Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
September 1, 2019
Scripture:
Jonah 1:1-2:2, 2:10-3:5, 3:10
Has anyone read
Michael Crummey’s book, Galore? One of the key events in this novel is when
the body of a whale washes up on the beach in outport Newfoundland, the people
cut open the whale and find the body of a man in its stomach. They go to bury
him, but before they can do so, they discover that he’s alive, even though he
can’t speak and the stink of the whale’s belly never leaves him, no matter how
much he bathes. It’s a modern-day Jonah
story – or at least a reference to the story of Jonah set in the 18th
Century and written in the current century.
And the pop culture
references to Jonah don’t stop with this book!
As a fan of the writings of Lucy Maud Montgomery, I think of the time
when Anne Shirley had a “Jonah Day” – a day when absolutely nothing went right
for her, a day filled with one disaster after another. You have Pinocchio and his father being
swallowed by a whale. There was a
VeggieTales movie made of the story. The
image of being in the belly of the whale, where you can’t see anything, you
can’t do anything, and you are between one situation and another is part of the
Jungian psychoanalysis collection of images.
Isn’t it amazing how
far these ancient biblical stories have reached into how we see and understand
the world?
And yet… and yet
digging into the story, I can’t help but think that maybe being in the belly of
the whale or the belly of a big fish isn’t as significant to Jonah’s story as
it is to pop culture.
The book of Jonah is
only 4 chapters long – we read most of the story this morning. Chapter 1 is heavy on the action. Jonah is called by God to go to Nineveh – one
of the biggest cities in the ancient world, located in what is northern Iraq on
today’s maps, near the modern city of Mosul.
But Jonah doesn’t want to go – God’s message is unlikely to be received
well, and his life will be in danger when his message isn’t welcomed. So instead of heading east towards Nineveh,
Jonah heads west, towards the Mediterranean Sea, and hops on a boat going to
the other side. A storm comes up, lives
are in danger, the superstitious sailors try to figure out whose gods have been
angered so that they can figure out how to escape the storm, Jonah’s guilty
conscience leads him to confess, he tells the sailors to throw him overboard,
the sailors try to return him to dry land but the storm is too strong, in
desperation they throw Jonah overboard, and God sends a big fish to swallow
Jonah before he can drown. And this is
just chapter 1!
Chapter 2 opens with
Jonah in the belly of the fish – we have to set aside our knowledge of modern
science here, science that tells us that neither whales nor sharks nor any
other sea-dwelling creature is able to physiologically swallow a human, and
accept the story for what it is. Jonah is
in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights – who else do we know
who spent three days in the land of shadows and death? And while Jonah is there, he doesn’t rage
against God, he doesn’t blame God for what has happened. Instead, Jonah sings a song of praise to the
God who brought him to this situation.
This tells us that Jonah was a person who knew God, who walked with
God. He would have known the scriptures,
including the psalms, including Psalm 139, which we adapted for our call to worship
this morning. Jonah knew that there was
nowhere that he could go to flee from God, even to the farthest reaches of the
sea. He knew, deep down, that hopping on
that ship going the opposite direction from Nineveh was futile – there’s really
no way to escape God.
"Jonah" by John August Swanson
Chapter 2 ends with
Jonah being vomited out onto dry land; and in Chapter 3, God tries again to
send Jonah to Nineveh. This time Jonah
goes. He goes and preaches a short
sermon, as he wanders the streets. 8
words in our English translation; only 5 words in the original Hebrew. “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be
overthrown!” And the amazing thing – it
works! The bible is full of stories of
prophets who try to point people back to God, and who are ignored, abused, and
killed for their efforts. But here we
have Jonah, the reluctant prophet, convincing an entire city to turn towards
God, the creator of the heavens and the earth.
It is almost comedic, the extremes that Chapter 3 presents to us. The people fast and put on garments of sackcloth
to signal their repentance. The king
dresses himself in sackcloth and sits in an ash heap – acts of repentance that
mirror the story of Job. The king
declares that the entire city – both humans and livestock – participate in this
massive act of repentance, and here I picture those poor cows, not quite sure
of what is going on, being draped in sackcloth.
