A Sermon for the 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany (RCL B) 1-22-2012
Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry
Texts: Jonah 3:1-5,10; Psalm 62:5-12; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20
Themes: repentance, change, second chances, fishing for people, trusting in GodTitle: The Good News of God
My brothers and my sisters in the Lord, I have a question for you:
Does God have a sense of humor?
Well, that is a very difficult question to answer, in my opinion.
But at the least, we can say that the very inclusion of this Book of the Prophet Jonah in the canon of Holy Scripture provides a strong suggestion of a divine sense of humor.
What do you know about the prophet Jonah?
Oh, I so much wish that we had the time to sit and read through the entire story all together this morning. This book of the prophet Jonah – may his blessing be upon us – is quite small. Only four brief chapters.
But the ironic message of this brief book is a large one, and it is vital.
Sadly, in the three-year cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary which we follow for our Sunday readings, this book of the prophet Jonah is only read twice – today being one of those two, of course.
I suspect that many of you do not really know the full story of Jonah, so let me share it with you now.
First, let us be clear and understand that this is not an historical book. The details of this story do not hold up at all when compared to the findings of archeological and historical research.
But, let us also be clear that this book was never intended to explain history.
It is, in many ways, a book of ancient Hebrew comedy. This is a parody of what a Hebrew prophet is supposed to be like. And as with most parodies, it uses comedy and humor to make a powerful point.
The word of the Lord came to Jonah and called him to bring a message of repentance to the people of Nineveh. This is the capital city of the kingdom of Assyria, a mighty empire who rose and crushed the kingdom of Israel in 722 BC. In that year, the Ninevites demolished the city of Samaria, which was the capital of Israel at this time – Jerusalem being the capital city of the much smaller kingdom of Judah to the south. Today, the ruins of Nineveh are found in the northeastern region of Iraq.
So God’s call comes to Jonah, and what does he do? He runs away!
Now, you have to understand that in this book, Jonah is the bad guy! Think about that for a minute.
In the Bible, the prophet of the Lord is always the good guy, right? Moses against the Pharoah. Joshua against the Canaanites. David against the Philistines. Elijah against the corrupt King Ahab and his wife Jezebel.
But not here! In this story, Jonah is presented as the bad guy of the story, the one who consistently does the wrong thing while all the gentiles around him are doing the right thing!
God calls Jonah to go east to Nineveh and Jonah boards a ship going as far to the west as he can possibly go!
So God sends a mighty storm to stop the progress of that ship across the Mediterranean. When the pagan sailors discover that Jonah is a prophet running from God, they pray to the Lord and ask for help! These sailors do not know what else to do, as the storm rages on and grows more intense.
But they know that Jonah is to blame. They do not want to hurt him, but they are out of ideas, and so they throw Jonah overboard. And, immediately, the storm subsides. The sailors are amazed and they give praise to the God of Israel!
This is the amazing thing! Even in his rebellion, Jonah is a successful prophet. Even though he disobeys God, everyone around him becomes believers!
You all know what happens next. Jonah is swallowed by the whale and stays in the whale for 3 days and 3 nights. Finally, the whale vomits Jonah out onto dry land and the Lord calls to Jonah again.
This is where we pick up the story this morning.
This is the second time that God called to the prophet Jonah with the commission to deliver the message of repentance to the people of Nineveh.
Jonah does not want to do this. But, given what happened the last time he ran away, it seems that he figured out that fighting against God is a losing proposition!
So Jonah is given a second chance. This time he carries out the divine commission – reluctantly, of course. He is the reluctant prophet. He does not want to deliver the message of repentance to the people of Nineveh, because Jonah does not want those people to repent and be spared!
What Jonah wants is to see the people of Nineveh punished! He wants to see them suffer the same thing that his people in the land of Israel have suffered at the hands of these Ninevites! They are the enemy of his people! They are the cause of much pain and suffering in his hometown, in his home country.
What is cut out in today’s reading - verses 6-9 – is the proclamation of the king of Nineveh that everyone must fast from food and water, everyone must wear sackcloth, and must cry out to the God of Israel and ask for mercy. Even the animals must do this, so says the king!
Now, I can just imagine a bunch of people making little sackcloth suits for all of the chickens and all of the dogs and all of the goats and all of the cows, and putting them on.
But how do you force them to fast? How do you keep the cows and horses and dogs and goats from drinking out of the rivers and streams and marshes?
And how do you make them all pray and ask for forgiveness?
Verse 10 explains the result: “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 God did not do it.”
This is good news, right? This large city, this capital of a major (and brutal) empire, along with the king and all of the nobles - they all repented and found favor with God. This is a good thing, right?
Not to Jonah! He was peeved! Listen to the very next verse: “This was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry.” And this is what he said to God, “I told you so! I knew that you are gracious and kind and forgiving and that you do not want to punish anyone, and that’s why I tried to run away! Because these people deserve to be punished! They don’t deserve to be forgiven! So just forget about it, Lord. Just kill me now, because I don’t want to live and see these nasty people all forgiven and happy with you!”
He is the reluctant prophet, after all. Jonah goes outside the city and finds himself somewhere secluded where he can sit and watch what happens next. But it’s hot there in the sunny desert, so the Lord causes a bush to suddenly spring up overnight in order to give shade to Jonah.
The text states that “Jonah was very happy about the bush.” But the next night, the Lord caused the bush to die and Jonah, once again, is livid with anger.
God asks: “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” And Jonah responds, “Yes, angry enough to die!”
Such a foolish man! And here this funny little story about this foolish man concludes and makes it’s crucial point:
The Lord says to Jonah: “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”
So we see that Jonah the prophet is angry, frustrated, resentful, seeking to punish his enemies.
But God is shown to be merciful, considerate, forgiving, ready to make amends even with those who had previously been the enemies of God, and enemies of the people of the covenant.
Does that sound familiar? I hope so!
Jesus begins his own prophetic ministry by proclaiming the good news of God: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the good news.”
Into a world of human cruelty and anger, where people were seeking vengeance for the violence perpetrated by the Roman oppressors, Jesus enters with this same message of hope: God is merciful, forgiving and ready to be reconciled with all people, if only we will repent and accept the message.
There is no one outside the reach of God’s saving embrace. Like Simon and Andrew and James and John, we too are called to fish for people; not reluctantly like Jonah, but with joy for the privilege of working together with God for the reconciliation of humanity. My friends, could there possibly be anything more worthy of our time and our efforts and our treasures and our prayers?
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