(Slide 1) This past summer the family went to Universal Studios in Orlando. One part of Universal is the more traditional rollercoaster type theme park that features Dr Seuss, the Incredible Hulk, and the like.
The other part of the park features a take on the Hollywood aspect of Universal pictures. Its themed rides include JAWS (which we rode many times), Men In Black, and…
…Twister, the action movie featuring storm chasers in the heart of our country.
The main part of the attraction is the replication of the set when a large tornado hits a small town on the plains. It was very, very well done.
In fact, it was so well done, that I started to get very uncomfortable…very uncomfortable. I wanted to run and hide because it brought back memories of the April 1974 tornado (believed to be an F 5) that hit Xenia, Ohio, about 40 miles from where I lived at the time.
I wonder if Jonah might have felt the same way about storms whenever one popped up after his “close encounter of the fishy kind?”
As we continue our 2010 Lenten series that takes us to the Old Testament prophet Jonah, we move to chapter 1 and verses 4 through 16.
(Slide 2) Now before I read it here are the questions that I shared last week in preparation for this week:
1. Even when God, in his grace, has sought me, how have I dug in my heels, refusing to hearken to him?
2. How has my acting in such a fashion caused trouble for others?
3. How was Jonah’s sacrifice similar to, as well as different from, that of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross?
(Source: Dr. Reed Lessing. © 2010 by Creative Communications for the Parish.)
Let us hear the word of God this morning,
“But as the ship was sailing along, suddenly the Lord flung a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to send them to the bottom. Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship. And all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold. So the captain went down after him. “How can you sleep at a time like this?” he shouted. “Get up and pray to your god! Maybe he will have mercy on us and spare our lives.”
Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, Jonah lost the toss. “What have you done to bring this awful storm down on us?” they demanded. “Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?”
And Jonah answered, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” Then he told them that he was running away from the Lord.
The sailors were terrified when they heard this. “Oh, why did you do it?” they groaned. And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, “What should we do to you to stop this storm?”
“Throw me into the sea,” Jonah said, “and it will become calm again. For I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.”
Instead, the sailors tried even harder to row the boat ashore. But the stormy sea was too violent for them, and they couldn’t make it. Then they cried out to the Lord, Jonah’s God. “O Lord,” they pleaded, “don’t make us die for this man’s sin. And don’t hold us responsible for his death, because it isn’t our fault. O Lord, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.”
Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once! The sailors were awestruck by the Lord’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him.”
It has over 30 years since the summer I lived with one of my aunts and uncles. It was only about 6 weeks and, for a while, it was one of the longest 6 weeks of my life.
They lived about 2 hours away from my home and because there was work at the factory my aunt worked at, I had a summer job… that I hated… because I got homesick, very homesick.
Now this was after my first year of college when I moved 300 miles, 6 hours, two states, and 1 time zone away from home and never got homesick once. But two hours away within the state of Ohio and in the same time zone near the same Interstate that ran near my home… and I was miserable.
One morning it came to a head. My aunt had left for work at an earlier time and so my uncle was getting me up. I dug in my heels…
‘I’m not going to work.’ ‘Yes you are…’
This went on a few moments and he picked up the phone and called my mom, and said, “_____, come and get him.” Then he handed the phone to me. He had had enough.
I do not remember the exact words of our conversation but the tone of the conversation went something like, ‘you have to work in order to go back to college.’ End of discussion.
They were right but I was not anxious to go back to work.
I did and now over 30 years has passed since that day.
I will admit to you that it affected my relationship with them as I never returned that town until I did his funeral eight years ago. I saw them once or twice in the years between those two events, but the relationship was altered, at least on my end.
Do you recall a time when you dug in your heels? When you simply refused to budge?
I am not talking about taking a stand on an issue and standing up for what is right. I am talking about a time when you dug in your heels regarding God’s purpose for you.
One that I vividly remember took place before Susan and I were married… just before we were married.
