Sermon delivered by
Rev. Charles W. Proudfoot
January 22, 2012
Community Presbyterian Church
Payson, AZ
Calling: Part Two, Christ’s and Ours
Jonah 3:1-5 (6-9) 10 I Corinthians 7:29-31 Mark 1:14-20
This is the second part of a sermon series, only not in the traditional sense of that metaphor. It is not a series, in that this week’s builds on last week’s, it is not a series, in that the themes listed in last week are developed this week. It is rather a series as we look at various snapshots of God’s calling, of Christ, of the church, and of ourselves.
The three texts for today are from the prophet, Jonah, Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth, and the calling of the fisherman story in Mark. Each of these stories exhibit something unique about the nature of call.
First, the Old Testament lesson, Jonah is the story of a reluctant prophet. God calls him to go to Nineveh, which is a superpower city, and tell it that it is going to be “overthrown” (more about what that word means in a moment). He gets on a ship going the other way! We all know about the whale of a tale that comes up. He gets coughed up on the beach and once again God calls him. That call is the beginning of today’s lection. Jonah has learned something. He goes. But in the process of going and calling, he misses something. He misses the fact that he is not God. He makes an alliance with God that if he does what God wants, God will follow through. As we find out in this text, the unexpected happens. Nineveh repents and therefore is forgiven, which leaves Jonah, the prophet, very upset because he has risked everything to be God’s voice, and God has relented! Therefore he gets no satisfaction.
One of the most important learnings we have from Jonah, is that our job is very specific, as disciples, as prophets, as responders to God’s call. We are to respond. How our voice is heard, what is understood in our voice, and other people’s reaction to our voice is not our job. Furthermore, not only is other’s peoples reaction to our call from God not our job, God’s response to them is not our job! So very often, disciples get caught up in the fact that they have the right answer, the complete answer, the total answer. When in reality, they do not.
But I digress. Let us look at the text we have in front of us today. Jonah goes to Nineveh, this large city, and he proclaims “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be “overthrown.” Overthrown is a very important word.
The verb “overthrown” is the same verb that is used in Genesis 19:25 & 29 for the earthquake that will destroy Sodom. Therefore the announcement is tense, ominous, and decisive. The city is doomed.
No one is prepared for what happened in Nineveh as a result of Jonah’s announcement, they believe God! Strange, but true. Sometimes it happens. The text tells us very clearly that they believe God. They did not necessarily believe the prophet or the message of the prophet but they believe God. The verb, believe does not suggest faith in Yahweh but only that they accepted the threat as true and valid. And so they do what anyone would do, to try to repent. Sackcloth. Ashes.
The verses that are left out of the lection printed in the bulletin are important and I had David read them this morning. For in them we discover two things that relate to call. One, that we identified the sin for which Nineveh is being held accountable. It is the sin of “violence”. The Hebrew word is “hamas”, interesting. “Violence”. A specific kind of violence. A violence that is the abusive exploitation of the strong over the weak.
That understanding takes the Nineveh story out of some quaint Old Testament passage of a prophet and propels it directly in the middle of our society today. Whether it is in the Middle East or here, “violence”, as construed by God, is the oppression by the strong, over the weak. {or oppression of the weak by the strong-that might be a better translation}
The second thing we miss by not reading six through nine, is the astuteness of the king of Nineveh. He is unwilling to accept this announcement by the prophet Jonah as God’s last word. And so, in desperation, he does something truly remarkable. He anticipates that Yahweh might relent and change the plan for punishment and turn away from anger. The king of Nineveh proposes that Yahweh is not a closed principal of faith, or an uncaring tyrant, or a machine, but a live entity who can and will engage in discussion.
So by accepting the threat as true and responding appropriately, the king of Nineveh earns repentance from God. There are obviously is something very important about call in all of that. Not the least of which is that it may very well be the call of the king of Nineveh to be a Yahwehistic theologian because the Ninevehites maximized the possibility of God’s generosity, much to the chagrin of the prophet, who would prefer that God were flat, unchanging, and predictable.
Which brings us to Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth. This passage is particularly troublesome because it contradicts other portions of 1 Corinthians most blatantly. It takes a little thinking through what Paul was really trying to say.
He lists five things that the Corinthians should be doing because… why? The time has grown short. If you are married, act as if you have no wife. If you are mourning, act as though you are not mourning. If you are rejoicing, act as if you are not rejoicing. If you are buying and selling, act as though you had no possessions. And finally, if you are dealing with the world, stop, have no dealings with it. Then, the punchline; the present form of this world is passing away. Which changes the meaning of everything!
Paul is not suggesting that you sit down and do nothing and focus on the coming Kingdom of God, which is what it sounds like. But rather, Paul is making the point, very clearly, that the Kingdom of God is not like the kingdom of this world. The Kingdom of God is different. Your call, Corinthians, is to live life here as though the Kingdom of God is here.
