CELEBRATING:
SERMONS
"Reluctant Disciples"
Jan 26th
Prayer:
May we speak the truth, hear the truth, think the truth
and live the truth -
O you, who are the way, the truth and the life. AMEN
The Jonah story is a whale of a tale. (Get it?) Jonah
- whale!
Alright, I'm going to remind you of the story
[thanks to Paul Keim in Christian Century, Jan. 11,
2003, p. 17 for the following retelling, altered:]
The Prophet of the Lord - that's Jonah - is commissioned
to warn the Most Evil Empire - that's Nineveh - it just
happens to be in today's northern Iraq. The prophet
is to announce the Evil Empire's impending destruction
because of its evil.
But the Prophet flees by boat in the opposite direction.
An act of God on the high seas threatens to destroy
the ship and all aboard.
Phoenician sailors, more deeply religious than the
Prophet of the Lord, determine who is to be blame for
the predicament and decide what to do about it.
Despite their reluctance to risk loss of life (wink,
wink), the Phoenician sailors toss the Prophet into
the sea. The Prophet is promptly swallowed by a large
marine creature - a whale, if you insist.
From the belly of the whale-like fish, the Prophet
delivers himself of a prayer so lousy with pious platitudes
that the poor sea creature pukes him up onto dry land.
This is where we picked up the story in our reading
today:
God gives Jonah a prophetic recall and recommissioning
- okay, this is your second chance Prophet - don't blow
it.
So off he goes to the Most Evil Empire.
In the midst of the great city, the unenthusiastic Prophet
delivers his one sentence five-word, world's worst sermon,
packs his bags, and prepares to head home.
No illustrations, no poems, no pithy slogans or alliteration,
no spin doctors, just
"Forty days and you're toast." (Jonah 3:4
Paraphrased!).
[thanks also to Wm. Willimon, Pulpit Resource, Vol.
31, # 1 p. 18]
And yet in this exquisite farce, the response far exceeds
anything seen elsewhere in the Bible or in our time:
the evil people of the Most Evil Empire believe in God,
they repent, and declare a fast for the whole city.
From cattle to king all are clothed in the sackcloth
- burlap - of repentance.
God's response is predictable. The whole judgment thing
is called off.
But the Prophet is not amused - he is very annoyed.
His hatred of Nineveh is much greater than God's mercy.
This is exactly why he had fled in the first place.
He wanted no part in the deliverance of the Most Evil
Empire. And now God has spared the people. //
How God must get tired of pious prattle and hollow
prayers and people who say they love God, but can't
stand their neighbour or their sister or brother or
the stranger or their enemy.
In studying history I have found it an embarrassment
to read about so-called Christian nations and kings
given the title of "Most Christian" hurrying
to make war on some vulnerable people to gain a piece
of land or reclaim some lost honour.
So much for their honoring the "image of God"
in their opponent as they killed for political gain.
I find it singularly sad and shameful to see the government
of our southern neighbour rushing headlong into full-scale
war - the bombing has already been going on for some
time - and all in the name of righteous anger and judgment
proclaimed by a born-again President.
I was encouraged by political leaders of Canada, Germany
and France - claiming no particular righteousness, but
insisting on a UN Security Council authorization - some
semblance of international lawfulness - before they
would participate in any military assault on Iraq.
At least in Nineveh it was clear that everyone was
gleefully involved in evil.
In today's Iraq it is clear only that the people have
been suffering for years at the hand of its own tyrannical
government and by the economic embargo inflicted on
them by western nations. High altitude bombing and ground
war in Iraq would compound their suffering and kill
thousands - no grace of God in that hell.
The morality of the Bible so often seems to go against
our normal ways:
Jonah says it's normal to hate those evil Ninevites.
God says I love them and not even they are beyond my
compassion.
Jesus challenges his hearers: could you see a despised
Samaritan as a neighbour to love? Could you see an Iraqi
leader as one to embrace? - because as long as you exclude
some, you haven't caught onto God's way.
Disciples, Jesus asks, could you follow me into the
jaws of the enemy and still love those who would take
your life?
Jesus' friends all deserted him. Their fear was too
great, or was their hate too deep?
If they had hated less, might they have gone with him?
Their reluctance to accompany him revealed the shallowness
of their trust in God.
So here you and I are. We might not want to call ourselves
prophets of the Lord, but we do call ourselves God's
people and companions of Christ.
Where do we draw the line in the sand demarking the
limit to God's mercy?
How many of us still walk around with ancient resentments
and hates, because sometime someone did something we
didn't like or hurt us or told us the unembellished
truth.
And unlike the Ninevites, we didn't repent, but we've
been nursing a grudge and hurt or hate ever since?
How easy that makes it to say: go get them George; bomb
them to smithereens.
Because our righteous hate has long been radiating like
nuclear poison, it's not hard to support other righteous
haters. Jonah would have been pleased.
But God weeps over all the hatred and hostility. And
in Jesus came to turn God's foes into friends. And to
turn people like Jonah and us - once only too ready
to condemn and blast - into prophets of mercy and hope
- the dawn of a new way - the reign of God.
Jonah was not a nice guy. I like the whale a whole
lot better. But in spite of Jonah, and often in spite
of me and you, God gets to people and changes them and
makes them heralds of a new way - the way of Christ
- faithful love, abundant mercy, never ending compassion.
There is big need to stop being reluctant and even greater
need to make God's mercy and love real in our world.
Life in the belly of the whale is putrid. Making God's
grace and love real is bliss.
Thanks be to God.
AMEN
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Shaughnessy Heights United Church
congregation is a Christian faith community respecting
each other in our diversity and reaching out to all
who seek God’s love.
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West 33rd Avenue,
Vancouver, BC V6M 1A7
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