Scripture Readings: Deuteronomy 18:15–20 | Psalm 111 | 1 Corinthians 8:1–13 | Mark 1:21–28

“Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable.” (Deuteronomy 18:19).
 
Actions speak louder than words.  
And actions reveal what’s at work behind our words.
 
We are now four weeks into the season after Epiphany, a time set aside for Christians to contemplate the Good News that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world. It’s a time when we seek to better understand the huge implications of this Good News in our own lives, and for us to respond to what the story of Jesus reveals to us about the Living God’s plans for His broken but beloved creation… including overthrowing the forces of darkness, and bringing His light and New Life at last.
 
Our Gospel reading this morning gives us a good glimpse… a good revelation of these words in action, as Jesus Christ confronts evil in a tangible way: casting out an unclean spirit, a demon, from a man in the congregation of God’s people at Capernaum.
 
So far in St. Mark’s Gospel, here in Chapter 1, Jesus has not done much of what we might call the “miraculous”. Aside from the dramatic display during His baptism by John in the Jordan River, Jesus has been fairly low key: He was led by God’s Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan… but unlike the other Gospels, St. Mark doesn’t say much about that encounter. He then begins preaching about the Kingdom of God, and calling God’s people to turn around and repent… to believe in the Good News… as well as calling some fishermen to come and follow Him.  
 
But in today’s reading, St. Mark introduces the first real conflict in Christ’s mission… and St. Mark shows us that, from the start, there is absolutely no question about who will come out victorious in the end.
 
Our reading takes place in Capernaum, a small fishing town in Galilee, with Jesus gathering for worship along with his fellow Jews in the synagogue one Sabbath. While there, Jesus began to teach, which is a common practice when God’s people gathered together. But St. Mark tells us that something stood out about the way that Jesus went about it: the people “were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” (Mark 1:22).
 
They had heard plenty of teachers and speakers before, but not like this Jesus of Nazareth. And while his words and teachings alone might have been enough to impress… they were about to see that Christ’s words are backed up by a power well beyond what they could have imagined. As it turns out, the actions of Christ speak even louder than His words… and show them to be the truth.
 
Mark 1:23-24, “Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’”
 
Imagine the scene: a gathering of God’s people, come to worship and to hear the word of the Lord together… not all that unlike what we do here at St. Luke’s each week… then one of their members… someone from their small community, disrupts the scene at the impulse of a demon… a spirit at odds with the will of the Living God.
But this encounter in Capernaum is clearly no contest.
 
This unclean spirit clearly sees exactly who Jesus really is… and even acknowledges His unique and divine identity: “I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” And yet these true words are coming from a rebel… a spiritual being who has turned away from God’s holy purposes… and is at work undermining the New Life that Christ is bringing about.
 
And so Jesus, the Holy One of God, sees through the cowering cries of the unclean spirit and confronts it. He orders the demon to be silent, and casts it out of the man.
 
Actions speak louder than words, and in this case Christ’s actions confirm the truth of the words and teachings that He shared in the synagogue that day. St. Mark wants us to see that Jesus is not just a good speaker… or a wise teacher… but that He actually has the authority to back up even His boldest claims. That in Jesus, God’s good Kingdom has come near… and this King will not be defeated.
 
The words from our first reading today from Deuteronomy Chapter 18 come to mind, where God promises that one day a prophet would come to God’s people… one like Moses himself, who stood alone before the Living God, and faithfully made God’s good will and ways known to His covenant people. A prophet with divine authority.
 
In Deuteronomy 18:19, the LORD says: “Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable.” Through the Good News that St. Mark and the other Apostles have shared, we’re invited to see Jesus in the light of this promise: to recognize God at work in all He does… and to truly heed His words.
 
This word of warning should give us pause as Christians today, inviting us to search our hearts and ask tough questions. Like, how much are we aligned to God’s Holy One in all that we do? Are we ready to heed all that Jesus has taught us? Or are we more inclined to follow the path of spiritual darkness… saying the right sounding things perhaps, but with hearts marked by rebellion… opposed to the rule of God’s good Kingdom?

We know of course that there are forces at work in our world today, and within the worldwide Christian Church, that pay no real heed to Christ’s words and teachings… who claim to be part of His community, but who reject His ways, distort and misuse His message of Good News, and who undermine His authority as the Son of God and the only Saviour of the world.
 
Again, actions speak louder than words. And our actions will reveal the truth of what we really believe. It doesn’t matter how many good sounding things we may say, or how many followers we may gather… if we don’t actually heed the words of Jesus Christ, then we’re in for some serious trouble.
 
And if we do believe in Jesus… that He is God’s true Son, and our Saviour and Lord, then how might this truth change our choices? How can we live the faith that we claim to believe?
 
Our second reading today from St. Paul’s letter to the Christians in Corinth give us a real life example of what it looks like when God’s people take Jesus’ words seriously.

