Change Is Good, a sermon given by Ron Fournier at St. Mark on January 22, 2012, on Jonah 3:1-5,10 and MK 1:11-20
If I had to give a one word summary of what our readings for today are all about I would have to say they are about change. Now one of the things that I have learned over the years is how resistant to change we sometimes can be. I think in some respects we resist change because we believe it gives us control over our lives, so in general we like things to stay the way they are. We have even created a name to sort of hide the fact that we don’t like change so we call it our comfort zone. So we like to stay and move about within our own comfort zone, our own personal bubble, where we live out our lives and create for ourselves what we hope in some ways will be an everlasting unchanging now.
Our comfort zone has its benefits though since it works to make our lives more predictable, with less chaos, less risk, and in some ways this helps us to control our levels of stress and worry.
And this also makes us creatures of habit, so we hold on to our routines, our set schedules, we go to bed at this time, we get up at this time, we travel the same routes to school or work, we order our pizza from the same place. And just for fun how many of you when you come to church park in the same spot and sit in the same pew of the church?
Although our comfort zone gives us the feeling of being safe and having control over our lives in many ways it is a false sense of security because it also stops or limits our growth as a human being. We become unwilling to step outside our bubble and try new things, experience life in a new way, meet new people, or make those changes we need to make so we can respond to the changes in the world that are happening around us.
Staying in the comfort zone of our own personal bubble can even limit our relationship with God, if life seems perfect to you in your bubble why would you want anything to change, why would you need God? When this happens we begin to believe that we have already made it to the Promised Land, that there is nothing left for us to do, or that we can work out our own salvation by just being good people and doing works of kindness.
Not only do we live in our own bubbles but organizations and companies and even churches also resist change, they become their own bubbles and create for themselves their own comfort zones. So they resist change, saying things like we’ve always done it this way, if it isn’t broken don’t fix it, our way is the only way of doing things, they are the ones that need to change, we are the best, we have all the answers, or everybody loves our product. A group think where in a collective sense everybody thinks and acts the same way.
But the fact is we live in the midst of change, change surrounds us everywhere. The world is constantly changing, all you need to do is look around and you will see night changing into day and day becoming night, the daily change in the weather, the change of the seasons, the constant march of technology, the aging process that takes us from cradle to grave. God created our world so that there would be these changes and this means that change must be good. Change is good because it is how God is refreshing and renewing our world and change is what bursts our bubbles and takes us out of our comfort zones.
Think for a minute about some of the significant changes of the last 100, 50, 25, or even the last 5 years. Most of these were led by revolutionaries or modern day prophets who stepped outside their bubbles and saw the world in ways that no one else could ever have imagined. Change seldom comes from within.
Henry Ford said that, “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” But Henry Ford through his innovations revolutionized transportation and manufacturing and changed the world in which we live. Fast forward to the last 30 years and think about how the personal computer has changed our world. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs back in 1980 saw the day when everyone would want to have their own personal computer, and Jobs and Wozniak saw what the world leader in computers at that time IBM never could have imagined. Jobs said in his memoir that people didn’t know what they needed until he showed them. Or who would have imagined Facebook and the idea of a social network that not only keeps you connected with your family and friends around the world but is out there crawling through cyberspace finding other people you may have a connection with. And now we have iBooks2 the new app that is going to replace textbooks as we know them.
Even the church has a rich history of revolutions and change. Although the truths that we hold never change, our understanding of these truths develop and grow over time through the action of the Holy Spirit working in our world. To be a Christian means that there will be change, that we can only grow through grace.
And we all know that our churches today are facing many challenges. Denominational churches especially are seeing declines in their memberships and many churches are closing. This is because our world is changing and these changes have come to our neighborhoods which have become more secular and more diverse. We now live, work, and go to school alongside folks with many different beliefs; Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, agnostics, and atheists. This is the real world and these are all God’s people, but as a result of this diversity of views many people are questioning their faith or giving up on organized religion all together, they don’t want to segregate themselves from their neighbors, their friends, their family, or their coworkers. Christianity to them seems to be exclusive.
And the challenge to us as the church is that an ever growing population, now at about 35 million in the US, has altogether totally given up on church. The answer to church growth cannot be just stealing the sheep from another church’s flock. How do we as a church connect with these people who have given up on the church, most of whom still see themselves as being spiritual? What is our message to them? Are we willing as a church, the body of Christ, to make the changes that are needed, to rethink what it means to be a church and reach out to these people? Or are we meant to be an exclusive cult?
Fortunately people of faith are thinking about and writing about how to reverse these trends. In his book They Like Jesus But Not the Church pastor Dan Kimball got outside his own church bubble and spent several days each week in local coffee houses talking to people about Jesus and the church. He says that whereas most people had favorable views about Jesus they did not have good things to say about the church. Reading his book will definitely make you uncomfortable but it will make you think.
But Kimball believes that there is hope for the church and that these are exciting times for the church to reinvent and once again reform itself. Kimball says that churches need to change their focus and become missional which is more than just being evangelical and hierarchical. This means that the church sees itself as being missionaries and that the mission field is not just some remote corner of the world but is right here where we live. Hence the church is not just a place we go to on Sunday to worship Jesus but the church is who we are throughout the rest of the week. This means that we as the church must get outside of our bubbles and be involved and engaged with the rest of the world 24/7.
Being missional means that we serve our communities, that we build relationships with the people in them rather than as seeing them as just evangelistic targets. And to sustain all of this we have to be all the more dependent on Jesus and the Holy Spirit through prayer, the Scriptures, and each other in our faith community.
