Jonah 3:1-10June 19, 2016
1 Timothy 1:12-17Pastor Lori Broschat
WHEN MERCY COMES TO TOWN
During my lifetime my musical tastes have changed quite a bit, and I retain some very various favorites to this day. When my daughter was quite young I listened to country music in the car and she liked to sing along with me. Mother/daughter duo the Judds had a hit called Have Mercyand my daughter had her own version of the last verse where the woman in the song goes to the bank only to find her account is overdrawn because “Your man took it all and he’s done gone.” Ashley sang “Your man took it all and he’s a ding dong.”
Well, whatever the case may be, we all need mercy from God and from each other. The person for whom our Old Testament reading was named acted like a bit of a ding dong when he refused God’s request. Remembered mainly for the story of a man swallowed by a big fish, Jonah’s small book of prophecy is a bit different from the others. His prophecy was but a brief statement. The story is mainly about stubbornness, prejudice, and forgiveness.
Jonah outright refused God’s command because he didn’t think the people he was sent to save deserved to be saved. Because they were wicked, pagan enemies of Israel, in Jonah’s view they weren’t worth his time. When it came right down to it, Jonah knew if he delivered God’s message of judgment to the people of Nineveh they would repent and God would save them. The irony is obvious; a prophet would wouldn’t prophesy. Jonah tried to flee far away from Nineveh, but in doing so he endangered the lives of the sailors who had taken him on their ship.
When a storm at sea was found to be caused by Jonah’s disobedience, he instructed them to throw him overboard. When he was swallowed by the great fish the story takes a bit of a turn. Enclosed in a watery tomb for three days and nights, Jonah prayed to God in earnest. Using the psalms, essentially he told God, “You were right and I was wrong.” God released him from his prison and once more gave the command to go to Nineveh.
Jonah began his journey through the city. As he went he proclaimed the coming day of the Lord’s judgment in 40 days. The response was overwhelming. The people fasted and wore sackcloth; even the animals had to fast and wear sackcloth! The whole city repented of its sinfulness. This was no small feat, for Nineveh was infamous for its debauchery and evil. The Assyrian people were known far and wide for their violence, showing no mercy to their enemies.
They impaled live victims on sharp poles, leaving them in the desert sun; they even skinned people alive. They respected neither age nor sex and followed a policy of killing babies and young children so they wouldn’t have to care for them.[1] Such behavior seems deserving of God’s wrath, and yet it was these people to whom Jonah was sent, and although his message said nothing about repentance that was how they reacted.
I’ve got to tell you, even though he was a reluctant, stubborn, argumentative whiner, Jonah did prove faithful and successful, delivering his message which in Hebrew was a mere five words. However, his mission completed, Jonah’s bad behavior returned. Like an angry child running away from home, he walked out of the city, sat down and pouted. He didn’t praise God for His act of mercy, he didn’t celebrate with the redeemed of Nineveh. He complained that his trip had been for nothing, because God did just what he knew God would do, therefore Jonah had wasted his time.
This kind of mercy, even to those who act ridiculously, is what the ancient Hebrews called hesed; a word that lacks a true English equivalent. Nothing can do it justice and so we say loving kindness or goodness, but those are tame in comparison. In truth it is kindness or goodness to the miserable or afflicted. I think we’ve all been there a time or two.
Paul received mercy because of his ignorance or unbelief so that he could be the way for others to come to know Christ. How does God view those who don’t know or don’t believe? Surely He continues to view them with mercy and patience. The work of Christ is not over yet. There are plenty of people who still do not know or do not believe in God, or care, I might add. Two generations of people in this country have grown up with no religion.
Research tells us that if it continues the Christian church will end by 2050. Can you live with the idea that by the time your children or maybe your grandchildren enter retirement there will be no church for them to go to anymore? No one to visit them in the nursing home, hold their hand and pray with them on their deathbed. I can’t live with that, can you?
I imagine it looking a bit like the people of Israel returning to Jerusalem after 70 years of exile. The generations who had died in the interim did not do such a great job of carrying their faith forward. They returned but had nothing to remind them of who they once worshiped. Scripture tells us Ezra the priest brought the people back to the knowledge of God’s word; as he stood and read for six hours the people fell on their faces and wept aloud for their disobedience.