Throughout this letter, St. Paul has been walking the Corinthians through a number of challenging dilemmas, as they figure out what it looks like to be faithful to the way of Jesus together. In today’s reading, St. Paul is trying to help them figure out what to do with food that’s been sacrificed to idols.
 
In the Roman world, most of the meat sold in markets would have some connection to the local pagan temples. And for Jewish followers of the Living God, idols were a huge red flag… God had explicitly commanded Israel to make no idols, and not to worship them. God’s people were to be wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD alone… and this remained true for the early Christians, even as many Gentiles started to believe in Jesus as well.
 
And while Gentiles may not have been bound to the Law of Moses like their fellow Jewish believers, having left their old pagan ways behind to follow Jesus, many of them would have had a hard time not feeling as though they were compromising their newfound faith if they ate meat they new had been offered up to gods that they had once served.
So in Corinth, the Church was confused about if eating meat that may have been sacrificed to an idol was allowed or not. Would that be a sin against God? Or was it really no big deal? How were they supposed to act faithfully in this confusing situation… especially if they could not all agree on the answer?
 
Jesus Himself had not specifically addressed this question. The Laws of the Torah seemed a bit more clear on the matter, but as St. Paul and others in the early Church had argued, Gentile Christians, like many of those in Corinth, were not strictly commanded to follow the terms of Israel’s covenant.
 
Some clearly thought it would be wrong. While others clearly thought it wasn’t an issue. And so St. Paul set about, not simply to find “the right answer”, but to help them heed the words of Jesus their Lord, and follow His ways together… guided in part by these words: “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” (1 Corinthians 8:1).
 
St. Paul affirms that there really is only One Almighty God. No idol or other spiritual being can rival Him, and so they have no power over His people.  From St. Paul’s perspective then, food eaten with gratitude to the Living God, regardless of its source, is ultimately not a problem… and so eating meat that had been offered up to an idol is not a sin in and of itself.
 
But… St. Paul was convinced that what matters much more than our own liberty to eat whatever we want is that we actively love one another… especially those who don’t, or don’t yet, see things the way we do. “[T]ake care”, he says in verse 9, “that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.”
 
St. Paul goes on in verses 11-13, “So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed. But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.
 
Who were these weak ones? Jewish believers scandalized by pagan idols? Gentile believers worried about being drawn back into their old ways? Both?
​
St. Paul leaves it open, because the most important point here is not who’s right and who’s wrong, but how can we all walk in God’s ways together? In other words, how are we to love God and love each other, and put that love into practice through our actions?
 
St. Paul knew the truth, and he knew well who he served, no matter what food he ate. 1 Corinthians 8:4-6, “we know that ‘no idol in the world really exists,’ and that ‘there is no God but one’. Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many gods and many lords— yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.”
 
And because St. Paul knew where his loyalty lay, and took care to heed the words of Jesus his Lord, he understood what God really wanted for His people. For you and I today.
 
On the night our Lord was betrayed, Jesus spoke these words to His disciples, then and now: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:33-35). If as Christians we don’t heed these words of Jesus, we know we’re on the wrong track, and headed for danger! Actions speak louder than words, and our actions confirm or contradict the truth of what we say.
 
Jesus’ own actions speak louder than words… embracing the way of the cross… laying down His life in love for our darkened world… actions that backs up His words about God’s saving love in ways that challenge us all, again and again.
 
His sacrificial, self-giving love for sinners is what He commands us and empowers us to put into practice together. This is the high calling of God’s people: to love as God Himself loves the world, through His Spirit at work in us.
 
Unlike the Corinthians, our own issues today are probably not about food sacrificed to idols. But there are many questions we face that are just as challenging and even painful to sort through faithfully.
 
Whatever these challenges may be, St. Paul reminds us that how we go about sorting through them really matters. It’s not just about being right about this or that issue… but about embodying the holy love of the Living God in all we do.
 
If we refuse to learn to love one another… to extend God’s grace to those who are our sisters and brothers in Jesus Christ, we will not be prepared to truly share God’s love with our neighbours.
 
So with the Holy Spirit’s help, let us learn from St. Paul how to heed the words of Jesus our Lord, and make it a priority to nurture love for our fellow believers in Christ, even when we might deeply disagree… so that all those around us might come to see, and believe in, and experience God’s love for them too… a love that’s powerful… and alive… and still at work in our world… a love which the forces of darkness can never defeat… binding us forever to the Risen King of Kings, and Saviour of the world. Amen.

​And our Songs this week can be found here:

Scripture Readings: Jonah 3:1–5, 10 | Psalm 62 | 1 Corinthians 7:29–31 | Mark 1:14–20

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” (Mark 1:15).
 
Repentance is a complicated word… one with lots of baggage for some of us. Reminding us of the times when people have used religion as a weapon to heap guilt and shame on our shoulders. Or when some twist faith into a formula… making it seem as though: “if you just say these words, in this way, then somehow God owes you paradise”… as if the Living God just wants us to “say sorry”, and then we can go about our own business.
 
