First reading: Jonah 3:1-5,10
Psalm: Ps 25:4-9
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Gospel: Mark 1:14-20

The word of the LORD came to Jonah, saying:
“Set out for the great city of Nineveh,
and announce to it the message that I will tell you.”
So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh,
according to the LORD’S bidding.
Now Nineveh was an enormously large city;
it took three days to go through it.

The story:

We all know the story of Jonah. We know it so well that we can overlook some of its finer points. Today’s reading starts with Jonah washed up on shore after the whale spat him out. God comes and reminds Jonah of his task. Go to Nineveh and deliver my message.

How did Jonah get here? Where did he fail? Why did Jonah lack faith and trust in God’s goodness?

The journey:

Jonah was a happy-go-lucky prophet. He had been delivering all sorts of good messages from God for years. God comes to him and asks him to deliver a new message. Jonah is ready for another great message that everyone will like.

Imagine you were visited by God sometime around 1936. God tells you to board a plane and travel to Nuremberg. You are to visit the largest Nazi rally ever held. You are to take the stand, in front of all the microphones, stand right next to Hitler, and tell him and all the gathered crowds that they are doing evil and are required to repent. They must repent or they will be destroyed.

That’s the message Jonah received. The Assyrians of Nineveh were the Nazis of the ancient world. They conquered huge territories. They were particularly brutal. Their statues show their kings standing over conquered people while they were brutally tortured and killed. They loved violence and blood.

The happy-go-lucky prophet was to go to the center of their capital, a four city megalopolis, with walls so thick you could drive three chariots abreast along them. There were 1,500 towers, and 120,000 people living there, and it would take three days to walk through the city.

Jonah figured, forget faith in God — I’m going to run away. Anyway, why should the chosen people deliver a message of possible salvation to these foreigners?

Journey, Part 2:

Now Jonah’s not being too bright. He is running away from God forgetting that God is — everywhere. You can’t run away from God, you can only run to Him. Jonah gets on a boat headed in the opposite direction from Nineveh. He meets a group of foreigners. More foreigners! When God sends the storm to stop Jonah, who acts with faith? The foreigners do. They show their trust in God and try to save and help Jonah. When they finally relent and throw Jonah overboard, they do so acknowledging God’s power. This is something Jonah still hasn’t done.

Here is a small faith challenge: Jonah gets swallowed by a fish? Can’t be possible right? Isn’t it silly, and quite unscientific to think this was possible? Yet we must acknowledge that God, as creator of all, as God, can make anything possible. We are asked, in this small way, to respond with faith. If we cannot believe that this was possible, how can we believe that Israel was led through the sea on dry land, that Daniel stood in faith before the lions, or that the miracles of Jesus occurred? For us, this is about acknowledging God’s power and miracles with faith. Responding when faith reveals something that is beyond reason.

Jonah arrives:

Jonah has arrived, and in the face of the most brutal, psychotic, despotic people in the world delivers God’s message: repent or in forty days Nineveh will be destroyed.

The people of Nineveh do exactly that, they repent. Jonah for his part gets angry with God. Jonah wanted to see the fireworks. He wanted destruction. What he found was God’s love extended to foreigners who reacted with more faith than he had.

Faith:

For Jonah, faith was easy when times were good, and he had happy messages to deliver. As soon as his apple cart was upset, he didn’t like it. His faith failed.

As God’s spokespeople in the world, we are called to act with faith. We are called, as God’s children, to always respond with faith.

In our Epistle, Paul is telling us that time is running out. Does that mean we should run around crazed with fear? Should we abandon everything and hide? Should we act like Jonah, and try to run away? Of course not. We are to act with faith.

Faith is confidence in the caring and powerful love of God who makes all things right. Our God does miraculous things. He keeps His promises. The brutal Assyrians were no match for a Jonah when he followed God’s word and acted with faith.

Like Daniel:

There was a pastor who was faced with very difficult times. His congregation didn’t like him very much. They wanted someone else, and we’re making moves to have him replaced. He was young, and didn’t know how his reputation might be affected, or how he could possibly pastor and minister to people. He began to doubt himself, his vocation.

One of the women in his congregation invited him over. “I have something to show you,” she said. “Please, come to my house.” Apprehensively he went to visit her. “Come in,” she said, “I have something to show you.” She led him through her house to her bedroom. She pointed to the wall. “Tell me what you see,” she said.

It was a picture of Daniel in the lions den. He looked, acknowledging what he saw. “Tell me,” she said, “what do you see?” He gave the usual description, knowing the verses from the Book of Daniel. “It’s Daniel, he’s been thrown into the pit with the lions. There are the bones of others who were thrown into the pit. That’s about it.”

“Look at his eyes, where are they?” she asked. She went on, “His eyes are not on the lions or on the bones. He is looking up and his eyes are focused on the light of God.” The pastor saw the reality of Daniel acting with faith and complete trust in God.