It’s hard to imagine a scene like that taking place less than 40 years from now, but it’s precisely because of God’s mercy that such things could happen. God’s mercy is often coupled with patience, and so the beneficiaries of God are blessed to receive both qualities. The fact that God is merciful and slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love is why the end of the story doesn’t have to be the end of the story. There is a mission field out there and it’s called the US population of those 40 and younger.
At the end of our time at our recent annual conference meeting we were reminded of the mission of the whole church, which is to go into all the world and make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Notice there is no mention of waiting for people to come in and sit down in the pews where the preaching can tell them about Jesus Christ. To go means more than to go to church, simply because we are the church and where we go we take the church with us.
The gospel is portable and it should be ready to use at a moment’s notice. Without words you can preach a sermon. Yes, you! If you are challenged to be with people who are different from you, offer them a smile. It goes a long way to bring people together. Showing mercy is not just God’s job, either. When you can sit quietly and listen to the opinions of others and not feel compelled to school or correct them, you are living out mercy.
Four years ago my daughter’s birthday coincided with a clergy training event in Fargo, so she went along with me. At the end of the day I celebrated Ashley’s birthday with her and her friends; a collection of diverse people. After spending the day with clergy, I ended the day dining with quite another group. One of them was a Christian, the rest were atheists. Two of them were mentally ill, one was gay, one was on welfare, and another had been homeless. I realized for the first time in a long time I was among people who were not mostly like me.
Politicians would have differing views on this group. Church people might feel uncomfortable with them. I discovered they weren’t scary or strange, but I did ache for the hearts of the atheists, enamored of science yet skeptical of God. I felt a bit like Jonah facing the Ninevites, and I was thankful God takes away our right to judge.
In Paul’s words to Timothy we hear his own personal mission, “But this is why I was shown mercy, so that Christ Jesus could show his endless patience to me first of all. So I’m an example for those who are going to believe in him for eternal life.” This is how we can prevent the death of the Christian faith. We are to be examples to others of God’s mercy, freely given. By not giving in to hate speech, condescending remarks, polarizing, blaming and all other forms of discrimination and alienation, we can be the example of what Christ can do in the lives of any person.
This society in which we live is filled with people who are not impressed by words but by actions. The message has to be bigger than what we say. We have to back up our words by the way we live, because believe me, skeptics and nonbelievers can see right through our behavior if we act hypocritically. The true Christian church is better suited to action anyway, for and with others who need us.
People often asked Jesus to have mercy on them. They obviously knew God acted in mercy, so they expected Jesus to do the same. No one ever cried out to Jesus, “Lord, have mercy on me,” from a church pew. No leper was allowed in the synagogue. Today in our context those who have been made to feel like lepers are outside the church as well. How can they receive mercy unless we bring it to them?
There is a story of changing hearts and minds in the book of Acts where the apostle Peter was given a vision of foods his faith viewed as unclean, yet he was urged to eat. Through this vision God gave him a new understanding of inclusiveness. To quote from a sermon, “God said, ‘I want you to preach my judgment and mercy to some people outside your little circle.’ Peter did not want to do it. ‘Too late,’ said the Holy Spirit, ‘downstairs some Italians are knocking on your door.’”
The problem is, it seems, is that God keeps inviting everybody. It just goes to show the church doesn’t tell a lot of new stories, rather, we keep telling the same story of a God who loves everybody, who is merciful to everybody, who is kind to everybody, but who is stuck with some reluctant messengers. God is willing to love anybody. Even Jonah. Even you and me. The difficulty is not in telling ourselves this is true. The difficulty is believing it’s true for everybody else.[2]
During a debate over who can be included in the faith, Peter spoke these words, “Fellow believers, you know that, early on, God chose me from among you as the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and come to believe. God, who knows people’s deepest thoughts and desires, confirmed this by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, but purified their deepest thoughts and desires through faith. Why then are you now challenging God by placing a burden on the shoulders of these disciples that neither we nor our ancestors could bear? On the contrary, we believe that we and they are saved in the same way, by the grace of the Lord Jesus.”
Whether you call it grace or mercy, we are all saved the same way. It was only after receiving mercy that Jonah began to have second thoughts about doing what God asked. If God had second thoughts, where would we be? What if God decided to revoke all our privileges and treat us all as we deserved, according to our actions and our level of devotion? If our first thought about the kingdom of Heaven is that not everyone deserves to be there, we should stop and think again, in the event we be asked to give up our place.
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[1]Wiersbe, Warren W., The Bible Exposition Commentary, Old Testament, pg. 383
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