When this is how we think about repentance, no wonder so many feel so uneasy about it.
 
But in the Scriptures, repentance is truly Good News… an integral part of the Kingdom of God, and a vital step forward in the pathway to life.
 
And one could argue that our world could use a whole lot more repentance these days… learning to step back and change course… to acknowledge when we have got it all wrong, and do what we can to start making things right, instead of always shifting the blame elsewhere… digging in and doubling down on our actions that bring disaster… and writing off those who fail to live up to our own standards, whatever they might be.
 
But to appreciate the life-giving role played by repentance… and to have the space and ability to practice it… we need to believe it will actually be received. That those we repent to will not just strike us down for our sins, but extend to us the forgiveness that we all need.
 
Far beyond a tool to crush our spirits, or a formula to try and manipulate each other, or the divine… repentance is God’s gracious gift to us, as the Scriptures remind us this morning.
 
Notice that in Mark’s Gospel, the very first words that Christ utters to the world is a call to repentance: “The time is fulfilled,” He proclaims, “and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” (Mark 1:15).
 
Jesus then goes about inviting others to follow Him into this new reality… this new Kingdom way of life… unlike anything that they had known before.
 
And in the Old Testament, the story of Jonah is one long invitation to repent, and to receive God’s gift of New Life… an invitation we’re going to explore together a little bit closer this today.
 
Bu t before we do so, I have a few question for all of us: When is the last time you thought about the whole story of Jonah? Have you ever sat down and read the story from start to end? What is this prophetic book really all about anyway?
 
Don’t worry if you’ve never looked at the whole book of Jonah before,  because today is your lucky day! We’re going to read through the whole book of Jonah together this morning, and listen to its unique perspective on the good news of repentance… Good News for our world, and for us, God’s people today.
 
For many people, the main thing that comes to mind when they think of Jonah is probably the bit about the whale… or more precisely, the “great fish”. Or maybe, from our very short reading today from Jonah Chapter 3, we might guess that it’s a fairly straightforward story about God’s good prophet telling the Assyrian ‘bad-guys’ in Nineveh to straighten up, and then they all fall in line.
 
But while both these dramatic scenes are a part of the picture that this book paints for us, we miss out on the main message of Jonah… the Good News that it has for us and for our world, when we don’t step back and take into account the story as a whole, and how it all fits together. That’s why we’re going to read through the whole book of Jonah together today.
 
Don’t panic though! One of the great things about Jonah is that it’s not a very long story. It’s only four short chapters, and about 1,300 words total in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. And while we could spend all year exploring this strange but powerful prophetic book, this morning I just want to highlight a few of its most important themes to reflect on together… specifically, how repentance fits into the work of the Living God in the world, and what it means for those of us who have responded to the call to follow Jesus Christ today.
 
So this morning, pay close attention to who is repenting in the story… who turns their lives around to follow the ways of the Living God in the world… and who does not.
 
The book begins with the LORD, Yahweh, the Living God who has revealed Himself to Israel sending the prophet Jonah to challenge the wickedness of the great Assyrian capitol city of Nineveh. Jonah 1:1-2,
 
“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.”
 
There’s nothing too surprising here. The Ninevites, and the Assyrians in general, were the “big bad guys” of the near ancient world… their empire made it their business to swallow up all of their neighbours, with unheard of levels of violence and brutality.  
 
From an Israelite perspective, if God was going to call out any nation’s wickedness, it would make sense to single out the Assyrians. But then something that is surprising happens.
 
Jonah 1:3, “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.”
 
Instead of following God’s clear instructions to challenge Nineveh’s great wickedness, God’s messenger takes off in the opposite direction… taking a boat to Tarshish… which is thousands of miles away at the other end of the Mediterranean Sea… just about as far away from Nineveh as an ancient Israelite could imagine.
 
So from the start, it’s God’s own prophet… the one whose job it is to help others discover God’s good will, who has turned away from the LORD. It is God’s chosen messenger who it turns out now needs to turn around… to repent.
 
Jonah 1:4-6, 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.”
 
Here's another ironic twist: it’s the pagan, Gentile sailors who see the signs of divine judgement at work, while God’s prophet is fast asleep, oblivious to what’s going on, and unconcerned it seems with avoiding disaster. And when he wakes up, his response is no help at all.
 
Johan 1:7-10, 7 The sailors 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.

What’s going on here? In the face of what seems like certain disaster, Jonah claims to be a faithful servant of Yahweh, the Creator of Heaven, Earth, the Sea, and all that is… while doing exactly the opposite of what God said to do. Notice that at this point he has made no attempt at all to turn around, and seek God’s forgiveness and help, by the way… unlike the pagan, Gentile sailors around him.

