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Sunday January 25, 2009 "Proclaiming the Fast" Jonah 3:1-5, 10 and Psalm 62:5-12 |
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Location: Blogs Brad's BlogBrad's Sermons |
 | | Posted by: Brad Miller | 1/28/2009 2:43 PM | Most of us know at least some part of the book of Jonah. Jonah is unique among the prophets because he is never called a prophet, not once in the entire book. His prophecies of destruction did not come true, but they did hit their mark. But no matter how we categorize Jonah and his mission, the lessons that come from the book of Jonah are powerful and long lasting.
It is a strange book in many ways. It is filled with exaggerated images, absurd responses and righteous indignation. There is a fair amount of humor in the book, too, which if we are not careful can lead us away from the main points.
To recap, Jonah was a man who, out of the blue was instructed to go to Nineveh and warn them to turn around. But it was more than just a simple warning. God gave Jonah specific instructions on what to tell the people of Nineveh. They were to be told that because of their evil ways, they were to be destroyed. But Jonah, not wanting to take on that task, undertook an act of incredible absurdity, and decided to get on a ship and head for Tarshish, in order to hide from God. Hide from God? Even Jonah had to know that was not possible. Indeed, his ploy did not work, and so God brought a storm so horrific that the seasoned sailors feared for their lives. But, not Jonah, he was happily sleeping through it until they woke him up. They knew that Jonah was a follower of God and knew that he was on this trip to hide from God. They begged him to have God stop the storm, and so, Jonah instruected them to throw him overboard and they did. And the sea calmed and the ship was saved. This should tell us something about Jonah: even though he didn’t want to follow God’s command, he had compassion for innocent men on a boat and risked death to save them.
Well, then comes the part that every child who ever attended Sunday school knows: a big fish, maybe a whale, came and swallowed Jonah whole. There, in the belly of this great fish, Jonah was kept safe and prayed for God’s deliverance. And, the fish followed God’s command and spat Jonah out on the shore.
So, God decided to try again. He again instructed Jonah to go to Nineveh to tell them of God’s plan to destroy the city because of it’s wickedness. And so, Jonah did what God had instructed. He wandered the streets of Nineveh for days because it was so large, letting the citizens know that the in 40 days, God would bring destruction to them all.
Having heard the warnings of Jonah, Nineveh repented, and on the off chance God might forgive them, prepared for a fast and put on sackcloth. They turned themselves around and became worshippers and followers of God. And God did spare them.
Jonah was not pleased.
How would anyone believe him in the future if God kept relenting and letting people turn around? He told God that it would be better to die than to continue on. He argued with god that it was not right the wicked should be spared. He sat in the blazing desert sun and waited to see what happened to the city. God protected him by raising up a bush to keep Jonah cool and shaded. Until, God sent a worm to destroy the bush, and exposed Jonah to the harsh sun. And again, Jonah was not pleased.
God said to him, “why should you be angry over such a thing as the plant, while you would let 120,000 people die without at chance at redemption?”
And the people of Nineveh lived and worshipped God.
So, who is this story about?
It is surely about Jonah. And how many of have not been Jonah’s at some time in our life?
Haven’t we all, in big ways and small, been more worried about our own station, our own reputation, our own self rather than what is right and good under God? It is a fairly simple lesson, really, that plays out in many, many ways.
At the heart of the lesson is the fact that we can only do what we can do. We can only do our best to follow God’s will for our lives and leave the rest for God. Just because we have high standards for ourselves, does not mean that we have any power to impose those standards on others. All we can do is our best. All we can do is trust God to do the rest.
My father was a perfectionist. Which, is fine and good, until you start expecting everyone else to do things as perfectly as you do them. Recognizing my father’s perfectionism, my mother used to tell us, “If you want it done right, take it to your father. If you want it done now, bring it to me.”
I remember running into his perfectionist streak a time or two in my life. It usually showed itself when I was in the middle of some task, and I noticed my father watching what I was doing. And what came next never surprised me, even as it sometimes exasperated, “Who,” he would ask with a chuckle, “taught you how to do that?”
