You Can Make a Difference
Jonah 3:1-10
South Joplin Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
January 29, 2012
Rev. Jill Cameron Michel
If we are willing to admit it there are all sorts of stories in the Bible we don’t know well. There are especially all sorts of stories in the Old Testament with which we are unfamiliar. However, for many of us the name Jonah rings a bell. Of course what we most think about is Jonah and the whale as we have traditionally called it – the part of the story where we are told that Jonah was swallowed by a big fish and lived in its belly for several days before being spewed out onto the shore. Humorously enough, however, many of us probably don’t even know the rest of the story, the action around the fish, to know why that episode is said to have happened.
And that in itself is funny since the entire book of Jonah, the entirety of what we are told about Jonah is only four chapters long. It’s certainly short enough for us to read and yet often we don’t. But maybe we should. After all, the book of Jonah is not like other prophetic books. While most are full of prophetic speeches, this book tells one short story of the prophet Jonah. This is also a book full of irony, humor, and humanity as Jonah repeatedly went in the opposite direction from what God asked him and seemed all too much like us.
Before we look at chapter three – our particular reading for this day – first we must acknowledge that there are all sorts of questions around the story that is told in this book. They are questions that not everyone is willing to ask, but that are certainly out there or at least in the back of many of our minds, questions about whether Jonah even really existed, about whether things happened exactly as scripture tells us they did…Did Jonah really walk across that large city? Did he really just preach what in the Hebrew language appears to be a five-word sermon over and over again and get results? Did the people of Nineveh really repent so quickly? Did they come to follow the God of Israel? All sorts of questions abound about what we in our time and place call fact, about what many of you have heard me call truth with a lower case t – that which is provable. And the reality is that at some point when we read scripture we choose to either trust that the details are factually true or we choose to believe otherwise. And, we’ll probably never really know for sure. Yet, regardless of whether we do know or not, there is something for us in this story. Regardless of whether anything here is factually, provably, historically true, there is Truth – you know the kind, what I call capital T Truth, Truth that teaches us about God and about the relationship God asks us to have with both the divine and each other. This kind of Truth is not provable, but carries much weight and significance. This kind of Truth is what faith is really all about.
See, if we’re willing to get past our concern about details…if we’re willing to hear this story as being bigger than one particular prophet in one particular place, then perhaps we’ll find ourselves right in the middle of it. And perhaps we’ll hear not just a story about Jonah, but a word for our lives as well.
After all, remember the bigger picture here. The book of Jonah as we have it in the Old Testament is quite brief and as we said earlier, just tells that one story of Jonah’s call to go to Nineveh. That story takes many twists and turns as Jonah tries to avoid his call and tries to avoid God. We are told that he chooses to head to Tarshish rather than to go to Nineveh, this great city in enemy territory. We are told that he ends up in the water and is swallowed by a big fish. And again, whether you are worried about exactly what kind of fish could swallow and not digest a person, or whether you are simply along for the point of the story, what ends up happening is significant. Because what ends up happening is that no matter how hard Jonah tries to get away, no matter how many bad circumstances he puts himself in, God doesn’t let go of Jonah or of the call placed on Jonah’s life. No matter how hard Jonah tries to escape, God is still determined that Jonah will go and proclaim a word in Nineveh. And eventually he does go. He goes and we are told that he preaches and that the people see the error of their way. Not only do they see the error of their way but we are told that they turn to the God of the Israelites. And even more than that, in verse 10 we hear “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.” Not only did the people turn toward God, but God turned toward them. God forgave them.
And Jonah was ticked. Unfortunately, that’s where his story ends.
So where are we in this story? If we are honest, most often we’re probably right alongside Jonah – his companion on a journey of running away when God sends us somewhere we’d rather not go. We are probably right alongside Jonah, vilifying people with whom we are uncomfortable, about whom we know little, those who seem to be the enemy.
Ralph Milton writes, “In the San Diego airport a while ago, I found myself in conversation with one of the security people, a young man about 20 or so. And he took to ranting about the Iraqi’s in particular and Muslims in general. He dug up the very worst hearsay he could find about ‘them’ and compared it to the ‘facts’ about the best of ‘us.’
Milton goes on saying, “The Jonah story invites us to look carefully at who [the] ‘them’ is in our perspective, and who [the] ‘us’ is and [to] wonder if the story invites us to love and care about ‘them’ because God does” http://ralphmiltonsrumors.blogspot.com/2009/01/preaching-materials-for-january-25-2009.html)
Yes, if we’re honest many of us are right there in the action with Jonah. Many of us would make the same choices he made. Many of us want God to have the same enemies, the same bigotries, the same avoidances we have. And we are perfectly comfortable telling ourselves that God is right there with us.