Jonah 1:11-17, 11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you.” 13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them. 14 Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, O Lord, we pray, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood; for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. 17 But the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
 
Again, we find a dramatic reversal at work: pagan, Gentile sailors, not exactly an ancient Israelite’s model of morality, are seeking to do the LORD’s will, pleading to receive His mercy, and give their lives to Him in wholehearted worship. While God’s prophet, Jonah, insists instead on being thrown into the sea… to have his life ended rather than turn around and repent to the Living God.
 
But instead of meeting his end right away, Jonah finds himself swallowed up by a great fish… a creature of the sea, the realm of chaos and death. Only then, when his own destruction seems the most clear, Jonah turns to the LORD, and we hear his prayer in the poem of Chapter 2:
 
2 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,
“I called to the Lord out of my distress,
and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
and you heard my voice.
3You cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
passed over me.
4Then I said, ‘I am driven away
from your sight;
how shall I look again
upon your holy temple?’
5The waters closed in over me;
the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped around my head
6at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the Pit,
O Lord my God.
7As my life was ebbing away,
I remembered the Lord;
and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
8Those who worship vain idols
forsake their true loyalty.
9But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Deliverance belongs to the Lord!”
Then the Lord spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.
 
God’s saving mercy finds Jonah, his utterly unfaithful prophet, at the end of his rope… and against all odds and expectations, the LORD rescues his undeserving servant.
 
And here we return to our reading today from Jonah Chapter 3, and hear about how God’s flawed messenger finally does what he’s supposed to do, and then how Nineveh responds. Jonah 3:1-4,
 
3 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2 “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
 
Not much of a message, is it? “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” Is this really all that God wanted to say to the great city of the Assyrians?

There’s no mention of why the city would be overthrown? There’s no clear challenge of the wickedness of this violent, oppressive, self-centered empire? No mention at all of the LORD? And no mention at all of what could be done to make things right again?
 
After all that trouble, once Jonah finally gets to Ninevah, all he does is call for their destruction. And in yet another ironic twist… this great wicked city completely turns around and repents.
 
Jonah 3:5-9, 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. 8 Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. 9 Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.”

What an amazing reversal… an incredible change of course for the great enemies of Israel, and the most feared and wicked pagan nation they had ever encountered. With barely a warning at all, the people of Nineveh, even their King, humbly turn their lives around and seek the mercy of Yahweh, the Living God of all, that Israel knew and served.
 
And what’s more, another amazing change takes place: 10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
 
In response to the repentance of the Assyrians, God decides not to go through with His plans to undo them. Even the worst, wicked ones, it turns out can repent and find God’s forgiveness. Sounds like Good News to me, and a great end to the story.
 
But that’s not how the story ends. There’s one more character who has not yet really turned around… Jonah.

Chapter 3:10-4:3, 10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

4 But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. 3 And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
 
Here we finally see what was going on in Jonah’s heart… why he fled to Tarshish, and why he refuses to rejoice when Nineveh turns itself around: he wanted Nineveh to burn. He didn’t want them to be forgiven, to find a new path towards life. Jonah saw them as the ‘bad-guys’, as too far gone to turn around… and who needed to be taken out.
 
And in his heart, Jonah accused God of being too willing to forgive. Complaining that the LORD was too gracious and merciful, too slow to act in anger, overflowing with steadfast love, and too ready to relent from punishing.
 
The heart of God’s chosen prophet, His messenger, turns out to be completely unlike the LORD… and so he’d rather end his life then see his enemies find forgiveness.
 
Think about this story in the light of our world today… with all the conflicts we see at work around us. Not just the open wars, that lay waste to whole cities and countries… but also to the many divisions that are tearing our world apart, in big and small ways. The communities,  relationships, families shattered by self-centeredness, wickedness, prejudice, and rage. And think about how we Christians as God’s people today have become complicit in these conflicts too… seeing all those who oppose our ways of seeing things as the ‘bad guys’, who deserve to be taken out. Consider how even we the Church can easily be consumed with anger, hate, violence, and cruelty.
 
Then think about God’s own heart. Think about His response to the truly wicked city of Nineveh… how He wanted, not their destruction… but that they would truly turn around and leave their old ways behind. That those who were destroying their neighbours would stop, and instead care for them, and build them up. That those who oppressed others, would instead humble themselves, and lift up the lowly. That all those who have hard hearts, and are eager to see the ruin of their rivals would repent, and come to share His divine mercy, forgiveness, and steadfast, saving love.  
 
And so, Jonah serves as an example of how even God’s chosen people, who have been called to become like Him… who claim to know and serve Him, and to walk in His holy ways, can completely turn our hearts away from God’s heart. And his story is a grand invitation for all of us to repent… to turn around and let His love guide us.
 
But the story’s not over yet. How does God respond to Jonah’s anger? How does this story end? The LORD uses the rise and fall of a plant, a small bush, to drive home the message of His own divine mercy.
 
Jonah 4:4-11, 4 And the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” 5 Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city.
 
