For Sunday, January 25, 2009

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

Sunday Bulletin Service Theme: "Follow Me"

The scriptures, in summary: Jonah, the reluctant prophet, picks himself up off the beach, wipes off the whale-spit and goes to Nineveh, delivers the message that God sent him to give, and the people hear and repent. "For God alone my soul waits in silence," is the word from the psalm. The epistle lesson sounds a note of detachment-- don't get too adjusted to this world, because it is passing away. And the gospel story is the call of the disciples, Simon, Andrew, James & John.

Many people assume that prophets predict the future, and that a good prophet is one whose predictions prove true. But that is not the case: the job of the prophet is to interpret what might happen if people continue to behave in the future as they have in the recent past. Prophets are the ones who have the broader view, the ability to see if the parade is about to march off the cliff. The goal is to turn the parade around (repent means "turn around").

Jonah was a terrible but ultimately successful prophet. At first he ran away, and at last he grumbled because the people of Nineveh actually listened to him, and repented. But the important thing is, even working with a reluctant prophet, God managed to work out salvation for Nineveh. Which reminds me of something I read last week, from the collected works of Martin Luther King, Jr, ... God has not worked out a plan for our failure.

It is possible for me to falter, but I am profoundly secure in my knowledge that God loves us; he has not worked our a design for our failure.
Essay, "A Testament of Hope," reprinted in A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. Edited by James M. Washington. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1986.

The apostle Paul put it this way, "God is working all things together for good."

So, if God can do so much with even a reluctant, rebellious, and resentful prophet like Jonah, how much more can God do with prophets and disciples who are willing to answer the call?

Those fishermen that Jesus called to follow him, they had nothing more than hands and hearts and possibly good intentions, and look what God accomplished through them.

God calls, and if we choose to respond, the stories of our faith testify that God will be able to do, through us, more than we could ever ask, or imagine. Good news.