Third Sunday after Epiphany

Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

In today’s gospel story, we hear Jesus’ first sermon ever. So far, Jesus has been baptized and then tempted in the wilderness for 40 days. Now he is beginning his public ministry. And he is beginning it with this message: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

This word “repent” has a negative connotation. The images it brings to mind are of hellfire and brimstone preachers yelling at sinners and urging them to confess. Most of us connect repentance with confession of sins.

And that is indeed part of it. But there is more to repentance than that. The Greek word for repentance means to change one’s mind; to turn around; to reorient oneself; to wrap one’s head around new truth or circumstances. Jesus is announcing the kingdom of God has broken into this world. He is calling everyone to grasp this amazing truth and to let it shape their lives in a new way. Jesus connects faith and repentance: believe in the good news and let it guide you as you change, amend, turn around your thinking and behavior up to till now.

The disciples illustrate this willingness to reorient one’s lives. Jesus calls them, and immediately they leave their old lives behind, their jobs, their nets, their families, and follow Jesus. It is their first step on a long journey towards fully grasping what the kingdom of God is truly about and how one should live as a follower of Christ.

I am always amazed at how quickly the disciples jumped up and followed Jesus. My response to God’s calling has not always been so immediate. It takes me longer to reorient my thinking and believing and acting. In that regard, I am more like Jonah.

We read a snipped from the Jonah story today. Many of you will be familiar with the tale of Jonah and the big fish. There is more to that story, though, that deserves telling.

Jonah is called to be a prophet for God. God calls him to go to the city of Nineveh and proclaim to the inhabitants that God will destroy that great city because of their sins.

Jonah doesn’t want to go. For one, being a prophet is hard; many other people weren’t exactly enthused about being called, either. Moses, Jeremiah, and others all tried to find good reasons for why they couldn’t do what God wanted them to do.

For another, Nineveh wasn’t just any city, but the capital of the Assyrian Empire, an arch enemy of Israel’s and an extremely brutal force. Jonah hated Nineveh. While he probably cherished the idea of that city going under, he didn’t want to be the one warning them.

And for yet another, Jonah didn’t believe God had any business meddling in other nations. There is another place in the Bible where Jonah is mentioned, in 2 Kings 14. Here is how one commentator describes the situation:

We are also meant to know that Jonah is a particular kind of prophet. Jonah the son of Amittai prophesied that even though sinful patterns of abuse, injustice, and idolatry continued unabated, the Northern Kingdom of Israel would become great again by recovering land and prestige that had been lost under previous kings (2 Kings 14:23-27). In other words, Jonah’s prophetic career, outside of the book that bears his name, is based entirely upon prophesying national greatness for an unrepentant country. As a prophet, Jonah was an unconditional Israelite nationalist. And so it was Jonah, in God’s own sense of humor, who was picked to prophesy against Nineveh.

Jonah doesn’t want to go. He finds a boat that goes into the opposite direction and flees from God’s orders. A big storm comes up. Jonah knows exactly what this storm is about. He finally admits that this is his fault and has the sailors throw him overboard. Immediately, the sea is calm and a giant fish swallows Jonah hole.

Jonah spends three days in the belly of that fish. That gives him a lot of time to think and pray, and he does. Eventually, the fish spits him out onto the beach. That’s where our reading comes in; for the second time, God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh. This time, he obeys.

By now Jonah could talk a lot about God’s grace. God saved him from the storm, kept him alive inside the fish, and is now giving him a second chance. That would make a fine sermon.

However, what Jonah actually preaches is the shortest and most awful sermon in the whole Bible: “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” That’s it! Jonah fulfills the letter of his call, but in a way that makes obvious he hates having to do it. He is a terrible prophet.

And yet, wonders of wonders, his message hits home! The people listen and repent. Everyone, even the king, puts on sackcloth and ashes. They fast and humble themselves before God. God is very pleased and changes his mind about the destruction he had planned.

