3rd Sunday After Epiphany
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Psalm 62:5-12
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Mark 1:14-20

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you
from the one who makes us into disciples. Amen
 
Today we have the familiar story
 of Jesus calling his first disciples,
 it’s a story I think we usually approach
with both extreme familiarity
 as well as suspended disbelief.
 
 On the one hand
 we know where this is going before it even starts,
 Jesus is walking along
 and sees some guys fishing
 and when he tells them to follow him,
 they drop everything,
 their whole lives and livelihoods even family
and follow him.
 
on the other hand
while we’re amazed at their response
we are also a bit disheartened
because we think if that’s what it looks like to become a disciple of Jesus
then we probably don’t have what it takes,
 
the contemplation of that much sacrifice is too much for us,
 good for you Simon and Andrew, James and John
 but our lives are too complicated
to just up and leave like that,
we must not be disciple material,
we’re tempted to give up before we’ve even begun.
 
 And if we look at the story this way
 through the actions of the disciples,
sure it seems highly unlikely
 that many of us could live up to that level of action and dedication,
 
but here’s the thing,
 when we focus so much on what the disciples do,
we miss what God is doing.
 
God is the one whose action matters.
 As our psalm for today reminds us: 
“Put your trust in God always, O people,
  pour out your hearts before the one who is our refuge. 
 Those of high degree are but a fleeting breath; those of low estate cannot be trusted.
  Placed on the scales together they weigh even less than a breath.”
 
God is the one who is of consequence,
the strong rock and refuge full of steadfast love,
 
 God is the one
on whom our focus should be,
not the disciples or other humans,
 who if they were weighed on a scale with God would barely register.
 
Now when we return to this story,
looking for what God is doing,
we notice that Jesus’ call is less of a command
and more of a promise
“Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”
 
I will make you
Jesus is the one who promises to transform these fishermen into disciples
 and will do so in a way
 that will draw on the skills and gifts they already have.
 
At the beginning of his ministry
Jesus is looking to gather people together,
these first disciples
have lifetimes of practice gathering fish together,
 
 from long observation and wisdom passed down the generations
 they have learned what kind of fish to seek out,
where in the lake those fish like to stay,
 in what weather, at which time of day it is best to catch them
 all these skills can be applied to people with help from Jesus
 
he will teach them
what people to seek out
where they can be found
what message to share that will bring them to Jesus.
 
 
Most importantly perhaps,
these first disciples
 have also learned the hard lesson
 that even if you do everything right,
some days you won’t catch anything
 and the best thing to do is to try again the next day.
That's what being a fisherman is about,
 that’s what being a disciple will take. 
 
Jesus promises to take the fishermen as they are
and make them into disciples,
 just as Jesus promises to make each of us disciples
using who we are,
which means our journeys probably won’t look exactly like those first disciples. 
 
“Follow me” Jesus calls out to us, “come and see,” 
it’s the simplest part of this whole disciple business
 that is up to us,
and yet we still get hung up
 on that simple task,
the act of following,
of getting moving,
sometimes we even go in the opposite direction
 and yet, God doesn’t give up on us.
 
Our first reading was from the book of Jonah
who is the poster child for struggling to follow God,
in fact he runs the other way at the call of God,
yet God still manages to work through Jonah,
 
 the sailors on the ship Jonah boards to flee the Lord,
believe in the God of Israel
by the time Jonah leaves them,
 
albeit over the rail of the ship
and into the belly of the whale
where Jonah, humbled by the grace of God
 gets back on track.
 
When the big fish belches Jonah up onto the beach
he goes to Ninevah as God has asked
but as Author Eugene Peterson observes
“Jonah obedient turns out to be as much in violation of the word of God as Jonah disobedient.” (Under the Unpredictable Plant, 29).
 
 Jonah does what God calls him to do
but very reluctantly,
hoping that it won’t work,
 
Jonah wants to see the city of Nineveh,
 enemy of his people
destroyed by his God,
 
he even goes out and sets up in prime view
 to watch the fireworks,
but amazingly,
the people listen to Jonah’s message and repent
and God decides not to destroy the city
 much to the displeasure of Jonah.
 
