Finding Faith ... in learning that our calls are to serve all our neighbors

EDITOR'S NOTE: On Oct. 23, 2021, I was ordained as a minister of word and sacrament in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and installed as pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. I also served the same church for four years from October 2017 to October 2021 a synodical authorized minister. The journey together these past four years has been an amazing one, full of learning, growing and a deepening of my theological mind. This sermon took place on Jan. 14, 2024.

This week's text: Jonah 3:1-10

3 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2 “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. 8 Humans and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. 9 Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.”

10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it.

The message:

Almost two weeks ago now, one day after finishing work at The Forum office in downtown Fargo, I was walking in the parking lot to my truck, and I met up with a man who’d obviously been drinking, but was polite nonetheless. 

You may have already heard this, as I wrote about it in a newspaper column a couple weeks back. … But I promise, this is new work! … I’m just building upon the same story. … I’m going to tell you the rest of the story as Paul Harvey used to say!

So anyway … the man very cautiously approaches me, and says “Sir, can you spare a quarter?”

Now, I really did not hear him at first because of my poor hearing, so I asked him what it was that he said, and then it was crystal clear.

“Do you have a quarter? Any change you can spare?” he said, avoiding eye contact. “I’m not one to beg, but anything to get something to eat would help.”

“Yeah, of course,” said. “I have some change in my truck.” And I apologized that I didn’t have something more to offer him. I mean, who carries cash nowadays, right?

So, as I got my truck door opened and reached into the “change dish” on my dash, the gentleman behind me continued his string of apologies for interrupting me and for having to ask for money, sadness and shame coloring his words.

“You know, I’m sorry. I don’t want to beg. I just want to get something to eat,” he repeated several times.

“No need to apologize,” I said. “You can have everything I have in my truck,” … doing my best to ease his shame and be as compassionate as I could. “I’m just sorry I don’t have something more.”

“You know, I used to work in that building … the newspaper,” he said, with a nod over his shoulder and with a glimmer of pride, in recognition of the building from where I’d just come.

Given a few of the details he shared about The Forum, I could tell it wasn’t a farce. He really HAD worked there, but I don’t know what happened.

And, in that moment, I couldn’t help it, but “There, but for the grace of God, go I,” immediately popped into my head. … I mean, I too have been through several rounds of layoffs at The Forum since the burst of the financial bubble in 2009. …

So, it’s not that inconceivable given some other turn of fate, that I too could be talking about working at the paper in the past tense. … There but for the grace of God go I.

Eventually I handed the man my woefully insufficient handful of change that was in my truck. Not much more than a couple of bucks. And I asked if he had a place to get out of the cold and to stay for the night.

Assuring me that he would be fine, he bid me adieu with a grateful, “God bless you.” … And we parted.

Now, that was the part of the exchange I wrote about in the newspaper column. After all, you can only pack so much into 500 words. 

But here’s what I didn’t include in the column …

Two days after that encounter, the day before the column would publish, I found myself in a conversation with two coworkers at The Forum about this very same man. … The man I had given my change to. … Turns out head had approached two other Forum employees in the parking lot before he had reached me that day, but I didn’t see because it all took place behind me.

Caught by surprise, and not wanting to get dragged into an uncomfortable conversation, because they had no idea that I'd already written the newspaper column about the situation. So I mentioned to my coworkers that the man was very polite to me and I quickly moved on.

What surprised me the most was their intense negative reaction to people approaching them on the street to ask for money. … But here is the thing, Faith Family, just as our sorrowful prophet friend Jonah finds out in today’s First Reading … as followers of Christ, we don’t get to pick and choose who it is that we minister to.

We are called to serve our neighbor … each and every neighbor, even if it’s someone who we’re not excited about serving.

The man on the street who's been drinking … or the evil and vile people of Nineveh. 

Because trust me, the LAST thing that Jonah wanted was to have a hand in saving the people of Nineveh … but God was calling him to do it anyway. 

A little context here will help, I think … If you are unfamiliar, the Assyrians we read about in the Bible, would have lived in what we now call northern Iraq, and would have been neighbors to the Israelites. … And before the arrival of the Babylonians in about 600 B.C., the Assyrians ruled that part of the Middle East, including Israel.

And they were a brutal empire. … We don’t see as much in the Bible written about the Assyrians, like we do the Egyptians. … But let’s just say that living under Assyrian rule was no picnic for anyone.

Now, the center of the Assyrian empire was their capital city which was named … Nineveh. 

Now our buddy Jonah the prophet … called Israel home. … And knowing just how brutal and terrible the Assyrians had been to his people, there is no way that … A.) Jonah wants his God … the God of the Israelites … the God of THE chosen people … to spare the evil people of Nineveh.

And B.) … As much as Jonah doesn’t want God to spare the people of Nineveh … he REALLY doesn’t want to be responsible in the slightest for having himself played a part in the saving of the vile Assyrians. 

Right … why would he? They were his natural enemies, after all!

But we know the story, and what happens anyway? … Eventually … but reluctantly Jonah makes his way to Nineveh, goes to the heart of the city and shouts: “Hey, you lousy Ninevehens. I don’t want to be here, but you know, if you don’t repent, in forty days, the Lord is going to come to smite you.”

And guess what …

Much to Jonah’s disappointment, the pronouncement prompts the Assyrian king to repent, and he is followed by the rest of his people. … And ultimately, God spares them all.

How grose that must feel to Jonah, right? … Why God? … Why did you save the people of Nineveh?

But here’s the lesson, Faith Family … Just as Jonah finds out, we do not get to pick and choose who it is that we minister to … which neighbor we get to try to save … and which ones we don’t.

We don’t get to choose to look the other way from the people on the street when we can help it … just as Jonah didn’t get to look the other way when it came to saving the people of Nineveh.

And that is the rub about being a disciple of Jesus … isn’t it? … Sometimes the cost of discipleship seems too high … as in the times it calls us to minister to the needs of the very people we don’t want to. … Our enemies … those people who make us feel uncomfortable … the undesirables … inebriated people who ask us for change on the street.

But here’s the truth of the matter, Faith Family … God does call us to be all in. … Just like Jonah. … There’s no sliding scale when it comes to being a follower of Christ. … No picking and choosing who’s worthy and who isn’t.

And I have to say … isn’t THAT fortunate for all of us who are not perfect human beings 100 percent of the time?

And that is the Good News for this Jan. 21, 2024, the Third Sunday after Epiphany. … Amen.