Third Sunday after the Epiphany (5) - From the Ashes Comes Good News

Welcome Statement

Good Morning everyone. Last week we talked about the undeniable authority of Jesus. If you recall, we found ourselves reconciled to both a human, and divine authority, that was affirmed in both the Old and New Testaments. What I want to show you this week. Is why this Authority is even being so profoundly established. What it is being worked so hard for.

There is a difficulty to understand what God is, we understand this from our discussions two weeks ago, and so to understand God in our human context, we have to understand him through an authoritative measure, this raw and immense power, but we also witness, this power isn’t through violence, and bloodshed, but through meekness, and kindness, through humility. What God is capable of wanting to Glorify himself, but also humbling himself to a mere man!? Our God that’s who! This Authority, when we are presented with it, puts us at a cross-roads, for change in our lives, for justification, with God. We will begin this journey of justification in Jonah.

Old Testament Reading - Jonah 3:1-10

Jonah 3:1–10 (LEB)

And the word of Yahweh came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up! Go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to it the message that I am telling you.” So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was an extraordinarily great city—a journey of three days across. And Jonah began to go into the city a journey of one day, and he cried out and said, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be demolished!” And the people of Nineveh believed in God, and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least important.

And the news reached the king of Nineveh, and he rose from his throne and removed his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. And he had a proclamation made, and said,

“In Nineveh, by a decree of the king and his nobles:

“No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything! They must not eat, and they must not drink water! And the human beings and the animals must be covered with sackcloth! And they must call forcefully to God, and each must turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may relent and change his mind and turn from his blazing anger so that we will not perish.”

And God saw their deeds—that they turned from their evil ways—and God changed his mind about the evil that he had said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it.

A Symbolic Repentance Cloth & Ash

So the first thing we see here is the King of Ninevah humbles himself with a sackcloth, and covers himself in ashes. We see this in other places of the bible too. For the israelites, it is a sign of repentance, debasement (devalueing/humiliating oneself), and a sign of mourning. For example Jacob wore a sackcloth when he thought his son Joseph had been killed in Genesis 37:34

Genesis 37:34 CEB

Then Jacob tore his clothes, put a simple mourning cloth around his waist, and mourned for his son for many days.

These Cloths were made out of typically black goat’s hair, and were quite uncomfortable, and were very course. People didn’t look that great in them. So the scene you would typically see, is someone wearing what looks to be the material for a sack, with ashes around them, with them pouring ashes over their head. This isn’t the only thing they do either, they also fast, both food and drink, as well as the animals. That’s what is even more ridiculous of an image, is the animals wearing sackcloth. The entire nation had to humble itself before God. That was how much the threat was taken seriously.

A Gentile Nation Saves Itself Before The Covenant of Grace

An interesting thing we see here, is thanks to Jonah finally giving in to God’s persistence, is that Nenevah, a Gentile nation is saved. You will note, at the end of this story, is Jonah is actually infuriated with God for saving this nation. He was afraid of this outcome, he wanted to see people pay for their crimes against the Lord. How many times have we said this for some murderer we saw on facebook, or on TV? They need to pay for their crimes! They should get the death penalty! They need to PAY for what they’ve done! Sure, it is absolutely about repentance, but how many people in this new world of noise we are in, that tells us to question everything we believe in,

The Struggle of the Old Testament & Pointing to the New

The Old Testament, even in Jonah, points to what God desires, the salvation of all man and humanity. Not just one tribe, not just one group, not just one church, but everyone. Let me be clear, I am not saying you are saved without accepting Christ, we only know what we know from scripture, that is the best we have to rely on, is the divine word of God, but it is clear from scripture, God desires a relationship with every single living human being on this planet, else, he wouldn’t have died on that cross. That includes every crook, every monstrous nightmare you can think of. This is why the Old Testament restricts us, and Jonah’s sentiments, must die with the Old. But unfortunately, our human condition doesn’t allow that to happen. Our Human condition binds us to see the worst in people, the adversary tells our hearts to see the worst in others, to fear those we don’t understand based on things that are arbitrary about people. We see it in our communities, in our churches, in our nation. We need to see the Good News rise back up from the ashes. We need to put on sackcloths, and humble ourselves again, and repent. God decided the people of Nineveh deserved grace, before Jesus Christ, so I think that is saying something. Of course, there is context here they repented, and the requirements for salvation were much higher in those times, but it still showed how merciful God was willing to be with Gentile nations, even without the Son in the picture yet, because he is immutable, he is consistent. He doesn’t change with the passage of time, only the Covenants and Agreements we have with him do, and the current one we have, is the new covenant, our New Testament.

