Readings: Jonah 3:1-5; Mark 1:14-20
These are two readings which both have an important story to tell us and I`d like to talk briefly about each one.
The Jonah story
• Reminds us that we all struggle to understand the God we follow
• Comes close to the mystery of God (God`s Justice/God`s Mercy) and
• It is the quality of God`s mercy too! – free and unmerited – even Ninevites are included even though Nineveh represented all that is repugnant, cruel, oppressive and hateful.

Did you notice in the reading: God called Jonah a SECOND time. Jonah not only failed to respond to God`s first call; he got on a ship and sailed in the opposite direction! Then we know the story of the storm and the fish (not a literal story, but full of wisdom) and strangely enough, ended up on the very shores of Nineveh. So this time, Jonah didn`t ignore God`s call and the result was the conversion of Nineveh and the very conversion of Jonah himself.

The Book of Jonah is a good example of prophecy`s capacity for self criticism – not by seeing ourselves as worthless – on the contrary – as seeing ourselves as worth reformation!

The Mark Story
Jesus had been with John at the Jordan and in the Judean wilderness. Now he returns to Galilee – the locum – the place – of Jesus` ministry where he preached the Good News – the Gospel of God. Just as God is in command in the Jonah story, so God is directing the Jesus story. The Reign of God – the Kingdom of God – draws near. God`s future has drawn very near to us.

When we speak of `utopia` we usually mean a place of perfection, something to be greatly desired and anticipated. Our `little utopias` happen to us throughout our life journey – they may be as simple as being with friends, buying a new lounge suite, or painting the bathroom - the things that we look forward to with a sense of excitement. These are just LITTLE utopias – God`s future is actually upon us when Jesus says: Come, follow me.
One of the early Scripture scholars, J A Bengel, 1734 – a long time ago – said about reading Sacred Scripture: `Apply yourself wholly to the passage, and apply the passage wholly to yourself.` When we read the Bible again and again, then, time after time, our own life situation and a passage from Scripture `will collide with and illuminate each other`. This illumination is mutual and reciprocal, because the same spirit that breathes on us through the Scriptures, that Spirit who fills the whole world, is the self-same Spirit who is hidden as well in the interior of our own life circumstances and predicaments.

And so, applying the scripture passage today wholly to yourself, hear Jesus calling you.
In this Marcan passage is a model response to Jesus. Here are two sets of brothers, Simon and Andrew and James and John. This is one of the most decisive and positive stories (incidences) in the whole of Scripture. This young man, Jesus, seemed to be so compelling of character, so definitive in his words to the brothers, that no preparation or getting used to the idea seemed necessary. No `Let me think about it`. No `Look, before I come I just want to . . .`.

In those times it was customary for Jewish students to approach a Rabbi (teacher) and seek a kind of apprenticeship. Here, the Teacher comes to the students. Jesus comes into their workplace, in fact, into a major Galilean industry, the fishing industry. The brothers owned their tools of trade and had employees. They were not uneducated.

This is a story designed to set an example. `Apply yourself wholly to the passage and apply the passage wholly to yourself.`
`They followed him.` And these two sets of brothers form an inner core of the twelve Apostles. Remember that Peter, James and John were the ones with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, another of my favourite theologians, wrote a book called The Cost of Discipleship. There is a cost to following Jesus. This passage agrees with Bonhoeffer. The brothers seem to leave behind both family and financial security.

Just a few concluding reflections:

• The very name of Jesus demands a response.

• Note the contrast between the response of the disciples and the rejection of the crowds.

• Mark`s picture portrait of discipleship is `being with Jesus` – sure they fail again and again to understand what he`s really saying – but this never disqualifies them from following him.

• The Gospel portrayal of the disciples seems to be that, in the ministry in Galilee, they are examples to be followed, but when it comes to going up to Jerusalem towards the end, they are portrayed as examples to be avoided. Judas betrays him. Peter denies him. The rest clear off.

• The effect of all this seems to be to highlight the person of Jesus, the only one who, when push comes to shove, deserves our unqualified respect, deserves our honour, deserves our unconditional love; the only one worth following.

• Like Jonah, we all struggle to understand the God we follow - to come to terms with the incomprehensibility of God. But there is good news in the midst of this very human predicament and Mark makes it crystal clear. `Follow Jesus`.