The call and response:

John has been arrested, and Jesus is walking along the sea. He calls a message of repentance and the immanence of the kingdom of God. Andrew, James, John, and Simon respond to His call and they drop everything to follow Him. They act in faith, not knowing the future, except to know that the kingdom was at hand, was close, was around the corner.

We live in the kingdom that has begun and is coming to fulfillment. That’s all we need to know. We all face our Nineveh, we all face our lions, and we are all called to trust that God’s miracles overcome. We are called to faith and trust, that God who could love and forgive the psychotic and brutal Assyrians, who could still the lions, who raised Jesus from death, will save and renew us.

God is already rewarding our faith and trust in Him. It isn’t easy to trust like that, to set aside fears and practicalities — but we do. It is there, in our eyes, in our resolve. His miracles are for us. Thank you Lord Jesus for the gift of faith and trust in You. Grant that we live them every day. Amen.

First reading: 1 Samuel 3:3-10,19
Psalm: Ps 40:2,4,7-10
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 6:13-15,17-20
Gospel: John 1:35-42

the LORD came and revealed his presence,
calling out as before, “Samuel, Samuel!”
Samuel answered, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

Listening:

Moriah was two and was on a cross-country flight home after visiting with relatives. Bored, tired, and cranky, Moriah asked for her Zebra, her favorite stuffed animal and comfort object. Unfortunately, her zebra was absentmindedly packed in a suitcase that was checked at the baggage counter.

Moriah’s father replied “I’m sorry, honey, but we can’t get Zebra right now. He’s in the big suitcase in another part of the airplane.”

“I want Zebra,” she whined pitifully.

Her father replied, “I know, sweetheart. But Zebra isn’t here. He’s in the baggage compartment under-neath the plane and Daddy can’t get him until we get off the plane. I’m sorry.”

“I want Zebra! I want Zebra!” she moaned again. Then she started to cry, twisting in her safety seat and reaching futilely toward a bag on the floor.

“I know you want Zebra,”her father said, feeling his blood pressure rise. “But he’s not in that bag. He’s not here and I can’t do anything about it. Look, why don’t we read about Ernie,” He said, fumbling for one of her favorite picture books.

“Not Ernie!” she wailed, angry now. “I want Zebra. I want him NOW!”

By now, Her dad was getting “do something” looks from the passengers, from the airline attendants, from his wife, seated across the aisle. He looked at Moriah’s face, red with anger, and imagined how frustrated she must feel. After all, wasn’t he the guy who could whip up a peanut butter sandwich on demand? Make huge purple dinosaurs appear with the flip of a TV switch? Why was he withholding her favorite toy from her? Didn’t he understand how much she wanted it?

Dad felt bad. Then it dawned on him: He couldn’t get Zebra, but could offer her the next best thing — a father’s comfort. “You wish you had Zebra now,” he said to her. “Yeah,” she said sadly.

“And you’re angry because we can’t get him for you.”

“Yeah.”

“You wish you could have Zebra right now,” he repeated, as she stared at him, looking rather curious, almost surprised. “Yeah,” she muttered. “I want him now.”

“You’re tired now, and smelling Zebra and cuddling with him would feel real good. I wish we had Zebra here so you could hold him. Even better, I wish we could get out of these seats and find a big, soft bed full of all your animals and pillows where we could just lie down.” “Yeah,” she agreed.

“We can’t get Zebra because he’s in another part of the airplane,” he said. “That makes you feel frustrated.” “Yeah,” she said with a sigh.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, watching the tension leave her face. She rested her head against the back of her safety seat. She continued to complain softly a few more times, but she was growing calmer. Within a few minutes, she was asleep.

In our lives:

We have these experiences don’t we? Someone is speaking to us, expressing themselves, and we hear their words, but we don’t connect. The father heard his daughter’s words. She wanted the zebra. His reaction was to explain the impossibility of getting the zebra. She was crying and complaining. He was explaining and explaining, but he wasn’t listening to her. She needed zebra and she needed to be comforted and understood.

God speaks:

God speaks to us in much the same way. He fills both the roles expressed in our story. He expresses His needs to us, hoping we will listen. He is also the understanding Father who listens to us and knows our needs.

Today, God is speaking directly to the needs of this parish. He understands the needs of its people. He is also expecting that we will listen to what He is saying to us. He is expressing His needs and desires for us.

First:

God knows what is going on here. He is not an absent, far away father. He is our Father, and He is always present and with us. He knows the deepest desires we carry within us, as individuals and as a parish community. He knows that we are afraid, that difficult decisions are ahead, and that we need both comfort and security.

One of our unfortunate tendencies is to judge in human terms. We fail to see Jesus standing right next to us. We need to realize that God has not left us, has not abandoned us, and that He has a plan for us.

To listen:

For our part, we need to — as is commonly said to young people — put on our listening ears. To listen, we need to start by taking a breath. The father in our story was so anxious, so set on proving to his daughter that zebra wasn’t available that he only made things worse. Then he stopped and took a breath. That calm moment freed him from the things he had predetermined, and opened his heart to listening.

