Sermon for November 6

The reading Jonah 1:1-17; 3:1-10

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down, and was fast asleep. The captain came and said to him, “What are you doing sound asleep? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so that we do not perish.”

The sailors said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, so that we may know on whose account this calamity has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” “I am a Hebrew,” he replied. “I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men were even more afraid, and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them so.

Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous. He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you.” Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them. Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, O Lord, we pray, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood; for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. But the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.”

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

The Summary

This is the first time I can remember hearing the story of the prophet Jonah, read at church.  It is a large contrast with last week’s reading on the good and faithful prophet Elijah who trusts God’s word.  Jonah is something else entirely.

Like many of the prophets, Jonah is sent by God to a certain place to share a message with the people there.  Jonah is sent to Niveveh, a large and powerful city, He was supposed to tell them God has seen and condemned their wickedness and they will be destroyed.  To this job, Jonah says “Im glad of thought of me for this work, but no thanks”. Actually he does not even do that much, Jonah just sneaks off to the small, friendly town of Tarshish instead.  On the way, there is a Great storm, the people on the boat figure out its Jonah’s fault, and throw him overboard to stop the storm and save the ship.  Once in the water, Jonah is famously swallowed by a large fish and lives inside of it for 3 days.   At that point, he is spit out onto dry land and once again, God says “Go to Nineveh”.  This time, Jonah listens.    

When Jonah arrives, he announces “40 days more and Nineveh will be destroyed”. To Jonah’s shock and disappointment, the people there listen, repent, put on sackcloth and ashes and seek mercy. Even the king of Nineveh listens, repents and commands the people to stop their evil ways,  God decides to spare them. If the story ended there, Jonah would be seen as a heroic prophet, hesitant at first but gets his stuff together.  But it does not end there. Jonah gets upset at God’s mercy, he wanted the destruction of that city, he wanted to show those people.   Jonah is not exactly an all star amongst the good and faithful prophets but then again, neither are we.  A lot of us have more in common with Jonah that we care to admit.

We can learn 3 important things from this story

1:  God’s word works.  It was certainly not Jonah’s inspirational example that changes the people of 

Nineveh, It is God’s word that exposes their sinfulness and drives them to God’s mercy.     

2: God’s mercy for the people of Nineveh is full and complete. In Jewish traditions, Jonah is the afternoon reading for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.  Jesus refers to the story of Jonah in 2 of the gospels ( Matthew 12:  38 Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.” He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.  For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.)  There is a similar text in Luke 11:29-32 

3: The people of Nineveh were mere days away from inescapable destruction, the wrath of God that they would be powerless against.   At first Jonah would have simply let them be destroyed.  He did not want to give them another chance (after all they could have repented any time they wanted).  Jonah also felt like God’s word was not something they felt like they needed or wanted.  Jonah does not want to go because the people in that city did not deserve God’s word and he assumed they wouldn’t accept it anyway. 

There are people all around us that are in Nineveh, people on the edge of falling part, people trapped in addiction, anger, anxiety and fear, people who struggle to see ways out of poverty, abuse or violence. There are people who are lost and trying to find joy in bad or stupid places.  We have news for them, good news that changes things, the message of Jonah, that all people are loved by God.  Instead of making Jonah’s excuses, let’s talk to them