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Jonah 3:9-4:2
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
When you're sad, God is sad. And when you hurt, God hurts. And when you are alone, God is lonely because when you laugh, God cackles at the sound of it. Welcome to the commons cast. We're glad to have you here.
Speaker 1:We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information. Now today, we find ourselves right on the verge of holy week. Next Sunday is Palm Sunday. That will lead us into Good Friday and then on to Resurrection Sunday.
Speaker 1:And we are hard at work right now thinking about all of the ways that we can make these moments special in community. We're trusting that regardless of how we gather, resurrection finds a way. Because that's what Easter is about. And this year will be no different in that sense. Resurrection will find us.
Speaker 1:Today, however, we continue in this Jonah series. And we're not actually going to finish Jonah just yet. We're gonna do that next week as we look at some of the parallels between the end of the Jonah story and Jesus entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. But before we move forward today, we do want to look back at last week. Because Bobby did this beautiful job of taking us through a very pivotal moment in this Jonah story.
Speaker 1:In chapter three verse one, we read, and the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. And what a line that is. Jonah hears from God and runs away, and now he gets a second chance. And we'll talk in a moment about what he does with that second chance. But first, let's talk about second chances for a moment.
Speaker 1:Because the start of chapter three is a word for word retread of the start of chapter one, and that is very intentional. Because the writer here wants us to see that if Jonah wants it, he can begin all over again. And as much as this is the word of the Lord to Jonah, I think this really is about all of us. That very often, after we have run from God, and after we have sailed in the wrong directions, and after we have found ourselves constrained by the consequence of our choices, and maybe even spat back up on the beach. We sometimes feel like we will always be who we were.
Speaker 1:Look, I get it. Everyone this week was posting these until tomorrow images on Instagram. These unflattering photos that they would leave up for twenty four hours and then delete. And there are embarrassing photos of me on the Internet from the nineties when grunge was cool, and I was a young kid with long hair and a scruffy beard, and that's probably not a great example. Never mind.
Speaker 1:But there are all kinds of ways that we want to outrun our past rather than learn from it. And I think this is the point here. That Jonah has a second chance because we all have second chances. The question is what we do with them. Will we be the person that we were?
Speaker 1:Or will we become the person that we are with all of the benefit of experience and awareness and lesson and learning behind us? Look. Jonah can have all of the second chances that he wants, but if he keeps choosing the same directions, it doesn't matter. This is the question that the author is posing to us here, the one that he wants us to become aware of in our opportunities to start again all the time. That they only matter if we use them.
Speaker 1:And Jonah, unfortunately, does not do much with his. In fact, take here is that Jonah does the bare minimum with his second chance. He seems to resign himself to the fact that God is just not going to let this go, that he can't get away from this calling to preach to Nineveh. And so he marches into town and he delivers the worst possible sermon he can imagine. And he brushes himself off and he goes to town.
Speaker 1:He walks to the center of the city and he pulls at a soapbox and he stands atop it and he says, forty days and Nineveh will be overturned. It's five words in Hebrew. That's it. He packs up his stuff and he leaves town. I mean, that's it.
Speaker 1:That's that's all he does. After everything that has happened in this tale, after desperately pleading with God from the belly of a fish for salvation, and after being given a second chance at life and purpose and calling, this is what he does with it. Five words, the worst performance by a prophet in a leading role ever. Now, I have a six year old who lives in our house right now, and all of this feels strangely familiar, doesn't it? My son has unbridled energy it would seem to tear up our socially distanced home, and strangely very little left when it comes time to clean up after that activity.
Speaker 1:And somehow, a kid with energy bouncing off the walls in one minute can become unusually lethargic and sleepy in the moment we mentioned cleaning his bedroom. And in chapter two, we see a Jonah who can whip out a beautiful heartfelt liturgical prayer, who can quote the Psalms and string them together into something new and profound. And yet moments later here on the beach, this is somehow the best he can come up with. And sometimes I think, actually, the truth is, I know that this is what we do with our second chances. And second, and third, and fourth, and fifth, no matter how many opportunities we get, they only matter when we bring our best.
Speaker 1:Everything that we have learned with us into them. And I get it. It might feel a long way away right now, but a day is coming when the playgrounds will be opened again. And you and I, we will be back here in church in our pews beside our friends. And the question will be, what new awareness have we brought back with us?
Speaker 1:Because second chances are about what we do with them. Now, all that said, this is part of both the humor and the poignancy of the story. Because Jonah here does his worst and God, well, God does God's best. You see the sermon is forty days and Nineveh will be overturned. And Jonah is hoping that means destruction, but God is dreaming about reconciliation.
