A procrastinator by habit, I like to take my time with life-changes. If I wait long enough, maybe the problem will have gone away by itself. Or perhaps someone else will step in to do what’s needed. If there’s anyone like me in the pews where you worship, this weekend’s readings may speak volumes to all of us in the “man~ana” club. Evidently when God calls us to do something important, we’re expected to respond! What a novel (and scary) idea!
The challenge to the preacher/teacher/worship coordinator in presenting the short- story of Jonah is in addressing the whole context. I mean that the entire epic begins with a Holy Call to a proper Jewish man to evangelize the pagan and unclean city of Ninevah. Jonah saw no reason to do that, so he ran the other direction, taking his chances with the sea-monsters of the unknown rather than the vices of Sin City. You know about the tempest, about being thrown overboard, and the sacramental entrance of the Big Fish. Dried out, Jonah was told, “Okay, let’s try it again”. Which is where our snippet of the tale begins (Chapter 3). Jonah belatedly mumbles through his mission–and wonder of wonders, all the citizenry of Ninevah turn to God! See what happens, Jonah, when you quit screwing around and get to it…
The brief Epistle lesson (I Corinthians 7:29-31) is given by an enthusiastic Paul who over-reacts to “the present form of this world is passing away”. Yes, so it is, through the birth of Christ–but his advice to abandon marriage, griefs & joys, and commerce and daily life are premature. What we can extract, though, is the proclamation of the immanence of God’s Kingdom. Compare this to the bumper-sticker which reads “Jesus is Coming: Everyone Look Busy!”
Mark’s Gospel, 1:14-20, is a scene-shifter from last week’s account by John of the calling of the first disciples. Here we see Jesus visiting some fisher-folk, Simon & Andrew, James & John, who “immediately” made the life-change of abandoning father & business to follow Jesus. Mark’s Gospel is full of “immediately”‘s–he’s trying to convey the momentary urgency of taking the window while it’s open. He means “right this minute”, “without delay”. Unlike the anti-hero Jonah (and me), The Rock & Andy and the Sons of Thunder recognized that There’s No Time Like the Present.
There’re quite a few fish mentioned today, encouraging our graphics people to display some simple “Icthus”-type logos. Was it Emerson who remarked that “after three days, visitors and fish begin to [smell bad]”? Jesus promised his detractors that the only “sign” to which they were entitled was the “sign of Jonah”. The day has symbols in abundance! And at the close of my hospital visits, I usually pause at the door of the room and tell the patient, “Remember what the fish said about Jonah: it’s hard to keep a good man down!”
God Bless Us, Every One Horace Brown King
My musings on scripture readings assigned to the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com
My Blog 
Leave a comment