It became clear to me that I was to go to seminary and had been accepted. But I did not want to go because of the conflict I had with some people in the church. I wanted to get a Master’s degree in another field and teach. I even announced that I was going to go to Butler University.
I dug in my heels for a while… and was miserable.
Finally, I could be miserable no longer.
So, about a month before we were married, I told Susan one night as we were headed to a youth event, “We are moving to Kentucky this summer and I am going to seminary.”
Dead quiet…
We moved… and Susan got home sick!
I think that there is a better word for digging in your heels.
(Slide 3) Disobedience
To disobey is, according to the Webster’s II New Riverside Dictonary Revised Edition, “to fail or refuse to obey.”
Now I think there is a slight, but important distinction between failure to obey and refusal to obey and it is this:
(Slide 3a) Refusal to obey is a willful and defiant act of disobedience whereas the failure to obey some times some times comes out of circumstances that prevent full obedience such as when you “fail” to complete your job due to equipment failure (or the unwillingness of a co-worker to do their job!)
Jonah demonstrates the willful act of refusing to obey God by running away and choosing to not do what the Lord wanted him to do and that is go to Nineveh!
And look at the trouble it caused other people:
Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship.
Then when they hear Jonah’s story they say, “Oh, why did you do it?” they groaned…“O Lord,” they pleaded, “don’t make us die for this man’s sin. And don’t hold us responsible for his death, because it isn’t our fault. O Lord, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.”
Have you ever felt that you were living with storm clouds in your heart and soul because of the choices of others, the disobedient choices of others?
Now, being obedient causes problems sometimes. For example, the man who refuses to cheat on the tolerances for a key part, though under great pressure to do so, may pay the price of his job.
Anybody here ever been asked to lie on behalf of the boss? I have come close once to being asked to do that… or at least do a little “spin” on the situation to make the boss look good.
But being obedient, in the face of pressure to compromise, is a challenge that we meet up with from time to time.
This past week was our quarterly meeting for Church of God pastors here in Northern Indiana. It was a great experience.
For this year, we have asked two of our colleagues to preach at each gathering. However, due to the bad weather a few weeks ago, we had to reschedule it to this week and so only one of our speakers could make it and he gave a great sermon using NASCAR to illustrate the value of making pit stops and having a long haul perspective in ministry.
After he was done, we took a break and gathered back together. There were thirty or so of us and our host pastor said, “Let’s introduce ourselves and tell something about yourself that we don’t know.” There were about 30 to 40 of us present.
Pastors… with a hand held mic… and no time limit…
I was next to last to speak. So I had to listen to every one else first and I am glad that I did! What struck me in hearing their stories were the number of colleagues who admitted to digging in their heels when they began to believe that God had called them to the ministry and they kept putting Him off!
(One of them shared that every time he started on a second degree (while working for an Indiana TV station) to enter a new career, his wife informed him she was pregnant! (He is also fourth or fifth generation Church of God clergy!)
I am also reminded of hearing stories about people who accept Christ as their Lord and Savior in their childhood and teenage years but when they enter adulthood, walk away from it, for years, if not decades! Why?
DISOBEDIENCE!
At rock bottom, it is disobedience. It may be couched in terms of being hurt, fear of what God’s call means, or feeling led to go to another church. Yet somewhere along the line, in my experience, those of the Bible, and those who have had the honesty to tell me their stories, God called them to follow Him and they did not do so. The dug their heels in! They disobeyed and ran away from God like Jonah did…
…until they stopped running and turned back to God
God calls us to obey… all of us. Pastors, laity and…congregations.
(Slide 4) Here is a chart I shared with you 8 weeks ago as we began 2010 as I shared about the very vital and strategic need to determine what kind of a church the Lord wants us to become in the years ahead.
Again, it is a chart which shows a life-cycle and is used to describe our lives, the places we work, our favorite sports team,
(Slide 5) and… a congregation.