6 The Lord God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
 
9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” And he said, “Yes, angry enough to die.” 10 Then the Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”
 
And that’s how it ends. With a question from God, and an invitation to share His divine compassion. If Jonah can care about the fate of a single bush, can’t God, the Creator of All, care about everyone? Even the fate of a city so wicked and turned about, that they seem too far gone to save?
 
Can’t God care about… our enemies? Those you and I might see as beyond all hope? As undeserving of forgiveness? Can’t God long to turn their lives around by His rescuing love?
​
This is the story that Jesus calls all His disciples to embrace, and to leave our old stories behind. This is the story of God’s great love for His whole lost and broken world, tearing itself apart, again and again… the story that led Jesus Christ to the cross… to die for us sinners, and to set us free from our wickedness… and rise again as the Saviour of the world.
 
The book of Jonah is an invitation for all God’s people of all times… to turn around, and learn what it means to repent and truly follow the Living God: to share in His holy love, revealed to the world once and for all in Jesus Christ. A love that’s strong and wide enough to truly embrace everyone. Amen.
 

Scripture Readings: 1 Samuel 3:1–20 | Psalm 139 | 1 Corinthians 6:12–20 | ​John 1:43–51

“Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’”
(John 1:46).
 
Today we continue our journey through the Church Year, leaving Advent and Christmas behind… with Lent and Easter on the horizon… and entering the season after Epiphany… a time when we Christians explore the amazing implications of the Good News that has been revealed: that Jesus of Nazareth truly is God’s Son… and Saviour of the world.
 
During these weeks, we will often reflect on the stories of people in the Scriptures who encounter Jesus, and suddenly see things that were hidden from them, about the Living God, and about themselves… and end up having the course of their lives changed forever as a result.
 
In other words, this season invites us to reflect on the effects of God’s revelation in the world… what happens to folks when we come to know the truth of what God’s up to in our world… when we see and draw near towards His guiding, life-giving light.
 
But another important truth, that might often go without saying, that this season and these stories highlight for us is that the Living God already knows all about our world. He sees all the good and the bad… and nothing at all goes unnoticed or unseen by Him.
 
So, as we turn now to our Scripture readings today, and invite the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s good word to us and to our world, let us keep in mind that the Living God knows us all completely, the good, the bad… all of it… and He still invites us to draw near in faith, and find our life in Him.
 
Our first reading today from the first book of Samuel might seem like a simple story about a boy learning to hear and respond to the voice of God... and it is. But it is also a powerful warning about the disaster that God’s people stir up when our eyes and hearts are closed off from our LORD, and when we disregard our calling to walk in His holy ways in the world.  
 
Alongside the simple and open response of the boy Samuel, this passage tells us of the unfaithful sons of Eli the High Priest, the set-apart family charged with guiding God’s people, and serving as the LORD’s righteous representatives, ministering in His Holy Tabernacle… the portable Temple where the LORD met with His people. But Eli’s sons, Israel’s leading priests, had become corrupt… serving, not God and His people, but themselves… giving in to their own greed and lust, taking advantage of others, and making a mockery of the Living God.
 
Unfortunately, it’s not hard to find other examples in the history of the Church, including in our own day, of leaders who have abused their positions of trust to serve their own selfish desires… acting as though the LORD does not see or care about their wickedness, while pretending to be doing His will.   
 
But again, this is all contrasted with Samuel, a small child raised by Eli to serve in the Tabernacle. And even though Samuel knew so little himself, God graciously chose to speak through this boy, and make His good will known through him: not only exposing the injustice and evil at work in Eli’s sons, but in the days to come, working through Samuel to guide God’s people, and even to prepare the way for God’s own chosen King, David.
 
This story reminds us that nothing is hidden from God, and He will not ignore the evil that even His people do. But it also invites us to follow the example of Samuel: open and responsive to God’s voice, even when we don’t quite understand… And willing to let the LORD speak and work through our lives so that His light can shine.
 
Turning now to our Gospel Reading, we hear how Jesus invites a man named Philip to follow Him, and in response, Philip immediately goes to find his friend Nathanael. In John 1:45, Philip says “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.”
 
And when Nathanael dismissively expresses doubt that anything good could come from a backwater town like Nazareth, Philip doesn’t have all the answers… but he simply says to Nathanael: “Come and see!” Philip invites his skeptical friend to come with him, and experience Jesus for himself… to get to know the One, who as it turns out, already knows all about him.
 
John 1:47-48, “When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’ Nathanael asked him, ‘Where did you get to know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.’
 
What follows is quite surprising: the prejudiced skeptic turns into an ardent believer… someone who sees Jesus as no mere rabbi, but as the Son of the Living God, and Israel’s promised King.
 
Then Jesus goes on to say that Nathanael will see even more amazing things than this… that one day, he would see Jesus, the Son of Man, as the connecting point between the world and the Heavens… with angels ascending and descending on Him.
 
This seems like a very odd thing to say. And it is. But it’s also a reference to a well known story from the book of Genesis when their ancestor Jacob, a scoundrel on the run from his brother after scheming to steal his inheritance, had a dream one night in the wilderness. And in that dream, Jacob saw something new about what God was up to in the world.
 
