"Oh, Love That Will Not Let Us Go"

Jonah  3: 1-5, 10
Sunday, January 21, 2018
First Congregational United Church of Christ of Manhattan, KS
Sermon by the Rev. Caela Simmons Wood

The book of Jonah only shows up twice in the entire three-year lectionary cycle. Which is too bad, because it’s such a great story. Despite its brevity, this small but mighty book has a lot to teach people of all ages - not just children.

Before we dive in, though, a couple of words about what this story is...and what it isn’t. As a child, I thought this story was kind of scary. After all, the idea of God sending a giant fish to swallow up a man wasn’t particularly soothing. I remember puzzling over how this could possibly BE. And when I became old enough to understand that it couldn’t BE, that giant fish don’t just swallow people and then spit them back up again, I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t a TRUE story and I should just set it aside.

That, of course, was a big mistake.

When we set aside stories because we think only “true” stories matter, we miss out on something very important, which is that truths often come to us in stories that are not factually accurate. Just because something didn’t happen, doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Stories, allegories, metaphors, myths…they all contain great truth. Theologian Marcus Borg used to talk about the way a good story can convey MORE truth than just a factual, accurate accounting of “what really happened.”

Those who heard the story of Jonah long ago would have immediately known it wasn’t based in fact. For one thing, it’s too darn funny to be a historical recollection of a prophet’s life. The themes are larger than life. It’s a parody of prophetic literature. Once you’ve read a lot of the prophets in the Bible, you read Jonah and you laugh out loud because the author mimics that style of literature so well.

It’s a story. A good one. And it contains deep truths. Just like all good stories do.

One of the great things about stories is that when we come back to them again and again, we find different parts of ourselves peeking out at us from the pages. When I re-read Jonah this week, the thing I noticed was, really, how utterly unlikable Jonah is.

Jonah didn’t like the Assyrians. I think it would be fair to say he hated them, in fact. We’re not told why – just that he’s a thoroughly bigoted person. When “the word of the Lord” first comes to Jonah and tells him to go to Ninevah, that great city filled with Assyrians, he just flat out refuses. People often say he was scared, but the text doesn’t say that at all. It just says he ran away. He ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction of Ninevah and paid his fare to get on a boat.

But Jonah is no match for God. He wants to get away from her, but one of the morals of this story seems to be that getting away from God is impossible. God follows Jonah, sending a storm to shake things up a bit on the boat.

You have to feel sorry for those sailors on Jonah’s ship. They’re just going out their business, trying to make an honest living, and now their lives are at risk because this yahoo is running away from God. Ridiculously enough, Jonah sleeps through the whole thing. The sailors are on deck, weeping and wailing and praying to every god they can think of. Finally, they start throwing all the cargo overboard, trying to lighten the ship and stay afloat. Some poor guy runs down into the hold – probably looking for more stuff to throw over the side – and there’s Jonah, fast asleep.

They wake him and yell at him, “Dude! What are you doing? Pray to your god if you’ve got one!” They discover that Jonah does have a god, “the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

Well, now. There’s the problem. This Hebrew worships the God who controls all this stuff – clearly he’s in trouble and is ruining things for the rest of us. And in a comic twist, Jonah has secured his first converts. Without even trying, he has made believers out of all the sailors. What a prophet! They begin praying to Yahweh and Jonah says, “Just throw me overboard and God will calm down.”

Apparently these sailors aren’t quite as melodramatic as Jonah. They try desperately to save the ship without sacrificing Jonah – who, by the way, seems awfully brave right about now. Five minutes ago he ran away from God and now he’s a tough guy, “It’s okay, just throw me overboard!”

But it’s all in vain. The storm gets worse. Not knowing what else to do, the sailors throw Jonah into the raging sea and, “Peace, be still,” the storm ends and all is well.

Except Jonah, of course, is out to sea without a canoe. But, no worries, God sends a giant fish to swallow him up. Because, you know, that’s comforting. And while he is in the belly of the fish, Jonah prays this long prayer, made up almost entirely of phrases he has borrowed from the Psalms. So here we have a prophet who can’t even come up with his own lines. I told you it was funny.

As soon as Jonah finishes praying, the fish vomits him up onto dry land. Quite an ending to a prayer. AMEN.
Jonah hears God speaking again – same instructions: “Go to Nineveh. Tell them they’re in big trouble.” This time, Jonah goes.

Now, Nineveh is a huge city. And Jonah does what any prophet worth his salt would do. He starts wandering around the city, shouting. Only it’s not much of a sermon. Just one short line, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” No specifics. No poetry. No long list of sins.

And the strange thing is, it works. Instantly. Jonah is the most natural and effective prophet in all of the Hebrew Bible! The people repent. They believe. They begin to fast and they put on sackcloth. The king hears about Jonah’s prophecy and he gets on board. He takes off his robe, puts on sackcloth, covers himself in ashes and proclaims that everyone in Nineveh – every adult, every child, even the livestock must fast and wear sackcloth – everyone must repent and pray, even the cattle and pigs. It is their only hope.

When God sees the livestock running around in sackcloth, she has a change of heart. I mean, cows in sackcloth really tug at the heartstrings, you know? The destruction will not come to pass. “God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” Which seems like it might be a happy ending….except it’s not.

Because Jonah is mad. Mad, mad, MAD that God is so nice.
And now it becomes clearer why Jonah never wanted to come to Nineveh in the first place. It’s not that he was scared of God. It’s that he knew in his heart of hearts that God loved the Assyrians. And Jonah does not love the Assyrians. In fact, Jonah would rather die than witness their salvation.

Whew. Ain’t that something? To hate a group of people so much that you’d rather die than see them succeed? It’s a bit overstated, of course – everything in this story is. But it does make me wonder about “those people” – you know, the ones we’d rather not see succeed.

I’ll give you a moment to pull up a picture of “those people” in your mind. The ones you don’t want to see succeed. The ones you hope will fail. The ones you think are wrong, wrong, wrong no matter what they say or do. The ones you think are evil. Got a picture in your mind? Don’t worry, I won’t make you share your answer. I just want you to have a good, honest conversation with yourself.
(PAUSE)
Now, a question: what if it turns out God loves….even them?

When I wrestle with these questions I find myself admitting that I have more of Jonah in me than I might like to admit. If I’m 100% honest, there are some people that I just kind of can’t believe God loves. It’s incredible.  And yet here I am, standing there with Jonah, jaw hanging down to the ground, astonished because God really does love them. Even them.

I like to think that on my better days, I do a bit better than Jonah did. I pick my jaw up off the floor, regain my composure, and try to learn something from the experience. Not so with Jonah.

He retreats just outside the city gates and sits down….and waits. He still isn’t sure God is really gracious. He wants to see how this all goes down. God sends a little plant that grows up overnight to give him shade. And then the next day God sends a worm and the scorching sun to kill the plant. And Jonah is mad – again – “how dare you take that plant away from me?”
‘“Oh, that plant? The one you didn’t make? The one I made?” says God. “Well, if you think you loved that plant, imagine how I feel about the people of Nineveh, the people that I created from nothing and loved into being. Imagine how I would feel if they perished.”

And so God gets the last word. We don’t find out what happens to Jonah.

But I have my suspicions. After all, if you think about how much Jonah loved that plant that he didn’t even create…and then you think about how much God loved all those Assyrians…..I have this suspicion that God’s love is a love that will not let us go. God’s love holds on even to a guy like Jonah. Even for those mean-nasty Assyrians and “those people” we don’t much like.

It is a love that holds on….even to us.

Thanks be to God.