Speaker 1:And so from this terrible sermon, and what we find is an entire city in Nineveh that repents. I mean, the king repents, the people repent, the animal repents, the king even orders that everyone is to put on sack cloth including the animals, which is meant to be humorous. Essentially, sack cloth is this scratchy bag made of goat hair. And now, as we readers, we're meant to imagine the city going around and putting goat hair coats on their goats. No mention of how well they cooperated with that.
Speaker 1:But this is the beauty of the story here. Because God offers infinite second chances and even as the Hebrew prophet turns it all down, it's the enemies of Israel who embrace it with open arms. And this is perhaps are not so subtle reminder that sometimes when we think we are withholding grace because we don't think someone wants it from us. Sometimes, we might be surprised by what an olive branch can accomplish. And so here's who we are in the story so far.
Speaker 1:Jonah hears from God and runs away. Jonah boards a boat and ends up in the water. Jonah is swallowed by a great fish and offers an equally impressive prayer. Jonah is deposited on the beach. The sunlight hits his face, and he has offered the chance to begin all over again.
Speaker 1:But he tosses that back in God's face, and God turns it into something beautiful. So let's pray, and then we'll pick up this story here in Nineveh. God of infinite second chances, who offers us again and again and again the chance to begin again. May we come awake to your grace all around us right now. Opportunities to restore relationships, chances to forgive and reconcile, and moments to pick up the broken pieces around us and build something new and beautiful today.
Speaker 1:In this time where we may feel alone and lonely and distanced and afraid. May even this become an opportunity to create. The phone calls and Zoom chats and live streams and peaceful walks with you become the moments where grace is extended and received and we are somehow made new. May your presence be near to each of us in this moment, reminding us that even this story is still being written. And that as your breath fills our lungs, the grace and peace are there waiting to be exhaled back into the world.
Speaker 1:May we learn from Jonah today. May we learn from every stumble in our lives. May we embrace our second, third, our infinite chances to embody your love for each other. In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray. Amen.
Speaker 1:Okay. Today, we are going to talk about Jonah and Nahum when God relents, the God who responds, and the power in a mirror. But we'll pick up the story here in Jonah chapter three verse seven, where the king of Nineveh responds to Jonah's limp message and says, a decree of the king and his nobles, do not let people or animals, herds or flocks taste anything. Do not let them eat or drink, but let people and animals be covered in sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God.
Speaker 1:Let them give up their evil and their violence. And I wanna mention something here before we go on, because this image is meant to be silly. Goats wearing goat hair and all of that. But during the after party last week, where Bobby and I sat to discuss the message from the weekend, she pointed out something really important to me that I had missed in my reading of this story. That even here in the humor, this response is significant.
Speaker 1:Notice this language here, that everyone give up their evil ways and their violence. You see, Jonah may hope that the overturning of Nineveh will mean its destruction. And God may know that the overturning will mean its redemption, but for that kind of healing to happen, there needs to be a turning away from violence. This is one of the really interesting things about the Hebrew scriptures. And we have a book like Jonah in our bible that is all about how much God loves our enemies.
Speaker 1:That even those that we struggle to see any good in, they are filled with divine potential that God envisions. But then, there was also right next door on the very next page the book of Nahum. And Nahum is all about how God detests the violence of the Assyrians. How God will not overlook such evil. Now, here's a quote from Nahum.
Speaker 1:The Lord has given a command concerning you Nineveh that you will have no descendants to bear your name for I will destroy the images and the idols that are in the temples of your Gods. I will prepare your grave for you are vile. And somehow, these two stories, these two opposing narratives have to be held intention with each other. On one hand, this profound belief that God always sees opportunity for healing. That no one is ever beyond redemption.
Speaker 1:And this conviction that violence cannot continue. That evil can't be overlooked. That justice must prevail in the world eventually. And so for the narrative of Jonah, it's important that we get the humor in this scene. It's part of what highlights the laziness of Jonah's sermon that contrast is part of the story.
Speaker 1:Terrible sermon, incredible response. Usually, that's what I count for on Sundays. That's a little self deprecation for the win there. But practically here, it's also important that we see this genuine commitment to transformation and change that happens in the city of Nineveh. Because that is not played for laughs.
Speaker 1:That is played to remind us of what it is that really changes us. And it's not it's never violence. It's always grace. And we're gonna see that in some really interesting ways here as this story unfolds. Because the king of Nineveh continues.
Speaker 1:Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish. When God saw what they did and how they had turned from their evil ways, God relented and did not bring on them the destruction God had threatened. But to Jonah, this seemed very wrong. And he became very angry.
Speaker 1:Now, some interesting things here. It's one of the things that we have argued in this series is that the ambiguity of God's message to Nineveh through Jonah. That the city will be overturned is part of the point of the story. That this is the word of the Lord. It's just that Jonah thinks or at least hopes that it might mean the destruction of Nineveh.
