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Jonah. . .Between a Rock and a Holy Place
February 15, 2009

This past week I was reading an interview between pastor/author Eugene Peterson, and well-known Quaker author, Richard Foster. Peterson is perhaps most well known for his translation, The Message. I especially liked his remarks on how to approach the reading of scripture. He says that "the Bible is not a textbook, nor, is it a manual to be studied, mastered, and mechanically applied. Peterson believes that we should LISTEN to the Bible and reflect on it like poetry till it infiltrates our souls." He reminds us that most of the Bible was first given orally, spoken to illiterate people. He reminds us that the Bible is written in common street language and is accessible to all of us, not just to Bible scholars.

This morning we are going to consider together the biblical story of Jonah. Since we don't have time to read all four chapters of Jonah I am going to suggest that you read it in the coming week. As we consider this story, let's ponder how a hard place in Jonah's life presents him with a holy place of learning and growth.

Eugene Peterson, in his preface to Jonah says that most people, even if they don't know much about the Bible, know enough about Jonah to laugh at a joke about him and his adventure inside the belly of a whale. Peterson makes the observation that there is almost this slapstick quality to Jonah's clumsiness as he bumbles his way along, trying, but always unsuccessfully, to avoid God. "Stories," he says, "are the most prominent biblical way of helping us see ourselves in 'the God story."

Friends, I think that this is a GOOD story. As most of these stories are, Jonah is really a story about us. Where do you and I find ourselves in this ancient story?

Tradition ascribes the authorship of this book to Jonah himself. We don't really know for sure, but we do know that it is a story about a reluctant, whiney, and non-compassionate prophet.

Obviously, we find the story of Jonah in Judaism, as it is part of Hebrew Bible. It is referred to in Christian thought in Matthew and Luke's gospel. (Matthew 12: 38-41; Luke 11:29-32.) The story also appears in Islam, the Bahai faith, and interestingly, there is even a vague similarity to a story in Greek mythology. I find this all rather fascinating.

The text speaks of a "great fish" swallowing Jonah. We naturally assume that it must have been a whale. There are three possible ways we might interpret the fish in this story: 1 - A big fish, literally, swallowed Jonah. 2 - A custom-made creation of God accomplished this swallowing act. It was not an ordinary fish. 3 - There wasn't a literal fish; but the story is an allegory, the fish a literary device, a vision or dream given to Jonah to get his attention.

You decide. It really is not my task to make the mysterious explainable. But let's ask ourselves what significance this story might have for us on our journey? What might we learn about God, others, and ourselves through Jonah's narrative? Let's take a look at this story together.

Chapter 1: "One day long ago, God's word came to Jonah, Amittai's son: 'Up on your feet and on your way to the big city of Ninevah! Preach to them. They're in a bad way and I can't ignore it any longer.' But Jonah got up and went the other direction to Tarshish, running away from God. He went down to the port of Joppa and found a ship headed for Tarshish. He paid the fare and went on board, joining those going to Tarshish-far away from God as he could get."

Have you ever heard God speak truth into your life and ignored it, deciding to bolt in the other direction, going your own stubborn way?

So Jonah gets on the ship and we are told that God sends a huge storm, a storm so violent that it threatens everyone's safety on the ship. The text says: "The ship was about to break into pieces. The sailors were terrified. They called out in desperation to their gods. They threw everything overboard to lighten the ship. Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down into the hold of the ship to take a nap. He was sound asleep."

When was the last time you went to sleep while God was trying to get your attention? When our circumstances overwhelm us, do we try to escape, numb out, or deny the mess we are in?

Well, some interesting conversation goes on before the sailors decide to throw Jonah overboard. They quickly look for someone to blame for their predicament. Jonah becomes a likely candidate when they discover he is on the run from God. "Oh, it's Jonah's fault!"

Then Jonah starts his whining, "Oh, just throw me overboard, it is all my fault! Get rid of me and your troubles will soon be over."

Maybe you are in a difficult situation today because you have stubbornly ignored God's leading in your life and now you find yourself whining like Jonah, throwing a pity party, beating yourself up for being such an idiot.

Or maybe, you are like these sailors, blaming someone else for your circumstances. "Oh, it must be my bosses' fault that I am so miserably unhappy, or it is my spouse's fault, or those greedy bankers who took advantage of me."

