Category: News

¹ Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, ² “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.” ³ But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

⁴ But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up. ⁵ Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down, and was fast asleep. ⁶ The captain came and said to him, “What are you doing sound asleep? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so that we do not perish.”

⁷ The sailors[a] said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, so that we may know on whose account this calamity has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. ⁸ Then they said to him, “Tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” ⁹ “I am a Hebrew,” he replied. “I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” ¹⁰ Then the men were even more afraid, and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them so.

If you have attempted to drive through the harbor recently, you will come across the road construction at the intersection of West and Lake avenues.  On any given day, one road will be closed, or perhaps one lane is open on another road, and even on a third day, you could find no construction.  The constant changing of the road work, and the constant rerouting of traffic has resulted in many becoming frustrated and ultimately avoiding even driving through the area, choosing to take a detour elsewhere to avoid the problem intersection until the work is concluded.

Avoiding a difficult intersection and taking a detour is precisely what Jonah did after receiving his call to travel and preach in Nineveh.  Instead of taking responsibility, he avoids the responsibility and purchases a boat ticket going in the opposite direction.  God commands and appoints and calls Jonah to a task and instead of accepting responsibility and obeying that command freely, Jonah balks at the idea, avoids his appointment and flees to the city furthest away from Nineveh on a map.  He avoids the intersection; he avoids his responsibilities and goes elsewhere with no responsibilities whatever.

So too do we.  Like Jonah we avoid responsibility and take a detour to where there are either no responsibilities or one’s of our own creation.  God calls us to worship, and we do a little but not enough.  God calls us to pray, and we pray some, but not enough.  God calls us to study, and we do some, but not enough.  But perhaps the greatest avoidance we make comes in loving service of our neighbors.  God calls us to love each other, by serving our faith community but also the people outside our faith community.  We simply don’t.  We avoid that responsibility, because we want to be able to walk away, because we have a limited amount of time not spent working, and because we just simply want to do something else and have no desire to serve as a deacon, to volunteer building wheelchair ramps, to tutor or mentor a young person, to cook and serve food to the homeless.  God calls and we avoid an answer, we go to Tarshish: we go shopping, we go on vacation, or we watch our 3.5 hours of television a day.  We avoid our God-given responsibility.

But I am not talking about those people that are described as responsibility sponges.  They always say yes, they are always volun-told by others to serve, they are overworked and overburdened with responsibility.  They continue to soak up responsibility.  No, you have enough, and it may be responsible to say no.  But I also am not talking about those people that shouldn’t be responsible all together.  Those that are older and more vulnerable from a health perspective.  They have earned their time off and don’t need to put themselves in harm’s way or feel the compulsion to add something or contribute to the life of our congregation.  The responsible thing may also be to say no.  I am talking about those that are called by the Word and Spirit of God and choose to do nothing or barely anything, for fear of becoming obligated and unable to get out if things go bad, for fear of not having any free time, for being selfish and choosing to live your life for yourself instead of for God.  I am talking about those of us, that are called and don’t answer.  I am talking about the ones called by God and who avoid answering or choose to answer with a detour of their own creation.  I am talking about me and you.

When we look at the cross of Jesus Christ, we see complete and total dedication to God, at a willingness to give one’s life for God’s purposes.  We see perfect responsibility and that is not me, that is not us, and it certainly was not Jonah.  But God doesn’t avoid us, like we avoid God.  God still takes perfect responsibility towards us and as the man Jesus of Nazareth perfect responsibility instead of us.  God chased down Jonah, and God chases down us.  God keeps calling even when we have no answer, and even when we have a defiant answer, Jesus answers faithfully instead of us.  God chased Jonah and Jonah finally accepted his calling from God.  God is chasing us down and through the Word made Flesh and the Indwelling Spirit, we are forgiven and freed to choose responsibility instead of avoiding it all together.

My friends, none more than I, choose daily to avoid the callings and responsibilities God places on us.  But we all are loved and cared for by God, that God can transform us from defiant, selfish creatures into faithful, obedient children.  God changed Jonah.  Through Jesus and the Spirit, God can change us.  So where can you help with our congregation’s responsibilities?  If you already are, great you don’t need any more.  If taking responsibility means you put your life at risk, great you don’t need any more.  If you are not bearing any responsibilities or if you are doing the bare minimum and could be responsible for more, what calling from God are you avoiding and perhaps need to start accepting?  What more can you do?  Isn’t it time to start answering instead of avoiding?

³ While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

⁴ Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? ⁵ It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.

⁶ “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ⁷ The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. ⁸ She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. ⁹ Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

I am sure we all have heard under the auspice of entertainment news how celebrities lavish exorbitantly expensive presents on their kids for their birthdays and holidays.  Due to their possessing large quantities of resources, they can buy cars, houses, and boats for their children to enjoy.  While it always seems that they are buying far too expensive things for their kids, we also seem to hear about those that criticize them in their spending.  An actor buys an expensive car for a sixteen-year-old daughter, and a pundit complains about a better use for $100,000.  We have no shortage of far too expensive gift givers and no absence of people to complain about their spending.

In our text from Mark, we also have a very expensive gift, and no shortage of people to complain about it.  While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.  A woman was so moved by Jesus’ forgiveness of her sins, that she gave him a very expensive jar of ointment poured over his head.  Her gratitude at having her many sins washed away by Jesus’ grace and mercy, prompts her to pay back an attempt at an equal gift.  Many sins forgiven can only be repaid by a large gift of gratitude.  The forgiveness was so large due to her many sins, that only a large gift could symbolize her gratitude.

But her gift was also misunderstood and criticized.  Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.  We have no famine when it comes to critics, who attack how others spend their money.  The years wages could have helped a lot of people, was the argument and spending all of that to make Jesus smell nice was an irresponsible decision.  They were not concerned with gratitude or appreciation for Jesus, they were concerned with poor economics and faithful sociology.  Her profound self-offering in gratitude for Jesus’ forgiveness has been transformed into an affront to justice.  She should be cancelled for such a transgression.

But while everyone else was criticizing her motivations and decisions, Jesus comes to her defense.   “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”  The conclusion we could come to, was that Jesus was not interested in justice for the poor and their tending, which would be wrong, Jesus was.  But where the emphasis lies is how Jesus accepts the self-offerings of people which are grateful for his forgiveness.  Jesus is content to accept the gifts motivated by gratitude and thankfulness.  She did what she could, and Jesus appreciated her thank you gift.

We are all perhaps a bit too eager to criticize how others spend their money, and the poor choices the wealthy all seem to make.  But what perhaps the point of the story is not that we must force others into responsible choices, but we should look at our own self-offerings (if we have any to begin with) and test if they are truly gifts from gratitude, or some other motivation.  Perhaps we don’t even give back anything to God, and perhaps we don’t give back to God proportionate to what God has given to us.  No doubt we will never be able to give a gratitude gift equal to the grace given to us by God, but that is not an excuse to give little to nothing.  True gratitude and thankfulness are the proper response to the free gift of God given in the covenant of Jesus Christ.  What will you give back to God and is it enough?