Jonah: Not Too Hard to Swallow

Friends,

The passages for this coming Sunday are from Jonah and Mark.

The calling of Peter and Andrew, James and John in the gospel of Mark contrasts with the call of Jonah. The four fishermen follow immediately, while Jonah rebels and follows only reluctantly and only after God has chased him down. Interestingly, Jonah knows exactly what God wants him to do and turns away from it. The fishermen, on the other hand, do not have a clu as to what their lives are about to come, yet they are ready to follow Jesus.

Together the texts speak of God's claim on our lives and our responsibility to answer when God calls.

We don't know that it was a whale that swallowed Jonah. However, we do know that whales communicate with one another. Can you imagine the convesation? "Yeah, I caught a man. But you should have seen the one that got away."

Jonah was a "good catch" for God. It is as if the further Jonah runs, the more he convinces God that he is worth chasing after! If Jonah has such will and determination to ignore God that he will go to such extremes to run in the opposite direction, imagine the passion with which he would follow God, once his energy was channeled in the right direction? The very qualities that make Jonah run fast in the opposite direction are what make him desirable to God.

We can make ourselves as ridiculous as possible in our efforts to escape God. But the very intensity and absurdity adn even the painfulness of our flight shos God just how much potential passion we have locked inside us. God may laugh, but God will not abandon us.



Jonah 3:1-10

3The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2“Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” 3So 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. 4Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
5And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. 6When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. 8Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. 9Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.” 10When 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.

Mark 1:14-20
14Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” 16As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. 17And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” 18And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.