God worked through Jonah running the other way,
 God worked through Jonah obeying the letter of God’s command
 if not the spirit,
 
 imagine what God can do with willing partners,
 people who upon hearing the call of God
 agree to try their best,
people like you and me.  
 
 sure our path to discipleship
may not be as dramatic as Simon and Andrew, James and John
up and leaving everything,
but God already has Simon and Andrew, James and John
 
God needs something different from us
 and even if we don’t have exactly what God needs right now,
it’s okay
because God will make us into the disciples God needs,
our job is to listen for God’s call
and follow where God leads.
 
And yes we will not be perfect,
we will make mistakes,
we will be reluctant at times,
we may even run the other direction
 and there’s grace for that.
 
Grace that God can work through our reluctance and mistakes,
 grace in the offer of forgiveness
 and growth in our repentance,
grace in the renewal of the call to discipleship,
 
 God still wants us
and God promises to make us into the disciples God needs.
 
This goes for communities as well as individuals,
today after church is our annual meeting,
it’s a time to reflect on how we as a community
 have answered God’s call to discipleship this past year
 
and to consider
how God might be calling us to be disciples
in the coming year
 
we make these considerations
all while trusting that God will work through our imperfections
 and make us into the disciples God needs in this time and place.
 
“Put your trust in God always O people”
God is the one of consequence,
the strong rock full of steadfast love.
 Come, let us follow. Amen

16th Sunday After Pentecost
Jonah 3:10-4:11
Psalm 145:1-9
Philippians 1:21-30
Matthew 20:1-6

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you
 from the one who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger,
 and abounding in steadfast love. Amen
 
If you are ever between books
 and need a story that will make you laugh
I suggest you pull your Bible off the shelf
and read the book of Jonah.
 
It’s short, only five chapters
 and is satire of the other prophetic books.
Jonah upon receiving the call of God
does what most of the other prophets frankly wanted to do,
he runs away.
 
 But as he finds out
he can run but he can’t escape God,
and after a lesson in humility
 learned in the stomach of a big fish
 he goes and gives the message from God to the Ninevehites,
that in 40 days Nineveh will be overthrown.
 
Now usually people ignore the prophets,
Ezekiel and his brothers busted their buns
trying to get God’s message out and nothing...
and in a way Jonah is counting on this response
because he really doesn’t like Nineveh,
 they conquered his own people,
he’d actually like to see them be destroyed by God,
 
 but wouldn’t you know it,
 Jonah’s reluctant prophesy works,
 the whole city repents
and God decides not to destroy them
 
 and as we heard in our first reading today
this displeases Jonah
and he throws a temper tantrum
“He prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.’’”
 
He’s so dramatic,
it makes me laugh every time
 and the thing I find most funny
 is Jonah’s ability to make God’s virtues
 sound like a bad thing.
 
Jonah, for all his faults knows his scripture,
where God is described as gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
 and Jonah knows that God really is
 gracious and merciful slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love
 
 which is why he didn’t want to go to Nineveh,
because he knew that God would be this way with the Ninevites,
 and Jonah didn’t want them to be on the receiving end of God’s grace.
 
God’s grace makes Jonah angry.
Well it makes him angry
when it’s directed at people he doesn’t think deserve it.
 
This happens in the parable in our gospel for today as well
 with the landowner who keeps hiring people throughout the day,
now in a sense his continual hiring of people
 is an act of grace,
 
each time he goes out into the marketplace
he sees people who want to work,
need to work,
but for some reason have been overlooked for jobs.
 
Think of it like picking teams on the playground,
 the strongest most noticeable are chosen first
and the rest are left on the sidelines to watch,
no matter how much they want to take part.
 
So it is a matter of grace
that these leftover people
 are hired to work for even part of a day,
and he promises to pay them whatever is right,
this of course is determined by the landowner
and I’m guessing that none of those hired later
expected a full days wage,
 
 and yet when it comes time to settle up for the day
the landowner tells the manager of the vineyard
to pay those hired last first,
and to their great surprise they receive a full daily wage,
more than they expected
but surely much needed.
 
