God is speaking good news all around us.
Which is why listening is so important to the life of faith…listening to God… and listening to those God might be speaking through.
Our Psalmist for today is a listener:
“Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God, and steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord.” (Ps 62:11-12)
To be people of faith, is to be folks accustomed to listening, who strain to hear the voice of God that bursts forth in the harmonies of power and steadfast love.
In the gospel of Mark – the very first words that come out of Jesus’ mouth attune our ears to listen to what the rest of his life will be about:
“The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near, repent and believe in the good news.”
Jonah was also a listener to God’s good news, even if he didn’t always like where it took him. Jonah heard the word of the Lord calling him to get up and go and proclaim a message to the city of Nineveh.
To the Hebrews scattered in exile and diaspora who heard the story of Jonah – the mighty city of Nineveh symbolized everything wrong with the violence and idolatry of imperial might – Nineveh was the archetypal evil city, it was the capital of the brutal Assyrian empire, who with their ruthless army had destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel. That’s where Jonah was sent.
I rode up to Washington DC this past Monday in a van full with other CHMFers, all of us joining hundreds of others in a Mennonite Day of Action, protesting for a ceasefire in Gaza and a just peace in Israel/Palestine.
Snow started to flurry and build up as we drove through the DC suburbs and by the Pentagon and the streets lined with museums and memorials and government buildings until we finally arrived at a downtown church where Mennonites were gathering for trainings in civil disobedience and worship and food.
On this cold Martin Luther King Jr day the city felt both grand and quiet blanketed in white.
Jonah didn’t make it very far into the great city of Nineveh before his message took hold. Somehow in this city that symbolized wickedness and brutality, all of the people fasted and put on sackcloth and turned away from evil and toward God.
And Jonah was not happy about this. Even though Jonah knew God to be merciful and compassionate, when God’s mercy and compassion burst forth as good news for this city, Jonah couldn’t stand it. He delivered the message but he was bitter when it actually had an impact.
We’re called to be proclaimers and enactors of the good news of God’s kin-dom. And sometimes we will be surprised at who all hears and listens and joins in God’s work.
I was moved to witness Mennonites proclaiming this good news in Washington DC as we held banners high with messages of, “Send food not missiles. Nobodies free until everybody’s free. Let Gaza live.” I felt the hope of the church as a gathered body as folks of all ages boldly came together.
I found that participating in civil disobedience was powerful and prayerful: As we gathered in the Cannon Office Building Rotunda – I was singing as loud as I could to amplify our message until I was hoarse, but more importantly I had to listen.
I had to listen to the spirit of our group huddled together in a circle…listen for what the next hymn would be, listen for the next improvised verse or chant…and when we were handcuffed and lined up down hallways, I had to continue to listen extra hard to keep singing…when we were told we had to stop singing unless we wanted additional charges, I had to listen to the silences and body language and facial expressions and to how my friends next to me were doing. I was being invited to listen to the Spirit of God that continues to speak good news.
Faith begins with listening to God’s good news spoken to us. Jesus’ disciples heard the call to “follow me” and their whole world pivoted. Our worlds turn when we join Jesus in his work of mercy and justice.
This life of faith is not abandoning what we’ve done before – but bringing all of ourselves and our gifts along on the journey with Jesus. The disciples remain fisherman, just now reoriented to life with Jesus.
Faith begins with hearing the call to repentance from a reluctant prophet like Jonah who didn’t even really believe what he was saying, but a whole city ended up miraculously turning to God.
God can speak in all sorts of ways – through hymns and banners and petitions and hands folded in prayer and paper folded into cranes for peace. God can speak in the cries of the suffering and in the prayerful silence of those who choose to be brave in the face of violence and in the boisterous songs of worship that are proclamations of hope and defiance sung into the stony halls of power.
God is speaking good news all around us. And we are called to listen and to respond in following this God of love.
So, now I’d like to invite Miriam and Serena and Zach and Xaris up to share with us what their experience was like participating in protest in Washington DC and where they heard God’s good news. [Questions they answered:]
- How did you decide to be a part of the Mennonite Day of Action in DC, and what did it feel like participating?
- Where did you sense the presence of God in the action? Was there anything holy you witnessed?