Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Conversion of Nineveh

The 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.” 3 So 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. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

10 When 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

The Beginning of the Galilean Ministry

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

16 As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.” 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 Immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

Reflection/Sermon:

I.      More than anything, the Bible is a book of paradox and mystery and wisdom.  The worst thing we can do to this holy book is to take everything it says literally.  Jesus said:  “If you want to follow me, you must hate your parents.”  If we took the Bible literally, we’d have to listen to Jesus and hate our parents.  Then Jesus says we have to hate the rest of our family too.  Even our lives!  He says that in Luke chapter 14.

But when we get to John, chapter 13, just before Jesus died, he gave One Command —“Love one another as I have loved you.”  What?  Did Jesus change his mind?  He wanted us to hate, but now he wants us to love?

II.     What if we’re reading the Bible for the first time, and get to the part where Jesus tells us to hate our family.  So we stop reading, and have this emotional meeting with our family and say, “I’m sorry, but I hate all of you and won’t be seeing you again.”  And everyone’s crying and saying, “Why?  Why?”  And we just leave them like that.

III.    Then we go home and pick up our Bibles again and get to the next gospel, John, and read, “The most important thing is you have to love everyone as I’ve loved you.”

But — we just cut ourselves off from our families.  Now we have to go back and say, “Never mind. I love you.”

IV.     Look at the reading today, filled, as usual, with PARADOX.  A definition of paradox is:  “A logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation.”

Today’s reading says:  “After John the Baptist was arrested Jesus went around Galilee saying:  “Good news!”  What?  I thought Jesus and John the Baptist were on the same side.  I thought they preached the same massage of repentance and changing our evil ways and loving one another.  So why is John’s arrest “good news?”  He’s about to get his head chopped off and Jesus is telling everyone, “Good news!”

Was John competition for Jesus and now that he’s out of the way Jesus is telling everyone to celebrate because now Jesus is in charge and John can’t get in power struggles with him any more.

VI.     I don’t think that’s what the Bible is saying —

But then — what IS the good news?

 The good news is that God intends for each of us to become Jesus — loving everyone and thankful for everything in our lives, even though, on the surface, the world, and maybe even our lives sometimes, look and feel like they’re going to hell.

Not so, says Jesus.  Our lives may feel out of control, the world looks like a catastrophe happening right now, and our country is like a huge pool of gasoline and someone’s standing next to it with a lit match about to drop it. 

And here’s Jesus telling us, “Good news!”  What’s so good?

1)We are becoming Jesus. 

2)Love is more powerful than hate. 

3)God’s will, despite appearances, is happening right now, on earth as it is in heaven. 

“It’s all good news,” Jesus says.  “Believe it.”