Jonah 1:1-17; 3:1-10 on November 10th, 2024
Above is audio of the sermon pulled from the video and amplified.
Below is transcript pulled from the video and formatted by artificial intelligence. There may be inconsistencies or errors.
Have you ever felt like Jonah and just wanted to run away from it all? Well, that's a cute idea that connects our lives to this rather famous Bible story. There's a little more to Jonah than simply wanting to run away. It's something that hits a little more close to home. It is the us versus them mentality.
Dig just a little bit into the history of the Hebrews and the Ninevites. And we see that this story has loads of lines drawn, teams chosen, and you're either with us or against us mentality. On the one hand, we have Jonah, the Hebrew, the good guy. He is one of us. Yeah, Jonah. On the other hand, we have everyone else. The Ninevites and the sailors. They are the bad guys. The ones seen as antagonists. Boo, bad guys. And these two sides, well, they pretty much hate each other.
So we hear this story and we pick our side. Jonah is one of us. Everyone else is one of them. Jonah is God's prophet. They don't go to church. Jonah good, them bad. Jonah is our guy. Even though Jonah is the worst person in the story.
Hear me out. First, he does not go to Ninevites as God tells him to. Remember, Jonah hates those people and doesn't want anything good to happen to them or for them. Including hearing about a gracious God. So instead, he boards a ship and heads in the opposite direction. And while on the boat, a storm hits and the sailors start praying. Yet Jonah is hiding out below deck, not praying.
When Jonah finally ends up in Ninev after the whole big fish incident, he goes only a little bit of a way in and gives an eight-word sermon to entice the Ninevites to change their ways. Not a very good effort there, Jonah. In terms of prophet performance, that is pretty putrid.
And yet, we like Jonah. He's got a little room to grow as a prophet, a little rough around the edges, but at least he's on our side. That is good enough for us. Besides, if you've seen what those Ninevites did, they're mixed up in all this funny business. And boy, those sailors, you know the words that come out of their mouths. Because Jonah is one of us, we tend to give him the benefit of the doubts. And because everyone else is one of them, they should burn in hell.
I've racked my brain, thinking and thinking of some way to bring this story of division into our modern day. Oh, that's right. Half the country hates the other half. You are red or you are blue. You are with us, you are our enemy. You are on our side and you get all of the benefits of all the doubts. If you're on the other side, you can burn in hell. Oh, and you're an idiot too. When does that sound accurate? Maybe it's a little bit of hyperbole, but I don't think I'm that far off.
There are very few people looking at the other side going, well they do have a point. There is very little self-reflection. There is loads of bearing false witness and not so much holding people accountable for words or actions. I have rolled my eyes more than once the past several days. And we are all guilty. We are all coppable.
And yet despite Jonah's hate of the Ninevites, despite his half effort and pessimism, despite Jonah doing his best to make sure Ninevah burns, God works around Jonah's ineptitude and still accomplishes God's will. And God's will isn't to save just our guide Jonah. God wants to redeem them, Ninevah. Despite Jonah's selfishness ineptitude and anti-godly desires, God does just that. Because God's love doesn't pick sides. God's love crosses the divides that we create. God's love redeems us all because we all need redeeming.
And while I can't fix our country, I can try to offer some perspective. Amid all the division in our country from apathy to disdain to fear, God reminds us that God's love doesn't pick sides. They aren't as bad and we aren't as good as the caricatures that we all have in our minds. We all fall short. And yet we are all loved, redeemed and saved through a God who's got the whole world in his hands.
Despite Jonah's hate for the Ninevites, the foreigners, them, God made sure that love was proclaimed. And that is what God calls us to do too. And if we have legitimate differences and perspectives, God still calls us to proclaim love. Love that doesn't come from our political leaders or parties. We may not like that they are also loved by God, but that is what God calls us to say and to show. To see past divisions and embrace God's mercy as that bridge across our differences.
So how do we do that? How do we who are reluctant and angry, who show up covered in fish vomit, mumbling under our breath? How do we announce unity and love when we don't even like the people on the other side? I wish I had an easy answer for you. I wish I had an easy answer for myself. All I know is that God works despite our feelings, whether our side won or lost, whether we are reluctant or not. Because our unity isn't an aside or a color or a president. Our unity is in Christ.
And that may sound polyanna-ish, like our reality doesn't matter, but I don't think that unity in Christ is easy. It's actually pretty hard. And it's hard because unity in Christ doesn't mean that we are all winners. At least not winners like we think of it. Unity in Christ means that we are joined to Jesus. Unity with Christ means that we are crucified with Christ. We die. We die to ourselves, die to our sinful ways, die to any other faction or team or ism that we are part of. And we clutch, we clutch to our side, our team, our world over Jesus. But unity with Christ means we die. We lose all of our preferences so that God can give us the win to something greater.
In that death and loss, God's redeeming love goes to work, bringing unity and life. But God will not stop. And God definitely won't let our reluctance keep that love from being known. What I say is not going to change anyone's political mind. But that is not my job. My job is to point to a God who loves both sides, who redeems both broken sides, who wants us to look beyond hate and disgust and pettiness to a life together that reflects and embodies what the love of God looks like. Point to a love that works for good despite imperfect people. Remember, a love that knows no hate for the other side.
And in the meantime, we are going to keep doing what we do. We are going to worship the love of God and grace who calls each and every one of us beloved. We will continue to welcome everyone here inviting them to join us as a faith community and part of the body of Christ. We will serve those on the edges, providing food and backpacks and more and caring for people of every age and every background. At the heart of who we are, we'll continue to be love, inclusion, empathy, dignity, honesty, peace. No matter what, we are committed to the work of love, both for and with all people.
Our brokenness makes it hard to do that sometimes, but it does not exclude us from God's love. And it doesn't exclude them either. God loves us all. And maybe through the story of a big fish and lousy prophets, we can hear and see the themes of our lives in our world and know that God is still working to redeem us all. Amen.