January 25, 2009

Glynn Cardy

Epiphany 3     Jonah 3:1-5, 10     Mark 1:14-20

The passage from the Book of Jonah is inserted into our readings today as an example of conversion. The foreign Ninevites were converted to Judaism following the preaching of Jonah. Yet the Ninevites were not the intended audience of the author’s message. They were simply a literary foil.

The Book of Jonah is not history. It is a parable. It was written to counter the rampant xenophobia in Israel in the 5th century BCE. When bigoted Israel, symbolised by Jonah, heard that God wanted to extend mercy to foreigners, namely the wicked Ninevites, they knew God was wrong. However as the parable proceeds slowly Jonah comes to understand that God’s boundaries and compassion are not synonymous with that of the majority. It is bigotry that is in need of conversion.

The Book of Jonah was written by a Jew asking questions about the soul of his nation and his religion. Will Israel like the fictitious and endearing Jonah wrestle with the need for a bigger vision than self-serving nationalism and security? Will it find its soul? The Book of Jonah continues to have poignancy in the Middle East today. Indeed the Book transcends not only time but culture, and calls too to our soul.

The Gospel reading is likewise a conversion story. Simon, Andrew, James and John were fishermen. Then one day, so the story goes, Jesus strolled into their lives and said: “Follow me and you will fish for people.” And the foursome looked at their nets, looked at the catch, looked at him, and said, “You’re on.” Jesus turned their heads, their hearts said ‘follow’, and follow they did. But it actually was not enough.

I think the real conversion of Peter happened sometime after Golgotha. By real I mean when his head and heart came together, when he weighed up who he was [rooster et al] and who he wanted to be, when he made not an infantile decision to trust but an adult decision to commit. The discovery of your soul doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time.

To be inspired by a great teacher, a Jesus, Ghandi, Obama..., to drop the ‘nets’ of our daily concerns in order to follow, to adopt the teachers vision and preach it, is not enough. It is a good start but it’s not enough because someone else is telling us what to do, what to dream, what to believe, and who we are.

When we were children we thought like children. We wanted the security of a world with boundaries, with rules, with protection, within which we could feel loved and return love. Such a world I hope one day every child will experience. It is a world predicated on trust. A strong adult controls that world, and the child trusts the adult.

Yet such a scenario for faith is not enough. It is infantile. Children we pray will grow up into adults with the resources to make wise decisions, and occasionally costly ones. So it is similarly with the pilgrim. Each of us will we pray grow up to bear the cost and experience the joys of creating environments of hope. We do it not because Jesus, God, our teachers, our parents, our therapist, our friends, or ‘the rules’ tell us to. We do it because we know who we are and what we want. We do it because we have discovered our soul.

Think about love for a moment. If an adult is ‘in love’ with another adult because his God, mother, or friends tell him to it is not love. If an adult is ‘in love’ because they want security and want to be loved, it is not love. Infatuation is not love. Mutual attraction is not love. Seeking to have one’s needs met is not love. Rather love is an adult other-centred commitment based on knowing who you are, what you believe, and what you want. Such love comes from knowing your own soul.

There is a movie currently in the theatres called Yes Man. Jim Carrey, he with the dexterous face of The Mask fame, is a lonely loser. Through a friend he attends a gathering of the ‘Yes’ religion. He makes a covenant to say ‘Yes’ to every request made of him. And his life is changed. The movie cleverly parodies every religion and ‘think positive’ type of spirituality.

Of course the ‘Yes’ approach works. He meets interesting people, does things he’s only ever dared dream about, becomes attractive in his own right, and forever greets the world with a smile.

I have met many Christians who are very similar to Carrey’s character. They smile at life and life smiles back. Morally difficult decisions are quickly fixed by reference to a Bible verse, the minister, or the teaching of the Church. There is right and wrong, yes and no, and nothing in-between. Painful experiences are explained away as consequences of their lack of faith.

Carrey continues in this vain until he falls in love. When his beloved learns he’s a ‘yes man’ she challenges him. “Do you love me because of ‘yes’?” In other words, ‘Do you love me because God or some other authority is telling you to?’

Saying ‘yes’ to everything, like consulting ‘God’ or ‘the Bible’ about everything, is morally vacuous. You have to make up your own mind, and to do that you have to know your own mind. You have to commit with your heart, and to do that you have to know your own heart. Faith, like love, can’t just be a mental, think-positive, trust-and-obey type decision. It has to be from the heart. You can’t love God with all your heart, mind and strength because the Bible tells you to, or the Church tells you to, or any external authority tells you to. Rather you love because you know and can speak from the authority within you. You love because you know your own soul.

Yes Man parodies religion that leaves no room for the soul. This form of religion requires assent to a set of precepts, group participation, and obedience to authority. Moral strength is determined by obedience to the group and its leaders. It’s the spiritual equivalent to rote learning mathematical equations and their answers rather than working them out for oneself.

When Jesus was gone the disciples worked it out for themselves. Sure God was with and within them but God didn’t do the work for them. They matched their dreams with their beliefs, and their actions with their faith. They found the resonance between heart and head, between their past and their hopes. They discovered their soul.

And with that discovery came the power to change the world.