“A Changed Mind”
“A Changed Mind”
Jonah 3:1-5, 10 Psalm 62:5-12 Mark 1:14-20
Year B, Third Sunday after Epiphany
January 21, 2024
Pastor Andy Kennaly, Sandpoint, Idaho
The Season of Epiphany reveals the essential nature of God’s Wisdom. Essential in two ways. One involves Essence. Essential in the sense of what is true about God, what God’s Essence is like. Of course, words and concepts are finite and often dualistic and if you can define God, it likely is not God, for ultimately, God is mystery and beyond the limitations of any definition. But something about Wisdom seems essential when we reference the Divine.
Another way essential is defined involves the notion of being absolutely necessary. If something is essential, we can’t do without it. God’s Wisdom is essential. More than knowledge, more than experience, more than anything we may try and cling to or identify ourselves with, God’s Wisdom is essential, necessary, because only God has the authority to name who we truly are. Any labels or opinions we’ve developed certainly fall short of who God knows us to be. They may be on track, but only God really knows the full story of our lives. To be fully known, we need to trust God’s Wisdom and lean into the unconditional love that embraces us.
This is also reflective of our Essence. We are, essentially, created and loved by God. We are created beings, humans on planet Earth having life infused in and through us as spirit becomes manifest in matter. Not only us as people, but all creation for the Earth herself is a living entity with qualities we too often take for granted or ignore. All creation groans with moans too deep for words because the Earth is awaiting the awakening of humanity, yearning for humanity to heed the call of God’s Wisdom into the fullness of our true Self.
That’s another aspect of God’s essential Wisdom. Essence is not a static description, like an object to be seen and observed. But Essence is dynamic, God’s Wisdom, like the wind of the Spirit, moves where it will, and calls us. This call is not trapped by confines of time, so it is from the future. To hear the call and heed God’s Wisdom, we take our place in the circle of trustworthy servants who welcome the faithfulness of God. Like those first disciples invited to follow Jesus, we are invited to “come and see” through the illuminated eyes of our hearts.
As we look back into the past through the words of scripture, stories teach about God’s perennial Wisdom echoing through the ages. Jonah, one of God’s prophets sent to Nineveh, is an amazing story that not only took place back then, but is archetypal, for the dynamics of call, the faithfulness of God, the participation of humanity to wake up to our own divinity is ongoing.
Notice this morning’s reading from chapter three says, “The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time…” This is the second time. The first time involved running, denial, avoidance, anger, and futility. There was a great adventure on the sea as Jonah tried to flee in the opposite direction, but was thrown overboard, swallowed by the whale, and deposited near the beach more direct to the destination God had in mind. Jonah and the whale is a story that gets attention and becomes lodged in the mythical tales of culture.
[review art print from Alan Swanson, Los Angeles, 1993]. That was first.
This is now the second time, and who doesn’t appreciate having second chances when it’s something important, something essential? This is essential in the sense that it is important, a priority for God. And essential because it’s the prophet’s nature, it’s who Jonah truly is as one called by God. Jonah was only running away from himself, his fears, and his limited thinking. God, for a second time, calls Jonah to confront all of these in the process of sharing a message with people assumed to be despised, enemies. Jonah does what he’s told, but will his spirit expand, will his joy be evident?
The people of Nineveh were not Jewish. Jonah was uncomfortable to say the least, especially to tell them that in forty days God would overthrow the city. That city was started 6,000 years before Jesus. It was a very large city, prominent and important in the Assyrian Empire. Today we call it Mosul in northern Iraq. On the shores of the Tigris River, is a cradle of civilization. It’s no mistake that God describes Nineveh as “that great city.”
Jonah and the whale, the first chapters, tends to get the attention. It is less often that we focus on God’s essential Wisdom as including those we typically exclude, and even less that we notice God changes God’s mind. God declared destruction, but the people changed their ways, shed their evil and violence, and God changed God’s mind about the destruction. Yet really, God simply reveals action that is in alignment with the Essential nature of divinity. Mercy. Love. Creativity. Life. The ability to hold paradox. Embodiment of truth. God invites Jonah to participate in this larger dynamic of grace.
The psalmist echoes trust in God’s deliverance, and in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus comes into public light after John the baptizer is arrested. But rather than cower, Jesus proclaims, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the good news.”
The prophetic voice of Jesus moves us beyond time and space, for the limitations of mental concepts that measure, and count, cannot grasp the momentous work of the Spirit in our midst. In Jesus we find freedom from time, freedom from spacial restrictions, and in Jesus we hear a call toward a new dimension and expanded consciousness. This call is more than belief as a mental concept, but a deep trust, soul work of a spiritual nature.
The very first thing Jesus says in his message, “Repent” is nothing less than “change your mind.” Even God changes God’s mind to reflect more essential nature. “Change your mind. Follow me.” These are Christ’s invitational challenges, for the way of Christ is not easy and can be counter-cultural. It involves more than having the right ideas, but involves transformation of identity, trust that the image and likeness of God we are created to be can take shape in our lives.
The season of Epiphany celebrate God with us. In what ways is God calling you? How is God’s essence experienced in your life? What practices or disciplines help you in repentance, in changing your mind, in transforming your heart and soul into God’s spaciousness? Do you feel like your life is an extension of the biblical narrative, that God’s Spirit still moves and redemptive work in the world is apropos in our own context? What might it take for God to get your attention in order to help your spiritual transformation and encourage a life of discipleship in which prayer is unceasing? What does heeding God’s call to reflect your true Essence look like today?
The baby Jesus from the creche scene of the manger stall has grown up. The time is fulfilled. God’s reign is trustworthy. But change is guaranteed, for no one looks upon God and lives. Our old ways of being no longer fit or work like they once did. Much like the tomb holding Jesus who died is now empty for the Living Christ is with us. May we come alongside prophets of old, may we heed future’s call, and may we trust God’s essential nature as we respond to the invitation of Jesus to disciples, “Follow me, and I will make you.” Thanks be to God for deliverance, redemption, forgiveness, mercy, and love, and for being so much more than any of these words can contain. May God be glorified, now, even in the fullness of forever. Amen.