All during this month we’ve worked together on the theme of compassion. Because we are a church which urgently needs to do ministry in this community; because we are a people with much to give and much to share, and with a place to share it, by the time this week is over we will have invested four Sundays and four Wednesday nights thinking together about compassion.
It’s been a particular joy for me to re-study and to work with four little books with big hearts, as I’ve called them. You may not have noticed that all four of these books, in addition to being short and somewhat obscure Old Testament books -- all four of them share some other qualities in common.
All four -- Esther, Ruth, Lamentations, and Jonah -- all four were written during or after the Exile. All four come after a period of tremendous calamity in the life of Gods people. And as such, they are attempts to redefine and rediscover what it means to be Gods people in a changing world.
Maybe I can put it this way: before the Exile, except for those prophetic voices crying in the wilderness, most people in Judah thought that the way you live as God’s people is that you go to the Temple, you perform the ritual acts, you bring the sacrifices, you keep yourself free from too much involvement with the wrong people. And if you do all of that, if you are generally a pretty good person living a pretty good life, all will be well. God will take care of you, all will be well. That’s what they thought.
But the experience of defeat and destruction at the hands of Babylon proved forever that that theology was hollow and empty. It is not enough just to sit· in the pews and be a pretty good person. It is not enough just to keep out of trouble and behave in a normal middle-class kind of way. That won’t do. And the people of God, after the devastating experience of Exile, struggled to rediscover and redefine their lives. That is what you find in the books of Esther, Ruth, Lamentations, and Jonah -- redefining the life of Gods people.
As you and I have discovered this month, they came to see that to be God’s people we must be a compassionate people. We must be an open, caring people. We must be a missionary people. The mission to which our God calls us, according to these little books with big hearts, is to be a compassionate, redemptive people right here in Takoma Park.
Today I am concluding this series with a big "what if". "What if" God succeeds? What if God succeeds in redeeming this community? What are we going to feel and how are we going to handle it? What if our God has success, through us and through our faithfulness? What will we do with God’s success, especially if we wanted credit for that success? How will we handle God’s success when we wanted it for ourselves?
You see, we are a success-driven people. We admire those who have arrived at a certain point of success in their lives. And this is all right. This is healthy. You need a success motive. You teachers know that. Give a child an assignment that he or she can accomplish, and it will motivate that child to tackle something bigger and more difficult the next time. Give the child an impossible task, and that child will become so discouraged that he will give up altogether and stop even trying to succeed. We all need some successes.
The issue is whether we are willing to share that success. The issue, in fact, is whether we are willing for God to succeed in what He wants to do. Does that sound strange? Who wouldn’t want and even expect Almighty God to succeed in reaching His goals? Well, follow the wonderful little short story inserted in our Bibles under the name, "Jonah".
Everyone knows about the great fish that swallowed Jonah. Not everyone, however, has really seen beyond that spectacular stuff to find out what the book is all about.
I
Jonah 1 :1-3
God told his prophet, Jonah, to go to Nineveh, the capital city of the Assyrians, to preach repentance. And Jonah responded by running off in the opposite direction. He scurried down to the port of Joppa, asked the harbormaster, "What ship sails next and is it going anywhere except Nineveh?" And when they said, "Tarshish", out on the western coast of Spain, about as far away as the ancient world could imagine, Jonah said, "Give me a ticket, right now." And off he sailed, running from responsibility and running from God.
I say you know the fish part that comes next. But have you thought about the fishy part? Something is fishy here. Something doesn’t compute. How is it that a prophet of God, presumably called and consecrated, would run from his responsibility?
I suspect it is because the assignment given him looks so impossible. Jonah doesn’t want to go to Nineveh, because he doesn’t think he can succeed. Nineveh represents everything in the world which is repugnant to Jonah; Nineveh is the city of idolatry. Nineveh is a city of child sacrifice. Nineveh is the place where they just act low and mean. Nineveh looks tough, and Jonah knows he can’t possibly succeed there. And so he runs.
You see, one of the hurdles you and I face in becoming a compassionate, caring people, is that the task looks too big. We are afraid even to get into the game. One way you handle your fear of failure is to avoid even getting started. You can be Jonah and run off in the opposite direction and never even put yourself on the line, if you are afraid to fail.