New Testament Reading - Mark 1:14-20 GNB

Mark 1:14–20 GNB

After John had been put in prison, Jesus went to Galilee and preached the Good News from God. “The right time has come,” he said, “and the Kingdom of God is near! Turn away from your sins and believe the Good News!” As Jesus walked along the shore of Lake Galilee, he saw two fishermen, Simon and his brother Andrew, catching fish with a net. Jesus said to them, “Come with me, and I will teach you to catch people.” At once they left their nets and went with him. He went a little farther on and saw two other brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They were in their boat getting their nets ready. As soon as Jesus saw them, he called them; they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and went with Jesus.

HEAR THIS GOOD NEWS!

Can you Hear it!? The Good News? When was the first time you hear Christ in your life? That it transformed you? Remember that moment. and then repeat on top of that memory these words “The Right Time has come, the Kingdom of God is near, Turn away from your sins and Believe the Good News!”. This is the call we all receive in Justification with Christ. When we turn towards Christ, we turn away from our sin. When we Baptize in Christ, we turn away from our old life, we become a new person in Jesus. We throw our old selves away. At least, I hope we did! Sometimes it isn’t always a one and done thing, for many people it is a long journey of branch pruning and improvement, with hitting walls, and I understand this, its a tough journey. But living with Christ isn’t a journey that is guaranteed to be easy, but it is guaranteed to be with others. This Good News, Is why I focus on the Good on Sundays, and why I do not talk about how the world is getting worse. Why Should I? Why should I be worried about what the world is doing, as a Christian? Yes, I should be alarmed about injustices in the world, and love thy neighbor, these things are important. But, one thing I feel we have started to fail on, is allowing the adversary to get into our ears, and tell us to fear God’s creation, and fear everything in it. That life is scary, and we should hide in our homes, and be terrified of our neighbors, and our communities. This is not what Christ did, he refused to allow such a notion to ever exist, he broke bread with the least among himself, he broke bread with those outcasts. This is the religion we practice folks, it is a tough act to follow, but we have a spirit that loves us, and grows and molds us into everything good we are today.

No more Despair for the Future

One of the things that I feel like I left on a bad note last week at Sunday School, was I confessed and testified a bit on a struggle I have with knowing how to witness to people my age, because this age provides instant gratification, and you can’t convince people who don’t want helped. I see both sides to every problem, from politics, to social issues, to church issues. So I’m well aware of the age gap issue that has people worried and stressed about churches. The thing is, people my age, the thing they desire the most, more than anything else, is authenticity. This is the definition of Jesus Christ, and bearing his image. I feel like I did not end on a good note on that, that bearing that image of his, is really at the base foundation of everything we should be doing, I know that is a sort of cop out of an answer, but it really is important, because if we are more worried about the church institutionally, but not about the church in heaven, then we have our motives wrong. I Love these churches like a second home, and I’ve been thinking everyday about what I can do to help, young people are constantly being battered left and right with information overload on 30 different ideas and viewpoints, and we aren’t equipping them well in the church to be prepared for some of this stuff. It is difficult because it takes time, and education, and many churches don’t have these resources, and it requires authenticity to allow for people to ask hard questions. What I do know is, I have been able to have some good breakthroughs on dialogue with friends, who had completely negative views on Christianity, due to prior experiences they had, come around, and while they never converted, at least have the proper knowledge of what Christianity truly is about, so they become an outlet and source of information. This has been pivotal. We can’t all be apologists, there’s too many of those already, but what I’m saying is people really value actions over ideas. However, we have to still be careful of those naysayers in the crowds, and shake the dust off our feet of those who will drain us of all our resources and our goodness:

