As you can tell, our scripture readings today have a theme. You may have to think a bit, but it does help if you read the sermon title and also were listening during the children’s moments. Both our stories relate to fish: one to a big fish story and one to fishermen at their nets. There has to be some bad jokes that can come from both those sources.
But these stories are ones that also speak of obedience to God and our willingness to follow God’s directions for us.
Many of us may recall the story of Jonah. The book of Jonah is a short book, 4 chapters. Some believe the story is allegorical or a metaphor for the disobedience of the Israelites and the salvation of the Gentiles . But Jonah is documented as a historical figure in 2 Kings and he his mentioned in several ancient Jewish histories.
The major point that divides the scholars seems to hinge on the supernatural: some cannot accept the supernatural element of the story, a great fish swallowing a man. When I hear the story of Jonah, I am always reminded of the scene from Pinocchio where they are all in the belly of the whale with the furniture floating about trying to think of a way out.
So today we will not debate or argue on the historical or allegorical sense of the Jonah story. What we will focus on is the lesson from this story and how we can apply it to our lives. Because you see Jonah is what many of us are at certain points in our lives: stubborn, disobedient and prideful.
Who us? Who me? Like Jonah, like him. Naw, I must have it all wrong. I know all of us, as children were immediately obedient to our parent’s desires. I know that there was not a single one of us that every disobeyed. I know when our parents gave us a chore to do—we did it immediately, I know when our parents said that we couldn’t go to that teenage party—I know we stayed home. I know when they said you couldn’t watch that movie—that when we went over to a friend’s house and they put that movie on, we of course left. I know when they asked us, “Have you finished your homework yet”—we always replied, “no, not yet.” And I know none of you ever made up excuses why your homework was not done to a teacher. We are of course nothing like disobedient Jonah.
Jonah was told by God to go to Nineveh and preach against them. Well Nineveh was a nice place to hear about but not to go. They were an adulterous people and they were cruel and Jonah despised them. They were his people’s enemy and he didn’t want to go and give them the warning from God. So he chose to take a different route entirely, he chose to go to Tarshish. He got aboard a ship heading to Tarshish for Tarshish was as far from Nineveh as he could get.
A great storm begins and the crew is terrified wanting to know what or who has caused this. Jonah fesses up and tells them there only hope is to toss him overboard, they try to reach the shore but the storm becomes more violent, so Jonah is promptly thrown overboard. As soon as he is off the boat, the storm stops and the water becomes calm. Jonah is swallowed by a great fish, the original Greek, uses large or great fish. We all assume because great means big it must have been a whale. But let me tell you what is happening back up on the boat. Those heathens, those sailors, begin to praise the Hebrew God and begin to worship Him.
The next events must have been a surprise to Jonah. Here he is expecting to drown and where is he but in a fish’s belly. That just must have been pleasant. I bet it turned him off from seafood for quite awhile. Now as I was doing my study and research, I came across in some of my commentaries that there were actual accounts of sailors being swallowed by great fish and surviving. So it does give you some pause.
Anyhow, back to poor Jonah. Inside the fish for three days, he is now praying up a storm (no pun intended). He is praying a prayer of submission to God. He determines that he will never act like one of those who forfeit the grace that could be his in God.
God forgives Jonah and he is regurgitated upon the land. Now that’s pleasant isn’t it? God again repeats Jonah’s commission to go to Nineveh. This time Jonah obeys. It took him 3 full days to get around to the entire city, proclaiming that they have only 40 days and Nineveh would be overturned. Amazingly the king and nobles lead the entire population in confession and repentance before the Lord. They humble their selves to God; they declared a fast and all wear sackcloth. And God changes his mind, he does not destroy Nineveh.
Now our dear friend Jonah should have been pleased by the outcome. He should have been glad to know that he had carried the message, which the people had listened to and they were now children of God, just as he was. Right?
Wrong! Jonah is bent out of shape; his preaching has brought redemption and forgiveness. Not the total destruction of the entire city. Jonah wants Nineveh destroyed.
