Brief synopsis of the readings: We find our first reading from the book of Jonah. It doesn’t describe him being swallowed by a fish but instead when God called him to preach to the wicked city of Nineveh lest they be destroyed. Jonah didn’t want them converted and did a half hearted job. Nevertheless they did repent and God allowed them to live. In Mark’s Gospel Jesus went to Galilee and proclaimed the gospel. He then saw Simon and Andrew and invited them to follow him and they did. Likewise he called James and John and they too followed.

Last week I spoke about how we answer God’s call. But here’s an interesting question: what happens if God calls you and you choose not to follow? Our first reading gives us an interesting example. When we think of Jonah we think about him being thrown overboard from a ship, being swallowed by a fish, and spending three days in its belly. Unfortunately this happens in the chapter before this reading. Because of this we can benefit from some background.

God commanded Jonah to travel to the Ninevites and tell them unless they repented of their wicked ways they would be destroyed. Problem was, Jonah didn’t like Nineveh and wanted God to destroy them; instead of heading west toward Nineveh he headed east and boarded a boat. The boat hit a storm and all the sailors prayed to their gods while Jonah slept in the hold. When awakened he admitted he was probably the cause of the storm because of his disobedience to God and he was thrown overboard where he encountered the fish. Once on land he went to Nineveh and proclaimed God’s warning, but didn’t really mean it, still hoping they would ignore him and be destroyed. To his surprise and anger they listened and stopped their wicked ways.

When most of us read these stories about Jesus calling his first followers we see a pretty simple process. When I was in seminary someone suggested that Jesus may have called people who declined and one of my classmates asked if that went badly for them. Our teacher admitted that Scripture doesn’t give us any answers; after all who wants to write about those things that didn’t work. But he tended to think that those who refused didn’t make Jesus angry, he just went on to the next person.

I think the teacher was right and I hope that those who didn’t initially follow Jesus came to believe that he was who he said he was. But I find Jonah a much more interesting story. The Ninevites were pagans who lived in nearby Assyria and had been fierce enemies of the Israelites; it’s assumed that most Israelites wanted nothing more than their destruction. But when God commands Jonah to convert them Jonah tried anything to avoid that. They were east and he headed west. Much like Herod last week I think we can find great amusement in believing Jonah could outsmart God.

Frankly it didn’t work but God did not turn his ire on Jonah; instead God saved him from the fish and put him back on the road to Nineveh. Still Jonah did everything he could to ensure Nineveh didn’t repent (the length of the city was a three day’s walk and he only walked a day). Again God didn’t lose his temper or turn on Jonah. At the end of the story Nineveh did convert and they were saved; Jonah still wasn’t happy but God reminded him that 120,000 people were saved.

I think there are a few lessons here. Clearly we can’t outfox God to subvert his plan of salvation with our selfish desires but I can’t imagine any one of us believing we could. But I think it also tells us that our selfishness itself is a fool’s errand. God’s love, generosity and salvation are not finite and the salvation of our enemies does not dilute God’s love for us and our salvation.

When we think of parents with several children we can easily see that their time and attention is limited. But their love isn’t. If anything their love increases with the birth of each child. And when jealous children insist that another child is “Mom and Dad’s favorite” we know they are mixing up love with attention or affirmation. Many won’t fully understand until they become parents themselves.

And so with God, whose time, attention and love knows no bounds, we have no reason for jealousy. Nor do we have a reason to hate those not like us. I don’t need to spend much time on this but even today we define others as our enemies. Particularly if they practice another faith we insist that we hate them only because God does. When we are called by God to love our enemies we insist our enemies are different.

We believe that we are building the same kingdom but I don’t think that will happen by forcing everyone to become Christian. I find it interesting that when God called the Ninevites to repent he never demanded that they convert to Judaism. He never told Jonah to force them to change their beliefs and the historical record tells us they didn’t. Perhaps the toughest pill for Jonah to swallow was the realization that he could no longer hate the Ninevites.

It’s unclear if Jonah himself repented but I hope he did. When we think of him and those who declined Jesus’ invitation we might think that they will benefit in the long run, and they will. But conversion also benefited them (and us) in the short run. The call to love allows us to see others not as competition for parents’ time and attention but as children of the same loving parents. Running west when calls us to run east won’t outsmart God but it will allow us to find the good in sworn enemies.

Today we have no shortage of Ninevites. For some they are Zionists and for others members of Hamas. For some it’s immigrants and for others it’s nativists. But our call is clear: if God loves them too, we need to follow suit.

Hopefully we won’t need to be swallowed by a fish to figure that out.