Jonah 3: 1-5,10; Psalm 62: 6-14; 1 Corinthians 7: 29-31; Mark 1: 14-20

So one of the things that I am working on in my life at the moment, well to be honest amongst a whole host of other things, but one thing is learning how to fly fish. Now I am sort of getting the hang of it, with lots of advice from others: Keep the rod tip up, keep your arm between 10 and 2 as in a clock face, let go of the line with your left hand at that point but not this point. Let the fly gently float onto the surface of the water and not splash down creating ripples across the lake. There is a lot to think about. If you have done it you know what I mean. If you haven’t and like me you have trouble doing two things at once then you might appreciate my need to practice a bit more. For this reason not all that long ago I found myself standing up to my waist in the freezing cold water of the Squamish River. The weather was terrible, drizzling much of the time, chilly, the trees were bare and for the most part no one else around except my son, Matthew. We were determined to be there. Now when I am fishing the fish really have very little to worry about. For me it is just as much about the sounds of the line coming off the reel, the water moving downstream, the call of the eagles nearby, the wind in the trees. There is mostly a silence that is filled for me with contemplation, meditation, consideration and thought. There is time to wonder and reflect in gratitude. The fishing is an extra, a bonus added to a beautiful time even on a rain-soaked November day in the freezing cold.

Now I know fishing is not like that for all people, especially commercial fisherfolk but at least some of this must be known to them as well. Time on the water, reflecting upon the meaning and purpose of it all; upon God’s gracious hand upon the world and upon your life. And so perhaps on a day long ago, a day of deeper thought and wondering questions, Jesus’ voice broke the silence of reflection for a few potential disciples: “Follow me.” That was it. No long sermon. No formal invitation. No job description or signed waivers. And it was not long after that four former fisher folk left it all behind and went to follow Jesus. This story never ceases to amaze me. What was it that they saw in Jesus that they immediately left all that they had and all that they knew and went off to explore the things that connect this world with the next, to wonder how our lives are connected with the one who breathed life into us, tow question meaning versus busyness. But put down their nets they did. What were they being called to actually do? Follow yes but clearly much more than that. For they followed for many years but that soon turned into leading. What were they being called to do?

There was a different follower of God who we also heard about in our first reading for today. Jonah. Many of us know that name and remember him from Sunday School or Bible Trivia questions. Jonah was called by God to go to Ninevah, for Ninevah had lost sight of God’s hope for them. And Jonah… well he runs as quickly and as far away as possible. It involved a great adventure on the high seas and being thrown overboard and swallowed by a large fish, at least that is how the story goes. Eventually he gets to Ninevah and cries out that the entire city should turn from their ways. The short story is that they do and so God does not destroy them. And Jonah is so angry he could spit. “I don’t believe this!” he said to God. Or words to that affect. “Isn’t this what I said right from the beginning that you would do? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; 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 so Jonah went out and found a place to pout, to wallow in his anger and turn his back on God. The moral of this story is incredibly important. Jonah wanted God to act in a certain way, in fact he was certain that he knew how God should act and was quite happy to offer God advice and was furious when God did not do as Jonah wanted. And God came to Jonah and reminded him which one is God and which one is not. “Should I not be concerned about Ninevah?” God asked him. Or my ways are not your ways. Or your calling is not to be God but to tell of God’s presence.

I think in this story and the gospel we discover much about what all prophets, followers, disciples discover; that our message and our hope is the forgiveness and love of God. We are invited to walk closer to Christ to discover each and every day how this love, grace and compassion of God really shifts our lives and our living. As was said in the psalm for today: steadfast love belongs to you O God.

But somehow out in our world of 2015 that message, that calling, that teaching has been high-jacked far too often. The message of God’s love has been misrepresented and twisted so that God is a judging and angry God not one of grace and peace. God’s love is reserved for a small few rather than liberally spread as abundant grace and abundant life. Too often the God that Jonah wanted and one that some of Jesus’ followers wanted of him is the one that is preached and not the God of abounding steadfast love. Too often violence has been committed in the name of God when our faith and the faith of many others is actually telling them the opposite. We who have heard the message of the gracious God need to tell that message more often. This message needs to be spread by word and deed.

For we keep hearing on the news of Muslim fundamentalist groups who will kill and destroy in the name of God as we have seen in in France, Nigeria, almost in Belgium, Afghanistan, Syria and lots of other places. And it is not very hard to find Christian groups who spread a message of an angry judgemental God, either. It was reported that “more than 100 Christian leaders in the nation of Liberia have said the Ebola outbreak is a plague sent by God, who is “angry with Liberia” over “the corruption and immoral acts (such as homosexuality, sexual sins, etc.) that continue to penetrate our society.” If we read our Bible and follow Christ we know that nothing could be further from the truth. Steadfast love, we believe, is our hope from God not anger and destruction. We must get this message broadcast into our world through our words and our actions. Surely this is the calling of the disciples then and now.

This past Monday, many celebrated the life and witness of Martin Luther King Jr, a truly great human being killed for speaking about equality, forgiveness and a new way to look at the world and God. Listen to a few quotes from him in his walk as a follower of Christ: “Now let me say that the next thing we must be concerned about if we are to have peace on earth and good will toward others is the nonviolent affirmation of the sacredness of all human life. Everyone is somebody because they are a child of God.”

“Hatred and bitterness can never cure the disease of fear; only love can do that. Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illumines it.”

“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. The one who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.”

I could go on and offer you a few more quotes from Martin Luther King Jr but I know you get the point. For what I want you to hear is that you are called to be a follower of Christ, one who did not come in power and destruction to take over the world. He came and lived and died and rose again as God’s Son to point us to what God hopes for us. Those first disciples heard that call when they were fishing, when perhaps they were contemplating what God was truly inviting them to be and do. You do not have to go out fishing to hear that call. You do not have to stand in the icy waters of the Squamish River to hear it. For it is the call that has been shouted since the beginning of time: love one another as I have loved you.