Our poor disgruntled prophet is having a rough time. So he climbs up to a hilltop to wait and see what will happen. God, our ever-kind Father, makes a vine grow so our unhappy camper will have shade from the burning sun. Jonah is very happy for this. But the next morning when the vine dies our dear friend is furious that the vine died. God then speaks to Jonah. He says these words that must have made Jonah feel the smallest of the small, “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”
We do not know how Jonah responded nor do we know how he must have felt. But how do we feel when we disobey and disappoint?
When I disobeyed my mother as a small child and she would punish me, I would feel a deep shame and a desire to grovel for her forgiveness.
With today being Super Bowl Sunday, I must at least share one football illustration to make our football fans happy: (Go Tampa!)
On New Year’s Day, 1929, Georgia Tech played University of California in the Rose Bowl. In that game a man named Roy Riegels recovered a fumble for California. Somehow, he became confused and started running 65 yards in the wrong direction. One of his teammates, Benny Lom, outdistanced him and downed him just before he scored for the opposing team. When California attempted to punt, Tech blocked the kick and scored a safety, which was the ultimate margin of victory.
That strange play came in the first half, and everyone who was watching the game was asking the same question: “What will Coach Nibbs Price do with Roy Riegels in the second half?” The men filed off the field and went into the dressing room. They sat down on the benches and on the floor, all but Riegels. He put his blanket around his shoulders, sat down in a corner, put his face in his hands, and cried like a baby. If you have played football, you know that a coach usually has a great deal to say to his team during half time. That day Coach Price was quiet. No doubt he was trying to decide what to do with Riegels. Then the timekeeper came in and announced that there were three minutes before playing time. Coach Price looked at the team and said simply, “Men the same team that played the first half will start the second.” The players got up and started out, all but Riegels. He did not budge. The coach looked back and called to him again; still he didn’t move. Coach Price went over to where Riegels sat and said, “Roy, didn’t you hear me? The same team that played the first half will start the second.” Then Roy Riegels looked up and his cheeks were wet with a strong man’s tears. “Coach,” he said, “I can’t do it to save my life. I’ve ruined you, I’ve ruined the University of California, and I’ve ruined myself. I couldn’t face that crowd in the stadium to save my life.” Then Coach Price reached out and put his hand on Riegel’s shoulder and said to him: “Roy, get up and go on back; the game is only half over.” And Roy Riegels went back, and those Tech men will tell you that they have never seen a man play football as Roy Riegels played that second half.
Coach Price gave Roy Riegals a 2nd chance and he went out and showed he was grateful for that 2nd chance. God gave Jonah a 2nd chance and even a 3rd chance. See my friends no matter how disobedient we are, how stubborn we are…. God does not give up on us. He will give us opportunity after opportunity to obey and serve him. When we are disobedient, He probably smiles and shakes his head and waits for us to patiently get our wake up call. Now we all won’t end up in a belly of a fish but He will get our attention.
The disciples were not like Jonah at all. They were ready to serve Christ. They were ready to follow Him. These simple but powerful words, “Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” Did they say, sorry guy but you know I am a bit busy here? Did they turn and chuckle at the strange manner of talk? No they obeyed. They felt the authority, the power of this man and they followed. None of them tried to turn and run away. They accepted and they followed. How many of you, if asked right this moment, would walk away from your business, your families to follow a man who had heard about? How many of you would not ask questions but would just go?
My friends I will tell you right now, I can’t honestly say that I would have been like the disciples. I probably would have been dragging my feet, wanting to get all the facts, analyze, ponder and worry over the situation before I would say, “Yep, I’ll go.” But these men follow willingly. They do not pause, they do not question, they do not mull, and they just do!
They were the precursor’s the to the Nike ad campaign that says, Just Do It.
They my friends acted on a pure faith. Faith is a belief, devotion, and a loyalty. To accept what is given to you without question, without doubt, you accept it just cuz.
Sometimes we doubt our faith, sometimes we stumble, and sometimes we disobey because we just don’t understand. We are upset and angry or hurt and scared. That is how Jonah was he was angry, upset, hurt and scared. And he did not have the faith in God to follow God’s directions.
Many years ago, a weary traveler hiked for miles across the desert with the hot sun beating down on his back. His water supply was gone, and he knew that if he didn’t find water soon to quench his thirst, he would surely die.
In the distance, he spotted a deserted cabin which brought hope that maybe water was to be found there. He made his way to the cabin and discovered an old well. He frantically pumped the handle of the well to draw water, but all that came from the pump was dust.
