The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation during Ordinary Time
As is usually true during Ordinary Time, there are a variety of themes that emerge from the readings. The one I would like to highlight is that of the unlikely messenger.
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
At the start of the book of Jonah, God’s call comes to Jonah and we read his initial response in chapter 1. God says “go East by land” so Jonah goes West by water. We know where that route leads him: washed up on the shore fresh from the belly of a whale.
Today’s reading is like a take 2: God’s call comes again. This time Jonah’s response is yes. He begins to preach in Ninevah to his mortal enemies.
In verse 4, Jonah says “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” A better rendition of the Hebrew is “overturned,” which also makes it ambiguous. It could mean that Nineveh will be overturned as in destroyed. But there’s also the possibility that they will “turn over” and reform their ways. 40 days is always a significant time in the Biblical accounts: 40 years in the desert, 40 days of temptation. 40 days represents a time of trial with the purpose of bringing one to transformation.
So Jonah comes preaching this message and he hasn’t gone very far when – and here’s a preacher’s dream – the ultimate response to a prophetic message happens. The whole city listens and believes and begins outward signs of repentance. Sackcloth was a typical sign of repentance. Verse 5 says they “believed God” which is the same Hebrew word used of Abram in Gen 15:6 “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”
The whole city is portrayed as responding, from the king down to the animals. But in verse 9, the king seems to have no expectation that God wouldn’t follow through on the initial threat. They weren’t doing everything in v 5-8 to earn something from God. They weren’t assured that it would do any good. Unlike Jonah, they seemed to understand that God acts as it pleases God, which may or may not conform to human expectations.
Verse 10 uses the word repented of God. In the Greek translation of this book, that is the word metanoia. The New Revised Standard Version translates this word here in Jonah as “changed his mind.” God changed his mind.
Can God change?
Jeremiah uses this same word in the same way in 18:7-8 “If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, 8 and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.”
Some other Old Testament verses use the word metanoia, but in a negative sense:
Numbers 23:19″ God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind.”
1 Samuel 15:29 “He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.”
We might note the context of these latter verses: they refer to God’s covenant promises and seem to suggest that God will never go back on his covenant. Jeremiah and Jonah both have a context of judgment. In these cases, God may well change his mind about what judgments he plans. We might could say that grace always wins with God.
Ponder the idea of metanoia as it might apply to God. Is there room in your image of God for God to be able to change? What actions from you might change God?
When we think of people who proclaim the gospel, we usually picture someone who is enthusiastic about the message, someone who deeply believes what they are saying. Jonah is an unlikely messenger who does not fit this picture. What does this story have to say about the unlikely messengers in your life, the ones whose actions and attitudes may not line up with their message? How do you reconcile that?
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Last week in chapter 6 we read about Paul’s notion of freedom and the idea that we’re all interconnected. This week has almost an Advent flavor – the idea that Christ’s coming is imminent.
Paul says if you’re already engaged, then go ahead and get married. If you’re not engaged, don’t go looking for a spouse. But if you do decide to get married anyway, that’s not a sin.
Paul starts off the section of vv25-40 saying that this is not a command from the Lord, but is rather born out of Paul’s own personal experience. This brings up some interesting questions: What level of authority does this have for us? How binding is it? What impact on those answers does it have to consider that this section is, in fact, in the accepted canon of scripture?
In v26 he says he’s giving this advice “because of the present crisis” or distress. In v29 Paul explicitly refers to the parousia or end times, but this word “present crisis” or distress doesn’t usually mean that. The idea here is that there are distresses and troubles going on in the city, and this makes it better to stay in your current social situation, particularly as it regards marriage. The trouble doesn’t last forever; so, presumably, this was a temporary piece of advice.
In v29 Paul refers to kairos time. 1 Thessalonians was written around 51AD and Paul clearly expected Christ’s return any time. This letter was just a few years later and Paul has moderated that feeling a bit, but the idea of Christ’s return in Paul’s lifetime is still very much alive.
So the present distresses might be very temporary, but even once they pass, there is the imminent return of Christ to consider. Kairos, then, is a time when customary living must be set aside for something more pressing.
Marriage, weeping and rejoicing, buying and owning – these are things we do in the normal course of life events. But kairos time, being different, calls for different reactions. What ordinarily makes us weep will not in kairos time. And what would otherwise make us rejoice will not in kairos time. Also in kairos time we’ll fully appreciate the insecurity of material possessions, and the futility of working so hard to acquire more will become evident.
Another way to put it is that we must not act as the absolute owner of what is in our “possession.” Everything we have is ours for a purpose. Pope Francis picked up this theme in his 2020 document Fratelli Tutti. This is about attachment to the things of the world, more so than avoiding things of the world.
