Epiphany 3, Year B
Donna G. Joy

Jonah 3:1-5; Mark 1:14-20

God did not make the first human because He needed company, but because He wanted someone to whom he could show His generosity and love. God did not tell us to follow Him because He needed our help, but because He knew that loving Him would make us whole.

Irenaeus – Second Century theologian and bishop of the church.

Again: God did not make the first human because He needed company, but because He wanted someone to whom he could show His generosity and love. God did not tell us to follow Him because He needed our help, but because He knew that loving Him would make us whole.

Because, as we were reminded in our Psalm this morning, ‘Only in God my soul can find its rest.’ I begin with this quote because our readings this morning speak of a God whose generosity and love are made visible and who calls us to follow him.

If, during this Zoom worship format, we were including each of the lectionary readings each week, our first reading would have been an excerpt from the Book of Jonah, although any little excerpt from Jonah must be seen within the context of the book – the story - as a whole.

In this book God calls Jonah to go and preach to Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria, Israel’s primary enemy. Jonah refuses, partially because he resents the Ninevites and is not in favour of giving them any opportunity for redemption Although he attempts to run away, God makes it impossible for him to succeed. That, of course, is the whole whale part of the story, which is a sermon in itself, but not for today.

So, despite his huge misgivings, Jonah finds himself entering into Nineveh and warning the people of their coming destruction. As a result of the message Jonah conveyed on God’s behalf, the people of Nineveh see the error of their ways, repent, and are forgiven. This, of course, was not what Jonah had envisioned; he was actually looking forward to their destruction. It is a human tendency to feel really miffed when something great happens to someone who we feel is undeserving)

Jonah, in a fit of rage, sits under some shade just outside the city in order to observe what is about to happen. God instructs a worm to attack the tree, which causes Jonah to complain some more; on top of Jonah’s disappointment with how things have gone in Nineveh, now his shade has even been taken away!

God sees this as a teachable moment: So let me get this right, Jonah. You’re complaining about the destruction of one little shade tree, which you did nothing to actually deserve, but you resent my caring for and protecting Nineveh and its 120,000 people who simply needed an opportunity to discover the power of My love. Hmmmmm. Maybe, Jonah, you need to rethink this.

Indeed, this story is about God’s love and generosity for ALL people. And sometimes, we are called to offer God’s love to people whom WE may find difficult to love. Today I encourage each of us to think about someone we resent or detest, someone who we feel has hurt or betrayed us in ways that have scarred the innermost core of our being. Now think bigger picture. Perhaps you are someone who resents multinational corporations that benefit from sweat shops which exploit women and children throughout our global village. Perhaps you have issues with some of the decisions made (especially during this past year) by politicians within our provincial and/or federal government and beyond.

Now, focus your attention on those individuals, multinational corporations, or government offices and imagine your response when God calls you to go to them to be a channel through which God’s redemptive love may be made known. The beauty of God’s redemptive love is that it frees humanity from its own “self-centered attitude towards life and the world” and empowers us to open ourselves to the beauty and harmony offered by God in Christ.

Remember: God did not make the first human because He needed company, but because He wanted someone to whom he could show His generosity and love. God did not tell us to follow Him because He needed our help, but because He knew that loving Him would make us whole.
God called on Jonah to share with others God’s generosity and love, and through turning things around the Ninevites began the first signs of loving God and becoming whole.

And this brings us to our Gospel reading this morning, where Jesus urges the first disciples to follow him. To follow Him is to follow his way, his life and love and truth. That is why, during this COVID time, to follow Jesus’ way of love, life, and truth is to stay home. And, to follow Him is to be a channel through which God’s forgiveness may be made known to others, especially those with whom we are not yet resolved.

Because In Him there is no division between Ninevites and Israelites, no division between any warring states or groups or countries, no division between individuals in conflict with one another, between male and female, rich and poor, LGBTQ or otherwise, liberal or conservative. There is no division between any of this, because in Jesus everything is unified and equal and whole. Each and every one of us stands at the foot of the cross, and in so doing we are equal.

This is all true and possible because through Jesus, God has shown His love for each and every one of us absolutely and unconditionally. And as we experience that deep and abiding love we are made whole and empowered to share that generosity and love with others.

In the movie Dead Man Walking, which is based on a true story, Patrick is a despicable, unlikable, smug death row prisoner who is responsible for the brutal violations and deaths of a young teenage boy and girl. Sister Helen Prejean visits him in prison and becomes his spiritual director. Like Jonah preaching to the Ninevites, she pleads with Patrick to repent and therefore be made whole through the power of God’s love.

It is no surprise that family members of the two young people killed resisted her commitment to offering their children’s murderer an opportunity to receive God’s redemptive love. But it is offered and he does receive it, and in so doing this hardened, despicable character begins to come to terms with the horrific nature of what he has done, and through that turning around we see glimmers of God’s Grace in a most surprising way.

When Jesus called those first disciples to follow him they immediately left behind their nets and all that was to hold them back from this calling. This means that we too must be in the process of leaving something behind and moving into a new life in following Christ.

Now the list of what we could leave behind is possibly endless, but today as we put our Gospel reading together with the excerpt from Jonah, I suggest that this is a day to focus particularly on leaving behind our resentments, our hostilities, our unresolved anger – all things that serve as burdens weighing us down and preventing us from moving forward in a new life with Christ. I suggest that today is a day to recognize that each of us stands together at the foot of the cross – equal in the eyes of God – and therefore worthy of receiving the gift of God’s redemptive love.

Indeed, just as God made the first human, so too God has created each of us here so that through Jesus he may show us His generosity and love. And God, through Jesus, calls each and every one of us to follow Him because He knows that loving Him will make us whole. It is ‘only in God where my soul can find its rest.’