Inherent Risk

Jonah 1:1-5, 10.         The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” 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. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. 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.            Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

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There is a sense of urgency you get when you read the gospels, isn’t there?  Lots of things happen “immediately,” particularly in Mark’s gospel.  Mark seems to like that word; it is well suited to the overall tone of Mark’s message: We need to tell these things; we need to hear these things, because we need to respond to these things immediately.  The time is now. 

The time is fulfilled, Jesus says as he comes to Galilee.  The time is now.  So make up your mind to repent and believe, make up your mind to follow me.  Come, for all things are ready.

Jesus calls Simon and Andrew and they come.  He calls James and John and they come.  Immediately.

But look - they left Dad in the boat, was the shocked reaction of the roundtable this week.  What an inappropriate thing they did.  We fretted about Dad for a few minutes, wondering how he felt.  Abandoned by his sons – his help, his business partners.  Well, he still had the hired men with him, to get the work done of mending and cleaning the nets and so on.  But still, it’s offensive that his sons just walked away from him.

The gospel is demanding.  It’s urgent.  And it’s offensive.

But the roundtable also noted that the sons weren’t just abandoning Dear Old Dad – they were abandoning their own livelihood and inheritance.  These boys walked away with nothing.  They weren’t just rude, they were rash.

Picture the scene:  Andrew and Simon were in mid-cast.  They were in the act of casting their net out to catch some fish.  Jesus called, “Follow me,” and immediately they dropped their nets and followed.  Did they drop their nets in the sea? Leave their boats and wade to shore and start a new life with Jesus of Nazareth – never looking back?

It’s demanding, urgent, offensive, and rash.

At some later point, one of the disciples says to Jesus, “You know, we left everything behind to follow you.”  And it was true – they had.  They left home and family and vocation and friends.  They left behind security and they followed him.  It was the only way to do it. 

There were other men, on other days and in other places, who said, “Jesus, I want to follow you, I truly do.  Just let me go back home and get my finances in order.  Let me go back and take care of some personal things.  Just let me go pack a bag.”  And Jesus said, “No.”  Anyone who hesitates, or has one foot in the old world while trying to step into the new world, is not fit for the kingdom work they are setting out to do.

That’s so harsh, isn’t it? 

The gospel is demanding, urgent, offensive, rash, and harsh.  And yet, we love to tell the story, as the old song goes.  It does make you wonder, though.  Is this the same story that we love to tell?  I wonder, because this story is full of urgency, offensiveness, harshness and risk.  To follow Jesus is, without doubt, full of risk.

This all might not be what you think you bargained for when you walked through the doors of the church.  Maybe you were just looking for some good fellowship, a supportive community, some good programming for your children.  Maybe you were looking for some sanctuary, a harbor from the storms of life.  Maybe you were looking for a better spiritual life. Maybe all these things, maybe something else, but I’ll bet you were not looking for someone to say “Drop your life and follow me.”

Stories like this one make you a little wary about following Jesus, don’t they?

It’s been a long time since Jesus walked along the lakeshore and called those first disciples.  It’s a whole different world now, a different place than the one where those men dropped their nets and followed him.  I wonder how we can compare our own journeys of faith with those of Andrew and Simon, James and John. 

They didn’t have any idea what they were walking into.  They might have known Jesus because they were all from Galilee, but they certainly didn’t know what he was about to do and where this journey would take them.  It was a very risky thing they were doing when they decided to follow his call.  This may be hard for us to connect with today.

Although we can get passionate about the risks of the faith in other places – like North Korea, for example.  It’s as risky there to be a Christian as it ever was anywhere.  We think of Jeffrey Fowle, a local man who was just last year imprisoned in North Korea for doing a tiny bit of evangelizing.  He left a bible in a public place, hoping a Christian would find it, he said.  He also said he didn’t fully understand the risk he was taking.

So while we have sympathy for those who live in oppressive societies where faith is so risky, we don’t feel any risk to ourselves.  Places of worship still command a certain amount of respect in most of the world –

As long as they don’t try to interfere with business as usual.  That is the condition.  That always has been the condition.  Once you start rocking the boat, though, there will be trouble.

Jesus interfered with business as usual.  He pulled these men, Andrew and Simon and James and John, away from their boats and their families and everything they had, to follow him.  But that’s not all.  He challenged the temple leadership, the priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees, for their hypocrisy in their leadership of Israel.  He challenged them for their cooperation with the Roman Empire, whose practices were antithetical to the kingdom of God.  He made it clear that there are inherent risks in having a relationship with God because God is demanding and urgent. 

The story of Jonah is an example of that.  Although it’s nestled in among the prophets in the Old Testament, Jonah is more of a quirky little parable about how a relationship with God works.  God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh, but Jonah didn’t want to.  To make a short story shorter, God convinced Jonah that he didn’t really have a choice, and so, under duress and against his better judgment, Jonah dragged himself to the evil city of Nineveh to warn the people of the judgment to come.  He walked through the city and, with no great amount of enthusiasm, calling out, “Forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown!” 

And, strangely enough, the people of Nineveh believed it.  They changed their ways.  They repented with full sincerity.  Every single person in the city put on sackcloth and ashes, fasted, and turned from their evil ways.  It happened instantly – they responded immediately, you could say, just like the disciples responded immediately.

But here we see a different way of responding.  They repented; they turned their lives around toward God.  They didn’t leave Nineveh.  They didn’t walk away from their families and jobs. That’s not what they were called to do – they were called to change their lives in the place where they were.  Most likely, God wanted them to turn from violence and become more peaceful.  God probably wanted them to stop the hate, stop objectifying other people and nations, treating them like mosquitoes that should be swatted off the face of the earth.  God probably wanted them to practice compassion in all aspects of their lives.  That’s a different thing from dropping your nets and walking away from everything you know. Yet it’s no small thing God is asking of them, either.  God doesn’t always ask you to follow with your feet, but God always asks you to follow with your heart. 

Nineveh repented, and then God also repented, as some translations of the book say.  It’s a funny word to use when we’re talking about God, but it simply means that God turned in a new direction.  God determined that punishment would not be necessary.  We are assured that God is as forgiving as God is demanding.

But the urgency of the good news is something we lose sight of in our lives, and that may be connected to the inherent risks.  It is always risky to act with urgency.

Last week I joked about the prudence of Midwesterners, saying that it’s in our nature, and probably one of our virtues, to act with deliberate caution.  But I think there is a bit of tension between our cautiousness and the call to faithfulness.  If we are not mindful of this we risk turning our backs on God.

What if Nineveh had heard Jonah’s warning of the judgment to come and they had responded with skepticism?  What if they had reacted defensively, attempted to justify their lives and cast aspersions on Jonah?  According to the story, that would have been the end of Nineveh.

What if Andrew and Simon and James and John had heard Jesus calling them and turned away? What if they continued casting and mending their nets, perfectly content to catch fish for a living?  What if they thought, “It’s not my place to be a wandering preacher; my place is here in my fishing boat.” 

What if all the people throughout history who heeded the call of God, and changed their life course – in small ways or big ways – had just ignored it because of the risks?  And what if everyone who had ever heard the call had responded with urgency and courage, and brought the kingdom of God that little bit closer to us?

Following the call of God has inherent risk – whether it involves a big move or just changing the way you interact with the world from where you are.  But it’s the only way anything good happens.  The call falls upon us all.  Some would simply call it the better angels of our nature.  Whatever you call it, there is a divine message in the universe saying we can be better – we can love better – we can live in community better, reaching out better.  And the time is at hand.