A sermon on Jonah 3: 1 – 5, 10; Psalm 62: 5 – 12; 1 Corinthians 7: 29 – 31 & Mark 1: 14 – 20 by Sr Meryl Webb

Let us pray:
Loving Lord, come to us now. Please use these simple words as a vehicle for your Word. Help us to hear your voice and to distil your meaning hidden within. Lord, we long for your Wisdom. Come now and teach us. Amen.

One way to approach the set scriptures for any given day is to consider what thread or theme runs through them all. At least one of the unifying features of today’s readings is that they all tell us something about the attributes of God. Also, each reading speaks of some aspect of human relationship with God and our response to His call. St Paul, in the reading from Corinthians, tells us our response to God should be single-minded. We must not let other things, other commitments get in the way of our relationship with our heavenly Father. Actually, this single-mindedness is known in monastic tradition as chastity, a term that has strayed from it’s original intention over the centuries. St Paul’s instruction is a practical teaching about how one goes about answering the call Christ, such as we heard in tonight’s gospel, where we hear Jesus call those fishermen and see their single-minded response. Perhaps we should each ask ourselves just how single-minded our response to God has been so far.

The psalm tells us just how reliable God is, how we can trust Him. It tells us that He is a sure and steady rock watching over us so we won’t fall to our doom. It encourages us to keep our eyes firmly fixed on Him, which brings to mind Peter walking on the waters of the Sea of Galilee. Remember, as soon as Peter took his eyes off Jesus he began to sink. Again, here is that idea of being single minded.

Now to our first reading; a part of the story of Jonah. It is this story of Jonah that I wish to address this evening. This story is not history, nor should it be treated as such. Yes, there was once a minor prophet named Jonah, who was the son of Amittai. He is briefly mentioned in the Book of Kings. The historical Jonah is thought to have lived around 750 BCE. The story of Jonah in scripture, part of which we heard this evening, is thought to have been written during the post exilic period, after the Jews came back from Babylon, about 450 BCE. That is to say, an unknown author wrote this story 300 years or so after Jonah actually lived. It is a short story designed to drive home a prophetic message to the people of the writer’s generation, no doubt written with tongue in cheek. It is a great story, a satire, a terrific send-up. I would love to see what Michael Leunig would do with this story!

Although this is not history, a couple of facts still come in handy in order to better understand the story. Firstly, Nineveh was a city in Assyria. Historically, it was the Assyrians who had overrun the northern kingdom of Israel and destroyed Jonah’s homeland. Secondly, as far as Jonah was concerned, Tarshish was at the ends of the earth. It was as far away as he could get from Nineveh! When I was a kid, Timbuktu was the same sort of place. Nobody knew where it was, but we all knew it was about as far away as anybody could get.

The story begins with God calling Jonah to go to Nineveh to urge the Ninevites to repent, but of course, that is the last thing that Jonah wants to happen. He hates these brutal people and wants God to destroy them. Jonah wants revenge. His whole personal sense of justice is violated. So, he immediately goes down to the port of Joppa, buys the most expensive ticket he can get for a boat to take him to Tarshish, in order to get as far away as possible, thinking that God won’t be able to find him. Poor old Jonah. He needs to expand his ideas about God!

We all know what happens next. God creates a great storm, the ship begins to sink, the sailors draw straws in order to find who is responsible for all this bad luck, and eventually, after much palaver, Jonah is tossed overboard. Well, the storm stops, and these foreign sailors, who worship ‘gods’ respond by worshipping God and offering sacrifices to Him. Lo and behold, Jonah, in spite of himself, has converted the ship’s crew, who do as faithful Israelites would do and make vows to God.

Now, that could be the end of the story, but no! God summons a big fish to swallow up Jonah. He is in the belly of the whale three days and three nights. Does this remind you of anything? Death, burial, resurrection? Anyway, at the end of the three days, during which Jonah prays for deliverance, God causes the big fish to spew Jonah out on the dry land.