Would you like to brag about your successes this morning? Let’s brag about the things we’ve never failed at, all right? Let me tell you about the things I’ve never failed at. I’ve never failed at quarterbacking an NFL team. I’ve never failed at singing an opera role. I’ve never failed at climbing a mountain, and I’ve never failed at painting a portrait worthy to hang in the National Gallery of Art. Can you top that? Why, there a thousand things I can proudly say I’ve never failed at! Why? Because I’ve never tried them. I’ve never even come close to trying them. And so I’ve never failed!
And so when God calls us and equips us to try something, we, like Jonah, refuse to risk failure. Even when our God promises to be with us, even when He equips us and calls us, we are afraid to try, lest we fail. Success-driven creatures that we are, we cannot bear to fail. So, like Jonah, we find reasons to run the other way.
Back when I was a seminary student, I had an internship working with my pastor and doing home visitation. He had compiled a list of persons and families who had attended worship two or three times at our church and who therefore should be visited and encouraged to join us. Now I had to do this internship; it was a part of the requirements for my degree. But I must tell you that something began to bubble up in me when I got those visitation assignments; I began to think about the "what ifs". What if these people ask me some tough questions? What if they say ’’No’’ to my invitation? Worst of all, what if they turn out to be tough, unpleasant, hostile people? What was I to do?
Well, as I’ve said, I had to do this assignment. But, like Jonah, I thought I could also run from it and avoid failure. I found myself walking up to people’s doors and ringing the doorbell, hoping that nobody would answer. I can remember on one occasion saying, "I’ll give them 30 seconds. If nobody answers within 30 seconds I’ll leave this tract in the mailbox and run back to my car." You see, we Jonahs make up all kinds of strategies to pretend we are doing God’s will when all along we are running from it. And we are running because we are afraid we will fail.
I believe that God has called this church and that He has equipped us for ministry in this community, this Nineveh. But the first hurdle we face as we build ministries for this Nineveh is the hurdle of our own success need. We are going to be reluctant to do things we’ve never done before, because we are afraid we might fail. We are going to swallow hard at investing major amounts of money in ministry, because we are afraid we won’t have enough to stay solvent. We are going to be afraid to knock on doors, because we think somebody might say a word of rejection. We are going to be afraid to put together a program for the children and youth of the community, because we are scared the kids might get out of control.
All right. All right. Let’s acknowledge that we have those fears. Let’s admit that we are scared. But let’s also learn from Jonah: that when we hear God’s call and run from it, fearing that we might fail, God will put us through some rough, stormy times until we turn around.
II
And so as the story of Jonah proceeds, after the great fish has coughed up this reluctant prophet on the beach, off he goes at last to Nineveh, and does what God has asked him to do. And guess what? There he has success, success greater than anything he could have dreamed of.
Jonah 3:1-5
The people of Nineveh believed. How about that! They got religion in a hurry, and the story goes on to say that even the King was convicted of his sin and proclaimed a national period of repentance. Even the very farm animals were expected to repent! Every part of the nation was to turn to the one true and living God. Wow! That’s spectacular success!
So what of Jonah? What was Jonah’s reaction to all this? One would expect him to be sitting on top of the world! You might think Jonah would be running around shouting, "Praise the Lord and Hallelujah."
Not so. Not so. Listen:
Jonah 3:10 - 4:3
Lord, this is not what I really wanted. Yes, I said the words. Yes, I told them they had to repent. But I didn’t want them actually to do it. This is not what I really wanted. I wanted Nineveh to suffer. I wanted them to be in big trouble. But I was afraid of this, Lord; you’ve gone and done it again. You’ve redeemed these folks. And I could just lie down and die, because I feel so discredited. I am embarrassed, Lord, because I told them they would have to repent or else, and you didn’t bring the or else!
Jonah is angry because God has succeeded in doing what God always does! Jonah wanted this success for himself. He wanted to come out of this thing looking superior. He had announced destruction, and destruction was what he wanted to see. Why? So that he could say to the people of Nineveh, "I told you so. " That would be success in Jonah’s eyes.
But God has different standards of success. God’s real hope and intention was that Nineveh should repent and live, and that’s what happened. Jonah was an instrument in the hands of God to bring God’s success, but Jonah wanted that success for himself. And so Jonah became angry; Lord, this is exactly what I was afraid of. I was suspicious that you would go around forgiving and redeeming people. Well, you’ve done it now. I am embarrassed, I am humiliated, just let me die.