And God sees their repentance, and God chooses not to destroy the city.
We didn’t read Chapter
4 today, but it includes a curious epilogue to the story of Jonah. When Jonah sees that God has chosen not to
destroy the city, Jonah doesn’t celebrate, but instead resents this
decision. If God wasn’t going to destroy
the city, why was he, Jonah, put through so much trouble to go there? To which God replies with an object lesson
telling Jonah, “Can’t I choose to extend grace – that unearned gift – wherever
I choose?”
And so I see the story
of Jonah as the story of someone who was called by God for a specific task; a
story of trying to run away from that call, but being unable to escape
God. I see it as a story of God’s
persistence, and a story of God’s grace.
And believe me, I can
relate to Jonah. I’ve shared a bit about
my own story of being called to ministry with you before, but my call to ministry
felt like an itch. And I tried to run
away from it – I tried all sorts of different things to scratch that itch that
was God’s calling – anything that would mean that I wouldn’t have to go to
Nineveh (I mean, start the path towards ordination in the United Church of
Canada)! I became active in the official
board at my home congregation, I not only participated in but led bible study
groups, I became a Licenced Lay Worship Leader, I became a Presbytery Rep.
Fortunately I didn’t
end up in the belly of a whale, but with each of my attempts to escape God’s
calling, God persisted, and the itch just became itchier! When I started the formal discernment
process, I told my discernment committee that their job was to stop me from
becoming a minister. But God persisted,
and a year later I was beginning my Master of Divinity at AST in Halifax. And I was probably about 6 weeks into that
degree, completely overwhelmed by the volume and difficulty of the schoolwork,
when I realized that the itch was gone.
Like Jonah, I had finally turned in the direction that God wanted me to
go, and it was going to be OK.
So like I said, I can
relate to Jonah!
And the thing about
God and God’s calling is that God doesn’t just call prophets and ministers –
God calls all of us. God’s work in the
world requires the gifts and skills of every single one of us. God calls all of us to different vocations –
some of us are to be teachers, some of us are to be nurses, some of us are to
be lab techs, some of us are to be parents, some of us are to be grandparents
or great-grandparents, and yes, some of us are even called to be
ministers. God needs people in every
corner of society, loving God and loving your neighbour wherever you find
yourself.
And we also see a
diversity of callings in the church – God calls some people to a ministry of
prayer, some people to a ministry of music, some people to a ministry of
visiting, some people to a ministry of outreach, some people to a ministry of
fellowship and community.
And God’s call can
change from time to time or from decade to decade. God didn’t call me to ministry when I was 20
years old, the way that God called some of my classmates. God waited until both God and I were ready
for this call for it to happen.
If we try to run away
from our call like Jonah did, not only will you be uncomfortable in the belly
of whatever whale you end up in, but so will the people where you were supposed
to be. If Jonah had continued to run
away from God, if Jonah hadn’t gone to Nineveh, would the people of Nineveh
ever come to know God’s love and God’s grace?
Through the month of
September, we’re going to be looking a bit more at stewardship, and most people
think that stewardship is mostly about money.
But really, it’s so much more than that.
Stewardship is about how we look after the things that God has given to
us to look after; and one of those things that God has given us to look after
are our skills and talents. What gifts
has God given to you? How is God calling
you to use these gifts on God’s behalf; both in the church and in the world?
This weekend is Labour
Day Weekend – a time when many of us pause to think about, to consider, labour
and work. I encourage you to take a
couple of extra minutes this weekend to consider your labour through the lens
of God’s call. Where is God calling
you? What is God calling you to do? It doesn’t matter if you are retired, or in
school, or somewhere in between, God can use you, just as God used Jonah, if
you are in the place where God calls you.
How are you being
called to spread God’s love in the world?
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