We need to listen to God’s voice before we finalize our choices. We must ask whether God been part of our decision. Have I read His word, listened to it, and prayed? Then, did I take a breath and listen to God’s desires?

What does God want?

God has been speaking to us for eons. Centuries of His word are with us. When we are fearful or confronted by difficult decisions we often say a prayer and expect God to appear, solve our problems, or give us a clear and direct answer about what He wants. If we listen we will find that God has already given us the answers we need. These answers include that:

We are to live as a community. We are to love one another. We must not take charge or be the boss, instead we are to be the servants of others. We are to welcome the stranger. We are to proclaim God’s word. We are to offer Jesus to all who seek Him.

Together:

We cannot do any of this alone. That is what the Holy Polish National Catholic Church is about. It is ultimately about building a community in each place where we follow the Word of God. To follow His word, we need to listen. Once we have listened, like the apostles and disciples, we are to get up and follow Him. Amen.

First reading: Jeremiah 31:10-14

Psalm: Ps 97:1,6,11-12

Epistle: Titus 3:4-7

Gospel: Luke 2:15-20

“He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd a flock.”

Wrong sheep:

A shepherd was tending his flock in a field, when a new sports car screeched to a stop on the road nearby in a cloud of dust. The driver, a young man in expensive designer clothes and sunglasses, leans out of the window and shouts over to the shepherd, “If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have here, can I take one?”

The shepherd looks up slowly up at the young man, then looks at his peaceful flock, and calmly answers, “Sure, why not?”

The young man steps out of his car holding a state-of-the-art smartphone, with which he proceeds to connects to a series of websites, first calling up satellite navigation system to pinpoint his location, then keying in the location to generate an ultra-high resolution picture of the field. After emailing the photo to an image processing facility, the processed data is returned, which he then feeds into an online database, and enters the parameters for a report. Within another few seconds a miniature printer in the car produces a full color report containing several pages of analysis and results. The young man studies the data for a few more seconds and returns to the shepherd.

“You have exactly one-thousand five-hundred and eighty-six sheep, including three rams, and seven-hundred and twenty-two lambs.”

“That’s right,” says the shepherd, mildly impressed. “Well, I guess that means you get to take one of my sheep.”

The young man makes his choice and loads the animal onto the back seat of his car, at which the shepherd says, almost as an afterthought, “Hey there, if I can tell you what your business is, will you give me back my sheep?”

The young man, feeling confident, agrees.

“You’re a consultant,” says the shepherd.

“Wow, that’s right,” says the young man, taken aback, “How did you guess that?”

“No guessing required,” answers the shepherd, “You showed up here even though nobody called you. You took a fee for giving me an answer that I already know, to a question I never asked, and you know nothing about my business. Now give me back my dog.”

We honor:

Today, our Holy Church honors the humble shepherds, the first to gaze upon Jesus and carry the message of His coming to others. Like the shepherd in our story, these men were smart, strong, and quick on their feet. They didn’t get fooled by posers and con-men. Most importantly, they knew their sheep.

God likes shepherds:

God has used the image of the shepherd since the creation of the world. Abel, the son of Adam and Eve, was a shepherd. When Israel blessed Joseph he recalled that God had been his shepherd throughout his life. God liked shepherds, and His Son came to be the Good Shepherd. No wonder that the first to greet the newborn Messiah were the shepherds.

Shepherd responsibilities:

Shepherds had three key responsibilities, to tend, feed, and guard the sheep. To that end they carried quite the kit. They kept a bag made from goat skin in which they carried food and other items. They kept a sling to fight off wild animals, a rod with a knob on one end, a staff with a hook on the end, a flute for entertainment and to calm the sheep, and a cloak for warmth and to be used as bedding at night. They were prepared for anything, and were ready to carry out their duties. Like the shepherd in our story, they knew their sheep.

The voice of the shepherd:

The most amazing relationship developed between the shepherds and their sheep, the sheep would learn to recognize and follow their shepherd’s voice. The shepherd knows the difference between a sheep and a dog, unlike our consultant. The shepherd knows each of his sheep and they know him.

The Good Shepherd:

Jesus is our Good Shepherd. He does exactly those things that all shepherds do. He feeds us with His body and blood. He tends to us, healing and renewing us. He guards us and protects us so that we will never die.

Hearing Him:

The key for us is that we grow in relationship with Jesus. We need to recognize His voice. We need to follow Him. If we do, we are given all those things we so need, food for eternal life, healing and renewal, and protection from the ravages of the world. The humble shepherds heard His voice and came to meet Him. We must do likewise.

To best follow and hear our Good Shepherd we must read His word — hearing His voice. We must talk with Him in regular prayer. We must follow His way, His path. Finally, we must commune with Him, and all who believe in Him, here in Church as His flock. Doing all that, we will come to recognize His voice, answer His call, and we will receive all that He has promised.

Do we know the voice of our Good Shepherd? This is the moment, the time to respond: Yes, Lord, I hear and recognize Your voice and I will follow your way. Amen.