1 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.” 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.
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.”
7 The sailors[a] 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.
If you have attempted to drive through the harbor recently, you will come across the road construction at the intersection of West and Lake avenues. On any given day, one road will be closed, or perhaps one lane is open on another road, and even on a third day, you could find no construction. The constant changing of the road work, and the constant rerouting of traffic has resulted in many becoming frustrated and ultimately avoiding even driving through the area, choosing to take a detour elsewhere to avoid the problem intersection until the work is concluded.
Avoiding a difficult intersection and taking a detour is precisely what Jonah did after receiving his call to travel and preach in Nineveh. Instead of taking responsibility, he avoids the responsibility and purchases a boat ticket going in the opposite direction. God commands and appoints and calls Jonah to a task and instead of accepting responsibility and obeying that command freely, Jonah balks at the idea, avoids his appointment and flees to the city furthest away from Nineveh on a map. He avoids the intersection; he avoids his responsibilities and goes elsewhere with no responsibilities whatever.
So too do we. Like Jonah we avoid responsibility and take a detour to where there are either no responsibilities or one’s of our own creation. God calls us to worship, and we do a little but not enough. God calls us to pray, and we pray some, but not enough. God calls us to study, and we do some, but not enough. But perhaps the greatest avoidance we make comes in loving service of our neighbors. God calls us to love each other, by serving our faith community but also the people outside our faith community. We simply don’t. We avoid that responsibility, because we want to be able to walk away, because we have a limited amount of time not spent working, and because we just simply want to do something else and have no desire to serve as a deacon, to volunteer building wheelchair ramps, to tutor or mentor a young person, to cook and serve food to the homeless. God calls and we avoid an answer, we go to Tarshish: we go shopping, we go on vacation, or we watch our 3.5 hours of television a day. We avoid our God-given responsibility.
But I am not talking about those people that are described as responsibility sponges. They always say yes, they are always volun-told by others to serve, they are overworked and overburdened with responsibility. They continue to soak up responsibility. No, you have enough, and it may be responsible to say no. But I also am not talking about those people that shouldn’t be responsible all together. Those that are older and more vulnerable from a health perspective. They have earned their time off and don’t need to put themselves in harm’s way or feel the compulsion to add something or contribute to the life of our congregation. The responsible thing may also be to say no. I am talking about those that are called by the Word and Spirit of God and choose to do nothing or barely anything, for fear of becoming obligated and unable to get out if things go bad, for fear of not having any free time, for being selfish and choosing to live your life for yourself instead of for God. I am talking about those of us, that are called and don’t answer. I am talking about the ones called by God and who avoid answering or choose to answer with a detour of their own creation. I am talking about me and you.
When we look at the cross of Jesus Christ, we see complete and total dedication to God, at a willingness to give one’s life for God’s purposes. We see perfect responsibility and that is not me, that is not us, and it certainly was not Jonah. But God doesn’t avoid us, like we avoid God. God still takes perfect responsibility towards us and as the man Jesus of Nazareth perfect responsibility instead of us. God chased down Jonah, and God chases down us. God keeps calling even when we have no answer, and even when we have a defiant answer, Jesus answers faithfully instead of us. God chased Jonah and Jonah finally accepted his calling from God. God is chasing us down and through the Word made Flesh and the Indwelling Spirit, we are forgiven and freed to choose responsibility instead of avoiding it all together.
My friends, none more than I, choose daily to avoid the callings and responsibilities God places on us. But we all are loved and cared for by God, that God can transform us from defiant, selfish creatures into faithful, obedient children. God changed Jonah. Through Jesus and the Spirit, God can change us. So where can you help with our congregation’s responsibilities? If you already are, great you don’t need any more. If taking responsibility means you put your life at risk, great you don’t need any more. If you are not bearing any responsibilities or if you are doing the bare minimum and could be responsible for more, what calling from God are you avoiding and perhaps need to start accepting? What more can you do? Isn’t it time to start answering instead of avoiding?
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