And so it goes on down the line
until those who were hired first are paid,
and they receive,
the usual daily wage.
 
 And they grumble at this,
 having seen those hired later get paid
they expected more.
 
It’s not fair they grumble,
 those others don’t deserve to be paid the same as we do,
 we did all the work.
 
 And the landowner reminds them
 that they are getting exactly what they agreed to
at the beginning of the day,
 had the landowner never hired the others
 the outcome would still be the same,
and the landowner asks them
 “are you envious because I am generous?”
 
The short answer is ‘yes’ they are. 
 
The longer answer
 is that we humans tend to live our lives
from the perspective of scarcity.
 Where whether it is true or not,
we think there is only so much to go around before it runs out
 and so we hoard what we have and seek to acquire more
 
and come up with all sorts of ways
 to judge who is worthy to use the resources,
 who we think should get a piece of the pie
 
and from this we get our sense of what we think is fair
 and this transfers to our idea of justice
where we think people should get what they deserve
 and what they deserve is an eye for an eye,
 it’s Jonah wanting God to destroy the city of Nineveh
 in return for what they had done to his people.
 
But God views the world differently.
God looks at the world from the perspective of abundance
 where resources are shared with everyone
 and justice looks like people getting what they need
which they deserve because they are beloved creation of God
 
and this perspective is in such contrast
with the way of the world
that when it is applied in the world,
 it upsets people,
though not I should note,
the people on the receiving end of the grace of God.
 
Which makes it odd
that anyone should get upset,
because we are all on the receiving end of the grace of God.
 
If we got what we deserve,
according to our own understanding of justice,
it would be us up on the cross rather than Jesus
 
and yet on Good Friday,
there Jesus was, for us,
living and dying the truth that God is gracious and merciful,
 slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love
 
and that truth continued on through
to Sunday morning and the empty tomb,
 and when Jesus appears to his disciples, alive,
he claims them, and all of us who have come after,
for the perspective of God.
 
 Having been claimed by the risen Christ
we are to see the world from the perspective of abundance
where justice is everyone getting what they need.
And not only are we to look from this perspective
We are to make it a way of life
We are to live lives that work to make sure
That people get what they need
Whether the world judges them as worthy or not
 
And yes, this is difficult because we live in the world
and sometimes the generosity of God upsets people,
 us included
 and we get angry and dramatic like Jonah
 
 and that’s when Jesus comes to us once again
 and gathers us at the table
where all are welcome
and there is enough for everybody
 
and breaking his body,
pouring out his blood,
Jesus gives us not what we deserve
but what we need,
 forgiveness,
 
and then he sends us back out into the world
 to live from God’s point of view,
 God who is gracious and merciful,
 slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Amen 
 

3rd Sunday after Epiphany
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Psalm 62:5-12 
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Mark 1:14-20

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you from the one who interrupts our lives. Amen
 
This past week I had the chance to do some continuing education,
I went to a series of talks by the author Mark Tranvik on Luther and Vocation.
 
Vocation is the big church word
that means a call from God
 to do something oriented toward God
 
 we often associate vocations with work
and more specifically with careers within the church.
In fact, at the time of the reformation
the only people considered to have vocations
were monks, nuns and priests.
 
Tranvik’s point was that the gift of Luther’s thinking and the reformation
is that because of our baptisms
 we all have vocations, calls from God
and not just with our jobs
but all areas of our lives are places and opportunities
 to love and serve God and neighbor,
 
 vocation in the broadest sense of the word
is God’s call to us to let God’s love overflow
from our lives into the lives of those around us.
 
Now, figuring out what God wants us to do
is easier said than done,
it’s been many years since the skies parted
 and the voice of God boomed out with specific instructions.
 
These days God speaks in very subtle ways
which sometimes we only understand well after the fact.
 But Mark Tranvik pointed out
that one place that God seems to particularly like to work in and through
are the interruptions in life.
 