But my father discovered that expecting others to live up to his standards had consequences. As a fairly young man, his doctor informed him that if he didn’t loosen up on what he expected of others, the stress of that would hurt him psychologically, and maybe even physically. He learned his lesson well and my lasting memories are of a laid back, happy man, who always strove to do things as perfectly as possible, but never expected it in others.
In a very real way, that is Jonah’s lesson to us. Don’t worry about what others think. Don’t try to hold them to your standards. Don’t get mad at God or others because things don’t go the way you expect them to go. We have no control over anything except what we do, how we act, the message we send. The rest is beyond our control and if we think we can control others actions, we are sadly mistaken and will always be miserable.
This book of Jonah is not just about Jonah, though. It is also about God. It teaches us some important lessons we must learn if we are to truly understand our relationship with God.
First, it teaches us again, that God uses many different types of people to carry out God’s will. Look at this story: Jonah is the instrument of God’s will. From simply reading the scripture, we don’t know who Jonah is or what makes him special or worthy of delivering God’s message to the great city of Nineveh. We just are told that God chose Jonah, talked to him, gave him a mission and left him to his devices.
What is so jarring to us is we are used to prophets like Isaiah who when confronted with a call from God turned his face upward and declared, “Here am I, Lord…send me.” We are comfortable with leaders like Moses who while struggling with his own worthiness, still did his level best to follow God’s will.
But Jonah is different. He doesn’t lyrically accept the call, or even struggle with his own worthiness. He simply says, “No way, God. I’m outta here.”
But God had chosen Jonah. God would use Jonah.
How many times have we run that way, when we knew the right thing to do was to go this way? How many times have we understood that something needed to be done, only to do our best to ignore that need? How many times have we disobeyed what we know to be God’s call in our lives because it was uncomfortable?
When we do that, there are consequences. For Jonah, it was calamitous acts. For us, it is pangs of conscience or feelings of guilt. Some talk of it as being unable to escape God’s call on their life. Whatever we call it, conscience, guilt or God’s call, we know the feeling. We try and ignore what we know we should do, but we can’t. Something keeps tugging at us until we can’t ignore it any longer. It’s just something we live with as God’s children: God has use for all of us, and God will not let us easily ignore God’s presence!
Second, as it relates to God we learn a powerful lesson through this book: God is an awesome God. God keeps track of the people of the most powerful cities and the lowliest animals of the field. God is watching out for all. God has the power to build up or destroy at his own desire. Whole worlds can be created; whole worlds can be destroyed at God’s command.
But what is most awesome about God is the mercy that is shown to any and all.
Whether Jonah likes it or not, God shows God’s true colors as a merciful parent by giving a repentant city a second chance. Indeed, God shows mercy to a disobedient Jonah by giving him a second chance. Even as Jonah takes his disobedience to an absurd level, our merciful God seeks to protect him and show him the error of his ways.
But this story is not just about Jonah and God, it is about a people that seeing the error of their ways, seeks to turn around, even in the face of a most certain, declared destruction.
Nineveh was a huge city, a great city for it’s time. Nineveh was populated by some 120,000 people. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire and was founded by Moses’ great grandson, Nimrod. The prophets Nahum and Zephariah both spoke of the wickedness of Nineveh in their prophetic ministries. Nineveh had turned into a pagan city, had turned it’s collective back on God and their actions saddened God, because God desires goodness. There is a feeling of a heavy heart that led God to announce the destruction of this great city.
But the king of Nineveh heard Jonah’s announcement of destruction and realized that the city has been led astray and sought to put it back on track. Even though he was convinced that the threat was real, he ordered the citizens to don sackcloth and ashes, traditional signs of mourning and repentance, and he called them to a fast, another powerful sign of penitence. For people of ancient traditions, the fast was an internal discipline that took away the worldly temptations and allowed the penitent soul to take time in reflection and contemplation and prayer. Reflection upon the power of God in their lives, contemplation of the role that they play in God’s plan, and in prayer asking for forgiveness for sins of omission and commission, for sins of action and inaction, for sins that take away from God’s glory. This is the fast that was proclaimed in Nineveh.
