IT STARTS WITH A “YES”

January 24, 2021
3^rd Sunday after Epiphany
Jonah 3: 1-10 / Mark 1:14-20
Rev. Denise Clark-Jones

From the start of Genesis, when God’s voice called the world into being, the bible is filled with people who God called. God acts autonomously but calls us to participate in God’s interventions in the world. Last week, we read that Samuel was called by name four times, before the temple priest, Eli, explained what was happening and Samuel responded. This is the first step in the call process – being attentive and recognizing a call. In the Hebrew Bible God called people like Noah, Abraham, Moses, and the prophets, who even though they were concerned with their ability to do what God had called them to do, said “yes.” That is the second step in the call process. In our reading from Mark’s first chapter, Jesus called four fishermen to be his disciples. They said “yes,” leaving behind economic and social security. Following through after accepting a call is the third step. The steps get harder, don’t they? In today’s Old Testament reading we heard the tale of Jonah being called as a prophet to call the Ninevites to repentance. God dragged Jonah, kicking and screaming, through his call. Unlike the other Old Testament prophets who were tentative about accepting God’s call because they did not feel worthy, Jonah simply did not want to do the work God was asking of him. We can all relate to that, can’t we?

We only heard a snippet of the Jonah story today, but the entire tale is well-known. It is found in the Hebrew Bible, the Christian bible, and the Koran. Actually, Jonah was not a prophet, the author of the book of Jonah was a prophetic writer. There are absurdity and humor in this fictional story that would have been obvious to the audience of the day. Jonah represents Israel. Israel had sinned against God and for that was punished with losing their land. Jonah’s prideful religious nationalism fueled his hatred for Israel’s enemy. Thus, Nineveh, being the capital city of the Assyrian Empire was representative of Israel’s archenemy of an earlier time. Nineveh was the last place an Israelite would want to go; yet in this story, God sent Jonah there. To rub more salt into the Israelites’ wounded pride, God tells Jonah upfront that he is prepared to be merciful and compassionate by giving them the chance to repent.

This is the concept Christians know from Jesus’ pronouncement that we must love our enemies. That was as hard for Jonah as it is for us. Jonah doesn’t want his enemy off the hook. As the children of Israel believed themselves to be favored by God as God had promised, Jonah took that one step further and decided that divine judgment should follow human judgment – not the other way around. If he thought the people of Nineveh should be destroyed, so should God. Like a spoiled child who wants his parents to punish a rival sibling, Jonah was angry at God for not rushing to punish the Ninevites.

Jonah makes a half-hearted attempt at fulfilling his calling. All he said to the Ninevites was: “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” Yet, the bible tells us: “the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.” The absurd hyperbole goes even further. The king declared that every human being and every animal in the kingdom must don sackcloth and ashes, fast from food and water, and cry out to God for forgiveness and they all complied. The addition of the animals signals this is fiction.  Any cat owner will immediately recognize this scenario is impossible.

The highly inventive tale does deliver a powerful message. The prophetic writer of this tale urged the Israelites to remember they were chosen not just to be blessed, but also to be a blessing to others. Jonah/Israel was called to be a blessing to all nations that they might come to know and love God. God’s blessings are not part of a zero-sum game. As the prophet Malachi delivered God’s message: “Put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing” (Malachi 3:10). God’s economy does not operate like ours. God has an infinite supply of blessings to give – giving to one does not take away from another. The divisive conflict in our society today, and in our history, is created by people or groups of people fearing any opportunity for success given to others diminishes their own. The rich and powerful have incited and exploited that fear throughout our history to maintain and enhance their own power and wealth.

When Jonah tried to flee from God’s calling, he was pursued. God followed him on the ship he boarded to flee Nineveh. God brought him back to shore in the belly of a big fish. After the Ninevites repented, Jonah went off to sulk, claiming he would rather die than return to Nineveh. But God still pursued him because God loved Jonah and had planned a purpose for his life. And God loved the people of Nineveh so much (and the animals, too!) that God would get the message to them no matter what had to be done to make it happen.

Do we, perhaps, try to put our own limitations on the blessings God intends for all? The great disparities of wealth and opportunities in our country points the accusing finger at those that have made their life’s purpose to maintain privilege. It also accuses us when we remain silent and inactive while the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, while justice is in the hands of the strong and denied for the vulnerable. Before being forced to send God’s message of inclusive love and mercy, Jonah would have delighted in the destruction of every man, woman, and child (and animal) in Nineveh. When we worship the almighty dollar and deny the most basic blessings we enjoy to those we have made our enemies by our disdain or neglect, we become the Jonah’s of our society’s narrative. Who are our Ninevites?

Mark’s account of Jesus calling his first disciples seems as improbable as the Jonah tale. In his terse writing style, Mark gives us no context for the four fishermen’s immediate acceptance of Jesus’ invitation to follow him. All we know about the men as they heard the call and said “yes.” As you read further into Mark’s gospel, you will find they too struggle with discerning the message of Jesus’ call to discipleship and going to the places he leads them. The historical and social context gives us some idea of what they gave up to answer Jesus’ call.

The towns around the Sea of Galilee, also known as Lake Kennereset, had been self-sustaining fishing villages. But, when the Roman Empire took over the economy and social environment changed. The empire extracted wealth from the laboring classes and transferred it to the empire’s economic elites. By charging heavy licensing fees and taxes, the fishermen could no longer afford their own businesses. Once self-sufficient, the small village working class was forced to fish for boat owners and work in processing plants, salting the fish for export to cities throughout the empire. This made the local fish less available and affordable for the villagers. When children were old enough to leave home, they left the fishing villages to go to the cities in search of better opportunities, which altered the social fabric. The demise of the family farm in favor of agribusiness is an example of this situation in our country.

We aren’t told Simon and Andrew’s circumstances, but Father Zebedee and his sons, James and John, were prosperous enough to have their own boat and hire men to work for them. They seemed to have reached something equivalent to the middle-class status merchants and artisans enjoyed. Like many of Jesus’ first followers, Simon and Andrew may have been hired laborers and thought: ‘There must be a better life than this.’  The economic and familial security James and John had must have still left them with a need that had not been fulfilled. They accepted the risk to find a greater purpose for their lives.

It is important to understand that Jesus’ offer: “I will make you fish for people,” is not completely accurate. In the original Greek, Jesus uses the noun “fisherman” rather than the verb, “fish.” The literal translation is: ““Follow me, and I will make you fishermen of people (alieis anthropon).” (1) Following Jesus will give Simon and Andrew a new identity. As fishermen for people, they will give up their subservience to the Empire’s economy, which treats people as commodities to exploit for profit for a few. Though they were not yet aware of all their acceptance of Jesus’ call would entail, they were destined to become leaders in God’s economy of abundant life for all. In God’s economy, every person has intrinsic worth.

We are challenged to reorient ourselves, with the economics of the Empire being replaced by the economics of God’s kingdom. What are you being called to risk for the sake of God’s kingdom on earth? How can you use your blessings to be a blessing for others? These are the questions with which Jonah and the four fishermen were challenged. How do we make God’s priorities our own?  It starts with a “yes” and proceeds to a life transformed by the multiplication of God’s abundant blessings.

Amen. May it be so!

1. Robert Williamson Jr., Fishers for a New Kingdom—Mark 1:14-20, https://politicaltheology.com/January 15, 2018

© Rev. Denise Clark-Jones, 2021, All Rights Reserved
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