Paul ends by saying that the world as we know it is passing away. So what he’s getting at here is not necessarily specific rules for living, but rather a manner of living, an approach to life that appreciates the present situation as temporary – whatever that situation might be.
I’ve often thought that the older we get, at some point in our lives, we make a switch from living in chronos time to living in kairos time. We become less and less bound by the clock, and we come to appreciate more and more what kairos time might mean.
Do you ever have Paul’s sense of urgency that “time is running out”? How does it influence your actions?
In what ways are you already living in kairos time?
Mark 1:14-20
We will be in Mark’s gospel for a number of weeks, until the start of Lent. If you haven’t already done so, I’d encourage you to read this short gospel in one sitting.
Vv14-15 are a transitional summary of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. And then we get Mark’s take on the call of disciples. I think it’s significant that we get back-to-back accounts of this: last week from John, this week from Mark. Ordinary Time will show us what it means to be disciples. But here at the start, we’re reminded that we’re first called. And we must respond to that call.
In John’s gospel, people follow Jesus. Here, Jesus calls them – this is a much more radical action on Jesus’ part. Teachers didn’t just go around soliciting followers. Mark’s aim is to present a picture of people who are confronted with a choice and immediately respond. They don’t take time to think about it or prepare for it. They respond. Immediately.
In John’s gospel, we have a picture of a divine being, one who can afford to patiently wait for a following. Mark writes with a deep urgency and that gets translated to Jesus himself. Mark’s Jesus doesn’t have time to wait around for followers – he goes seeking them out so that he can get this ministry on the road!
Like John’s account of the call of the disciples, there’s a pattern at work here:
- The initiative is from Jesus
- Those called are engaged in ordinary work
- The call is in the form of a clear summons to follow
- The call is to share in the mission or activity of the one calling
- The response to the call is immediate and unreflective, by a leaving of former occupations
- Responding to the call is not a private thing, but means joining others who have responded as well
Verse 14 opens with a reference to John the Baptist. The word “arrested” literally means “handed over,” which is the same word that will be used of Jesus being handed over for his passion and death. Mark is foreshadowing things, a technique he uses quite often. The imagery of being “handed over” comes from the suffering servant songs in Isaiah, and appears throughout the New Testament as a shorthand way to talk about Jesus’ suffering and death.
Verse 15 connects us to Paul with a reference to kairos time. Mark uses the phrase “kingdom of God” throughout his gospel. In Jewish history, during the time of judges (like Eli last week), the people asked God for a king so they could be a kingdom like their neighbors. God gave them a king and a monarchy, but it didn’t work out so well. The monarchy ended in the 700s BC, and the prophets then began talking about a future time when Israel would once again become a kingdom, this time ruled by God. So when Jesus uses this phrase “kingdom of God,” that would have been the context for those who heard.
Mark also uses the word “repent,” the Greek word metanoia, which means doing an about-face, changing one’s mind. We might ask, what does that look like? How should metanoia be lived out? Mark intends to give us some examples!
This passage is set next to the sea. Throughout the Bible, the sea is a place to fear. Look what happened to Jonah there! It’s the domain of monsters and storms – all sorts of destructive forces. To be a fisher of men, then, is to pull people out of this place of fear and destruction. That’s a better way to look at it than trying to entrap people and reel them in.
In verse 18, they abandon the tools of their livelihood and follow Jesus. “Followed” is almost a technical term for discipleship throughout the New Testament. To reinforce this idea, the pattern is repeated with the sons of Zebedee.
This passage gives us a picture of an ideal beginning, full of hope and promise. Kairos time is different. We are called to act differently. What new beginnings might God be calling you to in this new liturgical and calendar year?
Reflect on the pattern of these callings. How has this pattern played out in your own life?
Connections of the readings
Jonah was a messenger who had his share of troubles. Peter, Andrew, James, and John are chosen from among fishermen to be unlikely messengers with an unlikely message.
Another connection is the idea of kairos time and the call to live differently.
Questions to ponder
Ponder the idea of metanoia as it might apply to God. Is there room in your image of God for God to be able to change? What actions from you might change God?
When we think of people who proclaim the gospel, we usually picture someone who is enthusiastic about the message, someone who deeply believes what they are saying. Jonah is an unlikely messenger who does not fit this picture. What does this story have to say about the unlikely messengers in your life, the ones whose actions and attitudes may not line up with their message? How do you reconcile that?
Do you ever have Paul’s sense of urgency that “time is running out”? How does it influence your actions?
In what ways are you already living in kairos time?
The gospel passage gives us a picture of an ideal beginning, full of hope and promise. Kairos time is different. We are called to act differently. What new beginnings might God be calling you to in this new liturgical and calendar year?
Reflect on the pattern of the calling of the disciples. How has this pattern played out in your own life?
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
© 2023 Kelly Sollinger