In our texts for today
We have stories of God calling people
And there are interruptions all over the place,
 interruptions that lead to those who are interrupted serving God and neighbor.
Simon and Andrew are fishing
when Jesus comes upon them and interrupts their lives,
 we are told they are fishermen,
 so they are engaged in an activity that they have done before,
 that they use to support themselves and their families
 and which they expect that they will do the rest of their lives.
 
But something in the invitation to follow Jesus
 and fish for people catches their attention
 they set down their nets
and the trajectory of their lives changes dramatically.
 
The same goes for James and John
who are helping their father with the family business
 which their father anticipates that they will take over some day
 
 but when Jesus interrupts their net mending
to call them to follow
 they leave their nets and their father in the boat
 along with the plan for the rest of their lives
 all because they paid attention to an interruption.
 
Jonah’s life was interrupted by God,
several times in fact.
 
 Jonah’s first instinct was to do the exact opposite of what God wanted.
 Instead of going to Nineveh like God asked
Jonah got on a ship headed for Tarshish,
a journey which God interrupted with a big storm
and Jonah, gets thrown overboard and swallowed by a big fish
before getting back on track
 
and when he goes to Nineveh like God asks
he interrupts the lives of the Ninevites
 with the message “forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown”
 
and the people listen to this interruption!
They call a fast, clean up their ways, repent before God
and when God sees this,
 that they’ve listened to the interruption
 God changes plans and does not destroy their city.
 
All of our lives have been interrupted as some point
 Sometimes the interruptions are as simple
 as meeting a new friend,
 often the obvious interruptions involve loss
whether it’s loss of a job or a loved one or some other kind,
 
 and the resulting call
 may also be more subtle,
 a call to increased compassion
for those who have experienced the same thing you have.
 
Many times it is only well after the fact
 that we see where God was in the interruption
and how it changed the way we love and serve our neighbors.
 
Often when we look at the story of Jesus calling his disciples,
I think we get stuck on the dramatic way
in which the disciples give up everything
 
- Jesus says ‘come fish for people’ whatever that means-
and immediately they set down their nets and go with him.
 
This seems like an impossible example to follow-
we think ‘well that’s great for them but I can’t do that,
 I’ve got responsibilities or other reasons why dropping everything would not work,
and if we think of the life of discipleship
only in this one way it seems out of reach for most of us.
 
But not everyone is called to drop everything
and live an itinerant lifestyle,
 there are other ways to live as a disciple of Jesus,
 
and that’s why talking about vocation is so important,
because vocation-
that call from God to let the love of God overflow from our lives into the lives of others-
is lived out in all areas of life.
 
Luther once said
that perhaps the most spiritual thing one can do
 is wash out dirty diapers and hang them on the line-
 
 He caught some flack from his academic colleagues
when they saw him out in the backyard
 helping his wife Katie with the household chores
 
but for Luther,
 his sense of vocation meant that he understood
 that in the realm of family life
the way he could be a disciple,
 to let the love of God flow from his life into the life of his family
 was to serve his wife and children by washing dirty diapers.
 
Discipleship doesn’t have to be dramatic or complicated
we are all called to be disciples,
 this call came to us at the biggest interruption in our lives,
our baptism.
 
The point in our life when God claimed us
made sure that we knew that we are no one’s but God’s,
 and in the water and the word
joined us to the death and resurrection of Jesus,
saying ‘death no longer has any claim on this person,
whatever hardships come their way the end result will be life with God.’
 
In our baptisms we have been set free
and our lives filled to overflowing with the love of God
and we are given the purpose of sharing that love with others
in many and various ways,
 
and so we do
resting secure in the knowledge
 that whatever interruptions we encounter in life
 God is there with us,
 loving us and working for good. Amen
 
for more on vocation and the ideas referenced in this sermon see the book: Martin Luther and the Called Life by Mark D. Tranvik

16th Sunday after Pentecost
Jonah 3:10-4:11
Psalm 145:1-8
Philippians 1:21-30
Matthew 20:1-16

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you
 from the one who gives us what we need rather than what we deserve. Amen.
 
It always astounds me
how we as humans can make anything into a complaint,
even the most positive of things.
 
