(The sermon began with the Reader’s Theater piece ‘Who, Them?’ published by Carson-Dellosa Christian Publishing.)
Our main text for this morning is Jonah 4 verses 9 through 12, let us hear the word of God this morning.
‘Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?”
“Yes,” Jonah retorted, “even angry enough to die!” Then the Lord said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. And a plant is only, at best, short lived. But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”
(Slide 1) Whatever one believes about Jonah, you have to admit, it is a ‘whale of a story.’ Why? Because many people find it hard to swallow. I wouldn’t be surprised if the reason the Lord allowed the whale to spit Jonah out was that it was tired of all the belly aching.
But one thing’s for sure… Jonah did have a ‘whale’ of an attitude! And what’s even more for sure, is that if we are truly honest, we often same the same attitudes as Jonah did when confronted with God’s call to reach out to those who need God.
I think that Jonah is probably the most human of all the Old Testament prophets. Now please don’t get me wrong, all of the prophets were human and had their strengths and weaknesses just as we do. But there is something about Jonah that I can relate (unfortunately) to more than Isaiah or Jeremiah or Hosea or Habakkuk and that is that I sometimes get afraid and even weary of reaching out to those who need God in their lives and love them like God would have me love them. This is not the place that I need to be and it is not the attitude I should have as a follower of Christ.
Is it true of you?
This is the fourth message in our summer sermon series, God is.
In the first sermon (way back in June), we visited with the Israelites’ in the desert, remember? ‘What has God done for us lately?’ There we were reminded that God is our provider.
In the second sermon, we visited David as he prepared for battle with Goliath and we were told that God is our defender as He is our power, strength, and hope.
In the third sermon, we stopped to visit King Solomon as he dealt with a difficult issue regarding the maternity of a child and we were reminded that God is the giver of many gifts, including wisdom. So, God is a provider, a defender, and a gift giver. What do we learn about God from Jonah?
Before I answer that question, I want to ask each of us this morning to think about this question, (Slide 2) ‘Why did Jonah run from God?’
As the story opens, we find Jonah on the run as soon as God tells him to go to Nineveh and ‘Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.’ Maybe Jonah ran because he did not want to be such an announcer of judgment. I really don’t think that any of us do, do we. But it is still not clear that is the reason Jonah ran from God.
As the story continues, we come to the place where Jonah confesses to a ship’s petrified crew and passengers that he is the reason for the storm. As they question him, Jonah agrees with them that he is the reason for the storm and that they should throw him overboard and all will be well. They eventually throw Jonah over board and the storm ends, which amazes the crew and they make a decision to worship Jonah’s God. But in their questioning of Jonah, they do not find out why Jonah is running from God.
Jonah’s next stop on his amazing journey is in the belly of a giant fish for three days and three nights. Many people dismiss this story as a fable and perhaps from a scientific perspective it would be hard to survive inside a large fish due the chemical compounds that digestive tracts required. But, people have survived some rather unusual and miraculous experiences. Yet even in the belly of the great fish (most likely a whale) we do not know why Jonah has run away from God.
But it is there that Jonah runs out of options. He remembers God, he returns to God, and he repents to God… and God releases Jonah from the belly of the whale.
Jonah then obeys the Lord, goes to Nineveh, and proclaims God’s judgment and the people of Nineveh repent of their sins and turn to God. It is only then, after this takes place, and we turn to chapter 4, do we get a glimpse of why Jonah ran from God who told Jonah to go to Nineveh.
We read in verses 1 through 3 of chapter 4, “This change of plans upset Jonah, and he became very angry. So he complained to the Lord about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you were a gracious and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. I knew how easily you could cancel your plans for destroying these people. Just kill me now, Lord! I’d rather be dead than alive because nothing I predicted is going to happen.”
The change of plans to which Jonah is referring is God’s decision to not destroy the people of Nineveh but rather forgive them and have mercy on them. But as we continue to read we know that Jonah is familiar enough with the Lord to know that He is a ‘gracious and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.’ Then he concludes his rant with, ‘Just kill me now, Lord! I’d rather be dead than alive because nothing I predicted is going to happen.’ Where did that come from?
It reminds of my Elijah’s statements after Jezebel threatens him with death in light of his awesome victory over the prophets of Baal. ‘I am alone am left out of all of the faithful people of Israel.’ To which the Lord replies (in so many words) ‘there are 7,000 who are remaining faithful to me.’ To Jonah He replies, ‘Is it right for you to be angry about this?’
Why then is Jonah running from the Lord? (Slide 2a) He is angry with God for loving a group of people he does not like or think worth saving.
‘Who, them?’ Who do they think they are? They are no good! They are not worthy of anything. They are nothing but trouble!
(Sometimes it comes out, ‘Who, him or her?’ S/he is no good! S/he is not worthy of your time (or my time)! S/he is nothing but trouble!)
I see behind Jonah’s anger a couple of things that I confess has been (and sometimes, unfortunately still is, a part of my attitude toward certain people or groups of people.)
(Slide 3) Prejudice… As we are aware when we read the paper or watch TV or surf the Internet or talk with others, the race issue is a part of the current Presidential campaign. Both candidates (and their supporters) have accused the other playing the ‘race card” (whatever that is.)
Jonah, as our main text indicated was angrier about the death of a shade plant than about the spiritual condition of people that mattered to God. He hated the Ninevites. Why?
The great political power of that day was the nation of Assyria and the capital of Assyria was… you guessed it! Nineveh! It would be like someone going to Washington, telling the President, Congress, and all of the DC residents to repent, and despising them the whole time.
Prejudice is formed from the words ‘pre’ and ‘judge.’ To prejudge, according to Webster’s Dictionary is to ‘judge before having all the facts.’ It is to jump to conclusions about someone or a group of people before we have enough information to make a decision about them and their circumstances.
