“Obedience or Blind Faith?”
3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – B
Last week in the reading from Samuel we heard about the “Call of Samuel.” In my sermon I stated that when we hear God call us and discern the call, we may not want to follow or heed the call.”
This week we hear the call of Jonah. God asked Jonah if he would go to the city of Nineveh and preach against their wickedness and sin. This reading comes from Chapter 3:1-5 of the Book of Jonah, where God called the second time. However, if we back up to Chapter 1: 1 we hear that God called Jonah initially and Jonah tried to escape by booking passage on a ship to Tarshish. But when Jonah tried to run from God’s call God had a great storm swell up and the sailors were mad at Jonah for running from God, so they threw him overboard and he was swallowed by a large fish. But then, the large fish had a bad case of indigestion and threw up Jonah and he floated to the shore.
Jonah decides not to run from God anymore and he fulfills the mission God initially called him to do; he went to Nineveh and proclaimed that: “Forty days more and Nineveh will be destroyed.” Jonah seemed to realize that this mission was important enough for him to be obedient to God, or was it blind faith?
Jesus, in the gospel, proclaimed that “the kingdom of God is at hand, Repent and believe in the Gospel!” But then right after his proclamation, he finds Simon and Andrew, James and John, the sons of Zebedee and they immediately follow Jesus!
Notice that none of these initial followers, Apostles, even ask Jesus any questions. They do not ask, what the kingdom at hand means. They do not ask where he is going?
They do not ask for him to give them reasons why it would be a good idea to follow him. They do not ask what it means to be “fishers of men?” They do not even ask about pay, when after all, they are giving up their fishing business. The father of James and John did not even ask, “hey, where are you going and why are taking my sons, I need them for my business?”
There must have been something intriguing and inviting about Jesus when he made his invitation to follow him. This charisma that he demonstrated was so attractive to his followers that they gave up everything and followed him, yet they did not know what was in store for them. I simply call it “faith in action.”
The contrast of these two readings today is that Jonah ran from God’s invitation to preach repentance to the people of Nineveh and the first apostles immediately left their work and follow Jesus blindly. Why? Hope? Fatigue in their present work? An attraction to be part of a movement? An attraction this young, charismatic man who wanted to user in a new way of thinking and living?
Where are we in this story? Are we the reluctant Jonah who run from doing what God is asking us to do in building up his kingdom on earth? Are we afraid to commit ourselves to something, someone who can and will make our life better?
Or are we like Simon, Andrew, James, and John, who commit immediately and follow the Lord’s invitation to repent and believe in the Gospel; knowing that it will lead us to a better life? Lent begins in 3 ½ weeks. Which position are we taking right now?
Jonah 3:1-5
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Mark 1:14-20