Genesis 28:12, “And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” What seemed at times to Jacob like two completely separate realms, Heaven and Earth, were not cut off from one another: what happens here in the world, and in his own messed up life was not unknown by the Living God.
 
When Jacob woke up, he named the place Bethel, which means ‘House of God’… which is another way to talk about a Temple. Hold onto that for a minute. We’ll come back to it later on.
 
For now, notice what Jesus is highlighting here: that He knows all about Nathanael… his honesty, yes, but also his prejudice… the good and the bad… just like Jacob the scoundrel was known by God… and yet Jesus still wanted Nathanael to follow Him. To leave his old ways behind, and join Jesus in His holy mission to bring God’s life-giving light to the world.
 
Remember the Good News of Epiphany: The Living God shines His light into the darkness of our world… to draw all people to Himself so that all may find new life in God’s Son: Jesus of Nazareth, the Saviour of the world.
 
Will we, like Samuel, be open to the voice of the LORD, even if we’re not quite sure what He’s up to yet?
 
Will we, like Nathanael, let go of our old ways of seeing things, and let Jesus open our eyes to the work of the Living God in the world around us?
 
Will we draw nearer to Jesus, our Saviour? Or will we turn away and draw back into the shadows?
 
This leads us to our reading from the letter to the Corinthians. Throughout this letter, St. Paul the Apostle is trying to guide this new Christian community through all sorts of challenging changes in understanding and practice, that they all needed to make if they were going to stay true to the way of Jesus. He reminds them that the freedom that they have received in Jesus Christ does not give them a license to do whatever they want… like Eli’s sons, serving their own lust and greed, all the while claiming to be faithful servants of the Living God. Instead, he reminds them and us that in Christ, we are all called to share in a whole new holy form of life… one which calls all of us to let go of our old ways of seeing and doing things, and to humbly learn what it means to be God’s people in the world… set apart for Him in spirit, mind, and in body.
 
In Chapter 6, St. Paul has a lot to say to them and us about the importance of serving God with all that we are… knowing that all that we do is now bound to the life of our Risen Saviour, Jesus. We don’t have a private life, cut off from the life of God. 1 Corinthians 6:13-15, “The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?”
 
He then goes on to say something truly amazing about how God is at work in the lives of His people: 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.”
 
We are now called the Temple of God’s Holy Spirit… the place for His divine presence and power to dwell and be made known in the world. Not as a building, or an institution, but in our bodies… our day to day lives as believers. We are not our own, but belong completely to the LORD, graciously set apart for something that our world really needs… a true taste of God’s New Creation, already begun in Jesus Christ.
 
Remember when Jesus tells Nathanael that he would see angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man… Heaven and Earth united, like in Jacob’s vision at Bethel, the House of God? This is all Temple language, pointing to the hope of reconciliation, and a full reunion between God and humanity. But so often, when we God’s people, who have been called to live in the light of His holy ways, act instead like Eli’s sons, and serve our own selfish desires, we spread darkness deepen the divisions that keep on fracturing our world.
 
But when we were at our worst. In our moment of deepest unfaithfulness and refusal to set aside our old ways for the sake of God’s Kingdom… when we humans rejected our Saviour, and crucified the Son of God… the beautiful world-changing reality that the Temple points us to took place once and for all. Heaven and Earth were reunited… bridged by Christ Jesus when His body was raised up on the cross… the Son of Man suspended before our eyes, midway between the world and the skies… giving His sinless life to reconcile our broken world, good and bad, to the Living God through His death. And offering that saving connection to God’s New Creation to us through His own resurrection.
 
As Christians today, we are now a Temple people… those set apart by the grace of God to follow Jesus our Saviour, and to share in His New Life. God’s Holy Spirit has been given to us, to draw us deeper and deeper into His holy love, so that the reality of what Jesus has done for our world at the cross can take shape in our day to day lives.

​That means as individual disciples, we are called to grow in Christlikeness, giving ourselves to the leading of God’s Holy Spirit, so that we wholeheartedly in spirit, mind, and body begin to reflect the life of Jesus in every part of who we are and what we do.
 
And this also means that as a Church… we are to be a community where God’s Spirit dwells. Where our relationships with one another reflect the life of Jesus… where we care for, and challenge, and serve one another in genuine faith, and hope, and holy love.
 
And we do this not only to share in the blessings and joys, freedom, forgiveness that God’s Spirit brings… but to share in Christ’s mission to bring God’s rescuing light to our darkened world.
 
So that those around us can experience… can “come and see” Christ’s new Creation already graciously at work in our lives, so they too can come to know the One who already knows all about them… the good and the bad… and still loves them enough to lay down His life and to save them by His blood.

So, may the Holy Spirit of God truly dwell in us, and transform us all into a people set apart to share the life and light of Jesus, the Saviour of the world. Amen. 

