Sermon by Randall T. Clayton, D.Min., Brown Memorial Woodbrook Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, Maryland. November 6, 2016.

Text:  Jonah 3:1-10

If I say “Jonah”, many of you will probably think of a big fish—a big fish who swallowed up a prophet named Jonah and 3 days later spit him out on dry land.  But while that incredible, really unbelievable incident, does occupy a central place in Jonah’s story, ultimately the tiny 44 verse, 4 chapter book really isn’t about a big fish swallowing a Hebrew prophet.   The writer employed humor, irony, and exaggeration to point to some deep truths about God.

In Jonah’s day the Assyrians were the major world power, but they were neither benevolent nor kind.  They were a ruthless, bent on conquering other nations and expanding their borders and influence, employing brutal and vicious methods to subdue and terrorize their enemies.   And their enemies included Israel.   So, when God told Jonah to get up and go to Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire, and proclaim God’s judgment against their wickedness, one could understand why Jonah might have been reluctant.   Going there could put his life in danger.  No Hebrew in his right mind would desire to go near those blood thirsty terrorists. So instead of getting up and going to east, Jonah got up and went west. Instead of going in the direction God called, Jonah went in the exact opposite direction. Facing westward rather than eastward   Jonah went to Joppa, a town south of Tel Aviv, and booked passage on a ship bound for Tarshish, which was a town most likely located somewhere along the coast of Spain today.

Run from God and God’s call, Jonah did, but he couldn’t hide from God.  Pursuing Jonah,   God caused a great storm to arise on the waters, and while the ship’s crew were trying their best to keep their vessel afloat by throwing the heavy objects overboard and praying to their gods, Jonah was below deck asleep.  When the captain discovered him down below, interestingly, he didn’t ask Jonah him why he wasn’t helping bail water, but rather he demanded to know why Jonah wasn’t praying too.

Being a rather superstitious lot, sailors sometimes believed that bad storms were some kind of punishment for someone on the ship so the sailors decided to cast lots to see if they could determine whose actions might have caused the storm to rock their boat.  Jonah got the short end of the straw.    When they asked Jonah if he knew why the winds and waves were threatening both ship and life, and he said, “I know.  It’s me.  That’s the problem.   I am a Hebrew and I worship the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.  Pick me up and throw me overboard and the waves and wind will calm.”

But the kind, humane, sailors declined to throw Jonah overboard and doubled down on their efforts to keep the ship afloat and get it to the shore.    But despite their herculean efforts with their oars, the ship just stayed where it was, rocking and rolling in the tempest that surrounded them.  Finally they realized they had no choice but to do what Jonah suggested, and they threw him overboard.  When they did, the sea ceased to rage.  Then the sailors worshipped God, becoming I suppose Jonah’s first converts.

As Jonah was sinking in the waters of the sea, God provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah spent the next three days and three nights in that fish’s sloshy belly. At the end of three days God spoke to the fish and the fish spewed Jonah out on the shore.

Lying in the sands along the sea, Jonah heard God’s voice again telling him a second time to get up and go to Nineveh. This time Jonah probably figured he had no choice…he could run indeed, but God would pursue.  He could flee from God, but he couldn’t escape from God’s call.

So he went to Nineveh, and barely setting his foot inside the city, he preached one of the shortest and least creative sermons ever delivered.  He told no jokes, offered no illustrations or poems, but merely said,   ““Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” Clearly his heart wasn’t in the task because of getting people to turn around.   He thought the Ninevites were beyond salvation and deep down he really wanted them to get their justly deserved destruction anyway.

His sermon, however, was amazingly effective.  In fact, an entire city came to believe in God.  The entire capital of the empire of Assyria repented.  The king declared that all the people would don sackcloth and fast as a sign of their contrition and their intent to change.  And furthermore, the king declared it wouldn’t only be people who would wear sackcloth and fast, but even all of the animals in the kingdom would too.  Dogs, cats, cattle, donkey, fish, bird would all wear sackcloth and would only drink water.  Who knows, the king said, perhaps God will change God’s mind?

Seeing that the people had turned around, God decided not to destroy them.

Now one might assume that a prophet who could get an entire city to convert and to change their ways with a single sermon might have been on top of the world.  But Jonah didn’t celebrate his success.  In fact, to say he was not happy that God had not destroyed the people would be an understatement.  His heart burned with anger when he realized that fire and brimstone weren’t going to rain down on the city of Nineveh. “I knew you are a gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing…I knew that…that’s why I didn’t want to come to Nineveh…I knew you’d forgive them and they don’t’ deserve it.  They need your judgment not your mercy.   So, God, Jonah cried, if you are going to have mercy on the likes of the Ninevites, I’d rather just die right here and right now.”

As Jonah was sitting beside the city pouting and sulking and angry, God caused a bush to grow over Jonah’s head which shielded Jonah from the sun and heat of the day.   While Jonah was not happy that the Ninevites repented or that God had chosen to have mercy on them, Jonah was surely happy about the bush that shaded him from the searing rays from the sun above in a cloudless sky. Then God appointed a worm to attack the bush, and the bush died, and Jonah found himself sweltering in the hot sun once again…and the fires of his anger were stoked again.  But God said to Jonah, “You are concerned about the bush for which you did not labor and which you did not grow, right?” Jonah had to admit God was right. And God said, “So should I not be concerned about Nineveh, the people there and their animals? Should I not be concerned about Nineveh?”

The story of Jonah ends here, but Gods story with God’s people continues.

In a world that tends to see and perpetuate divides based on race, social class, sexual orientation or gender identity, or political party,  perhaps Jonah’s story is call for us to look carefully at the judgments we make about entire groups people who are different or who sit on the opposite side of the fence.  God may in fact be working among them too. Surely God loves them also.

As we approach the end of an election season that has felt like it’s been going on since Jonah’s day, it is clear that there are significant divides in our country, divides that are deep and wide.    But God’s love is deeper than our divisions, and God’s mercy is wider than our sometimes narrow judgments.  And therein lies our hope. God shows mercy even to you and to me, as God did to the Ninevites.  Despite our propensity to make rash judgments, to perpetuate divisions, or to look askance at entire groups who look or act or believe differently, God stands ready to forgive and to heal.

And, although we may sometimes be reluctant to follow the path of God’s calling, as Jonah was, because it is painful or frightening, God may still choose to use you and me to embody God’s hope, to share God’s love and to be a beacon of God’s mercy in the world around us. And when that happens, I think peace may replace violence, hope can supplant despair, and love and mercy may become the hallmarks of creation.