Speaker 1:God on the other hand knows that it means the redemption of the city and in the end God is of course right. But Jonah's prophecy comes to pass even though he doesn't really understand it. And yet now we have challenges to that as God relents or better yet repents of the evil that was threatened. So let me read you a couple translations of this final line in chapter three. Although, I've already given away the punch line here a bit, but this is what we read from the NIV earlier.
Speaker 1:When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. The ESV is pretty similar. They use, he relented of the disaster that was coming. Eugene Peterson in the message, goes with God saw what they had done, that they had turned from their evil lives so he did change his mind about them. What he said he would do to them, he didn't.
Speaker 1:Then the New Living Translation says that when God saw that they had done and that they had put away their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened. So you can see a theme developing here, but just for fun, let's go all the way back and check out the good old King James from 1611. And there we read, and God saw their works and that they turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he said he would do unto them. And he did it not. Now, what exactly is going on here with a God who changes God's mind and a God who relents and maybe even a God who repents of evil?
Speaker 1:Well, what's happening here at least in part is a bit of what we talked about earlier in the story back near the beginning. Where God hurls a storm at the sea to get Jonah back on course. And, of course, we don't really like the idea of God causing bad weather as punishment, and so we tend to change our English translation so that God allowed a storm to arise on the sea. And by the way, God causing bad weather as punishment for bad people is absolutely bad theology. But this isn't a theology textbook.
Speaker 1:This is a story and because we know the difference, we can acknowledge that sometimes a story is better when God hurls a storm. Well, we've got something a little similar here. Because what the Hebrew says is actually conveyed in three words, Ra'ah, Naham, and Elohim. Or in their full context, Ra'ah, Vahi, Naham, Elohim. And that means the God repented the evil.
Speaker 1:Now, there is a word in Hebrew for changing your mind or relenting. There is a word in Hebrew for destruction or disaster. There is a word in Hebrew for compassion, but none of those words are here in this passage. So the story does not say that God had compassion and relented. It does not say that God changed God's mind and did not carry out the plan.
Speaker 1:It says that God repented of evil. And that is a problem. Is it not? Because first of all, God doesn't do evil. That's not in God's job description.
Speaker 1:And second, if that's the case, well, then why would God ever need to repent, and who would God even repent to? In fact, the very next line in the story, we read that Jonah is super upset with God about this compassion, and he says to God in chapter four verse two, isn't this what I said, Lord? When I was still at home, this is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love, and I wanted nothing to do with that. So what's going on here?
Speaker 1:Is God the kind of God who plans for evil and changes on the fly? Or is God the kind of God who is infinitely gracious and compassionate, the kind of God that Jonah knew about somewhere deep in his soul even when he didn't want to partner? First here, note about Jonah quickly. Because for all of his faults, I really do find his candor in this moment meaningful. I mean, let's be honest here.
Speaker 1:We all want a God who is gracious and compassionate to us. We rarely want a God who is full of grace and compassion for those who hurt us. And understand, Jonah is not the villain of this story. Jonah is the conscience of this story that calls us, you and I, to acknowledge the pain of forgiveness. And we're gonna talk more about this next week.
Speaker 1:And so I'll put a pin in it here, and we'll find our way back. But understand this for now. Forgiveness is hard, and forgiveness is a process. And if you're not ready for all of that right now, that is okay. Because sometimes it takes time.
Speaker 1:And so you name that, you own that, understand that, and then slowly you can begin to ask God to help you let go of that. But until you give yourself that space, sometimes you will make it even harder on yourself. But back to God. Is God the kind of God who changes God's mind? Or is God the kind of God who is always gracious and compassionate?
Speaker 1:Because what this story seems to want to say is that maybe the answer is both. And the tension here, I think, is part of the point. You see, all of our concepts of God, all of our imagination when it comes to the divine is necessarily provisional. What I mean by that is that we are always constructing our images of God, drawn from our experience of the world, and God is necessarily always just beyond that. Like nothing I can ever say about God is complete.
Speaker 1:Because all of my words, my language, my images, my metaphors, all of that will always be drawn from what I've seen in the world, and there is a lot that I have yet to see. And so it's right for me to imagine God, but it's also right for me to remember that God is bigger than I imagine. And the beautiful thing is that this is precisely what the scriptures continue to invite us into. Walter Brueggemann, who I quoted earlier in this series, who already spoke to us about that prophetic imagination that stories like Jonah begin to conjure in us. He writes in his book, the unsettling God.
