and their empire was built as a giant war machine. They were intolerant in religion, forcing each conquered nation to worship their gods. And they were well known for their ruthless cruelty in warfare. An example of the savagery of their attack was stated by Ashur-nasir-pal II, one of their greatest rulers, who wrote in the court records this description of his conquering of one nation:

“I stormed the mountain peaks and took them. In the midst of the mighty mountain I slaughtered them, with their blood I dyed the mountain red like wool. With the rest of them I darkened the gullies and precipices of the mountains. I carried off their spoil and their possessions. The heads of their warriors I cut off, I formed them into a pillar outside their city walls, I set the pillar of heads afire, and then their young men and their maidens I burned in that fire”.[1]

The Assyrians were particularly known for psychological warfare. When they would be ready to conquer a nation, their great army would cover the hills and valleys around the capital city. They would then take the highest-ranking soldier of that nation whom they had captured and would skin him alive in front of the city walls. They would hang the skin on a framework so that all on the walls could see it, as the man, writhing in pain, died in front of his own flesh. The Assyrian commander would then give a challenge to the king. He had a choice. Either he could surrender the city and the nation to Assyria and his head would be quickly severed from his body. Or, if he chose to resist, then once the city fell to the Assyrian army, that defending king would then be skinned alive in front of his conquered people.[2] When one reads the account written in II Kings 18:13 – 19:37 and Isaiah 36-37 of how the Rabshakeh (commanding general) of the Assyrian army confronted Judah’s king Hezekiah in front of the city walls with the threat of the city’s (and Hezekiah’s) annihilation and the clear implication that if he did not surrender, Hezekiah would be skinned alive, one can much more profoundly appreciate the degree of faith Hezekiah must have had in God in order to accept the prophet Isaiah’s counsel to trust in God to deliver Israel from the Assyrians.

So Jonah preaches his five-word sermon, the Ninevites heed it and repent (3:4-5). When the Assyrian king hears Jonah’s message, he is so convicted that he decrees that the king and all his nobles, as well as all the people, are to fast, pray, repent “and turn from (our) evil ways and from the violence that is in (our) hands” (3:6-8). “Who knows?” the king says. “God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish” (vs. 9).

An intriguing parallel construction occurs at this point with the king’s command to his subjects and God’s response to that command. It is as follows:

· “All shall turn from their evil ways” (vs. 8) à “God saw how they turned from their evil ways” (vs. 9)

· “God may relent and change his mind” (9) à “God changed his mind” (10)

· “So that we do not perish” (9) à “and he did not do it” (10).

So it was that what the Assyrian king purposed to do to bring his nation to repentance, God honored and “changed his mind” regarding their destruction. Why did God honor the Assyrian repentance? There is an intriguing phrase in this story that reveals why God responded the way he did. The text says, “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” (vs. 10).

The narrator reports that “God saw what they did” in that they “turned from their evil ways” rather than “they acted in good ways”. That is, the Assyrians not only repented of their ruthlessness and cruelty. They turned from it! They rejected it! They put it behind themselves! They didn’t simply try to do good acts to demonstrate that they had truly repented. They put their evil and ruthless ways behind themselves. That is, God “saw” an inner change of heart in the king, nobles and people of Ninevah, a “violent” rejection of their violence, and therefore God knew that their change in their outward actions were not just a temporary veneer to make themselves appear acceptable to God but a depth change of the very principles and values upon which their society had previously acted (see also Jer. 18:7-8; Exod. 32:12; I Sam. 7:8; II Sam. 24:16; Ezra 8:23; Ps. 90:13; Jer. 36:3,7).

Psalm 62 is a psalm of trust in God alone. I find its refrain particularly moving.

"For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock; my refuge is in God” (Psalm 62:5-7, also see vss. 1-2).

The message throughout the entirety of this Psalm is God’s care of us and, consequently, the necessity for us to trust in him. “Trust in him at all times, O people”, the psalmist declares. “Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us” (vs. 8).

And why? Because neither we as individuals nor all of us as a people or a nation are anything to depend upon. We should not be so foolish as to place confidence in ourselves or even in each other. So the Psalmist concludes, “Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God and steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord. For you repay to all, according to their work” (62:11-12).

Mark 1:14-20 divides into two distinct sections. Verses 14-15 are an introduction to the first portion of the book of Mark. Verses 16-20 tell of Jesus’ call to his first disciples. Let’s consider each section.

"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”.” (1:14-15)

This introductory passage tells us that Jesus began proclaiming the kingdom of God “after John was arrested” (1:14). Thus, with his stepping into the void left by John’s arrest, Jesus is very intentionally taking on the mantle of John. Yet, he is “more powerful than (John)” (1:7), because he is God’s “Son, the Beloved” (1:11), about whom John had prophesied.

This passage is introductory material, but is distinct from the introduction of Mark 1:1-11 that preceded it. Whereas the earlier introduction was of the entire book of Mark, this is an introduction of the first section (1:14-10:52) only. This section centers on Jesus’ ministry, healings, teachings and controversies in Galilee.

The text states that the essential ministry of Jesus was to proclaim “the good news of God”. This is an unusual statement, the only time it appears in scripture. Of course, the word in Greek for “good news” is “gospel”, so either word can be legitimately used here. But the proclamation is of the “gospel of God”, not of Jesus (cf. 1:1). As we pointed out in the exposition of Mark on the Second Sunday of Advent, “the word “gospel” was a technical term for “news of victory”, (especially) for the ascension to power of a new Roman emperor”. Thus, in Jesus’ proclamation of “the good news of God”, he is proclaiming how God has and will act to bring a new monarch – God’s monarch -- to leadership in the world. And this, in turn, sets the theme for this entire section (1:14—10:52). God is acting mightily among humanity (and especially among the poor and powerless) through the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus proclaims, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near” (or, equally possible in the Greek, “is at hand”). The words “fulfilled” and “come near” or “at hand” are in the perfect tense. The perfect tense in Greek was always used to convey an action begun in the past that is being carried on into the present and even beyond the present into the future.