And yet this story tells us differently. And if it weren’t enough that this story blurs the line between “us” and “them”, that this story shows us that the heart of God is just as forgiving toward our enemy as is God’s heart toward us. As if that weren’t enough, this story also reminds us that not only are we called to let God be God – to let God live out of the loving and forgiving heart that is God’s nature, but we are also called to live from that very place. Yes, we are called not only to reluctantly agree that God loves “them” but we are to reach out, to love “them” ourselves, to make a difference in “their” lives, to give “them” hope.
There is a story told “about something that happened during a flight from Johannesburg, South Africa, to London, England. A woman with a thick European accent got on the plane. She came down the aisle to the tourist section and discovered her seat assignment put her right next to a man with, shall we say, an African accent. She looked at her seat assignment; she saw it was correct. She asked her seatmate, ‘I'm sorry, are you in the right seat?’ He smiled and nodded yes. She turned around to see if there were any other empty seats in the section but she didn't see any so she tugged on the sleeve of the flight attendant. ‘Excuse me,’ she said, ‘as you can see, I'm sitting next to a person whose skin color is different from mine.’ ‘Yes, ma'am, I can see that.’ ‘Well,’ she said, ‘this is simply unacceptable. Is there another available seat?’ The flight attendant looked at her strangely and said, ‘I'm sorry, ma'am, it's against our policy to move people unnecessarily.’ ‘You don't understand,’ said the wealthy woman, ‘this arrangement will not do. I have funds in my purse to arrange an alternative.’ The flight attendant said, ‘You do?’ ‘Yes, I do. Would you please go up to first class and see if there is an available seat? I simply cannot sit next to this person.’ The flight attendant shrugged her shoulders, walked up the aisle. A few minutes later she returned. She leaned over the European woman, tapped the man with the African accent, and said, ‘I'm sorry, sir, I hate to do this. I must make a seating change. If you follow me, we have a place for you in first class.’ (Rev. William Carter at http://day1.org/698-when_god_repented)
Yes, the story of Jonah reminds us that God has not designated a first class section for you and me, for those we like or those like us, but that God invites all people into the kingdom. And God asks us to invite them as well. In fact, God calls us to not only endure them or put up with them, but to reach out and to create a world where those lines between “us” and “them” not only blur but disappear.
So, what’s the point? The point isn’t just that God wants to make us uncomfortable (although God might take a little pleasure in those moments when we come face to face with our growing edges). The point is that God calls us to make a difference. We can make a difference for others – yes, sometimes even others we don’t really care about. But we can also make a difference in our own lives, in who we are. Because when we live fully into the call that God places on our lives, even when it forces us to reconsider long held notions, then we become more fully who we are created to be.
The sad part of the story that we hear in the book of Jonah is that we don’t get a happy ending. Well, we do for the people of Nineveh, but not for Jonah. In the end Jonah is sulking and God gives him time to do that. But finally God just tells him to get over himself.
And sometimes God has to tell us to get over ourselves as well. And as God does that God will also continue to call us, frequently beyond our comfort zone, to a make a difference for others, even for our enemies. And the hope is that as we make a difference for others we will also see a difference in ourselves.
As we welcome the one who has not previously found welcome, as we see her blossom in a place that offers belonging, perhaps we will soon forget why we were hesitant to welcome her.
As we reach across divisions of race or creed, of political affiliation or economic status, and build relationships in spite of differences, in spite of suspicions, in spite of our doubts, perhaps we will soon come to see that people aren’t all that different from one another, that at our core we are all just people trying our best to survive.
As we set aside our own bigotries and take the risk to defend the one who is being treated as enemy, perhaps we will find that it no longer requires work, that we no longer hold our old views, that the one who was enemy can now become friend.
God calls us to some challenging places. God calls us to consider and question and sometimes make big changes. God calls us to make a difference often for those we have never even considered. God calls us to become different – to become the people we were created to be. May it be so.
When God Calls (I Samuel 3:1-10 January 22, 2011)
God Created YOU! (Psalm 139:1-14 January 15, 2011)
Sunday, January 8 - Rev. Jimmy Spear, guest preacher. No sermon text posted - listen above.
What Do We Expect? (Luke 2:22, 25-28, 36-40 January 1, 2012)