Even those who are flawed are called.

It is said that it is a woman’s prerogative to change her mind. Clearly in the book of Jonah it is not only for women but the privilege belongs also to God — and the Ninevites. Hearing Jonah’s message about their impending doom, the people of Nineveh change their ways and turn aside God’s wrath. It intrigues me that we don’t celebrate Jonah’s preaching prowess or even acknowledge the fact that his rhetoric convinced a whole city to repent and escape annihilation. Instead we make a parody of how Jonah ran from God’s call, stowed away on a ship, was tossed overboard and swallowed by a great fish. Nor do we pause to wonder that God gave Jonah the benefit of the doubt and commissioned him again.

It sometimes appears that the mission of biblical interpreters is to cast a spotlight on how flawed many biblical characters were, even to point out the many failings of those now considered “giants of faith.” Is that to make today’s disciples look better? Is it so that our failings don’t seem so terrible? I’d like to go for that understanding but only for the moment as we remember Jonah’s effective preaching and adventures of his journey to get to Nineveh. Let’s also give him points for striding into the middle of a city to proclaim God’s word, a word that wasn’t pleasant to hear if you were a Ninevite. Jonah did all this even though he was able to predict the outcome. Nevertheless, he put his heart and soul into it and turned around a nation. 

At the beginning of Mark’s Gospel we have Simon, Andrew, James, and John, in the same place they spent most of their days, doing the things that took up most of their waking hours. They would have expected that the next day would be much the same, and the day after that and many more days and weeks and years. They were poor men who had to work hard to make a living.  And then along came this man, Jesus, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, 'the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near, repent, and believe in the good news.' The power of proclamation can be judged by the response of these four fishermen who followed on the promise of being made fisher for people.  They followed Jesus, apparently without a backward glance. 

Why do you suppose that was? If you were hard at work and some street preacher came along telling you to repent, because the kingdom of God was coming and asked you to drop what you were doing and come along, would you do it? Was it because Simon and Andrew and James and John were extra-gullible people? Or was it because there was something so compelling about Jesus that they didn't think twice about it? There was apparently something about Jesus that they could not resist. In a way that they would not understand for a long time, God was being made known to them in the person of Jesus Christ. It was an epiphany, a manifestation, a being present!  

It isn't just Simon and Andrew and James and John who are called to follow Jesus Christ. Jesus calls each of us to follow him -- and he calls to us every single day, wherever we are and whatever we are doing. We don't have to be rich; we don't have to have a lot to offer. We just have to be willing to follow. We have to be willing to make ourselves available, so that God may use us. For some it is an immediate life-forever-changed experience. For most, it is a lifelong journey. In whatever way it happens for us, God’s kingdom come is the greatest treasure we will ever know. The question is whether we will be willing to attempt to live God’s dream for us, flawed though we may be. And in doing so use that wonderful gift or that wonderful treasure God has given each one of us.