Thus, what Jesus is proclaiming in these words is that the Kingdom of God didn’t initiate with him. The creation of the Kingdom of God began with the very origins of Israel, when Abraham was called out of Ur into the Promised Land and God made covenant with him to bless all the nations of the world through him (Gen. 12:1-3). The nation was actualized through the actions of Moses that liberated the Israelites from Egyptian oppression and formed them into God’s people in the wilderness. The Kingdom of God was established through the kings and given theological perspective through the prophets. It was contained in the dream of shalom and of Jubilee. And now, with Jesus assuming John’s mantle and proclaiming “the good news of God”, the Kingdom is now reaching its apex, its high point, its denouement in Him!

The coming of Jesus, Mark is announcing to the reader in 1:14-15, has set into motion all the spiritual forces and the political and economic incentives that will bring about the actualization of the Kingdom of God. Thus, after Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension into heaven, the formation of that kingdom will continue throughout church history until the end time. This is now the divine moment, the “kairos” moment for the kingdom when, with the arrival of Jesus, the “gospel” now becomes “gospel” for all the peoples of the whole world, and it becomes actualized in the church!

But how is God’s Kingdom actualized? Jesus proclaimed, “Repent, and believe in the good news” (1:15b). To take on the Kingdom in one’s own life, in one’s family and in one’s society requires both repentance and belief. It requires “repentance” of the way we have been seduced by the old order, by a society that prizes control, oppression, exploitation, greed, lust for power, dominance. That was what John proclaimed (1:4). But Jesus goes farther. It also requires “belief in the good news”. To embrace God’s new order and to allow it to reshape your life in entirety requires to “believe in the good news”’ it requires “faith” (the same Greek word, pistis, is either translated “faith” or “belief”). It requires a heart, mind, soul and body commitment to the new order, an embracing of it not only in one’s own life but in all of one’s efforts to work for the transformation of human politics, economics, education and values into the “shalom community”. God requires repentance, belief and obedience in response to this new “good news”.

Mark 1:16-20 is the telling of Jesus’ first call to potential disciples to “come, follow me” (1:17). The two call stories of disciples that are presented here and the one that follows in Mark 2:13-14 all follow exactly the same pattern. That pattern is that (1) Jesus moves along the shore, where the people are gathered (1:16a, 19a, 2:13); (2) he meets people doing business and engages them in conversation (1:16b, 19b, 2:13-14); (3) he calls specific individuals among them to follow him (1:17, 20a; 2:14); and (4) these people abandon their workplace and their profession, and follow him (1:18, 20b; 2:14b).

In the story of the challenge given to Simon (later called Peter) and Andrew, Jesus’ call is of particular significance. Noting that they are fishermen, and making a play on words, Jesus says, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people” (or better, in the Greek, “fishers of men”) (1:17). It is worth to thoughtfully examine this passage because this is one of the most misinterpreted passages in scripture.

In this passage, Jesus is obviously calling these potential disciples into a vocation. But what is that vocation into which they (and we) are being called? Are they being called into an evangelistic task? Or does the term, “fishers of men” have a far more profound meaning than that of winning people to faith (pistis) in Christ? To answer this question, we must do what we have repeatedly done in our study of the lectionary. We must ask the question, “What did the term, ‘fishers of men’, mean to Jews living in the first century A.D.?” And to answer that question, we must turn to the way this phrase or comparable phrases were used in the Old Testament.

There are only three places in the Hebrew Bible in which this same image was used. Those passages are Jeremiah 16:16, Amos 4:2 and Ezekiel 29:4. In Jeremiah 16:16, it is used of Israel’s leaders being “caught” by God-appointed “fishermen” and punished for their abuse of power, because of “their iniquity and their sin” (16:18) where they “have filled my inheritance with their abominations”.

In Amos 4:2, Israel’s political, economic and religious leaders and their wives will be taken away into captivity “with hooks” and “with fishhooks”, the prophet declares, because they both “oppress the poor and crush the needy” and at the same time, live in conspicuous consumption in front of those they oppress. In Ezekiel 29:4, God will “put hooks in the jaws” of Pharaoh king of Egypt and will ‘draw you up from your channels and fling you into the wilderness” (vss. 4-5) “because you were a staff of reed to the house of Israel; when they grasped you with the hand, you broke, and when they leaned on you, you made all their legs unsteady” (vss. 6-7).

In each of these three Old Testament uses of “fishers of men”, judgment comes upon the powerful because they did not use their power to eliminate poverty, to empower the people or to benefit the common good. In each usage, the powerful are criticized for not using their power to move their society toward increasingly becoming the Kingdom of God!

But what does this have to do with these newly called disciples and their vocation of being “fishers of men”? In Mark 1:16-20 is a very intriguing phrase that tells us a great deal about the economic condition of these men and their family businesses. Verse 20 states, “James and John left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed Jesus”. With the hired men! The Zebedee Fishing Company had employees! That was an indication that the family of James and John was at least economically “comfortable”. They belonged to an independent artisan class of people. They were not day laborers, the peasants or the poor of Israel. It is reasonable to assume that the same would be true of Andrew and Simon. If Levi (Matthew) was indeed a tax collector (as implied in the third call in Mk. 2:14), he would be economically “comfortable” as well. In fact, Jesus was himself a carpenter, which would also make him an independent artisan, possibly working with his father and brothers in the family business. And as we examine the other disciples, the same would be true of them.