Take our friend Jonah for instance,
out of his mouth comes a formula of praise
we find in the psalms
 
he says to God:
“For I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.”
 
All of these things
seem like something we would want in a God
and yet for Jonah,
these are lamentable characteristics.
 
It is not satisfying to him
that God is gracious and ready to relent from punishing.
Jonah, the reluctant prophet
wanted to see Nineveh,
the original Sin City,
fry.
 
He wanted them held accountable for their wrong doings
to see the fruits of his prophesy,
the destruction of a great city.
 
To him it’s not fair
that God would just let all that go.
 
How quickly the man so recently tossed into the sea
and swallowed by a big fish
forgets the grace of God.
 
Likewise in Matthew
we have some vineyard workers
who are fortunate enough to be hired at the beginning of the day.
For their work they will receive the common daily wage
and they agree to this before they start.
 
As the day progresses
the vineyard owner hires more and more people
who agree to work for what is right,
there is plenty of work for all to do.
 
The end of the day comes
and those hired last are paid first.
 
The workers who started at the very beginning
see them get the common daily wage,
as do the next to last hired
and they start to get excited,
what will they get for doing eight times the work?
 
When it’s their turn,
they get what they agreed to,
the common daily wage.
 
But, but, that’s not fair they complain
we worked all day in the heat
and we don’t get more than the guys that only worked an hour?
 
How quickly workers who might not have had a job
forget they were hired for the day.
 
In the kingdom of heaven
 people get what they need
rather than what they think they deserve
 
As we listen to these stories
it is easy to see the foolishness of Jonah and the workers
who presume to be entitled
to what are ultimately gifts from God
 
Jonah is a laughable character,
his preaching achieves what most prophets only dream of,
people paying attention to their message and changing their ways
 
 and the workers,
they shook on a contract,
why would they expect more than what they agreed on with their employer?
That’s just silly
 
And yet, if I am honest with myself
If I place myself in the shoes of the workers (Jonah is a little more difficult to imagine)
I am actually no different than the workers.
 
How many times
have I thought that I would receive more than what I agreed to
just because I was fortunate enough to be hired at the beginning of the day
or became jealous
when others seem to accomplish more with less work
or are compensated in a way that doesn’t seem fair.
 
And that’s the whole point
Grace isn’t fair
We don’t deserve grace
 
The key to this whole discussion
I think comes out of the mouth of the vineyard owner.
To the grumbling workers he says
“Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
 
In the vineyard of this world
all belongs to God
And God is generous,
gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
 
Everything we have is from God,
given as a generous gift.
and those hired first
 
again If I am really honest with myself
I am more like the people of Ninevah than Jonah,
in need of repentance and the mercy of God
  
and I am really more like those hired last,
who are grateful for just an hour’s work
and astounded at the generosity of a whole days pay
than I am like the ones hired first.
 
Martin Luther, the great reformer
was one who was well aware of his failings and the grace of God
on his death bed it is reported that his last words were
“We are beggars, this is true.”
 
We are beggars
but we are beggars with a God who is generous beyond reason,
gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love
 
who gives us everything that we need and more
and calls us to share what we have been given
with those who hunger and thirst for food and water, grace and mercy.
 
 And God’s actions are not fair,
if the vineyard owner were concerned with equal treatment of his employees
the last hired would have been paid less than the first hired.
 
But God’s concern is justice,
what is right.
God gives us what we need rather than what we deserve
 
The vineyard owner agrees to pay what is right to those hired later,
for God what is right
what is just
is that all have enough to eat,
a place to live.
Fulfilling labor
Medical care
 
And the way God does this
is through God’s people
who are called to work for God’s justice in the world,
to be generous with what they have been first given
to give people what they need rather than what they deserve
  
We are called by God to start living out the kingdom of heaven now
And that means at all levels of our lives
On an individual level, in our local communities, in our country and in the world
We are called by God
to make sure that people get what they need rather than what they deserve
 
And if it doesn’t seem fair
Remember,
It’s not
It’s grace
 
The grace of God, the creator of the universe
Who is merciful, slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love. Amen