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 60:1–6 | Psalm 72 | Ephesians 3:1–12 | ​Matthew 2:1–12

“In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” (Ephesians 3:5-6)
 
Have you ever had to really wrestle with a riddle?
 
It could be one you tackle just for fun… a kind of riddle-game that humans have enjoyed for ages. I remember as a teenager, I played 20 Questions a lot with my friends; the game where you take turns thinking up a noun… a person, place, or thing… and everyone else has to to guess what it is by asking no more than 20 Questions.
 
And I remember one time in particular when one of our friends had us totally stumped. No matter what we asked, we couldn’t get any closer to the answer at all. Eventually, we had to give up, and our friend gleefully revealed the answer: “It was a crack.” Not a specific thing itself, but a crack… which could be in anything!  We were all blown away. We had never imagined the answer could be something so simple, and yet so unexpected.  

Riddles like this can be a lot of fun, even when they’re frustrating. But we also know that there’s lots of times when we’re forced to wrestle with puzzles and riddles for much more serious reasons. Like when we’re forced to work through a difficult problem, or navigate a confusing situation when the answers don’t seem to come so easily.
 
I think most of us have had times like these too… struggling to make sense of truly puzzling circumstances, and how we’re supposed to handle them. It could be something we face at work, at home, with those we love, with our own hidden hopes of fears, for ourselves, our communities, or for our world.
 
And sometimes, we can eventually work our way towards an answer. But then sometimes we get stumped. We hit a wall and can’t put two and two together. In those times, we need to have our eyes opened for us, our understanding deepened, our perspective widened… and then, sometimes quite suddenly, the picture becomes clear… the light has dawned, and we can see.
 
That’s one way to think about an epiphany… a sudden realization of a truth that had been hidden from us. Or better yet, a sudden revelation that is given to us when someone else steps in and opens our eyes to help us see what’s really going on.
 
Today we’re celebrating the Feast of Epiphany: a celebration of the revelation of Jesus Christ, not just as the familiar baby in the manger, but as the Son of God Almighty… as the King of all Creation… and Saviour of the World.
 
For many of us, this is a familiar story… but we also know that familiar words can often conceal life-changing truths from our eyes. We get comfortable with them, and forget what they mean… and what they mean for our lives.
 
Thankfully, our Scripture readings today can help to open our eyes again to the truly Good News of Epiphany, for us and for our world.
 
First off, let’s take a moment to consider Isaiah’s Epiphany from our first reading: the revelation that despite how dark the world around us may seem, God’s life-giving light will come. Not just for the struggling people of Israel, but for everyone. Isaiah 60:1-3,
 
Arise, shine; for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
 
For darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you.
 
Nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
 
This passage is of course just a glimpse of the full prophetic vision and message God gave to His people Israel, to point them forward towards the hope of their restoration after the horrors of their Exile. And yet, the vision goes well beyond just hope for Israel… it begins to reveal their role in bringing new hope to the world, as the glory of the Living God… His mercy, and rescuing love… shines on and through them so that all nations can draw near to Him and encounter His new life along with them.
 
And several centuries later, in St. Matthew epiphany we heard in our Gospel reading today, Isaiah’s message of hope is revealed to be taking on reality: God’s life-giving light for the world has come at last in Jesus Christ.
 
The visit of the Magi is much more than a strange but interesting episode in Christ’s early life. It is a clear sign revealing the start of the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy: Gentiles, non-Jews from far beyond Israel’s borders have drawn near to pay homage to this newborn King of the Jews, even as the old king, Herod seeks to destroy him.
 
Herod reminds us, after all, that we can seek out God’s light for some not-so-good reasons too. Many have used the Good News of Jesus as a cover to cloak their own ambitions, pride, and fears, and in King Herod’s case, a homicidal commitment to holding on to his own authority and power… slaying the children of Bethlehem to try to get rid of this newborn King.

But we don’t need to be like King Herod for God’s life-giving and revealing light to shines on our lives… and even on any self-centered reasons we may have for seeking His Son. And the Good News is that His merciful light does not seek to condemn us, but to expose our twisted motives, so that we can let them go… so that we can draw near to Him in faith and receive His forgiveness, freedom, and grace. The Good News of Jesus is even for those of us who have been quite at home in the darkness… God’s light is for us too, drawing us out of the shadows like a moth… not to a flame, but to the life of His New Creation!
 
And this leads us to our reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, and to the Apostle’s epiphany that God’s light for the whole world has come… and it calls us to go! To be transformed by it ourselves, and take it to everyone.
 
Like many devoted Jews in the first century, St. Paul had always imagined that God’s main concern was with His covenant people Israel. They were the chosen ones. They where the heirs of God’s promises. The Gentile nations might have a minor role to play, but they were the stars.