What does that mean? It means that the process by which we live is transitory. It is not the last word. It is not final. The key words in each one of these is “as though.” The Kingdom of God, the eschatological perspective, (the view of the end times) is different than the world’s perspective.
God is intent in bringing a new order, a new way of living. It is not the way of living that we know that he has listed so completely in his five points, but rather a new way of relating to the world, a way beyond those powers, institutions, and social customs that we find so comforting.
Here, the call of God is to be God’s new creation in the middle of this world. And that is radically different than what this world looks like.
The Gospel lesson, being from Mark, is always short in words and long in meaning. Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels even though virtually every one of his words appears in Matthew and Luke as well. It is the most “Reader’s Digest” version.
Our text today begins, “now after John was arrested.” Jesus’ public ministry does not commence while John is still out and about doing his thing. And what is the mark of Jesus’ public ministry? The time is fulfilled, the Kingdom has come near!
This is God’s Kingdom on earth, not ours. The Old Testament and letter lessons help us understand that phrase more clearly. As followers of Jesus Christ, as prophets of old, our job is to proclaim, to be faithful, and to leave the rest to God; for it is God’s Kingdom and it has, past tense, come near.
It is already here. With these very words Jesus points away from Himself and towards God. It is God’s reign that Jesus announces. It is not Jesus’ Kingdom. Indeed the coming of Jesus itself becomes a sign of the Kingdom and its nearness. As Rudolf Bultmann wrote, “The proclaimed becomes the proclaimed.” Translating that, Mark proclaims Jesus as Jesus proclaims God’s Kingdom.
We then move immediately to the calling of the first four disciples. Simon and Andrew; James and John. These will be four very important disciples. Mark could easily have included all of them in one call story, but he did not. He has two stories. Probably to provide more importance to the event or to give us a better sense of what call means.
The first thing that we can say about this call narrative, is that Jesus issues a call that is authoritative. The call that Jesus issues is responded to without hesitation. There is no negotiation of a contract. Follow Me, I will make you fishers of men, (or more precisely fishers of people). We do not know what motivates them to follow. Is it just the authority of Jesus’ words? Or, is there something promising that fishing for people will somehow be more satisfying than fishing for fish. (By the way, this is a honest profession at this point of time. One in which one can make a good deal of money.) Nothing tells us why the fishermen do what they do. They leave their nets, their hired workers, and their father and follow Jesus. Somehow they are compelled to follow Him. They cannot understand Him, he is taking them on a journey that will perplex and confuse them, to a destination that is unspecified. This call is responded to, not out of faith grounded in belief, not out of a faith that understands and takes calculated risks, or seeks after a reward, but rather a faith that simply responds to a call from “out there.” The terms of that call remain unclear, and frankly frightening.
What do these three examples of call tell us? Well, in the Old Testament lesson, I tipped my hand a bit and gave you some parameters for what call means. And I did the same thing in the letter lesson. What is left is the Gospel lesson.
Here, call is to an unknown journey and an unknown destination, but also compelling. Much has been made of the fact that fishing for fish is a worldly occupation and fishing for people is a spiritual occupation; and that may be true, but I do not think it identifies the nature of the call.
In many ways the Old Testament and letter lesson are probably helpful in understanding the Gospel lesson. The call is to be faithful. The call is to take whatever skills you have and apply them to a Kingdom that is not yet here… but is coming, and will come…. because it is God’s Kingdom.
That is one reason why in the Presbyterian Constitution section on worship, there is a service of commissioning of disciples for various forms of ministry, which include each and every follower of Jesus Christ, each and every member of this congregation has a call.
A call that picks up on the spiritual gifts you have been given and asks you to apply them to the coming Kingdom that is not of this world. That you cannot see, touch, and feel, but know is here.
And that probably is the summary of both weeks sermons. Each of us is called to be a part of the coming Kingdom of God. A Kingdom that is not bound up with the affairs of this world but stands separate from it. A Kingdom that is not ours to design, but only to talk about and point to. A Kingdom that looks like is not here, and yet is here every time we turn around.
What does that Kingdom look like? The clue may be very well in the Old Testament lesson. That term, “violence”. The Kingdom of God is a Kingdom where the strong do not work against the weak. A kingdom where all are one together. A kingdom where the will of the Father, the Creative God is done, not the will of the people. In many ways, Rudolph Bultmann Is correct, “the proclaimed becomes the proclaimed.”
As we speak about the Kingdom of God and God’s call on us, that Kingdom becomes clear, through us, in us, and because of us. We all are called to put down our nets and pick up a Kingdom that is not yet here, but will come. I hope you join me in this call. Amen.
Let us pray, . . .
