This season, we are working our way through the Old Testament by leaping from major event to major event, or major story to major story.
Last week, we focused on the event when the Prophet Elijah stood up to evil King Ahab and warned him of a drought that was coming to the land of Israel. Elijah had to flee from the wrath of the king and became totally dependent on God for sustenance and shelter. God first sent ravens delivering food from their beaks to feed Elijah, and then sent him to live with a widow and her orphaned son. The widow's meager food supplies were miraculously refilled by God until the drought was over.
This morning, we turn to the story of the Prophet Jonah. He was not as ready to serve God as Elijah was – when God commanded Jonah to go warn his enemies about God’s judgement, Jonah disobeyed God and ran away. Jonah’s story is a tale of disobedience, contrition, and finally fulfilling God’s call.
The book of Jonah is only 4 chapters long. Listen to the story as I retell it --
The Scripture Jonah 1:1-17; 3:1-10; (4:1-11)
Jonah Flees From the Lord
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai:
2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.
5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.
6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”
7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.
8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”
9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)
11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”
12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before.
14 Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.”
15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm.
16 At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.
Jonah’s Prayer
17 Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
2
1 [a]From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.
10 And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
3 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time:
2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it.
4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust.
7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink.
8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.
9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
4 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry.
2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city.
6 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant[a] and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant.
7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered.
8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”
9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”
10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.
11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
HERE ENDS THIS READING OF THE WORD OF GOD FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD – THANKS BE TO GOD. AMEN.
LET US PRAY....
The Message Jonah and God’s Mercy
Jonah’s story is very relatable. He was a flawed person who made mistakes, just as we are all flawed people who made mistakes. But, God uses flawed people all the time, even when we make mistakes.
Jonah lived around the 8th century BCE, so almost three thousand years ago. He lived in Israel. During that era, the people of Israel were rivals with the Assyrian people.... The Assyrian Empire was large and powerful, and the land of Israel was weak and vulnerable. The people of Israel were constantly fearful that the Assyrians would conquer their land and take the people into captivity.
Up until the events we read about today, Jonah had been a faithful follower of God. But, God told Jonah to do something he didn’t want to do – to go to Ninevah in Assyria and warn the people there that God was displeased with them. Jonah was scared to do God’s bidding.... originally, Jonah was more afraid to the reaction of the Ninevites than he was to God’s reaction to his disobedience.
So, Jonah decided to board a ship and travel West. Nineveh was East of Isreal – Jonah went the opposite direction. He attempted to go to Tarshish -- at the time, Tarshish was the furthest known port in the West he could travel.
God was displeased with Jonah’s choice....to get Jonah’s attention, God made a storm – a storm so severe that Jonah couldn’t hide from God in the bottom of the ship. When Jonah recognized God would drown the people on the ship to get Jonah’s attention, he told the sailors to throw him overboard. They didn’t want to drown Jonah, but they were convinced it was necessary to preserve the many lives on the ship.
Jonah was thrown into the sea and swallowed by a giant fish. Children love this part of the story – while Jonah was in the fish, he prayed and contritely asked God to forgive him. After 3 days of praying, the fish spit Jonah out onto dry land.
God forgave Jonah and told him to proceed with the plan. God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh. So, despite his fears, Jonah finally listened to God.
Imagine Jonah’s arrival to the land of his enemies. He was afraid of the Assyrian people. He wanted God to punish his enemies. God told Jonah to walk around Ninevah and proclaim that the people needed to repent from their evil ways or God would overthrow their city in 40 days. Strangely, the people listened to Jonah, a foreigner and one of their enemies. Even the king of Assyria listened to him. The people repented. They fasted. They prayed. And they reformed from their evil ways.
Jonah wanted them to die. And, when God changed God’s heart and decided to save them, Jonah was unhappy. He didn’t think it was fair that God changed and forgave the people – Jonah wanted vengeance, not forgiveness. Jonah was very human, and very flawed.
Twentieth century German pastor, theologian and Holocaust survivor Martin Niemöller wrote: “It took me a long time to understand that God is the not the enemy of my enemies. God is not even the enemy of God’s enemies.” -- God is not the enemy of my enemies. God is not even the enemy of God’s enemies – In Jonah’s case, God was not the enemy of Jonah’s enemies the Assyrians. God responded with love to the people who sinned against God. The Assyrians repented and God forgave them. Thanks be to God.
This is the first Sunday we gather together after a very contentious American election and a long, exhausting election season. There are people who feel like the right person was elected and that victory is at hand. And there are people who are very upset, who feel that the result of the election will be a disaster for our people and our land. There is a diversity of opinion in this room...in fact, Christian sanctuaries may be one of the people places people of every pollical persuasion willingly gather together today.... we have Republicans, and Democrats, and Independents, and Green party folks, and Libertarians sitting on pews next to each other throughout our nation this morning.
And, no matter how we voted, we are all Christians. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ. When Jesus was preparing for his journey to the cross, during the Last Supper, he left his disciples with some final teachings. One of those is a very important reminder for us. In John Chapter 13, Jesus is quoted as saying: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
So, no matter how we feel about the election – if we are joyful or if we are sad – we must work to embody Jesus’ commandment to love each other. We must remember that we are all Americans – in this room, we are all Christian Americans – there is no us versus them, the good guys versus the bad guys, the right people versus the wrong people. We are all in this together. We are all called to work through our differences and love each other.
When God pardoned the Assyrians, Jonah didn’t respond with love. He was mad God didn’t kill his enemies.... he was mad God didn’t kill God’s enemies.
But we believe in the God of love, not the God of vengeance. We believe in the God who commands us to love, not to take revenge. We are called, as a people, to work together with each other in love. We are called to join together as people of a shared faith, and a shared nation, to work together to on God’s behalf in our world and in our communities – to love each other, to care for each other, to care for people who are hurting – those who are hungry, those who are homeless, those who are grieving, those who are financially vulnerable – we are called to care for widows and orphans and people with physical disabilities and people who are struggling with mental illnesses. We are called as people of faith to love each other, even when we disagree, and to work together for the common good of all people.
May we do so in love today and all days. Amen.