Jewish society during the lifetime of Jesus was essentially divided into four levels. Those at the top were the governing class of Gentile and Jewish rulers and the Jerusalem Clergy Aristocracy. They made up, at most, 2% of the population. With their retainers, they would have been about 7% of the population. Merchants and artisans made up of the second level of society, ranging from highly successful and well-to-do merchants to artisans whose skills made them economically valuable. They made up about 13% of the population. Below them were the peasants who worked the fields of the merchants and landowners and who were employed in the shops of the artisans; they made up about 70% of the population. At the bottom of society were the unclean and the expendables. According to the economic health of the nation at any moment, those at the bottom could vary between 10% and 20% (when many peasants would fall into the expendable category) of the population.[3]

Jesus and his disciples were primarily made up of the “artisan” class of people. Not many of them were peasants and very, very few would be among either the governing class or the expendables. But the ministry to which Jesus felt called was to the expendables and the peasants of Israelite society! Jesus saw his task as afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted. Empowered by the vision of the Kingdom of God – the shalom society of Jubilee that God had intended all Israel (and indeed the entire world) to live under – Jesus set about the task of calling the “artisan” class to follow him in calling Israel back to the practice of a society under God living in justice and equity for all. Thus, Jesus called his followers to be “fishers of men”! As Ched Myers so magnificently put it,

“Following Jesus requires not just assent of the heart, but a fundamental reordering of social-economic relationships. The first step in dismantling the dominant social order is to overturn the “world” of the disciples: in the kingdom, the personal and the political are one. . . . Thus, this is not a call “out” of the world, but into an alternative social practice”.[4]

In the Old Testament lesson for today, the Assyrians thoroughly, totally and even “violently” repented of their national sin, and thus were saved. Well, it was this total, thorough, “violent” response on the part of Israel’s political, economic and religious aristocracy for which Jesus was calling. And in the Gospel lesson for today, Jesus was calling his fellow “artisans” to become united in using the influence and power they had to convince Israel’s leadership to embrace the “shalom” society presented throughout the Old Testament! If heathen as evil as the Assyrians could repent, change their ways and commit themselves to building a shalom world, then Israel’s leadership of the first century could do it as well. No nation should live with 2% dominating, controlling and exploiting all the rest – but least of all, God’s nation – Israel. They had been called to far more than that. They had been called to embrace God’s intentions of shaping together a shalom community of justice, equity, elimination of poverty and a vital relationship with God. Now, God was giving them this opportunity. Now, God was calling on them to repent and become that nation, under God, that God always intended them to be. Would the king, the nobles, the people of Israel believe God, repent and turn from their evil ways? Would God see authentic repentance? Or would their actions force God to judge and destroy them and begin to search for a new people?

I Corinthians 7:29-31 declares, “I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they had no possessions, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealing with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.”

“Time is short”. This is a phrase Paul used to impress upon the Christians that the end of the age was near and that they should therefore not be diverted from a highly intentional living out of their call (e.g., 1:7-8; 3:13-15; 4:4-5; 5:5). There is much in life that is attractive – marriage, happiness, possessions, even legitimate sorrow. But all of these, and others as well, can easily divert us from “keeping on keeping on”. We are not to give way to the values of society as corrupted by the lust for power, greed and domination. Jesus called potential disciples to recognize that the dismantling of the dominant social order and the reordering of society with Godly values must begin with one’s self, and one’s own intentional choices. We must choose to live as followers of the Christ and the Christ-way of life, seeking to help form the shalom community in a world given over to injustice and unrighteousness. We must live in the world but not be of it. For it is only in this way that we can truly become “fishers of men”.

(PIUT Lectionary StudyB 01.22.doc)

[1] Daniel David Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, two volumes (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1926), p. 270, paragraph 447.

[2] Ibid., par. 443; see Jack Finegan, Light from the Ancient Past (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1954), pp. 170-171..

[3] Gerhard Lenski, Power and Privilege: A Theory of Social Stratification (New York: McGraw Hill, 1966), Andre Trocme, Jesus and the Nonviolent Revolution (Eugene, OR.: Wipf and Stock, 1998), William R. Herzog, Parables as Subversive Speech: Jesus as Pedagogue of the Oppressed (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox, 1994); Donald Kraybill, The Upside Down Kingdom (Scottdale, PA.: Herald Press, 1991).

[4] Ched Myers, Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Press, 1988), pp. 132-133.

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Sermon Seeds

Focus Scripture:

Mark 1:14-20

Weekly Theme:

Follow Me

Reflection:

For many years, I led a weekly Bible study on Thursday evenings in the church I was serving. Most weeks, we used the Seasons of the Spirit curriculum to reflect on the readings for the following Sunday, but once a year we spent the evening reading an entire Gospel (the one for that church year), out loud, from beginning to end, with everyone taking a turn. As much as I appreciate the lectionary, I found that annual practice immensely helpful for hearing so much that's missed if the Gospel is read in pieces that are more like episodes in a series. The Gospel of Mark was a good one to begin with, since it's shorter than the others, but it's particularly good for a one-sitting reading, and I think that's because of its pace. Read out loud, straight through, Mark's Gospel conveys a sense of the urgency in the ministry of Jesus. (Also, more than once, our little group actually laughed in surprise at the questions the clueless disciples asked, given all they had seen and experienced, just a few verses or chapters earlier. You miss that in the lectionary.)