When people of faith jump to conclusions about someone or a group, it is a dangerous thing to do. It can block God’s love and grace in their hearts and the hearts of others.
(Slide 3a) Self-pity… Jonah is so full of self-pity it is disgusting. We hear it in his angry denunciation of God’s actions toward the Ninevites and the destruction of the shade tree. Self-pity is feeling sorry for our self and Jonah was good at that! ‘I’d rather be dead! Just kill me now!’
David Damico tells the story of a woman who from all outward appearances had it all; a good marriage and wonderful children. But, she felt alone and unappreciated as her husband’s success allowed for others to be hired to do household chores and her children’s increasing ability to be responsible for themselves left her feeling lost and alone.
He notes that ‘she became obsessed with dying’ as a response to feeling a severe loss of purpose and that her anger and pain created, notes Damico, a ‘type of self-pity that was bent on self-annihilation.’ Why? Because she felt a severe loss of purpose in her life and had trouble adapting to a new role.
Jonah, I think, could understand this woman’s feelings. Can’t you hear them both saying, ‘nothing I do is right? Nobody listens to me, I feel invisible?’
Self-pity blocks us from more honestly and completely experiencing God’s great grace because we become over focused on our needs and wants. It is a form of selfishness.
(Slide 3b) Lack of God’s power…
Damico writes, ‘Power is the ability to reach out, explore, choose, interpret, risk, challenge, and perceive…[it] ‘involves our feelings, bodies, minds, souls, and spirits. It’s the force behind love, grace, mercy, and peace. It’s what fuels our imaginations, motivates us to create, compels us to nurture, and drives us to survive.’
When we lose our healthy level of power, the level that God gave us to function as human beings, we stop dead in our tracks. I think of Peter in this regard.
As Jesus’ arrest, trial, and death approached, Peter said, ‘never! I will never leave you!’
But Jesus knew that he would and he told Peter so. And, as we all recall from the gospel accounts, Peter denied ever knowing Jesus when it came right down to it.
For a period of time Peter lost his power to and eventually went back to doing what he was doing when Jesus called him and his brothers to follow Him. But a day came, when Jesus brought him back to where He (that is Jesus) wanted him to be.
But, Jesus was not finished with Peter’s restoration of power… that would come on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came and filled Peter with God’s power so that he would boldly proclaim God’s saving grace through Christ.
To reach out to those who are hard to reach out to, we need God’s power to help us. We cannot do it in our own strength.
Some of us are extraverts and we have no problem with talking to other people, especially strangers. Others of us are introverts and the thought of talking to someone, especially complete strangers, creates fear and anxiety.
But, no matter if we are an introvert or an extravert, we need to have God’s power and leading as part of our outreach and we need to take hold of that power just as we need to have that power take hold of us. Peter needed that power to accomplish the task of reaching out to others who need God.
To help others come to God we need God’s power to help us accomplish this important task.
Who is the Lord asking you to go to in His name with the message of hope and forgiveness? Who is the ‘them’ that you have difficulty with and find hard to see them as the Lord sees them, as the Lord saw the Ninevites?
I conclude this morning with a story about what happened since a tragic event that took place 9 months ago around Christmas time at New Life Church in Colorado Springs. I share it because I think it makes a point about moving beyond the ‘Who, Them?’ To THEM!
The event was the shooting of several people in the church parking lot and building that left three dead and three wounded. The young man, who had done the shooting, killed himself after being shot by a security guard. Earlier that day he had entered Youth with A Mission Headquarters in suburban Denver shooting four and killing two. His name was Matthew Murray and he had been raised in a Christian home.
The tragedy shook the church that had just started to come out of the painful and very public story about their former pastor’s, Ted Haggard, sexual sin. Now they were faced with this terrible tragedy.
In a recent Christianity Today article, it was told that after granting the interview to talk about that day and its after effects, it was revealed that Brady Boyd, the current Senior Minister, called Murray’s parents and asked if they would like to come to New Life and see where ‘their son had passed away.’
They said they had wanted to but had refrained from do so because of their concerns for the church. They were also asked if they would be willing to meet with members of the family who had lost two teenage daughters that morning. They said yes. The same invitation was extended to the victim’s family, the Work’s. They said yes.
After showing the Murray’s around the church where the tragic events took place, they met with the Work’s in Boyd’s office. "What happened there in the two hours in my office … was the most significant ministry moment I’ve experienced, maybe in all of my life," Boyd said. When they first entered the office, the two families embraced. They sat, wept, and cried together, Boyd said, for "I don’t know how long."
Then they prayed together. Later Jeanne Assam [the security guard who shot Murray] was invited to join them. When Jeanne, who had undoubtedly saved many lives but had been forced to shoot the Murray’s son, walked into the room, "the Murrays embraced her and hugged her and released her from any guilt and remorse. The dad looked at Jeanne and said, ’Please know we’re so sorry that you had to do what you did. We’re so sorry.’"
The article concludes with these words from Boyd, "We can talk philosophically about repentance and redemption and going forward with God," Boyd said, "but what I saw in that room in my office was the greatest testimony of forgiveness and redemption that I have ever seen. It was a testimony that God really can restore and redeem."
What do we learn about God from Jonah? HE IS OUR LOVER! He will go to great lengths to bring us home to Him that He will call the most reluctant prophet to do so.
Let us remember this morning, that while God loves us very, very much, he also loves others as well, and that He calls us to go and share message of forgiveness and hope with those in our daily lives.
Let us re-commit ourselves to this important mission today. Amen.
Sources:
David Damico, The Faces of Rage.
New Life story is found in the Summer 2008 issue of Leadership Journal and on-line at:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2008/003/5.77.html
