Scriptures Jonah 3:1-10
Psalm 51:11-18 Luke 11:29-32
One of the joys and challenges of these Wednesday night
Lenten services is that it provides a chance to preach on texts that don’t come
up in the three-year Sunday lectionary cycle.
Tonight’s reading from Luke’s gospel does not appear as a Sunday morning
reading – but it does appear in the cycle of daily readings, and but I believe
it may have something to say to us tonight.
Many of us may remember the book of Jonah from our Sunday
school lessons. It’s a story that
children can appreciate – God tells Jonah, a prophet, to tell the people of
Nineveh to repent. Now, the people of
Nineveh were Israel’s enemies. Jonah hated
the Ninevites, wanted nothing to do with
them. So he traveled by boat to
Tarshish, in exactly the opposite direction from Nineveh. A great storm comes up, and the people on the
boat, who worship all manner of pagan gods, learn by casting lots that Jonah
was to blame. So they throw Jonah
overboard, the seas became calm, and in awe the people on the boat sacrificed
to the Lord, to the God of Jonah….whom they had just thrown overboard. You probably remember from Sunday school that
a great big whale came up to swallow Jonah to keep him from drowning. Jonah spent three days inside the whale, from
which he prayed to the Lord.
The whale coughed Jonah up on dry ground, and God told Jonah
once again to go to Nineveh to tell them to repent…and Jonah went, probably
with great reluctance. We’re told Jonah
went a day’s walk – about 20 miles – into the city and cried out, “In forty
days your city will be overthrown.” Now,
Jonah wanted God to smite the city and all its people, so he hoped nobody in
Nineveh would listen to him, that nobody in Nineveh would repent. Maybe he
shouted the message once and walked away.
But despite Jonah’s best efforts, his words reached the king of Nineveh,
who took Jonah’s words with utmost seriousness, panicked, proclaimed a fast,
commanding that that people and animals alike wear sackcloth – the cows and
chickens wearing sackcloth must have been quite a sight….I wonder if any of
them kept goldfish, and whether the goldfish had to wear sackcloth…. - and that
people and animals must fast. God saw
their repentance, and spared the people – making Jonah furious. Mercy was the last thing Jonah thought the
Ninevites deserved – but Jonah learned a difficult lesson that God’s love was
bigger than Jonah’s hatred. There’s
quite a bit of sly humor in this story….the punch line is that even though
Jonah resisted God, ran away from God, dragged his feet at every step, did his
best to make sure nobody would listen to him or pay attention to him, he
brought about the conversion of the people on the ship who had just thrown him
overboard, along with the hated Ninevites.
It’s a little like the Mel Brooks movie “The Producers” in which a down
on his luck producer and his shady accountant realize they can make money on a
sure-fire flop, so they bring together the worst possible script, the most
hopeless director on the planet, and the worst actors imaginable in hopes that
their show would flop on the first night – but instead it became a runaway hit,
ruining their get-rich-quick scheme. The
same happened for Jonah - despite his best efforts at being a sure-fire
prophetic flop, God turned Jonah into an astounding, and astoundingly
reluctant, success.
Now, when we were kids in Sunday school, we probably didn’t
get much past the part about the whale.
Maybe we colored in drawings of a big whale with a tiny little man named
Jonah inside. But the book of Jonah was
really about God’s boundless compassion even on the enemies of the chosen
people.
Jonah is a quirky book, and it’s striking that Jesus refers
to it in tonight’s Gospel reading. Jesus
had just finished healing a man who was unable to speak by casting out a demon
inside of him. You’d think the people in
their amazement would be receptive to Jesus – and some of them were - but some
of the religious authorities accuse Jesus of accomplishing his healing by use
of demonic powers. A controversy ensues,
and Jesus tells them that he did not cast out the demon by cooperating with the
demon, but by binding him up and casting him out. Some of the people continue to press Jesus
for a sign that God was with him – as if the healing wasn’t sign enough. And Jesus, calling them an evil generation,
says that no sign will be given to them except the sign of Jonah.
This story appears in three of the four Gospels, Matthew,
Mark and Luke. And each of these three
Gospels tells it a little differently.
In Mark’s gospel, 8th chapter, when asked for a sign, Jesus
simply says, “Why does this generation ask for a sign. Truly I tell you, no
sign will be given to it.” In Matthew’s
gospel, 12th chapter, Jesus says there will be no sign but the sign
of Jonah, that just as Jonah had spent three days in the belly of the whale,
Jesus would spend three days in the heart of the earth – referring to his
burial after the crucifixion. Later in
Matthew’s gospel, 16th chapter, Jesus again mentions the sign of
Jonah with no further explanation. Our
reading from Luke’s gospel didn’t mention Jesus’ burial, but both Matthew’s and
Luke’s gospels said that at the judgment the people of Nineveh would condemn
the people asking for signs, because they believed Jonah even though he offered
no signs. Jesus also said that the Queen
of Sheba would condemn them, because she traveled long distances to hear King
Solomon even though Solomon offered no signs.
What are we to make of this?
Jesus had performed healings and miracles. While the people he healed were grateful, the
religious authorities were threatened.
Somehow the healing itself wasn’t enough to demonstrate that Jesus was
doing God’s will; they wanted additional proof. And when Jesus was unwilling to cater to their
requests, they attacked him.
We can learn a few things from this story. The religious leaders objected to Jesus
because Jesus didn’t fit their preconceived notions, didn’t come in a package
they recognized, most of all because they saw Jesus as competition, as somebody
“not on their team”. And sometimes we
can miss God’s goodness because of our own preconceived notions. We may think that we can only encounter God
in church, or among church people, and miss God’s goodness in other places or among
people who never darken the doorstep of a church. We may encounter God’s goodness in nature,
and miss it because we just take it for granted. We may expect God to send us some sort of spectacular
vision or religious experience, and overlook God’s presence in ordinary
circumstances. Sort of like the old
story about the drowning man who waved off assistance from two boats and a
helicopter because he said “God will rescue me!”….only to learn after his death
that it was God who had sent the two boats and the helicopter.
This story is also a reminder that our attempts to help
people in God’s name will not always bring us applause. In fact, it may bring opposition. When the food cupboard started at Bridesburg
Methodist church, the neighbors raised all sorts of opposition, and even tried
to get local political leaders to shut the cupboard down – even though some of
those same neighbors went to the cupboard for assistance. The neighbors objected because the cupboard helped
the “wrong people” and drew those they considered the wrong people into the
neighborhood. Fortunately, prayer and
persistence won out over the opposition, and God’s will is done at the cupboard
to this day.
When we follow God’s will in new directions, we will
encounter opposition. Satan loves few
things more than a dead church that does nothing and helps no one. But if God breathes life into a dead church and
starts ministering God’s grace in new ways to new people, when that formerly
dead church starts pushing against the status quo, that church will catch flack
from the neighbors, will encounter opposition.
If the church doesn’t realize what’s happening, it may panic and stop
its new ministries, and go back to sleep.
But if the church knows up front to expect opposition, it will keep
faith in God and persist in well-doing.
Jesus healed and cast
out demons – and caught all sorts of flack from the religious authorities as a
result. And Jesus persisted despite
opposition – and we’re called to do the same.
I’ll close with a quote that was said to have hung on a wall
in Mother Teresa’s home in Calcutta, though it likely didn’t originate with her,
and you’ve likely heard it.
People are unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.[1]
Amen.