Now comes the bit we heard tonight, or most of it. God speaks to Jonah a second time: ‘Get up, on your feet, and do what I asked you to do in the first place. Go to Nineveh and call the city to repentance. They are in a bad way and I can’t ignore it any longer.’ So, Jonah does exactly what he is asked to do, no more, no less; to the letter. Remember, the city is huge, three days walk across. So Jonah goes to the city and walks for one day. Notice, he’s very careful not to overdo it. And he cries out, ‘In forty days the city will be overthrown’. What happens? The people listen, and believe him, and they all repent. Now, you didn’t hear this particular bit, but when the king hears of the prophesy, he orders that everyone, even the animals, must fast – no food, no water – and must dress in sackcloth, which is hessian, and cry loudly to God for help. They must give up their evil ways. Who knows? Maybe God will change his mind. And, as you heard, He did!

Needless to say, everyone was very happy! Except Jonah! He got really mad. He yelled at God – ‘Didn’t I say this right in the beginning? I knew this was going to happen. That’s why I headed for Tarshish! I knew you would never go through with it! I Knew even then that you would change your mind. You are a gracious and merciful God. You don’t get angry easily and you are full of love, ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness. If you won’t kill them, then kill me. I’m better off dead!….What is happening here? He is so full of self-righteous anger he would rather die than lose face! God asks him why he is so angry, but rather than take the opportunity to deal with his anger, he stomps off out of the city, makes himself a little shelter of leafy branches and sits down to have a good sulk.

End of story? No, indeed! Remember, this God of ours is a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and full of love. He knows Jonah is worth the heartache, so he causes a broad-leafed tree to spring up. It grows over Jonah to cool him off and get him out of his angry sulk. Jonah thinks this is pretty good and he enjoys the shade. Life is looking up. But God sends a worm, a borer, and by the next morning the borer has gone straight through the tree and it has withered away. When the sun comes up and the sirrocco starts, that hot blustery wind from the eastern deserts, Jonah again prays to die.

God says to Jonah, ‘What right have you to get angry over this shade tree?’ Jonah says, ‘Plenty of right! It’s made me angry enough to die!’ God says, ‘How come you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere tree that you neither planted nor cared for, and yet you censure me for changing my feelings about Nineveh from anger to pleasure, this big city of more than one hundred and twenty thousand childlike people who don’t yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all those innocent animals?’ And so ends the story of Jonah.

I noted earlier that our scriptures tonight tell us something about what God is like; gracious, merciful, faithful, constant, all loving. Here we find that God is also willing to change His mind. God remains free to be gracious to those who deserve nothing but punishment. Notice, too, that Jonah also remains free, free to argue and resist. This story makes a significant contribution to the debate about predestination and free will. This story also tells us that God is inclusive, his love is universal. Here, a ship’s crew and a whole city of Assyrian Ninevites choose to worship the One, living God of Israel. Gentiles are saved. Jonah expects to be loved by God because he is supposedly a ‘Law-abiding’ Israelite. However, he has lived to the letter of the Law, not the spirit of the Law. It is quite a shock to his system to discover that God loves the Ninevites, who are not even Israelites, God’s chosen people!

I believe that this story has also endured because it nurtures our own life of faith. Jonah doesn’t do anything great. He is not a ‘hero’ type. Instead of being held up as an ideal to admire and imitate, we find that Jonah is very like us. Here is someone on our own level. Even when Jonah gets it right, like finally going to Nineveh, he does it wrong, by getting angry with God. But the whole time, God is right in there working with Jonah. He doesn’t sweep Jonah under the carpet, but remains faithful, accomplishing His purpose through Jonah in spite of Jonah’s resistance and ineptitude. Can you see a bit of your own selves here? I can certainly see myself. But isn’t it encouraging to know that God can work his purposes out even in and through people like Jonah and you and me?

Let us pray: Holy and all merciful triune God, help us to grow more loving, more forgiving, more faithful and more transparent, day by day. Continue to work with us and in us to further your work of salvation, so that we may become more single-minded in our commitment to you, and our lives may become a living sign of your kingdom. Amen.