Repent! The End is Near!

Delivered at Agnus Dei Lutheran Church. Epiphany 3, Year B.
Text: Jonah 3; 1 Cor 7.29-31; Mk 1.14-20

 

“Forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown!” What goes through your heads when you hear Jonah’s message? Does the reaction of the Ninevites surprise you? It sure surprises me. When I hear Jonah’s message, this is what I think of:

I think of some guy with unkempt hair and a scraggly beard holding a sign like this on the street corner. I think of Harold Camping, who predicted the end of the world back in 2011. I hear Jonah’s message, and I think, “What a nutjob.” The trouble is that Jonah’s message sounds an awful lot like the first words out of Jesus’ mouth in Mark’s gospel.