But when St. Paul encountered the Risen Jesus, his eyes began to be opened to the truth of the Gospel… the Good News that God’s Messiah had truly come, and that despite His own chosen people’s betrayal, Christ had died and rose again for all. To reconcile, not just Israel, but all of humanity to the Living God. For the first time, St. Paul could see that God had sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world… and to change forever how we humans from all families and nations see and treat one another.
 
Ephesians 3:5-6, “In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”  
 
In other words, there was to be no first or second class citizens in God’s Good Kingdom. There was now no essential boundary between Israel and their neighbours. In line with God’s promises through people like the prophet Isaiah, and all throughout the Holy Scriptures, God’s spirit has revealed that Jesus Christ came to reunite and reconcile the whole world to God, and to each other.

Fellow heirs together. One diverse but united body. Sharing in the same promise… in Christ Jesus our Lord.
 
Thousands of years later, this may not seem like big news to us. After all, we’ve heard the story of how the Gospel has spread throughout the world many times… and the vast majority of Christians nowadays are of Gentile heritage. What was once an epiphany for people like Isaiah, St. Matthew, and St. Paul must have lost its power to surprise and unsettle us, after all this time, right?
 
Remember: familiar words and stories can still conceal life-changing truths. What might we be missing today that the feast of Epiphany can reveal to us?
 
Many things, to be sure. But for starters, it shows us that we all have roles to play in sharing the Good News of God’s life-giving light with the world around us.
 
And I really do mean all of us.
 
Just as the door is now opened for all to draw near to God in Jesus Christ, so too all are invited to make this Good News known, and let it shine through our lives.
 
In other words, the revelation that Jesus Christ died and rose again to reconcile the whole world to God and to one another… the Good News entrusted to the Church… can’t just be something we talk about, it has to take shape in our day to day lives. It has to shine through our interactions with those around us… with our loved ones, our acquaintances, and strangers. It has to penetrate our minds and imaginations… challenging us to let go of our old ways of navigating life, and to reconsider everything in the light of the cross and resurrection of God’s Son.
 
It has to be something that we all respond to as God in His patience and grace empowers us to do… not looking at our own real limitations and losing heart, but trusting instead in God “whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we could ask or imagine.”
 
After all, even St. Paul was blown away by the way God graciously uses those who seem completely out of place and ill equipped to shine His light and share His Good News with the world… having experienced this pardoning and empowering grace up close in his own story.
 
The minister and scholar Joel Kok points out how strange and wonderful it is that someone like St. Paul, born Saul of Tarsus, would be chosen to serve in the role that he did: “Amazingly, it was God’s good pleasure to choose Saul the Pharisee to bring Christ’s name “before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel” (Acts 9:15). As one who had violently persecuted the church and tried to destroy it… Paul saw himself as “the least of the apostles” (1 Cor. 15:9) and, in this passage, “the very least of all the saints” (Eph. 3:8).”[1]
 
Yet even if he saw himself as the least of all the saints… meaning ‘the least of all God’s people in general’… St. Paul had begun to see that this would not stop God from working in and through his life in the slightest.
 
Ephesians 3:8-10, “Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”
 
It's God’s grace in Christ that makes the difference. Not our credentials. Not our skills, or abilities… or lack thereof. At times, we might also feel like “the least of all the saints”, but by God’s grace we too are called to share the Good News of Jesus through our whole lives, and with everyone.
 
Like St. Paul, our hope isn’t in our own abilities, but in Christ’s own life and light at work in us… through God’s Holy Spirit, who can use our humble faithfulness and openness to Jesus to reveal the glory of His Good News, and New Life to our neighbours, and to our wider world.
 
So no matter how dark things might get in the world around us, or how small and helpless we might feel when it comes to doing anything about it, may the familiar story of Epiphany keep our eyes open to this amazing truth:  
​
that in Jesus Christ, God’s light has already begun to dawn… that He has already given up His life at the cross to reconcile our darkened world to God, and He has already overcome the powers of darkness… rising again to bind us together in God’s own holy love.
 
Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Saviour of the world has already brought God’s life-giving light, and He has called all of His people to share His light with His world.
 
How each one of us are to do this day by day is a question we’ll all have to ask ourselves far more than 20 times… but as we draw near to our Saviour Jesus in faith, and ask Him to open our eyes, and our minds, and our hearts to what He has in store… trusting in His Holy Spirit to work in and through us… He will be faithful and show us the way. Amen.


[1] Joel E. Kok, “Epiphany of the Lord, Years A, B, C,” in The Lectionary Commentary: Theological Exegesis for Sunday’s Texts, Volume Two, ed. Roger E. Van Harn (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001), 320.

Happy Epiphany!

Although the feast of Epiphany was yesterday (January 6), at St. Luke's we're choosing to celebrate this important feast together on Sunday, reflecting on the revelation of Jesus Christ as the Son of the Living God and light of the world, and what this marvelous truth means for His disciples today. 
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​Our service of Morning Prayer, Bulletin, and Sermon this week can be found here:

​And our Songs this week can be found here: