Warning: Following Jesus can make you an unwanted alien.

Jonah eventually went to Nineveh. It was an alien land to Jonah. Unworthy of God's love . But God loved them just as much as God loved Jonah and because of his attitude, Jonah made himself an alien in the kingdom of God. Fortunately God did not give up on him. 

When Jesus walked into the Galilee region calling for repentance and invited a group of fishermen to become disciples, he was calling them to trade in their citizenship in one realm for citizenship in another. Trade in a familiar and pleasing paradigm for something that was foreign to them. They would become aliens in their own hometown just as Jesus became an alien in Nazareth. 

The journey of an alien is risky and uncomfortable because repentance means changing your whole point of view. Hard thing to do. Hard thing to live. Many never really make the break. Are you an alien in your own neighborhood?

Lectionary readings this week: Psalm 62:5-12; Jonah 3:1-5,10; Mark 1:14-20; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31.

Session meeting this Thursday at 6 p.m. in the library.

Allen