This week in both the meeting I have just referred to and in another one with my now restarting SHAPE group, I had some insights about this whole process and I believe that the Holy Spirit clearly showed me something about this…
(Slide 6) … the wilderness.
Eight weeks ago I reminded us of the wilderness journey of the Israelites and how, because of their disobedience and their lack of faith, they wandered for forty years before entering the Promised Land.
But this week, as I thought deeply about my life and our life as this congregation, I recalled Matthew 4:1 that reminded me the wilderness is sometimes a good thing though it is a difficult and challenging thing:
(Slide 7) Then Jesus was led out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted there by the Devil. Matthew 4:1 (NLT)
Notice that it was NOT due to disobedience that Jesus entered the wilderness but it was in response to, in obedience to, the Holy Spirit that He went into the wilderness. It became a place of testing and refinement prior to His public ministry.
Jonah, entered a wilderness, too, a very wet one. He entered it because of his disobedience where God, in His graciousness and mercy, went to work on Jonah and Jonah, as we shall see, responded to God’s work.
I believe that we, as a congregation, have been in the wilderness for a while maybe in part, to be honest, because we have become complacent.
However, I also think that we have gone through a wilderness experience so that we are prepared for the next chapter in our ministry. I think that it took five years, for a reason that is truly known only to God at this time, from the time we made the decision to relocate to the time we bought property.
Now, I am sensing that God is working in us to help us come to the place where His vision for our future is going to be made clearer.
Which means this:
(Slide 8) Are we ready to obey Him? Are we ready to do what He asks us to do? Or, are we going to run away from Him and cause further delay?
(Slide 8a) What about you personally this morning? Are you where God wants you to be right now? Or do you know that you are out of place and God wants you to be elsewhere as regarding:
• Your occupation? Are you doing the job that God would have you do or have you been saying ‘Not now. I am going to wait until…” Work is a spiritual matter.
• Your place of service here in the church? Are you serving God in some way in line with who you are and how God has wired you? If not, why now? Are you willing to step out and step up?
• Your relationship with the Lord? How is your faith today? Have you done the confession and repentance you need to do? Do you have a willing and obedient spirit and attitude?
Take a few moments and write down your answers to that question. If you are not where the Lord wants you to be, why not? What do you need to do to get where you know the Lord wants to you to be?
It may a take a while for you to get there because sometimes there is a period of preparation involved in the next step. But are you willing to take the next steps to be where the Lord wants you to be in relation to Him?
It will take a while for us to get to the next steps in our congregational life as well. Let us continue to choose to say “yes” to the Lord as He leads us!
For next week, here are the reflection questions and passage for study
(Slide 9) Read Jonah 2:1-10.
1. How do times of distress affect my prayer life?
2. How fervent am I in prayer when life is going well?
3. How does distress re-orient my thinking toward God?
4. Is the power of prayer found in my sincerity, my persistence, or God’s grace?
(Source: Dr. Reed Lessing. © 2010 by Creative Communications for the Parish.)
Jonah definitely had a wilderness experience… several hundred feet under water! He was there because he was disobedient to God’s call.
But the Holy Spirit sent Jesus into the wilderness for a time of testing and preparation for His public ministry.
Maybe you feel like you are in the wilderness these days. Alone, lost, feeling hopeless.
If you are there because you have disobeyed God, it’s not over. There is a way out of the wilderness and that is through confession and repentance. I encourage you to do that as I speak these words. The Lord is waiting for you with open arms!
Maybe you are in the wilderness because you in a transition from one moment in life to another moment. Maybe you are in the middle of it and have wondered if it is going to turn out.
Keep putting one foot in front of the other. That’s one Jesus did in the desert. Pray often and place yourself in God’s hands each day. Do the next thing that you need to do – work, clean, study, care for your family. Allow the Lord to work within you as He needs to and seek support from the right people.
Jonah came out of his underwater wilderness with a splash and went onto Nineveh and proclaimed God’s message. Jesus came out of His wilderness and began his ministry. They were obedient.
Let us be the same. Amen.
