Sermon: Grace bigger than a whale (Jan 25, 2015)

Epiphany 3B

January 25, 2015

Jonah 3:1-5, 10

            The Bible was written such a long time ago, and the stories sometimes seem so removed from our current context, that I think we often don’t get out of it all that we could. Either we miss significant references, or don’t grasp meaningful connections, or over time we turn biblical characters into these giants of faith that we can never touch or understand; they serve as unreachable models for us.

            I’m here to tell you: almost no one in the Bible is consistently a model of faith. And we never see this more clearly than in the story of Jonah. Just hearing today’s snippet doesn’t really do justice to the immense humanity that we see in the character of Jonah. So let me refresh your memory. I’m sure you all remember the bit about the whale, right? Well the story, of course, begins before that…

            It started when God asked Jonah to bring a message to the people of Nineveh about how their wickedness would be their downfall. Jonah is uninterested in this task. For starters, being God’s prophet is not for the faint of heart. But Nineveh is a particularly hard assignment. Nineveh was located in Assyria, the land of Jonah’s worst enemies – he rightfully hates them for all the death and destruction they have caused. For a modern comparison, it was as if God has asked Jonah to go talk to ISIS, to tell them, “Listen guys, all the violence and stuff has got to stop or God is going to destroy you. So… we cool?” Man, what could go wrong in this scenario – he could be tortured, shot, beheaded, who knows what else. I can understand completely Jonah’s next move – to go as far away from this call as he possibly can. He hops a boat in Joppa that is headed to Tarshish, literally the opposite direction from Nineveh.

Now, I hear this and think, “I get it, Jonah.” Jonah was not the first to run from God’s call, and he was certainly not the last. I can think of plenty of times in my own life when I really strongly felt God telling me to do something (or not to do something), and I just ignored it because my own freewill or desire was too tantalizing, and sounded like more fun, or easier, or safer. I metaphorically ran the other way and hopped a boat to Tarshish. I’m sure you can think of times you did the same, because you know what? Sometimes God calls us to things we flat out don’t want to do, or don’t think we can do. I doubt there is anyone among us who are always more like Simon, Andrew, or the sons of Zebedee, who “immediately” dropped what they were doing and followed Jesus. Most of us take at least a little time to weigh the consequences of big decisions. Most of us are a lot more like Jonah – thinking things through first, at least, if not outright denying the call.

So back to the story. Jonah goes on the boat. No sooner have they set sail than a storm arises. Jonah, still aware that he is trying to escape a God who he should have known will always win, becomes convinced that this is the Lord’s work and Jonah’s fault, and in one of his more selfless moments, he tells the others on the boat that they might as well throw him overboard if they want to save their own lives. As unconventional a method of enduring a storm as that seems, they finally do it, and immediately the storm ceases. Meanwhile, Jonah, whom God is determined to reach, whatever it takes, gets swallowed up by a big fish, in whose belly he spends three days and three nights. Jesus would later refer to this event as a precursor for his own death and resurrection, which helps us even more to realize the hellish predicament that Jonah has found himself in.

Have you been there? In the belly of the whale? I remember in school learning about the

Hero’s Journey, the trajectory made famous by the story of Odysseus, and recreated in many more modern stories, notably Luke Skywalker’s journey in Star Wars. In the “Hero’s Journey,” the “belly of the whale” is the part of the story where you think, “Our hero is really in trouble this time. How’s he going to get out of this one?” It’s that moment in which you have to truly rise to the occasion, to look inside yourself and realize who you are – and I would add, who God needs you to be – and recognize what it is that you need to do in order to get out of this place.

Pardon the pun, but it really stinks to be in the belly of the whale. It is dark in there, and you can’t always see what the next step has to be, and certainly you don’t know how this is going to end. But it is also a place that calls us to faith, courage, and trust in a God who can see the whole story. And this is what Jonah demonstrates, in a beautiful Psalm of Thanksgiving, which you can read in Jonah chapter 2, and I encourage you to do so.

Eventually, the big fish delivers Jonah safely to shore, in the precise place he started (oh, what an ironic God we have). He is spewed out by the fish, covered in who-knows-what (and smelling like you-know-what), and this is where our text for today begins. “The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.” I can almost hear God saying, “You thought you could run away from me? That’s cute. Here, I’ll give you another shot.” And to his credit, Jonah hears and obeys this time – but not to his

credit, he does a very half-hearted job. He goes only part of the way into the city, gives the shortest sermon in all of the Bible (in Hebrew, it is only five words), and then he gets out. I picture him like a reluctant 10-year-old who is being forced to apologize to his little sister. He is slumped over, head to the side, eyes averted, and mumbles what his mom tells him to say, just to get her off his back, then runs back to his room just as soon as he can. But amazingly, Jonah’s short, half-hearted message works! It goes viral through the city, even making it to the king. And this whole city of ne’er-do-wells repents! They actually listen! They turn from their evil ways, and God (who must have known all along this would happen, like any wise parent would), decides not to destroy them after all. Happy ending, right?

For the Ninevites, yes. For Jonah, no. This is one instance where he was sort of hoping for failure, not success. As you may remember, he hates the Ninevites, and all the violence and destruction and death they have caused. The one saving grace for Jonah in all this was that he would have the chance to give his enemies what-for, and to see them destroyed, like they surely deserved. But then God “changes his mind”?? It is incredibly unfair and unexpected, and Jonah is unimpressed, and he goes off to pout. God, after all, should hate all the people he hates, who are really worth hating, by the way. It was really nice that God showed grace to Jonah by saving him with that big fish (though he could have found a less messy way to do that, if we’re being honest), but Jonah was a nice person. These Ninevites – they were not nice people, and they deserved what was coming to them.

Jonah serves as a mirror to help us see our own humanity, and here is where that mirror because especially hard to look into. Jonah does not like that God showed grace to people who were so clearly bad. Jonah gets angry at God for being gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Jonah feels grateful for the grace that God has shown him for his short-comings, but has a harder time accepting that God might be so gracious and merciful that even the nasty Ninevites could be forgiven and saved.

It’s hard to swallow: that God could be so gracious as to love and forgive even the people we find unlovable and unforgivable: the Ninevites in our own lives, ISIS, bullies, estranged family members. It is hard to swallow, but it is also the best news we could hope for – that God’s grace is big enough for all that, and for you, and for me. There is nothing, nothing that is too big for God’s grace.

If God can forgive like that, can we? In the Jonah story, we never do find out if Jonah forgave the Ninevites. We only know that God did. But in the Gospel story today, we hear Jesus call people to follow him, to “fish for people.” The four disciples he calls that day, unlike Jonah, follow him “immediately.” I wonder if they knew how hard it would be to walk in Jesus’ footsteps, how hard it would be to forgive their enemies. I wonder if they knew that, hard as it is, Jesus continues to lead, and continues to forgive us for falling short. I wonder if we really know that.

Let us pray… Gracious and merciful God, in the story of faith, we encounter many people who have tried to live into the challenges of a life of grace with you. Help us to learn from them, and to be patient with ourselves as we learn, so that we might continue to strive to be as loving and merciful as you are. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Sprit. Amen.