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A background
We all know the story of Jonah, or parts of it, how Jonah was told by
God to go and tell the city of Nineveh that it was doomed to God's judgment
for its evil ways, how Jonah got on a ship and headed in the other direction,
until finally, in the grip of a terrible storm the sailors tossed him
overboard and he was swallowed whole by a huge fish. In the belly of the
fish, somehow still conscious, Jonah prays for forgiveness and then the
fish spews him up on the beach. Jonah decides once is enough, and heads
for Nineveh, to do as God directed.
The point is, Jonah hates Nineveh and they hate his kind. Nineveh is one
of the main cities of the Assyrians, and they have overrun Israel and
sent their people into exile. To go there and do as God has directed is
tantamount to suicide.
READING: Jonah 3:1-10
The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, "Get
up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that
I tell you." So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the
word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days'
walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's walk. And
he cried out, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"
And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone,
great and small, put on sackcloth.
When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed
his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he had
a proclamation made in Nineveh: "By the decree of the king and his
nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything.
They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. Human beings and animals
shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All
shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their
hands. Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from
his fierce anger, so that we do not perish."
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.
I don't find life straightforward. I often find that I am in two minds
as to the best way to respond to a given situation, but my wife says that's
more like three.
So I find there is often a dialogue going on in my mind.
'If I do it this way, this will happen. If I do it this way, this will
happen. '
'This is more likely to work but this is more true to Christ.'
'But this is more important for this reason.
But this is more important for the other reason.'
And so the discussion goes on. It can get very noisy up there at times.
On occasions, I've kept myself awake at night with the din.
You may have noticed that nations are like that too. We have actually
structurally enshrined that principle in our parliament. I was told once,
when I was doing a studying politics that it is the duty of the opposition
to provide an alternative to the government. So when I saw David Cameron
agreeing with the Prime Minister about education policy, because in his
opinion it's a good idea, I could hear my old politics lecturer going
crook and saying he wasn't doing his duty. He should disagree. He's the
leader of the opposition.
In most of life, there is a discussion going on, a weighing up of one
idea against another. It happens in our Christian living. Debate is a
healthy part of a church meeting, trying to get to the right decision.
The way we do the debate might be an issue!!! But the debate, of itself,
is good.
We need to weigh competing claims up against each other. There should
be a debate, if we care, if we are really wrestling with tough and complex
issues.
When we open the bible, we often open up a book in which a conversation,
a debate is in process, but sometimes we miss it.
In the books of Samuel and Kings, there is a debate going on about whether
Israel should depend upon God and trust the judges and prophets, or be
like the other nations and have kings to represent God.
Deuteronomy puts one side of an argument that Israel's role is to be a
blessing to other nations by working with them. The books of Ezra and
Nehemiah put the other side, that Israel should totally withdraw from
other nations and be separate.
We see the same debate sometimes in the way churches see their ministry.
Ours tends towards a more involved sort of ethos, reflecting the way we
see Jesus involved in community.
When you open your Bible, do you ever stop and ask yourself the question;
"Why is this book here? Of all the stories the Hebrews told, and
they are countless, why is this book here?" What did the people decide
to keep this one in particular?
The Bible is a bit like the bottom draw of my filing cabinet. If you look
in that drawer, you'll find a shirt that some students wrote their names
on when I left Warragul High School after 10 years there as Chaplain.
You'll find two certificates of Allison and David's graduation from High
School. You'll find the Academic Records for both Sharn and myself, when
we completed our primary degrees, both in theology. You will find a Scout
Club certificate for David.
It is a collection of what is most precious to us, but it is also a very
selective collection. We can only keep the most important. The rest are
discarded along the way, left in a box in a shed in Australia, put somewhere
else or lost forever.
So when you open up the Bible, you have the most precious stories, narratives,
remembrances of the Hebrew people. A very selective window into their
lives, their faith journey. Sometimes a window into the theological arguments
they were having.
Jonah is a really interesting part of the biblical debate and discussion.
If you ever read the book of Nahum, and then the book of Jonah, you'll
understand what I mean about two sides of the argument. Nahum begins,
"An oracle concerning Nineveh. A jealous and avenging God is the
Lord,… who takes vengeance on his adversaries and rages against his enemies.
The Lord will by no means clear the guilty." And it continues
in that vein throughout the document. Nineveh, in the book of Nahum, is
unforgivable.
In the story of Jonah, that's exactly the way Jonah feels and he strongly
preaches condemnation on the city. But in this story, the most unexpected
thing happens, the city repents, and God does too, and God turns away
from the promise of destruction on Nineveh and forgives. And if you read
the next chapter, Jonah is properly ticked off.
One biblical scholar wrote: It is only when Jonah's cherished castor
beam plant has withered and he feels the blasts of the desert wind and
the merciless heat of the sun, that he realizes his expectation will not
be fulfilled - and more than this- that a fundamental conviction by which
he has lived has been shattered: he had believed that God's wrath to judge
those outside Israel should outweigh God's mercy to save them. He does
not object to the divine compassion and salvation directed to those like
himself, but when it is also effective for the wicked, he cannot abide
it. Because he refuses to let God transform his anger into love, his pity
for plants into pity for people, he wants to die.
As the story goes on, Jonah goes out and sits on the hillside, waiting
for the doom to come, and when it finally doesn't, he is really angry.
He's angry at God, angry at Nineveh, angry enough to die.
Unforgiveness is a very destructive force, not on the person who isn't
forgiven, but on the person who won't forgive.
We all know the story of how Jonah was sent to Nineveh, and ran in the
opposite direction, and God was angry and Jonah ended up swallowed by
a great fish. And in the fish, Jonah prays for forgiveness and God forgives
him, and gives him another chance.
Jonah doesn't want that for Nineveh. He wants God to operate one standard
for him and one for the people who he doesn't like.
The book of Jonah is positioned amongst the minor prophets, which is a
bit odd because all of the other minor prophets are people saying "Thus
says the Lord." The Book of Jonah is a story. But it is also a prophecy,
a word of God to the people because it challenges them to realize that
the God of mercy and forgiveness they turn to, is also the God of the
other people, even the Assyrians.
Jonah expects and receives forgiveness from God. He must also, if he is
to be God's messenger, acknowledge that God's forgiveness isn't particular,
that God also cares about the people of Nineveh, and they too are God's
children.
The Book of Jonah is also a prophecy. It's just done in narrative form,
and it challenges the people of Israel with the question of forgiveness,
and God's love for the hated and despised, much as Jesus so often did
with his parables.
In my inner discussions, I sometimes choose the wrong way. My son sent
me an email the other day with a list of wise sayings. One of them went
like this.
"Good judgment is acquired through experience.
Experience is acquired through bad judgment."
I know I need forgiveness. I expect you do too, from time to time.
The story of Jonah teaches us that if we are to accept forgiveness for
ourselves, we must also be prepared to give it to others, even the one's
most disliked and difficult to forgive. As our psalm suggests to us, God
is God of all creation, longing to bring it all into reconciliation.
It is to this task that the Christian is called.
Forgiveness is an essential ingredient.
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