A childhood memory is not complete without at least one of the grand stories from the Old Testament etched in your mind’s eye. My childhood memories are quite vivid from Ascension Lutheran Sunday School days of sitting around a small table with my teacher, who sometimes was my mother. We heard some pretty gruesome yet awe filled stories from the Bible. Characters came to life as they were carefully placed on a flannel board.
Noah somehow coaxed all of those animals to orderly march up
and board the ark, in pairs they say.
Daniel was tossed into a fiery furnace and also a lion’s den but lived
to tell his story or rather lived to tell God’s miraculous story.
And what child has not heard the story of a big fish, a
whale some say, swallowed up in one big gulp, a man named Jonah? What child has not giggled and eeuuuuuw’d
when they heard that Jonah was spewed out of the whale onto the seashore? He must have done something really wrong I
always surmised and vowed that I would be a good little girl! With each generation the tale of Jonah gets
told over and over again because it appeals to our wild and adventuresome
imaginations.
Jonah and the Whale by He Qi
For a book of the Bible that cannot be placed in any certain
historical setting except for maybe around the 6th or 5th century BCE, or can it be
said that it is one type of literature over another, the story of Jonah has
taken on epic proportions throughout time.
But it is more than a bedtime story or some folkloric tale
and I hope that it will garner your attention as we think through it together
this Lenten season. There are a mere
four chapters and we will carefully examine each one because there is a lot to
consider. It is particularly apropos for
Lent when our attention is focused on introspection, repentance and
transformation.
I share with you now the first chapter of Jonah from Eugene
Peterson’s ‘The Message’.
One day long ago, God's Word
came to Jonah, Amittai's son: "Up on your feet and on your way to the big
city of Nineveh! Preach to them. They're in a bad way and I can't ignore it any
longer."
But Jonah got up and went the other direction to Tarshish, running away from
God.
He went down to the port of
Joppa and found a ship headed for Tarshish. He paid the fare and went on board,
joining those going to Tarshish—as far away from God as he could get. But God sent a huge storm at
sea, the waves towering.
The ship was about to break into
pieces. The sailors were terrified. They called out in desperation to their
gods. They threw everything they were carrying overboard to lighten the ship.
Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down
into the hold of the ship to take a nap. He was sound asleep. The captain came
to him and said, "What's this? Sleeping! Get up! Pray to your god! Maybe
your god will see we're in trouble and rescue us."
Then the sailors said to one another, "Let's
get to the bottom of this. Let's draw straws to identify the culprit on this
ship who's responsible for this disaster."
So they drew straws. Jonah got
the short straw.
Then they grilled him: "Confess. Why this
disaster? What is your work? Where do you come from? What country? What
family?" He
told them, "I'm a Hebrew. I worship God, the God of heaven who made sea
and land."
At that, the men were frightened, really frightened, and said, "What on earth have you
done!" As Jonah talked, the sailors realized that he was running away from God.
They said to him, "What are we going to do
with you—to get rid of this storm?" By this time the sea was wild, totally
out of control.
Jonah said, "Throw me overboard, into the sea. Then the storm will stop.
It's all my fault. I'm the cause of the storm. Get rid of me and you'll get rid
of the storm."
But no. The men tried rowing back to shore. They
made no headway. The storm only got worse and worse, wild and raging. Then they prayed to God,
"O God! Don't let us drown because of this man's life, and don't blame us
for his death. You are God. Do what you think is best."
They took Jonah and threw him overboard.
Immediately the sea was quieted down. The sailors were impressed, no longer terrified
by the sea, but in awe of God. They worshiped God, offered a sacrifice, and
made vows.
Then God assigned a huge fish to swallow Jonah.
Jonah was in the fish's belly three days and nights.
Dear old Jonah. God
tells him to go to Nineveh and to prophesy a message of repentance. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, what is
now Iraq and at that time and public enemy number one of Israel. The Ninevites were rather shady people
engaging in acts of violence, murder, warfare, rape and plundering, not a
stellar record. It was time to
straighten them out and to get them to recognize the one true God who could
save them from their sinful ways and Jonah was to be the prophet to speak on
God’s behalf to offer this redemption.
Jonah thought differently, he didn’t want any part of
it. He gets on a boat bound for Tarshish
which, back in the ancient world, was the other end of the earth. God was not happy with Jonah’s very willful
disobedience. This was a case where human
freedom of choice did not work out so well.
But God did not ignore Jonah’s running. God sees that Jonah is not doing exactly what God had in mind. Surely a storm at sea would get Jonah back on track again. High winds and a storm would certainly curtail Jonah’s efforts to flee. As the boat was being tossed back and forth Jonah fell asleep in the bowel of the ship. In order to assuage the storm the sailors threw him overboard and the rest, they say, at least for now in our four part sermon series, is history. God has gotten Jonah’s attention.
This is quite a story so far and already we have much to
think about. You might ask why it is
that Jonah defiantly runs the opposite direction. Why does he do everything in his power to
evade the divine charge? Well we could
ask ourselves that question. We all have
our Tarshish, a place to go where both metaphorically and physically we know we
won’t have to do what is asked of us.
Tarshish is that place where you want to embark for when you don’t want
to face the reality of a God who is mightier and greater than you.
Jonah chose to flee to Tarshish because he knew God would
forgive the Ninevites; that divine redemption would be offered to them if they
repented. While you think that would be
good news, Jonah didn’t see it that way.
If God could forgive these disparate people, these foreigners then Jonah
would have to forgive them also. Perhaps
Jonah was just too afraid of change and we know all too well that to forgive is
painful business. Something I can relate
to and I’m sure you can too.
We find ourselves in places that we do not want to be and are
asked to do things that we just don’t want to do or we feel as if we are not
qualified to do because that’s what God expects of us if we are to name
ourselves as followers of the way. Yet
in spite of our foibles and our attempts to say no we are still called. It is not of our choosing but of God’s
choosing. We are to be witnesses
embodying God’s divine mercy and justice in a world that desperately needs
God’s TLC.
So you see God doesn’t just let us get away with running to
Tarshish. We cannot escape God’s
eye. Whatever God wants God gets! And that is reassuring because God wants forgiveness,
love and grace and mercy. God wants you. The Psalmist speaks of an inescapable God in
Psalm 139, a God who is ever present. He says, ‘You know me when I sit down and
rise up…where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven you and there and when I make my bed in Sheol you
are there, you search me and know me.”
God is always present even when we run to our Tarshish. That is the unmistakable beauty of God’s
grace.
Jonah’s God is the same God who guided Noah’s ark to Ararat
to rest, who saved Daniel from being consumed by the flames or eaten by lions.
Jonah’s God is the same God who, in time, sent us Jesus
Christ through which we are saved.
Jonah’s God is the same God who will send storms in our
lives to jar us back on track again and will never give up on us because
wherever we are God is.
Amen.
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