Ted Smith captures the urgency well: "Mark," he writes, "begins like an alarm clock, persistently declaring the time and demanding some response" (Feasting on the Word). The Gospel takes off, without the beautiful infancy narratives, no manger, no shepherds, no elderly prophets singing praise to God in the temple as they hold the promised One, a baby, in their arms. Instead, Mark sets the scene with compact accounts of John the Baptist preaching, and Jesus being baptized and then driven into the wilderness (Mark gives the wilderness temptations two verses, while Matthew uses fourteen). At a clipped pace, the Gospel writer simply refers to John's arrest so he can get on to his main point, the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. Even at the end of today's reading, we're not even halfway through chapter 1!

Time, then, and urgency are at the heart of this passage. In that first chapter, William Abraham writes, "Jesus sweeps through Galilee and takes it by storm….the underlying sense is that God is on the march in the ministry of Jesus" (The Lectionary Commentary). The time is now, Jesus announces: his very first words of proclamation are "The time is fulfilled" (v.15). Eugene Peterson even translates it as "Time's up!" (The Message). This isn't the kind of time we keep track of in our calendars and journals: days, weeks, months and years. It's another kind of time, found in the New Testament but sometimes experienced today, too: kairos, as Fred Craddock describes it, "a special time, an opportune time, a time in which the constellation of factors creates an unusually significant moment" (Preaching through the Christian Year B). It's the kind of time we long for, especially as communities, and the people of Israel had been waiting for just such a moment, when the heel of this oppressor or that one (there had been so many, from Egypt through Assyria and Babylon to Rome) would be removed from their throats. They trusted in the promises of God even when everything around them contradicted and even violated the vision of justice and peace, of shalom, that was at the heart of those promises. The prophets spoke and sang of this hope, and how could the people of God not hold onto it, long for it, watch for it? And yet, how does one prepare for such a time? And how does one respond to it when it finally comes?

Much has been written about the response of the disciples who dropped everything to follow Jesus. Why did they do something so drastic, and how could they up-end their lives so dramatically, and would that really be a good thing for us to do, that is, if we could "manage" it? We can't help putting ourselves in that boat, or on that shore, doing our everyday work, casting our nets and minding our own business, fulfilling our commitments and dealing with the reality of having to work just to survive. Could we measure up to the standard of those disciples, and drop everything, too? We might wonder why and how those first four disciples could do such a thing, without even a stirring sermon from Jesus, or maybe a dramatic miracle, or better yet, the sky opening up and a voice announcing that this was God's own beloved, and that they should listen to him (we assume they weren't around when Jesus was baptized, just a few verses earlier). Such an incident would have provided some clear explanation for their abandonment of everything to follow Jesus. And it's perplexing that men of such insight and response would then prove to be those same clueless disciples through much of Mark's Gospel. What did they know, on that seashore, that we don't know?

Barbara Brown Taylor suggests that we're missing the point if we linger on such questions. This is a story about God, not the disciples or us, she claims in her sermon, "Miracle on the Beach." To focus on what the disciples gave up (and whether we could do the same), is "to put the accent on the wrong syllable." This "miracle story," as she calls it, is really about "the power of God--to walk right up to a quartet of fishermen and work a miracle, creating faith where there was no faith, creating disciples where there were none just a moment before." Now this way of approaching the story may, oddly, make us uncomfortable, especially in a culture that emphasizes our choices and independence, our ability to shape our lives and determine our destinies. We can do it; it's within our power; we can fix and improve everything; we can take hold of the future and make it what we want it to be. In fact, we have to do it, in order to please God and get to heaven. The better we are, the more saintly and sacrificing we are, the more likely we are to earn our salvation. Taylor rightly calls this "works-righteousness": "What we may have lost along the way is a full sense of the power of God – to recruit people who have made terrible choices; to invade the most hapless lives and fill them with light; to sneak up on people who are thinking about lunch, not God, and smack them upside the head with glory" (Home by Another Way). Whether we're ready or not, God acts.

And yet we do have the freedom to respond to God's grace and God's call. Those are words we say often, but what does that response look and feel like? Ted Smith helpfully suggests that Jesus doesn't ask the fishermen "to add one more task to their busy lives. He calls them into new ways of being." So he doesn't give them a new list of things to do but "a new identity….a whole new life" (Feasting on the Word). On the other hand, Elton W. Brown acknowledges that our whole new life has a lot of work in it, including the work we do for the sake of the kingdom: maybe the fun part is throwing the nets out and bringing in the haul, but "[t]here are also the preparations, the mending of nets, repairing the tools that are bound to be damaged and worn….You can't always be fishing, even if that's your favorite part" (Feasting on the Word). We are caught (so to speak) once again in that tension between works-righteousness and a conversion experience of grace that really changes the way we behave. Barbara Brown Taylor suggests that, like the disciples who turned in a new direction, we also turn our lives "in the same direction as God's life," and that means, perhaps, doing the same things but doing them "in a new way, or for new reasons." What's important is that "our wills spill into the will of God," and then, "time is fulfilled--immediately!--and the kingdom is at hand" (Home by Another Way).

What about "the will of God"? What about the need and longing of the world, and the hope, and expectation, of the people? And what is this "kingdom" that Jesus proclaims has drawn near? William Abraham hears political content in Jesus' message, and he offers us some hard words about it: our response shouldn't just focus on "looking within ourselves and discovering what we need, what we have done wrong, or where we need comfort and consolation and then turning to God to take care of our list of particulars." We may want to concentrate on our own personal "piety," but "kingdom discourse," he says, turns our attention, and our energies, toward "current public and political issues" (The Lectionary Commentary).