Speaker 1:That the big idea of the Old Testament is that the God of ancient Israel who is the creator of heaven and earth is a God in relationship. A God who is ready and able to make commitments and who is impinged upon by a variety of partners who make a difference in the life of God. Such a notion of God in relationship which pervades the Old Testament is both a stark contrast to much of classical theology that thought of God only in God's holy self and to the modern notion of autonomy whereby God and human persons are understood as isolated and independent agents who are only incidentally related to each other. My view is that such relatedness is intrinsic to existence itself and definitional for all agents including the agency of the God of ancient Israel. The Hebrew scriptures then are an invitation to reimagine our life and faith as an ongoing dialogic transaction in which all parties are variously summoned to risk and to change.
Speaker 1:And what Brueggemann is saying here is that relationship, love is the fundamental reality of the universe. Ultimately, this is what defines God. It's part of why the Trinity is so important to our mystery of the divine because God is somehow relational love within God's self. What that means is that the scriptures of the story of God inviting us into that relational mystery. It means that we get to call on God and God will answer us in ways that we understand, but not because God is limited like us precisely because God loves us.
Speaker 1:So we could think about it this way. Sometimes we pray like Jonah does in chapter two with the weight of scripture and truth behind us. Other times we pray like Jonah in chapter four with the immaturity of a petulant child that just wants their way, and yet still God listens, God responds, God loves us anyway. Because God mirrors our desire for relationship. Our desire for connection back to us.
Speaker 1:And in that, what we realize is that our very desire for love, relationship, and connection, this is made in the image of the divine. So when you're sad, God is sad. And when you hurt, God hurts. And when you are alone, God is lonely because when you laugh, God cackles at the sound of it. Because wherever we are, God meets us there for the purpose of relationship.
Speaker 1:And so what we're seeing here in this story is that when the people of Nineveh repent and they turn away from their evil and they turn toward God, does God need to repent? No. Is God ever capable of evil? No. And yet God turns toward them.
Speaker 1:God mirrors their movement toward God because God is teaching them about what it means to be in relationship with the divine. And so God takes their response, and God uses their language, and God reflects it back so that they know they are seen and they are loved. And so we could ask, is this just anthropomorphizing God? Is this just us projecting ourselves onto God? Is this just creative license that the writer is taking within the narrative?
Speaker 1:And, yes, it's all of that. But it is so much more than just that. Because this is an image of divine encounter wherein we move toward God and God moves toward us. Because this is what faith really is. It's not simply the belief in some benevolent power somewhere out there in the universe.
Speaker 1:It is trust that the divine listens and responds for you. You see, God condescends to the terms of the Ninevites here. And God is willing to be known within the limits of their imagination here. But here's the kicker, God is doing all of that all the time for all of us. Because that right there is the compassionate, always gracious God that Jonah knows somewhere deep in his soul, the one who meets us wherever it is that we need to be met right now.
Speaker 1:And right now, all of us, we find ourselves in this enormous jumble of emotions. In one moment, we might find ourselves hopeful. In the next, we feel like we are drowning in despair. And all all of this reminds us of is that sometimes the most divine thing that we can offer to each other is not to try to cheer each other up or to bring each other down or to correct each other with all the right facts so that we are accurate and true, but simply instead to mirror the emotions that are in front of us. In order to let someone know that they are seen in that moment.
Speaker 1:Because when you cry, God doesn't try to stop you. And when you laugh, God doesn't try to shut you down. When you hurt, God sits and God hurts with you. And right now with everything in our world overturned all around us, perhaps this is the divine gift that we now get to offer to each other. To be near even at a distance.
Speaker 1:To laugh with another who laughs, to lament with someone who cries, to ensure that each person we know knows that they are known, they are seen this day. May you know that even in your small moments of joy on your couch this week, God smiles with you. In your moments of fear, God aches alongside you. In your confusion, God is lost with you and when together you find your way back, God now invites you to be there for someone else. Because however it is that you move toward God, I promise the divine will move back toward you.
Speaker 1:May you be known in new ways this week. May God meet you wherever you need to be met today. Let's pray. God, would this story of your movement toward the Ninevites in their language, in the limits of their imagination, give us great courage and peace and comfort right now. No matter how we come to you, how broken and fractured and flawed our imagination of you is, you are there waiting to meet us exactly where we need to be met.
Speaker 1:That you would come and you would meet the Ninevites in their limited imagination, and then you would invite them one step at a time to know you more, to move towards you, to be welcomed towards the heart of your love. That we are invited into that same journey, one small step at a time to begin to know you, one prayer, one moment, one emotion, one divine encounter after another. And God, we have opportunity to be that space and place for another, to sit with those who cry and cry, to laugh with those who feel celebration. As we mirror that emotion back to each other to let us know that we are seen. May your spirit be present in those Zoom chats, in those FaceTimes, in those phone calls, where real emotion meets real encounter.
Speaker 1:And we come to see ourselves in new ways through each other. Holy Spirit, be with each of us as we need you to be. Move us one step forward today toward you. Invite us to the infinite grace and peace that sits at the center of your heart. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray.
Speaker 1:Amen.