Jonah should have been excited. His message had huge success! No other prophet in the Bible could claim such impact. But Jonah is mad. He wanted Nineveh destroyed. The storyteller uses some lovely sarcasm here; Jonah says to God, “I knew that you are a gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.” Jonah quotes this line that is cherished throughout the Bible as an assurance of God’s amazing grace, but Jonah throws this into God’s face as an accusation.

In other words, Jonah is mad that God should be gracious to those Ninevites he hates so much.

God then uses an object lesson involving a bush to bring Jonah around. I am not getting into the details here. At the end of it, the whole book ends with God asking Jonah this: “Should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons, […] and also many animals?”

Many people in this story repent, relent, and change their minds. All the citizens of Nineveh mend their ways and return to God. God changes his mind about Nineveh’s destruction.

And Jonah? We don’t know for sure. The question is left hanging at the end. The implied answer, however, is that of course God should care about a big city full of people. No matter what the nationality, God cares about people and would rather they live.

The hope is that Jonah also relents, repents, and changes his mind. The hope is that he drops his nationalism and realizes that the citizens of Nineveh are people, too. The hope is that he understands that all people of all nations are dear to God. The hope is that he perceives that God doesn’t take sides, doesn’t favor one nation over another, but wants everyone to live with justice and freedom and peace.

The hope is that we and all people will learn the same truths.

That Israelis and Palestinians talk to each other and see each other as human beings beloved by God.

That Ukrainians and Russians change their minds and act in new ways that lead towards peace.

That Democrats and Republicans understand that all citizens are dear to God.

That nationalism, fascism, antisemitism, racism, and all other -isms will end because everyone reorients their thinking towards love of neighbor and respect for human rights.

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” That is Jesus’ announcement. That is the good news Jesus came to bring: The kingdom of God is here.

What is the kingdom of God? These are descriptions a couple of professors at Luther Seminary shared: The kingdom of God is where the will of God has taken hold; where the power of God has been made manifest; where the presence of God makes a difference; when and where the intentions of God come to fruition.

It sounds lovely, right? I would want to be in such spaces. Who wouldn’t? No wonder Mark describes Jesus’ announcement of the kingdom having come near as good news. And it’s also the reason why Mark can include repentance under good news, because it is our repentance, our willingness to change our minds and adjust our priorities, that allows us to experience the joy of the kingdom.

Here is an example for how willingness to change our minds is good news.

My father took care of an elderly relative we called Uncle Herbert. Uncle Herbert was very religious in the fundamentalist vain.

The year my son came out as transgender, we included this news in our annual Christmas letter. For a moment, we debated whether or not to send the letter to Uncle Herbert. In the end, we decided that Zeke is our son and Uncle Herbert would just have to deal.

A week later, my dad called and said, “Uncle Herbert got your letter. He wants to talk to me.” Oh boy, I thought.

A month later, we received a letter from Uncle Herbert. We opened it with trepidation. And we were floored. Uncle Herbert thanked us for sharing our news, wished us all well, and then added that he realized that Zeke would need a new wardrobe now since “clothes make the man”, and here is $500.

Unbelievable! What blessing came about because people were willing to repent, to change their minds, to let God’s love reorient them. Uncle Herbert opened his heart to our trans son, and I changed my opinion about fundamentalist Christians. It was a kingdom moment. It was an example for the way of life Jesus invites us into.

Our Faith Boosters classes focus on baptism this month. It is in baptism that Jesus calls us for the first time. Like he calls Peter and Andrew, James and John, so he calls us to get up and follow him. He calls us onto a journey that will at times be challenging, that might even involve the cross. But it is also a journey that leads us to those moments when God’s presence and power is manifest, those moments when Christ’s light shines radiant and gives us hope; those moments when the Spirit brings us to just the right place at just the right time; those kingdom moments that are pure blessing.

May God bless us all in our baptismal journey. Amen.