So…
On a scale of one to ten, where would
you rate yourself as a disciple, 10 being amazing, 1 being barely recognizable?
For many of us, we want to be amazing
disciples, but…
Being an amazing disciple with the
lowest possible cost!
An amazing disciple as long as being an
amazing disciple doesn’t challenge us very much; doesn’t require too much time,
energy, intelligence, imagination, love, or resources. A life that doesn’t
force me to re-evaluate my purpose in life.
We are okay with a Sunday trip to
worship and perhaps an occasional mission type active, or a choir rehearsal, or
a bible study.
But if God is asking for much more, then
maybe we need to find another low commitment activity.
And God is and we know it. God is asking
not for just an occasional donation, but our lives. Jesus says, “Come and
follow me.” And, “Take up my cross and follow me.” Following isn’t easy, and
try that while carrying a cross!
Again and again Jesus demonstrates what
discipleship looks like. Healing the sick, caring for widows and orphans,
challenging falsehood and deceit, always inviting the folks at the edges of
society to the table.
What Jesus is inviting us to is a life
of hard decisions, where we have to put ourselves second, our fame, our
fortunes, our comfort and ease, even our narrow understandings of who is
acceptable and who isn’t to God and to us, in order to interact with the world
in the way that Jesus does.
It ain’t easy, a lesson that Jonah also discovered
could be a whale of an adventure!
Just so you understand the story,
because all of us have the Sunday School version stuck in our heads, Jonah, a
follower of God, was asked by God to go to a foreign city and preach God’s
judgment against them.
On the surface it seems like a pretty
substantial challenge and it is. Imagine waking up tomorrow being absolutely convinced
you are to go to, I don’t know, what is the worst, most sinful city you can
think of and preach God’s judgment to them. Maybe Bangkok, Thailand?
Going would be a huge deal. It would
cost you plenty. Jonah could of and should have been concerned about that. I would
be. “Really God? Thailand? How about Los Angeles, or Las Vegas, or that really
sinful city, Boston?”
“I gonna have to use vacation time,
gotta pay for a plane ticket, hotel room, food, rental car, and then where am I
going to preach? In the streets? I’ll need a rain coat, sun block, several
fashionable hats.”
And what if people don’t like my
preaching and hassel me, or try to chase me away or get me arrested? I gotta
have bail money? No way, this discipleship thing is too hard.”
But here’s the real kicker! Jonah wasn’t
upset about being called to go! He wasn’t upset at the cost! He was willing to
follow where God led, as long as it wasn’t to Ninevah!
You see Jonah knew God. He understood
God’s mercy and love. He would be perfectly happy from way over here to preach
against those sinful Ninevites, but he wasn’t willing to
talk to them face to face…
Because he was afraid…
That in that face to face encounter…
That they would repent…
And that God would forgive them.
We live in a world where many of us are
unwilling to talk to the other side, because we are unwilling, just like Jonah,
to take a chance that God is at work in the other side.
So, Jonah decided to go on a three-hour
tour, and the ship was named the SS Minnow. No, wait, that was Gilligan’s Island.
But Jonah did get on a ship headed
anywhere but Nineveh. And then came the storm and a ship headed to the bottom
of the sea, and the realization that Jonah was a problem, in fact the problem,
and over the side he went.
Now think about this. The sailors felt
terrible about throwing Jonah overboard. They knew it was wrong. They tried
everything to avoid it. They even prayed and sacrificed to the Lord. Jonah turned out
to be an evangelist to the sailors. Their faith grew because of this crazy
disciple.
And Jonah, he became fish food.
Now don’t ask me how this works, I have
no idea. The text suggests a large fish swallowed Jonah, so I choose to believe
that is what happened. But the technicalities are beyond me. Suffice it to say,
Jonah got swallowed up and soon would have an opportunity to rethink his
priorities!
God loved Nineveh. Jonah did not. God
wanted Nineveh warned. Jonah did not. God hoped Nineveh would repent. Jonah did
not.
So, Jonah was going on a journey to
discover the meaning of God’s love, mercy, and justice.
Who is it that perhaps you might need to
think about from God’s point of view and not your own. And do you have your swim
suit? Just saying.
Amen.
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