Engaging, then, in "kingdom discourse," we might consider the significance not only of "when" in this passage, but "where" it happens. Jesus didn't begin his ministry by walking into the temple, the center of the religious life of his people, or even into the city of Jerusalem, and announcing who he was and what he was about. He started out on the edges, even when he came out of the wilderness, preaching in places like Galilee, and gathering his little band of disciples not from the religious leaders and scholars but from fishermen, here and there, along the seashore, the prosperous ones like James and John (with their boat and their hired men), and the poorer ones like Simon and Andrew, who had to cast their nets from the shore. Again, William Abraham writes that Jesus began his ministry out there, away from "the great centers of power" because "the ground has to be further prepared before he can speak directly to the powers that be" (The Lectionary Commentary). This week, we have observed a holiday that reminds us of the great struggle of a people whose faith in God sustained (and sustains) them through a long and hard experience of oppression. The personal response of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and of countless other individuals, expresses faith in what God has done and continues to do and promises to do, and Jesus embodies that promise and that "kingdom," that new and decisive way to live according to the will of God. In the United States, we have collectively recommitted, in a moment in our own history of fresh hope and possibility, to seek new occasions and new ways to walk in the ways of justice, healing, and peace. Dr. King drew together that public/political nature of the kingdom with our own call from God, away from old ways of being, to claim our identity as the children of God, and to live lives faithful to such a calling: "Now," he said, "Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter--but beautiful--struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the [children] of God, and our brothers [and sisters] wait eagerly for our response" (from "A Time to Break Silence).

And so, whether we leave our nets for good, or return to them and catch fish in a new way, with a new identity and a whole new life, we are responding to Jesus, and to what God is doing in Jesus. This is not just a moment of decision, but a lifelong commitment, and we have something of immeasurable value to sustain us along the way, the promise, as Henri Nouwen says, that "the same Lord who binds us together in love will also reveal himself to us and others as we walk together on the road." Christians are called to ministry, and "[t]he mystery of ministry is that we have been chosen to make our own limited and very conditional love the gateway for the unlimited and unconditional love of God" (In the Name of Jesus). This love permeates our lives, both public and personal, and reveals God's own hand at work in our lives.

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SAUMEL

January 25, 2009

The Power and Possibility of Change

Dramatic conversions may come infrequently, yet we are invited to seize those rare times for transformation. During these holy days following Epiphany, both spiritually and politically, God calls us to step boldly into the unknown.

This week's lectionary Bible passages:

Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Psalm 62:5-12; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20

* Who's Out in the Conversation

* What's Out in the Conversation

* Prayerfully Out in Scripture

Who's in the Conversation

A conversation among the following scholars and pastors

“I am grateful that God’s love is so unbound that God uses it to guide me with my own uniqueness. God is persistently, continually beckoning in ways that get my and our attention.”

Donna M. Prince

“Whenever we rest in our own stability, however that is defined, we cannot make the radical jump into God’s arms. However hard it may be, what a gift it is to finally get to a place where we have no illusions left – only God.”

Ann Holmes Redding

“I rejoice in the graciousness of God who keeps coming back – a second time and a third time and as many times as we need – no matter what we have done with the message since the first time we heard it.”

Judith Hoch Wray

What's Out in the Conversation

A conversation about this week's lectionary Bible passages

Psalm 62:5-12 reminds us that the “bottom line” is not about finances or politics. The bottom line by which all things are reckoned is God alone. When the psalmist poetically recalls that “Once God has spoken; twice I have heard this: that power belongs to God” (verse 11), we are challenged to remember that even though God’s word may appear as a one-time moment, we hear it at different times and in different ways.

What difference would it make in your life if you were to wait for God alone, if you were to put your confidence only in God?

Jonah 3:1-5, 10 calls us to look, not at the prophet Jonah, but at the exceedingly large city of Nineveh and at its surprising acts of repentance. Yes, the political scene can change overnight. The change is so abrupt, so dramatic. Nineveh’s turning moment was certainly unexpected by Jonah. This unexpected mercy will challenge Jonah about his own need for radical conversion in the next chapter of the story.

What does it mean that God changes God’s mind (verse 10)? How easily we forget that human agency is so intertwined with our perceptions of God’s actions that the assertion that “God changed God’s mind” may be the best we can do to explain God’s acts that do not meet our expectations. We envision the time when much of the church reports that “God changed God’s mind” about LGBT persons and non-heterosexual relationships, pronouncing us blessed instead of cursed. Of course, some of us are clear that such is the truth already. God’s mind does not need to change, only people’s perceptions of God’s mind.

When, perhaps, has God’s unexpected acts prompted you to radical conversion or change?

1 Corinthians 7:29-31 speaks to how we as people of faith live in a world that is changing. The answer: hold everything lightly. Don’t try to cling to what you think you have. Stay in the midst of your emotions, your relationships, your business, without allowing those things to define your life or expectations.

How would it change your priorities, actions and commitments if you were to live as if God’s realm was the coming reality instead of basing your actions on the known world which is passing away?

Mark 1:14-20 seems to call attention to the radical response of Simon, Andrew, James and John when they hear Jesus’ call. Yet we found ourselves asking what makes it possible for some to respond immediately while for others the response is more difficult. What kept father Zebedee and the hired workers from responding to the call? The answer may not be as simple as believing that Jesus extended the call only to those specific individuals.

Judith Hoch Wray comments that “When I am tempted to believe that God’s call to me to be publicly out as a Christian lesbian is a universal call, I am reminded of the power dynamics that make it difficult, if not impossible, for some LGBT persons to respond to that same call to be out.” Not everyone responds at the same time or in the same way. Each of us experience moments of being ready to respond to transformation. Such moments are not always concurrent with the call extended to us. What grace that the call does not go away! God’s invitation comes back again and again until we are truly ready to respond (compare with Jonah 3:1 “a second time”).

