Directions: How to Start a New Trip—Jonah 3: 1-5, 10; Mark 1:14-20
I remember 16 years ago now, when I moved to Georgia, I had a bit of a “We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto” moment. At the very onset, something about living here, 400 miles away from anyone I knew, did not feel like home to me. Thankfully, that has changed. I remember going to the Kroger on North Avenue off Gray Highway and being so confused as to how two Krogers—the one in Danville, Kentucky, and this one—could be so incredibly different. As I was checking out, the cashier asked where I was from. When I said Kentucky, she said in the thickest, Southern drawl I’d ever heard, “Kentucky! Son, you almost a foreigner down here.” And I’d never felt more out of place in my life.
Last week we looked at lessons on God giving us a sign. This week, we consider, exactly, how do we start this journey with God? A friend of mine once told me, “There’s no real mystery to following God; you just get up and go, and you don’t worry about the rest.” But the truth is that most people are homebodies and not exactly the most adventurous of souls. I get that. If given the option of a great adventure or a night at home on the couch, Indiana Jones, I am not. And in wanting to feel at home, many people look to church for that sense of feeling “at home.”
The problem is there are so many different people in the church. This is the only place where we endeavor to take people of different races, backgrounds, nationalities, worship styles, political beliefs, socio-economic status, and ages and try to BOTH give them a sense of home and a common mission to go out and do something for God’s kingdom. It’s almost, almost easier to herd cats. But that’s exactly what Jesus did. He called fishermen, tax collectors, men and women of various places in life and backgrounds and said, “Come, follow me.” The Gospel tells us that those whom Jesus called dropped everything and followed him immediately.
So, if we are to both find a home in church and a common mission, what is that mission? Well, it’s to save the world—literally, figurately, and theologically. And we do that through honesty, communication, and love. In reading our Hebrew Lesson, we see that Jonah got best two out of three on this. He excelled in honesty and was good enough communication. When he finally went to Nineveh after being sent twice by God, he walked into the city and said, “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed.” You know it’s a miracle those people repented. He didn’t mention God. He didn’t mention repentance. He didn’t give them a method to avoid destruction. He just went in and said, basically, “Y’all doomed.”
It takes all three—honesty, communication, and love—to create this sense of being at home and accomplishing God’s mission or call. Communication without honesty is pointless. Honesty without communication leads to anger, and any of them without love is just an excuse to be mean. Look to the Gospel. Jesus calls the disciples, and they follow immediately. Then they are steeped in Jesus’s wisdom, teaching, and miraculous work in saving the world. They see this done in both the theological sense of him saying, “Go and sin no more.” But they also see Jesus feed the hungry, love everyone, accept them, and heal their troubles. They see Jesus wade into the messiest parts of people’s lives and help them be made whole. And in response, they go and do the same until the end of their lives.
Think of when your family feels most like a family and home—it’s when everyone is together for a common reason, doing a common thing. For the church to be a family, our commonality is this mission for God’s kingdom—to save the world. We don’t wade enough into the messy points of life enough anymore. We’re too keen to say fix yourself, then come here. It doesn’t work that way, for we are called to do the healing, the helping, and the saving. That is our mission. Now, we also have to hold folks accountable. If people keep going back to the same mistakes, same old habits, same old sins (if we’re going to call it that) again, and again, and again, then it’s clear they don’t want help. They want enabling to wallow in their mess, and they do not want healing. And the church can’t do that.
In 2024, we need to find a change in direction for both ourselves and our churches. Let’s practice this work of honesty, communication, and love more deeply and carefully. The disciples took the lessons Jesus taught them and all the things they had seen, and they put it all to work. They went out and made a difference in the world for people who needed it. They proclaimed salvation, and created a place of healing, help, and a safeness where people could find themselves in the God who loved them. We must do the same.
But in some ways, Jonah also got it right. Though his message lacked any semblance of love or compassion, he said what Nineveh needed to hear—now is the time to be accountable or else. Thankfully, God in the New Testament is not always so severe as God in the Old Testament. But life is still very full of consequences, and as the kids are so fond of saying these days…you can still mess around and find out if you’re not careful. I edited that saying just a bit to make it church-appropriate.
So, if we take all these sometimes messy, different people and put them together, how do we give them a sense of being home and a common mission? We practice together and with the world love, communication, and honesty. Think of going on a long family road trip. For some that is an adventure. For others, it might be a nightmare. But either way, none of it works without those three things. If you don’t love the kids, you will kill them the thousandth time they ask if you’re there yet. If you don’t practice communication, someone is going to miss the bathroom in a bad way. And if you’re not honest, you’ll miss the opportunities of being together.
As a family of faith, we are on a journey together. Sometimes it is easy, and sometimes, we need to let God give us a bit more direction or even change direction for us. Jonah ran as far away from God’s calling to go to Nineveh as he could. And as the story goes, God called him back in a very big and miraculous way. Many of the disciples had their own lives, jobs, and families. Jesus gave them a call that changed their direction completely. They were changed from a daily routine of life to living a powerful mission for God’s kingdom. Jonah’s (final) obedience to God saved an entire gigantic city and kingdom from destruction. The disciples started a movement that truly changed the world. When God gives the directions, great things can happen in our lives and churches.
Where are the places in our lives that we need to change direction and start a new journey? Faith is meant to be both a place which feels like home and which gives us a common mission rooted in love. We create a home here and join together in God’s mission to save the world—literally, figuratively, and theologically—when we practice following God’s call through honesty, communication, and love. Which of those three do we struggle with the most and need God to give us a new direction? Where do we need to find more accountability like Nineveh, or more compassion like Jesus? Or better yet, where do we need to find more zeal and excitement for God’s call like the disciples did? It’s a lot to process.
A friend of mine once told me the secret to changing directions and starting a new journey with God’s calling. It’s so simple to say, but so hard to really do. “There’s no real mystery to following God; you just get up and go, and you don’t worry about the rest.” May we always be willing. Amen.
Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/3776474615962486