The sailors are in two minds, afraid that either choice would mean a certain death. Kind of sounds like the old, "between a rock and a hard place" predicament! Either choice looks pretty bad to them. But they finally opt to throw Jonah overboard.

Chapter 2 opens with these words: "Then God assigned a huge fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah was in the fish's belly three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed to his God from the belly of the fish."

Well, it appears that Jonah has some kind of epiphany in the belly of this enormous fish, a "come Jesus meeting" of sorts. And during this dark night of the soul, he prays a pretty powerful prayer. It was one of those desperate prayers that Anne Lamott refers to as a, "HELP ME! HELP ME! HELP ME!" prayer. When Jonah finally comes to his senses he promises to do what God had originally asked him to do in the first place. It kind of makes me think of how we can run from God, but we can't hide.

God then instructs the fish to vomit Jonah up onto dry land. What an image! Just picture THAT scene for a moment.

When was the last time you prayed one of those "Help me, help me, help me," prayers? What was going on for you?

Chapter 3: "Next, God spoke to Jonah a second time. 'Up on your feet and on your way to the big city of Ninevah! Preach to them. They're in a bad way and I can't ignore it any longer.' This time Jonah started off straight for Ninevah, obeying God's orders to the letter."

So Jonah preaches to the wayward people in Ninevah, telling them they will be destroyed if they don't change their harmful ways.
And then an amazing thing happens. It says: "The people of Ninevah LISTENED, and trusted God. They proclaimed a citywide fast and dressed in burlap to show their repentance. Everyone did- rich and poor, famous and obscure, leaders and followers." Even the king of Ninevah did. It says that, "God saw what they had done, that they had turned away from their evil lives. He did change his mind about them. What he said he would do to them he didn't do."

And listen to Jonah's response: Chapter 4: "Jonah was furious. He lost his temper. He yelled at God, 'God! I knew it-when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That's why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness! So, God, if you won't kill them, kill me! I'm better off dead!'

And God said, 'Jonah, what you have to be angry about?' The story ends with Jonah going off to stage his pity party. God follows him and they have some more conversation. God presents him with a really cool little object lesson trying to help Jonah see the futility of his position. And that is all the more we hear about Jonah.

How am I like Jonah? Do I expect God to do what I want God to do on my timetable? Do I hold bitterness and resentment in my heart when God blesses and forgives those who have behaved poorly and lived incredibly destructive lives? (Kind of rings of the whiney resentful older brother in Jesus' story of the prodigal son and loving father.) Some of us are really uncomfortable with grace. I wonder why.

But there is another aspect of this story that I would be remiss not to mention, this tension between God's mercy and God's love of justice. There is a moral order in the universe. We cross this line all of the time, don't we? In this story, the people of Ninevah were responsive to God's message to them. They listened to what Jonah had to say. They showed genuine remorse for the harm they had caused. They repented for the wrong they had done.

Is there something we need to see here? Does repentance precede God's compassion? Is there a natural order within the universe for our willful and conscious choice to live in ways that are harmful to us and to others? Is there a natural flow of consequence for our sin?
What do you think? From your own understanding and experience of God, how has this played out in your life? "In Hebrew culture, they say that you don't know a spiritual truth unless you live it."

Maybe repentance is about acknowledging the wrong that I have done and turning in a new direction, in God's direction. Maybe then the hard place we find ourselves in can become a holy place of grace and growth, as we admit our weakness, our shadow self, our sin and quit trying to rationalize it away. Maybe this is when God can actually work with us, transforming us, healing us, opening us up to new opportunities to live and embrace. Maybe it is about our "YES" to God, and our willingness to receive God's forgiveness for thinking we can make it through our lives independently.

Frankly, I think Jonah paints a pretty beautiful picture of the tenacious love and forgiveness of God and he also reveals the human side of our own responsibility to respond, that we are often the masters of our own misery, aren't we?

As we enter a time of open worship to ponder this story, allow me to read this prayer.

"Give me a candle of the Spirit, O God,
as I go down into the depths of my being.
Show me the hidden things, the creatures of my dreams,
the storehouse of forgotten memories and hurts.
Take me down to the spring of my life,
and tell me my nature and my name.
Give me freedom to grow, so that I may become that self,
the seed of which you planted in me at my making.
Out of the deep I cry to you, O God."
Amen.