How do our responsibilities and our power in the community either inhibit us or allow us to respond to the call of God? How do we respect and challenge each other’s responses without judging another’s faithfulness to God’s call?

Out In Scripture

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What a wretched, miserable specimen of humanity Jonah is! Here is a man who makes Eeyore look as if he’s overdosing on Prozak. Having completely blown his first call to preach to the people of Nineveh he is given a second chance to redeem himself and so goes to preach to this great, sprawling city. And what a place Nineveh was. Referred to elsewhere in the Old Testament as a place of endless cruelty, a city of blood, this is one city ripe for judgement and destruction. It was the day of reckoning for Nineveh and Jonah is called to proclaim it. He is the herald of doom. So Jonah the reluctant prophet sets off, finds a convenient pulpit a day’s journey into the city, and proclaims his gloomy message to the people. And much to Jonah’s irritation, God lets him down. People actually listen to what Jonah has to say. Revival breaks out and, as Jonah feared, repentance follows and God decides not to destroy the city after all. God notes the reaction to Jonah’s preaching, has a change of heart and gives them a reprieve. And what a total twit Jonah feels. He feels undermined by God and resentful and in the verses that follow he goes off in one humungous huff. Having proclaimed destruction, he wants to see it happen!

Jonah’s attitude of course is reprehensible. He should have been delighted that God had a change of mind. Jonah is a hard-hearted, hard-boiled prig, but we have to say one thing about Jonah: he understood the power of God’s Word. He knew that when it was unleashed the Word of God was likely to have this kind of dramatic effect. He knew that it was likely to cut to the quick and that it could provoke mass repentance. And that was just what he was afraid of. That’s why he ducked out of God’s call first time round. And indeed this is something that this passage seems to be straining to tell us: the power of the Word of God. Jonah has only to utter and suddenly repentance is rippling through the city and soon high and low are donning sackcloth. Indeed so determined is this text to convey to us the power of the Word of God that it even has animals being affected! Yes, verse 8 states that ‘every person and every animal is to be covered with sackcloth’ and we can only imagine some entrepreneurial wise-guy out in the city centre flogging sackcloth for dogs, cats, guinea pigs, gerbils… ‘buy one, get one free!’

And when we turn to Mark’s Gospel we find the power of the Word of God is still palpable. John the Baptist has been arrested and suddenly Jesus is on the scene and he’s preaching, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. The Word of God is sounding forth: ‘the time has arrived: the kingdom of God is upon you. Repent and believe the Gospel!’ And Mark employs a different strategy for conveying the power of God’s Word. Not for him camels running around in sackcloth. He highlights instead the radical effect of the Word of God: the disciples just drop everything and follow. In Mark’s Gospel there is no suggestion that these disciples had ever seen or met Jesus before. There is no getting-to-know-you. Suddenly Jesus just appears and proclaims and the disciples leave their homes and their loved ones and these fishermen drop everything. They leave their occupations and their livelihoods and their security - and follow. They ask no questions, there is no hesitation, just that familiar phrase that Mark uses again and again in his Gospel: ‘at once…’ Jesus utters to Simon and Andrew and at once they leave their nets and follow him. At once James and John are off, leaving a presumably bemused Zebedee in the boat. It’s that way when we encounter God’s Word in its full power and authority. And of course the result is that transformation follows. Things change. Nineveh is changed. Simon and Andrew and James and John will never be the same.

I want to probe this a bit further. I want to ponder more deeply this extraordinary transforming power of the Word. What is it about God’s Word that gives it this power? How can it change things so dramatically? At one level the answer to that is easy. After all, God is speaking. It is God’s Word and we should expect it to be powerful and transforming. God spoke and the universe came into being. By God’s Word the heavens and earth were created. We should expect it to be powerful, even when mediated through a human mouth and tongue. But maybe there’s more…

Let’s turn for a moment to our third reading, this extraordinary passage from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. Just listen again: ‘What I mean my friends is this. The time we live in will not last long: while it lasts married men should be as if they had no wives; mourners should be as if they had nothing to grieve them; the joyful as if they did not rejoice…’ etc. etc. What is Paul on about here? Well, you see, Paul’s basic, fundamental conviction is that since Jesus has come something utterly decisive has happened. To be more specific, Paul’s basic conviction is that because of Jesus the way things are now is not the way things are going to be. With Jesus comes the promise of a new world, a new creation, a new order where things will be changed. And this is not just pie in the sky. It is already beginning now. The new order is breaking in. But that means that here and now we are set free to imagine the world differently - indeed not only to imagine the world differently but to live differently. We are no linger limited, no longer restricted, no longer bound by the way things are. We are set free to imagine and to live now according to how things will be. In Paul’s terms, we are set free to live ‘as if‘ - as if that new world is already here. And this is crucial. Things do not need to be as they are.

Think about this. Christian feathers have been ruffled recently by Richard Dawkins, that charismatic evangelical atheist with his arguments against God and religion. We should not dismiss Dawkins lightly. God needs to be put in the dock from, time to time. But one problem with Dawkins’ gospel of atheism is that we are left only with evolution - and how Dawkins loves evolution! He loves the way the universe has been fashioned and formed over billions of years in evolution’s steady ascent. And there is indeed something astounding about all that. But the trouble, surely, with evolution by itself is that there is a terrible necessity about the way things are. The world as it is has been moulded and shaped over this vast expanse of time and whatever has endured has done so because it has adapted successfully. But that makes it very different to imagine how things could be otherwise, how they could be different. Whatever has endured has endured for a reason. Other options have been screened out by natural selection. And we are therefore trapped by the immense weight of the past. We are captive to the billions of years of processes that have made us what we are. We are indeed creatures in hock to the past.