Then he noticed a tin can tied to the pump, with a note inside. The note said:
Dear stranger:
This pump is all right as of June 1932. I put a new sucker washer in it, and it should last for quite a few years. But the washer dries out and the pump needs to be primed. Under the white rock, I buried a jar of water, out of the sun and corked up. There’s enough water in it to prime the pump, but not if you drink some first. Pour about 1/4 of the water into the pump and let her soak for a minute to wet the leather washer. Then pour the rest medium fast and pump hard. You’ll get water. Have faith. This well has never run dry.
When you get watered up, fill the bottle and put it back as you found it for the next stranger who comes this way.
Pete
Would you have faith to pour the jar of water into the well as the note instructed?
Jesus said, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39). The same principle applies here. If you live your life selfishly, you will surely die. But if you give yourself away (“lose your life” for the sake of the Gospel) you will live. Your thirst for happiness and fulfillment will be met.
In his note, Desert Pete wrote, “This well has never run dry.” Likewise, God is faithful and his promises are true. He has never failed those who have trusted him.
The disciples trusted Jesus, they did not hesitate to follow him. They knew in the deepest part of themselves that this was the right and only thing to do. They did not doubt that their well would always be full, they had faith and the obedience.
We don’t know if their families understood, we don’t know what flack they might have gotten. We don’t know if they knew how hard the road would be or we do not know what they felt at all times. Did they doubt, were they ever afraid. We know Thomas asked questioned, we know Peter was scared enough to deny his Lord, we know that these were human beings and we know that just like us the disciples weren’t always perfect.
What can we do with the secret doubts that sometimes haunt us? We know many in the Bible experienced, and expressed, doubt.
· We need firstly, o determine the source of our doubt.
o Doubt can be triggered by suffering.
o Doubt can come from legitimate intellectual questions.
o It can spring from unbelief. We can even use doubt to rationalize sin.
o If I don’t point out the dent on the car door, maybe he will think someone in the Walmart parking lot dinged it with their door. Because if he thinks I did it, it will only upset him and he needs to be calm because he works so hard during the week.
We must accept that faith is still under construction and we must nurture a forever perspective. Our faith is an always thing not just a when we want to use it thing.
I want to share this last story with you and it sums it all up; it’s from Charles Swindoll’s book, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity
Imagine, if you will, that you work for a company whose president found it necessary to travel out of the country and spend an extended period of time abroad. So he says to you and the other trusted employees, “Look, I’m going to leave. And while I’m gone, I want you to pay close attention to the business. You manage things while I’m away. I will write you regularly. When I do, I will instruct you in what you should do from now until I return from this trip.”
Everyone agrees. He leaves and stays gone for a couple of years. During that time he writes often, communicating his desires and concerns. Finally he returns. He walks up to the front door of the company and immediately discovers everything is in a mess--weeds flourishing in the flower beds, windows broken across the front of the building, the gal at the front desk dozing, loud music roaring from several offices, two or three people engaged in horseplay in the back room. Instead of making a profit, the business has suffered a great loss.
Without hesitation he calls everyone together and with a frown asks, “What happened? Didn’t you get my letters?” You say, “Oh, yeah, sure. We got all your letters. We’ve even bound them in a book. And some of us have memorized them. In fact, we have ‘letter study’ every Sunday. You know, those were really great letters.”
I think the president would then ask, “But what did you do about my instructions?” And, no doubt the employees would respond, “Do? Well, nothing. But we read every one!”
God has given us instructions and examples for us to live by. He has given us so much; he has given us our own instruction book to read, he has given us teachers and mentors, he has given us one another and foremost, he has given us his son.
We have heard two fish tales, Jonah did not follow the instructions or read the letters and because of that he suffered a great loss and a harsh humiliating lesson. While the others listened and followed and obeyed, they left their nets, the entrapments of their lives and went and followed their Lord.
Now which will you be Jonah caught in the murky slimy sea infested pit of disobedience or will you drop your nets and follow the Lord with faithfulness and unquestioning loyalty; giving no excuses.
My friends the choice is your; what will it be? Will you be a Jonah or will you be a fisher of men?