When the people of Nineveh responded, God saw that their hearts had changed. They understood that God was in control, God is awesome, God’s way is the right way, and not just because it saved them from destruction. They saw the errors of their ways and honored God even when they thought that destruction was inevitable. It was simply, the right thing to do.
The Psalm that we heard this morning could have been written specifically for Jonah and the citizens of Nineveh, although for slightly different reasons. It does a nice job of tying all this together: God is my sure hope, all of life comes from God, God is my refuge, my rock. No matter who you are, no matter your station in life, God is all that is important. Riches, fame and comfort ultimately do you not good: nothing can fulfill you like God’s mercy.
This straightforward story gives us lots to think about. But throughout its twists and turns, I really believe that the people of Nineveh have given us the greatest lesson of this book. As important as Jonah’s lesson of trusting God and not worrying about anything else is, and as comforting and awe inspiring as it is to us to realize the breadth and depth of God’s power and mercy, the most important thing I get from this passage is that it is up to us to respond to God’s will, it is up to us to bow to God’s command, it is up to us to intentionally begin the fast that signals our acceptance of God’s presence in our lives. God speaks and we must respond. And the people of Nineveh showed us how to respond: in repentance and an with an attitude of utter humility.
The past two Sundays I have preached about the importance of letting God’s Holy Spirit into our lives as we begin anew and of the importance of heeding God’s will and to moving into the world to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God in relationship for and with others.
But clearly, there is a first step to both of those things. Before we can truly open ourselves up to the Spirit, before we can move into relationship in support of others, we must first fall on our knees, put on the sack cloth and ashes, and begin the fast of repentance that is so vitally important to standing before God with transparency and honesty.
I don’t know if we are the Ninevites or not. There are things that are tolerated in our society that I have to believe sadden God: the exploitation and abuse of so many and so much, the turning of our backs on sacred truths, the pursuit of individual pleasure and profit at the expense of the neediest of God’s creation.
I do not believe that God will destroy our culture and society, but I do wonder if we will destroy ourselves. And we as believers in God’s power and mercy, followers of Christ, people of the spirit, need to be the first to show the world what is at stake.
We do that by beginning the fast that allows us to concentrate not on earthly things, but by discerning God’s will in our lives. By making sure we are doing everything we can to show God that God is at the center of all we do. By bowing our heads and taking a deep breath and asking God to forgive us and to empower us to begin again. By returning to scripture, by being in constant communication with God and preparing ourselves to move forward.
We live in precarious times. We live in times in which fear could easily take us over. We live in times when the whole world needs God’s presence. And we are just the people to show the way.
It is not an easy task. The fear is palpable. The uncertainty of our times is a constant companion. But Jonah and the people of Nineveh discovered that in God’s way is mercy, and comfort and peace. And all of that is good news.
Because, no matter who we are, God is greater.
No matter the depth of our sin, God will forgive us.
No matter the breadth of our fear, God will calm us.
No matter the totality of our despair, God will strengthen us.
But, first, we must put everything else aside, and begin the fast.
The fast of repentance.
The fast of humilty.
The fast of salvation.
Before we move into the world, before we begin anew, let us proclaim the fast. And when the fast is broken, let us rejoice as God’s people, revel in God’s will and declare God’s word to all we meet, now and always.
Let us pray: God of mercy, as we gather to celebrate the gift of you love we recall with sorrow the times when we forget you, or try to run from you, or try to impose our will on our brothers and sisters, not yours. How often our thoughts, our words, and our actions have betrayed the goodness you have shown to us. Like Jonah who refused to obey, continue to call us. Like the people of Nineveh who saw the error of their ways, forgive us. Mend what is broken. Heal the wounds of disappointment and separation. Give us strength to be at our weakest, in humble service to you. All this we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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