Whereas for Paul, we are creatures of the future: freed from the past, beckoned by the pull of a new creation to which we are being drawn. And we are set free to imagine things that have not yet come into being, and to live as if they have. Everything is being shaken up and things lose their inevitability. So Paul says in effect:

‘Are you married? Well that’s great! But now it’s all change. There is a new world overtaking this old one where there wont be any marriage so you had better start living now as if you are not married!’

Or,

‘Are you mourning? Well, I’ve got news for you! It’s all change and a new world is coming where those who have sown in tears will reap in joy. So live now as if...’

Or,

‘Are you rejoicing? Well, enjoy it while you can because it’s all change, and in the new reality those who are living on a full tank of laughter are going to be running on empty. So live now as if…‘

And so on… Suddenly the world is being re-imagined, re-envisioned, reframed. And so it is being changed. And maybe that accounts for the power of the Word at Nineveh, and by the Sea of Galilee. The people of that sordid city of Ninevah could suddenly imagine that things could be different. There were new possibilities for life with Jonah’s God, so they repented. And similarly with those fishermen, with their mundane existence and all the indignities and injustices of their harsh lives under Roman rule. Maybe the proclamation of Jesus that God’s rule was breaking in opened their minds to imagine life differently, to glimpse life as if. And so they left their nets and they followed.

Monday of last week, January 19th, in the United States of America, was a public holiday because it is Martin Luther King Day, when Americans remember that great dreamer[1]. That is what was so powerful about King. Steeped as he was in the Word of God he was set free to dream, to imagine the world as if it were different. And he was gifted with the language to articulate that dream -and just look at its power! Look at the transformation it brought! And the inauguration of the first black president of the United States, also last week, is testimony to that power. It’s the same power that broke out in Ninevah. It’s the same power that left empty boats and abandoned nets strewn on a Galilean lakeside.

This is what is gifted to us: the good news of the Kingdom, the new world, the new order of things. And with it the gift of imagining things differently, as if. Just see what transformation that can bring.

Amen.

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Day 1

"Prodigious Love"

Episcopal Church Speaker

The Rev. James Nutter

January 21, 2006

Third Sunday after Epiphany

Luke 15:11-31

The Rev. James W. Nutter is rector of Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas. He is the winner of the 2005 John Hines Preaching Award, given by Virginia Theological Seminary.

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It is hard to sleep when you are hungry, when you know that you have hit the end, when you cannot sink any lower, when you are doing things that make you ashamed.

This is where I was. I couldn't sleep because I knew that if I continued what I was doing, I would die.

During many long, agonizing nights, I would begin to remember. There was one memory I could not shake. It was the moment when I went to my father and demanded my inheritance. I knew and he knew what I was saying: "Old man, you are as good as dead to me."

Why did I deliberately hurt this man who had loved me every moment of my life? My desire for freedom and excitement drove me. His love made me feel cramped and I resented his hopes for my life.

For a while I consumed everything that my heart and body desired. Looking back, I can see that I had become ever more frenzied as the thrills delivered ever diminishing returns.

I was so involved with indulging myself that I paid no attention to the money running out. And it did. With my pockets empty, my friends proved to be fickle and my lovers false.

There was nothing for me to do but to go to work. Now I knew work, even hard work, but I had never been forced to do work that demeaned and broke you. It was the only work I could find-feeding the pigs. But then maybe it was appropriate for the pig to feed the pigs.

It now sounds silly to say this, but my pride kept me at this work for a long time. I kept thinking, "I will get a break. This can't be my life. There must be a way out." But things only got worse, until one night when it seemed like the fog cleared. For the first time in months, maybe years, I felt like I had come back to myself.

So I left the pig farm and began the long walk to my father's house. I didn't expect him to receive me as a son -- that relationship was over -- but I knew that I would be better off as his slave than in that pigpen.

I will never forget the moment when I saw my Father in the field. Seeing him, I knew that he had been waiting for me, and I could almost feel his eyes drawing me back home. When he recognized me, he threw down his tools and began running down the road. As we came near to each other, I fell at his feet and begged to become his slave, but he greeted me as a beloved son. I groveled as the wastrel, the scoundrel, the whoremonger that I was, but he brushed off all of my words with his tears and kisses.

He called all the servants together. As they gathered, I could tell that they were not pleased to see me. They respected my Father, and they knew that I had broken his heart.

My Father, though, immediately cut through the tension in the air with these words: "...this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!"

Even though they were cleaning me up and starting the fires for the fatted calf, I couldn't relax. You see, I knew that I still had to face my older brother. Things had never been good between us. He had always been the good and responsible one, and I, well, you know what I had been.

He came. He saw me. He sneered at the ring on my finger and the robe around my shoulders. He curled his lips in disdain and said to our Father that "son of yours" doesn't deserve any of this. Looking at my Father, I saw that my brother's words hurt him just as deeply as my words asking for my inheritance.

I am now reporting to you events that happened many years ago. There has been some talk, especially among the young and restless, about all the carousing that I had once done. Some of the stories have a kernel of truth, but most have been embellished for the titillation of the audience. I have even heard some people refer to me as the prodigal son, but that is to miss the point of the story. Do you want to know the true prodigal? It was my father. The story is about his lavish, extravagant, and prodigal love.