And if you think about this for a minute this missional call fits well with St. Mark’s guiding principles. Each of us needs to make sure that we understand and KNOW the Word, that by our actions we show to others that we LIVE the Word, and that we also SHARE the Word with others; that this Word that we share actually has a face and is Jesus Christ. By sharing the Word we need to explain that all truth and goodness comes from God. Hence everything that is true and good in the diversity of the world religions is a part of God’s revelation. And each of these religions in their own way is preparing their followers for the Gospel of Jesus Christ who is the true light of the world, and His light is shining on everyone.
But often when we are faced with the need to make changes we go dragging and kicking our heels. We fight change, we like our comfort zone, we want everything to stay the same, to keep living in our bubbles. I resist change, I am probably the last person out of 800 million people to finally get a Facebook account.
So in many ways we can be like Jonah when it comes to change and we are challenged to get out of our comfort zone. Recall that in this story, where our OT reading is taken from for today, God spoke to Jonah and He said go to the people of Ninevah. Although Jonah was what we would call a man of God Jonah had no intention of going to Ninevah. Jonah didn’t want to get out of his comfort zone, he didn’t want to have to change, not even for God.
Jonah hated the Ninevites, Ninevah was a city of over 100,000 of the worst sinners on earth and God was telling Jonah to go there and tell them to repent. Jonah must have thought, God are you kidding me, why do I have to go and preach to a bunch of sinners! For Jonah it was easier to look after his own needs than to be concerned about a group of people who did not believe in God. But Jonah doesn’t even argue with God, or try to plead his case, instead Jonah runs in the opposite direction, he gets on a boat, and heads off for Tarshish and believes that God does not see what he is doing.
But God had to let Jonah learn the hard way. Sometimes we learn best when we hit rock bottom and for Jonah rock bottom is literally the bottom of the sea. So as you know things did not go well for Jonah on the boat and a big violent storm comes along and everyone fears for their life and then Jonah confesses that maybe he has something to do with the mess they are all in. Jonah says something like “Well guys, I think this is all my fault. You see it’s like this, God told me to go to Ninevah, I didn’t want to do it, so I took off in the other direction thinking that I could run and hide from God.”
Well when the other sailors heard this they thought the only thing they could do to save themselves was to throw Jonah overboard. To save Jonah God then has him swallowed by a big whale of a fish who then spits him out on shore three days later and that is where our OT reading for today picks up the rest of the story about Jonah.
And in our lesson for today we see God giving Jonah a second chance to go to Ninevah and preach repentance. And this time Jonah reluctantly does what God asks of him. He walks a little ways into the city of Ninevah and gives his big 8 word sermon where he says “forty days more, and Ninevah shall be overthrown!” And the amazing thing is that these people of Ninevah listened and believed what Jonah said. That’s all it took, just 8 words, and then all of them from the least to the greatest including their king changed and repented. And God saw that they changed, that the people of Ninevah repented, and God changed His mind and the Ninevites like Jonah were all given a second chance.
So part of what this story about Jonah is teaching us is that maybe each one of us is also being called by God to change in some way by going to our own personal Ninevah.
Our own Ninevah might be a place like going back to school to sharpen the saw so you can get that new job, or maybe God has been calling you to start or get involved in a ministry, or maybe even a bible study of some kind, so your Ninevah could be something that is calling you and you just keep saying no.
Or maybe your Ninevah is your relationships with other people. Maybe there are some people in your lives that you don’t want to associate with or you need to reconcile with. Maybe these are people of color, or folks of a different faith, or maybe they have a different lifestyle than your own. Sometimes the people you like the least are the ones that need you the most. Will it take a whale to swallow you before you are ready to change?
Or perhaps your Ninevah is a way of thinking that you are holding on to. Maybe God is calling on you to open up your mind and change your thinking about an issue or something that is controversial. Or maybe you are just being stubborn like Jonah was and ignoring or fighting God about where He is leading you next.
Or maybe your Ninevah is some personal habit or a secret sin that has taken control of your life. You sense that God is calling you to stop but you don’t want to change. Every time God has called you to go to this Ninevah you head off in the other direction. So instead you hang on to these bad habits or these poor choices that are causing you pain and disrupting your relationships with other people. And if that is the case then maybe it’s time for you to head for Ninevah.
And this is what Paul is teaching us in the last verse from our reading for today from 1 Corinthians 7:31. Paul says that “the present form of this world is passing away.” Paul is challenging us with these words to get out of our bubbles and our comfort zone and come to see that our life in this world is not eternal, that things are not going to stay the same, that God is not going to give up on us, and He is going to keep calling out to each one of us to go to our own personal Ninevah where we need to change and follow Him.
This is what Jesus is saying in the opening to our Gospel lesson for today when He says “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection has changed the world. With Christ’s coming there are no further revelations to expect. Christ is calling of each of us to step out of the box, get out of our bubbles, repent now and change our lives for the better, and follow Him.
Note in our gospel lesson for today, that when Simon and Andrew and then James and John after them, get the call from Jesus they drop everything they are doing to follow Jesus. And notice that when Jesus calls these first disciples that unlike Jonah they follow Him without any hesitation, Mark in his gospel says immediately, not later, not when they can get around to it, but right now. Do we have the courage to do the same? And remember that Jesus was not calling them to volunteer for an evening at the local homeless shelter. Jesus wants them to serve Him each and every day for the rest of their lives.
When Jesus casts His net, and brings you in He is not going to let you go back to your old life in the bubble, but He plans on keeping you, and He is giving you a new life. He expects you to change, He wants you to become a child of God, to be His disciple, and to follow Him and fish for people.
Jesus had this power on these first disciples and He has this power on us today as well. Jesus is the change that is good, the reason that we are His church, He is our reason to Know, Live, and to Share the word with others. So the question is, what is God calling you to do? What are you waiting for? Amen (Ronald L. Fournier © 2012)
