Jonah: A Whale of a Story

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The Reading:

Jonah 3:1-5, 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 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.

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

The Sermon

Lets talk about Jonah. I recommend that you bear down sometime and read the entire book of Jonah beginning to end. It will take you about ten minutes. The story of Jonah is not really about him being swallowed by a giant fish. It is really about a man who refuses to do God's will.

Lately, in the news we have heard a lot about the Iraq city of Mosul. It is a huge city that was until recently under the control of ISIS. Mosul has only recently been liberated from that terrorist organization. Mosul is located on the Tigris river and is still referred to by many as Nineveh.

It was a big city even in the time of Jonah thousands of years ago. If the book of Jonah is correct it was a three day journey to walk across Nineveh. Jonah did not want to go there. In fact when God told him the first time to go to Nineveh and tell the people to stop their evil ways, Jonah went in the other direction to Jaffa so that he could find passage on a ship to Tarshish. We do not know exactly where Tarshish was. It may have been as far away as Tunisia or Spain. What we do know is that Jonah was running away from God.

It didn't work. The fish that swallowed him spit him back on the shore and Jonah finally relented. He went to Nineveh and told them to repent. The people of Nineveh did repent and they were spared God's wrath.

Once again Jonah is upset. He wanted the people of Nineveh to be punished for their misdeeds and God said no because God is full of compassion and love for the people,

I think there are several messages for us. One is that God loves us and God is compassionate when we ask forgiveness for behaving badly.

The other message is more of a question. Are there times when we know the direction God wants us to take but we decide to go in the other direction and put as much distance between us and what we know God wants us to do?

In the epistle reading Paul gives his followers in Corinth a message that was clearly off the mark. Paul was convinced that the end was near and people should change their patterns of living accordingly. He tells them if they are married they should act as if they are not. I am assuming he is implying celibacy. He wants them to distance themselves from the world and in a way I agree that we should not be attached to the things of this world because everything will have an end.

In his later writings Paul realizes that the end, the second coming, will not be in his lifetime. The point here for us is that we do not know when the end will come. When Jesus was asked this question he said that even he did not know and that only the Father knew.  What Paul did get right and stress throughout his mission was the message of faith and forgiveness.

The thing is that as Jonah learned it is important that we should be living our lives by doing Gods will. Jesus told us very clearly that God's will could be summed up with two things, to love God and love your neighbor.