Some people have questioned my father. Just what was he thinking when he gave me the inheritance? Just what was he thinking when he welcomed me back? This is just too easy. You can't just give love away like that, they say. Some of these people are not parents, which means that they do not know about the intricate and delicate dance a parent has with a child around freedom. Some of these people just don't know much about love, do they?

Some people think that my brother was treated unfairly. Some may identify with him and his dutiful and responsible ways, and some of them resent people like me. Some of these people have forgotten that my Father loved him just as much as he loved me.

I now see that neither of us understood my father and his love. I had thought that I could destroy it, and my brother had thought that he needed to earn it.

Why do I stand before you and tell this story? Maybe there is someone here who is now experiencing his or her own sleepless and desperate nights. Maybe there is someone here who needs to come back to himself, to herself. Maybe there is someone here who needs to come back to God. If so, don't hesitate. God not only waits for you, he sent his only son on a rescue mission from heaven to find you. If my wonderful, though human and fallible, father could love so freely and completely, just think how prodigal God's love and mercy must be.

And then maybe there is someone here who is like my brother. He was a good fellow, he meant well, but his feeling that the weight of the world was on his shoulders had pinched his heart. Do any of you feel that way? It is not a good way to feel. If anyone here identifies with him, would you please believe that you are loved and that all that the father has is already yours?

My father threw that feast for me when I returned home. That is what parents do. Today God, our father, throws this feast. The feast of Jesus. Please don't come thinking that you need to earn your way here either with your remorse or your righteousness. Just come. Come and acknowledge your hunger for God. Come and be filled. There is enough for all. There is room for all. The father delights to see his children feast together.

Let us pray.

Good and gracious God, help us to come to ourselves. Help us to return to your love. Help us to see your great tenderness coming towards us. Help us to know that you have already fitted us for the robe and for the ring, and help us to smell the fatted calf of your great forgiveness for us. Lord God, help each person who hears this story see himself or herself in it and know that it is always possible to return home to your great love for us. All this we ask in your name and through the mercy and love of your Son Jesus. Amen.

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THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME — Year B (68)

"COME, FOLLOW ME"

Gospel: Mark 1:14-20

Mark’s version of the call of the first disciples repeats the essentials of last week’s reading, but carries a very different emphasis than John’s version. Jesus’ continuity with John the Baptist is portrayed by his preaching the same message. The first disciples in Mark’s account were engaged in their worldly occupation; they are not seen as already disciples of the Baptist. John’s Gospel gives us a hint of the process of inquiry and call, whereas in Mark the call of Jesus comes suddenly and without preparation. It is obviously a call charged with power: they will share power as "fishers of men" and they respond without hesitation. Divine power is emphasized in Mark’s telling; John’s Gospel emphasizes God at work in the human process of seeking and drawing close to Jesus as the source of life.

Jesus is recognized as a rabbi (= teacher or master, see vv 21-22), but his style is not that of the seated learned man with a crowd of students at his feet. He wanders from place to place, pointing out the reality of life and the signs of his new life to his disciples who keep up with him, and to the crowds that gather around him.

First Reading: Jonah 3:1-5, 10

God’s power surpasses our expectations in unexpected — and sometimes unwelcome — ways. Jonah went to Ninevah to proclaim God’s vengeance and destruction upon a sinful pagan people. He suspected that God would be merciful, so he tried to run away. But God had some rather striking ways of getting him back to business. When the suspected but unwanted results actually do occur — the repentance and saving of the people — Jonah becomes disgruntled. But God gives him a lesson in humility and mercy. Read the whole story.

Please note that this is a rather humorous — do we need to be told? —and purely fictional story intended to broaden the Israelites’ concept of God’s love. It was written around the fifth century B.C.E., when the remnant who returned from exile in Babylon were struggling to make sense of their identity as God’s people in the face of defeat and oppression. Searching for remains of a fish that could transport Jonah without digesting him, or trying to justify it as a miracle, would be a useless exercise in religious trivia and would only distract from the deeper meaning.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9

This psalm is a somewhat rambling meditation on God’s goodness, which he shows by mercy and forgiveness, and well as by leading us to an every-deepening understanding of his ways. Response: "Teach me your ways, O Lord."

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Beginning with chapter 7, Paul responds to specific questions that were brought to him by messengers from the community. His lengthy advice on marriage in this chapter is largely a plea for moderation in the face of wildly diverse attitudes toward marriage, virginity, and sexuality. Some members of the Corinthian Church apparently tolerated extreme licentiousness while others held very strict views on celibacy and disdained marriage altogether.

Paul’s specific advice in this passage centers on the use of time. Time is always short, and we must order our activities in view of the eternal kingdom of God. Paul’s words are rooted in the expectation that Christ would return soon, but they apply equally today when we are conscious of the urgency of realizing Christ’s presence and fulfilling his will.

Questions for thought, discussion, and prayer:

1. God wills the conversion of sinners, not their death. How do you feel about people who sin against you?

2. Can even "religious activities" be a sort of "worldly occupation" that Christ might call us away from?

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Pew-work Hand-outs

“Pew-work” is like Home-work, except that it is done in the pews, instead of being done at home. Because it is focussed on the readings (as the sermon, presumably, also is) it can be done during the sermon to help the listener concentrate. Or, it can be done while waiting for everyone else to finish their communion. It isn't done during prayers, or hymns, or the readings, because

During Prayers, we pray
During Hymns, we sing

During the Readings, we listen

Adult Student's Pew-work

Middle-school Students' Pew-work

Elementary-School Students' Pew-work

Pre-Schooler's Pew-work

Next week: Deuteronomy 18:15-20, Psalm 111, 1 Corinthians 8:1-13, Mark 1:21-28