Having More Than One Go.
Those of you with a fine eye for detail will have noticed that our first reading actually begins in the 3rd chapter of Jonah. In today’s apparently happy story, Jonah asks the people to repent, they do and everything is squared away. All is sweet and dandy and they all live happily ever after.
But there is a two-chapter prequel. It didn’t actually start out that way and in the first two chapters, all is not champagne and red roses. Jonah is offered the parish of Nineveh and says a polite No, or a not-so-polite ‘No!’. God again makes a very generous offer and Jonah instead of graciously accepting the parish runs away and joins the navy and you would have thought that would be the end of it. But no! God gets grumpy and while Jonah is on the high seas he sends Cyclone Ismay. The crew draw straws to find out who it is that God is cranky with. Drawing straws is always accurate and it turns out that Jonah is the culprit. Jonah jumps overboard and that’s when we get the familiar story of him being in the belly of a whale for three days. After this Jonah is regurgitated onto the beach. He has learnt his lesson, goes off to the parish and thus begins our Chapter 3 today.
There’s lots going on with this story but the point I want to make is that God had to have a couple of goes to get Jonah into the parish. Jonah gets a second chance to redeem himself, accept the parish graciously and be an outstanding parish priest. Notice too that the Ninevites get a second chance. Starting at the top down with the king.
“When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”.
Sometimes you have to have more than one go.
Now let’s take a look at our gospel.
Jesus has a very successful recruiting drive and nets no less than 4 disciples, apparently within a few minutes of each other on the one beach. If only it were that easy.
But… I’ll lay odds that there is also a backstory with the call of Simon, Andrew, James and John. It seems highly unlikely that they would have left their Dad’s company, complete with Superannuation and Long Service Leave and followed a complete stranger into a very precarious career opportunity like fishing for people. They have no idea where this will lead or how it will finish. This is clearly not the first time these gentlemen have met.
I suspect that there was an ongoing, well-established relationship with these five and what we read today in a few swift trifling verses, is just the culmination of several fruitful, heartwarming but challenging encounters.
The Master probably had to have a couple of goes before he ‘landed’ these disciples. And they had to become comforted, reassured and trusting of the itinerant rabbi.
I often wonder if Gabrielle had asked other women to be the Mother of God and Mary was just the first one that said ‘Yes’ albeit with a curly question or two.
We are often tempted to think that God speaks and it all happens instantly, exquisitely and perfectly. But the more I think …
What if God has to have a couple of goes before he gets it right, or at the least before we say Yes?
Wouldn’t that have to change our understanding?
Wouldn’t that teach us that our God operates from a place of great vulnerability, where we are free to respond in the negative? It would have to teach us that our God who is both elusive and intimate, is a God who is patient with us. He will try whatever it takes to nudge us along to the place and relationships that He has in mind for us. These places and relationships are not always gooey and nice with whipped cream on top.
If we worship the God who has to have more than one go, then we learn afresh that he is also a persistent God.
And this is very good news. Our God is persistent, our God is patient and He is vulnerable, not quite as all-powerful as we would sometimes like to believe. It is only His persistence, His patient, immeasurable and unconquerable love, that makes Him such an irresistible lover. We are blessed to worship such a God.
Two quick questions to finish.
1. The disciples leave their nets behind. What tangles are you being asked to leave alone in order that you may follow?
2. Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh and encounter the people there. Where and or who is your Nineveh, the place God is calling you to?