Sermons:
(see below)
Let's Go Fishing!
Mark 1:14-20,
by Rev. Rick Thompson
Leaving It All Behind,
Mark 1:14-20,
by Rev. Randy L Quinn
Fishers of People,
Mark 1:14-20, by
Rev. Thomas Hall
God Wants to Save Whom? Jonah 3:1-5, 10, by Rev. Thomas Hall
Caught! Mark 1:13-20 by CW from Lville
God of
Second Chances, Jonah 3:1-5, 10 and Mark 1:14-20,
by JMc
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Responding to the Call
based on Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Mark 1:14-20
Rev. Karen A. Goltz
Jonah spoke eight words to the people of
Nineveh, and every man, woman, child and animal in that city responded
by turning from their evil ways, proclaiming a fast, and putting on
sackcloth and ashes as a sign of their repentance. Jesus spoke ten
words, and Simon, Andrew, James and John responded by abandoning their
livelihoods, the tools of their trade, and their families to embark on a
journey of intense discipleship. If I were to split the difference and
preach a sermon of nine words, how would you respond?
Some of you might call the bishop and complain; others of you might tell
me it’s the best sermon I’ve ever preached, and I should do that more
often. (Unfortunately for those of you in the second group, I’ve already
spoken over a hundred and twenty five words, and I’m just getting
started.) But in either case, it’s unlikely you’d make as dramatic a
change as the Ninevites or fishermen did.
Why not? Is there a single statement I could make that would cause you
to upend your lives and submit your entire beings to God? Perhaps in the
style of Jonah: Forty days more and New Hampshire will be overthrown!
I think most of us would respond to that by asking for more information.
Overthrown how? By whom? The entire population, or just the government?
Local, state, federal, or all of the above? Will we become part of
Vermont? Or worse, Massachusetts? Who are you, and who sent you, and how
do you know this?
No, I don’t think the Jonah approach would work here. What about the
Jesus approach, more inviting and less threatening? Follow Jesus, and he
will make you gather even more people to follow him.
I think we’d question that one, too. Follow Jesus where? Why should we?
For how long? What about my job, my house, my family? What’s the point
of gathering more people? Why me? No, I don’t think I could get away
with the Jesus approach to the single statement sermon, either.
Part of the problem is the messenger. I’m not putting myself down, but
I’m not Jesus. I’m not Jonah, either. Or I don’t know, I could be,
actually. We don’t really know who Jonah was. We only know what happened
to him. God told him to go to Nineveh, and Jonah ran as fast and as far
as he could in the opposite direction. God caught up with him and gave
him a three-day time-out in the belly of a whale to think about it, and
then told him again to go to Nineveh. This time he went.
We laugh at Jonah, and it is kind of funny, but he also deserves some
compassion. The impact of what God wants him to do is lost on us, but
you’ve got to understand: one of the few things we do know about Jonah
is that he’s a Hebrew, and we know that Nineveh is the capital of
Assyria. Assyria had conquered and virtually destroyed the northern
kingdom of Israel, and then kept the southern kingdom as a tributary for
nearly a hundred years. Assyria, including Nineveh, was hated and feared
by the Hebrews. God telling Jonah to go to Nineveh is roughly the same
as God telling any one of us to go to the Taliban’s compound. How many
of you would try to run if God called you to do that? I know I would. [continue]
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