Matthew 10:12–16 KJV 1900

And when ye come into an house, salute it. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

Matthew 10:12–16 CEB

When you go into a house, say, ‘Peace!’ If the house is worthy, give it your blessing of peace. But if the house isn’t worthy, take back your blessing. If anyone refuses to welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet as you leave that house or city. I assure you that it will be more bearable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on Judgment Day than it will be for that city. “Look, I’m sending you as sheep among wolves. Therefore, be wise as snakes and innocent as doves.

What does it even mean to shake the dust off your feet? Well in those times, for the Israelites, they would shake the dust off their sandles when leaving a gentile place to make sure symbolically they weren’t carrying anything back with them that didn’t pertain to what God perscribed to them and their laws. In the same context, Jesus is telling his disciples to leave behind baggage of those who will receive judgement for denying the word. It is not seeing these people as “lesser”, it is about not carrying guilt and baggage. It reminds us to not carry anything about those who reject christ, and to not waste effort on those who are clearly hostile, it is a willing reminder to let go and move on from those where the Message is not accepted. We see many people, trying to proclaim his message, in very bold ways, in totally hostile environments, that are totally unproductive, as these areas, or cities, are not interested in hearing his word, either in the format, or boldness of how these street preachers are doing it. For example, I’ve seen College preachers who yell in a megaphone, get no where, but I’ve also seen one-on-one dialogue that proclaims the good-news so boldly, that it is so productive, it brings a crowd with them. It is about being good stewards of our faith, our time, and resources, that are God Given.

Ultimately, I have seen progress, I Know our churches have been hurt in a lot of ways, but I truly am hopeful, that God is seeing us through these tough times, people everywhere are looking for meaning, and we need to have these doors open and ready for when it start’s clicking for people that Christ is the Good News again. But this isn’t about a time of waiting around, this is about a time of doing, this is the time of the present, we live in the moment of today as Paul would say, as if the Kingdom of GOd is already here.

Gather Disciples

If you noticed, Jesus immediately went to find disciples, oh if only I was as good as him, my discipleship group is still stuck at 5 members! But he didn’t give up! We’ve been studying the Epistles of Paul for example, and seeing how Christianity exploded through Paul’s Ministry is just really fascinating. This really is the time I think we need to start standing defiantly against this turbulance, and start saying, “enough is enough”, and start rejoicing again. It’s time to stop being weary, It is a time to feel that Good News wash over us again that we are Saved, and to let people know, that despite what the world, what 24/7 News Cycles are saying, that there is meaning to this world, that there is a creator that loves everyone, that there are communities here that will love people as they are, that will sing and worship with them, and hang out together as joyous friends and family in laughter, and also traverse together through hardship. This is what it means to be a Church, to be on a journey, to see it through to the end, not to see an end, but to be on the journey for our entire lifetimes.

Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, We thank you for this Good News you give us each and everyday. The news that makes us wake up in the morning and tells us its time to go to work. The news that says to smell the roses, and listen to the birds outside. The News that says turn off the TV and go play with the dog. The Good News that says it’s time to go call an old friend and catch up. This Good News is the one that reminds us our life has inherent value, and other people’s lives also have inherent value, and because of this, we have the duty to worship and glorify you through every action we do. Lord, this day, we repent of being fearful of the future, and place our trust back into you, you have complete control in everything, regardless of what anyone else says, we can remain confident of this thanks to your divine wisdom and scripture, I say this in your glorious name. Amen

Amen.

Doxology / Benediction / Closing

As you go out this week, if you are struggling with anxieties of the future, because of this strange world we find ourselves in, Surrender it to God, find time to devote to God, read a passage from Psalms, get a devotional book, or a prayer book, and read a prayer. It can help calm your worry, and help you surrender this to God. It is important, that we remain present to God’s Kingdom, and his mission he has for us, so we can build his Church.

May you Have a Blessed Sunday, and rest of your Week! Amen!