You see, the issue is that some of us, like Jonah, need enemies. Some of us need to feel there is someone lower down on the totem pole than we are. We can’t feel good about ourselves unless there is somebody who’s farther down than we are. And so we are angry when a merciful God brings up the fallen and the failing. Where is my success if everybody is just as good as I am?
Do you recognize what this is? This is one of the characteristics of racism, isn’t it? Racism is that persistent insecurity that some people have that makes it necessary for them to find somebody else lower than they are. You may be miserable and ignorant and poor and unhappy, but if you think that there is somebody else, some other group, that is even more miserable and ignorant and poor and unhappy, then you can think you’re OK. That’s racism. That’s elitism.
And that’s where Jonah was. God, how can I be special if you are going to let these Ninevites be special? How do I know I’m any good if you are going to let all these cheap, dirty folk be good too? How can I be successful if you are going to discredit me and love sinners like these?
The anger of Jonah when God succeeds in redeeming the people of Nineveh is our anger too. It is our anger and our insecurity when some new Christian proves to be a more serious Bible student than we are. It is our anger and our insecurity when some new church member gets a place of leadership and some of the recognition that used to come our way. And deepest of all, the anger of Jonah when God succeeded at Nineveh is our anger and our insecurity when that hard-bitten sinner from the streets and the drug dens comes here, finds Christ, and then finds more power in Christ than we church mice who’ve been sitting here since day one!
Oh, my friends, make no mistake, God succeeds. God turns lives around. We’ve been mouthing that truth for years. But when it happens, when God’s success happens, are we going to feel threatened? Are we going to want that success for ourselves and not for God?
III
I just want to assure you today, the best way I know how, that you who have served God in this church, you who have worshipped and served the way you always have … you are not going to be crowded out. Yes, we’re bringing in new people. Yes, we’re going to be touching new kinds of people. But that does not mean that those who are already here are going to be rejected. There is always going to be a place in this household of faith for anyone who will be open to God’s success.
Listen to the loving gentleness of our God, dealing with the sulky, sullen prophet Jonah:
Jonah 4:4-11
There is a slight smile, I think on God’s face, as twice, lovingly, gently, our God probes Jonah: "Is it right for you to be angry?" "Have you really examined this anger of yours?" And twice Jonah, stubborn, moody, sullen replies, "Yes, I’m angry enough to die."
But our loving God gives Jonah a gentle parable. A castor bean plant grows quickly to shade poor miserable Jonah from the sun. And then a worm just as quickly destroys the plant, making Jonah unhappy again. He misses the plant that he had grown to cherish. And our gracious God, abounding in steadfast love, asks Jonah to see that if he, Jonah, could grieve over the loss of one little castor bean bush, how much more would God grieve over the loss of the thousands of Nineveh.
I am impressed, aren’t you, with God’s gentle good humor with Jonah? I take note of God’s loving care for this worn-out warrior of his. I take comfort from it, because I think that it means that even though you and I have often been unfaithful, still God values us. I take hope from this story, because I believe it says that even though we may have given ourselves over to despair, even though we may have wanted success for ourselves and were angry at God, still he cares for us. Still, he loves this church of his. He is not yet finished with Takoma Park.
And even though during this month I have had to speak words of judgment; even though I have often said that our God will test us and will try our compassion, and that He may have to discard unworthy motives and judge an imperfect church … even though I’ve had to say those things in these four Sundays, still I believe that our God wants us to be successful. I believe our God wants His success to be our success. I believe that our God, who desires not the death of any sinner, desires not the death of this church either.
The little story of Jonah, in the last analysis, is the story of the grace of God. Our God knows all about our need to be needed. Our God understands all about our credit-grabbing and our desire to be recognized. Our God knows how success-driven we are. And His response to us is the same as His offer to Nineveh and His offer to Jonah as well: I love you. I love you. You don’t have to prove yourself.
You don’t have to measure up. You don’t have to be nice and straight and middle-class.
All you have to do is to accept your acceptance. All you have to do is to let that boundless love wash over you. All that Nineveh and its wickedness had to do was to repent and turn to God in trust. And all that Jonah in his goodness had to do was to repent and to turn to God in trust.
We love Him because He first loved us. When you know that, God’s success becomes your success.
