This morning we encounter the stories of two entirely different reactions to God's call in the lives of people. Jonah hears the word of God and hightails it in the opposite direction as fast as he can. Simon and Andrew and James and John hear Jesus and they immediately drop everything and follow. What makes the difference in these responses? I believe it is in the ability to love the people you are being sent to preach to. You can't really speak of God's love for another at the same time you inwardly despise them. You can't be fishers of men and women and in your hearts want anything but the grace and mercy of God for those people.
The story of Jonah hits close to home for me this morning. The book is short as Biblical books go, but… forgive me, it is a whale of a tale. It is a sobering study of what happens when we get too sure of ourselves and decide that we are in charge. Someone once said that the minute you become convinced of your own rightness, leaving no room for the possibility the other side might have a point, you have lost. Jonah is a reminder of that. Historically there really was a prophet named Jonah and a large city called Nineveh. The prophet Johan served in the days of Jeroboam II in the Northern Kingdom. Nineveh was a city known for its achievements. The real prophet Johan was long gone by the time this book was written and the real city of Nineveh was destroyed in 621 BCE, again, years before this book was written.
The parody of Jonah's story however, is not to remind us of our history, but to reminded us of our behavior. It is to remind us to leave room for doubt in our lives, it is to remind us to especially leave room for the mercy of God. And to remember it is a mercy and love extended to all; not only those we would choose for God to love. The book of Jonah is written after the exile. The Israelites were re-establishing themselves. Many among them worked at keeping racial purity for the Israelites. They were also increasingly self-righteous about their status as God's chosen people. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are examples of that mindset. The people were worried that they might once again fall from God's favor, and so they had become an exclusionary people. In that drive Nineveh became a symbol of people who lived outside the covenant; and so were not able to find any love from God. In that context, Jonah is outraged to think that God would actually send him to call the people of Nineveh to repentance.
And so his response is to clap his hands over his ears and run…run in the opposite direction as far away as he can get from the place. It is on the ship to far away they run into difficulties. When the sailors find Jonah is the problem, they try to fix it by rowing him to shore. The sailors, unbelievers and outsiders, are, ironically more faithful than Jonah who is a man of God. Then comes the part of the story we know best…Jonah in the belly of a huge fish. After three days of convincing in a fish belly, Jonah reluctantly gets himself to Nineveh. There he gives the most watery, unconvincing sermon ever preached: "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown." That's all it took, a half hearted, because he really didn't want it to happen message, whispered so that the people might not hear it word of god, and the people of Nineveh repented. The response was so amazing that even the animals listened! Our morning reading stops short or recording Jonah's reaction to this. Was he thrilled with the results? Hardly: "But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became exceedingly angry." For it was then that Jonah remembered again why he didn't want to go in the first place-God's mercy could spoil everything. Jonah was happy to preach destruction on Nineveh, but not to learn they could receive the love and mercy of God just as much as the next person.
We'd be thrilled if all it took was one feeble sentence and our church was filled, right? But with what kind of people? What if they weren't the ones we would choose, what if they sat in our pew, liked different hymns than we sing, had different opinions than ours, and so on. As I was just coming into ministry I had a sobering realization of just how close minded we church people can get about letting others in. On a clergy retreat our speaker talked of loving our neighbor, and as part of that he identified modern day Samaritans-people we would not choose to associate with. He spoke of extending God's love to such people. Do you think a group of clergy who should have known better than that were happy to be reminded of those we should love? Not at all-there were rude calls for this preacher to be run out of the conference. It was an eye opening experience for me to see people I was going to be colleagues with, so unable to see God's love extended to all.
Jonah stands as a reminder to us-to beware of our own Ninevehs. Ninevehs are those groups and people we are convinced could have no place in our lives, in our church, in our world. They are our stumbling blocks of righteousness that we cannot see beyond. When we bump up against a Nineveh, we are so sure of our own rightness we can see no possibility for that person or group. We would half-heartedly invite them in, but would secretly hope they say no. Think of the person, or persons you would least like to be sitting next to in church-I suspect that those are the very people that God would send you to, those are the ones God expects you to preach Good News towards.
The all inclusive love of God was hard even for the disciples to understand at times. Mark's gospel this morning talks of the immediate response of the fishermen. But, then in the stories that follow, how many times do we find them questioning Jesus-how can you be found with this woman, or this tax collector, or this Samaritan?
The Good News? Jonah did not like what he was called to do. After all was said and done, Jonah and God had a heart to heart about what had gone on, about Jonah's anger and disappointment over the Ninevites being saved. God's reminder to Jonah was that the love of god was for all…even for Jonah. The disciples often questioned Jesus. We aren't always comfortable with the people God sends to us. But the good news is that when we embrace the all encompassing love of God, we don't' have to worry about protecting ourselves from others, we no longer need to spend the energy to keep up the boundaries between them and us. Instead we can fully receive God's love and acceptance for ourselves and live in that freedom. We don't have to worry about who is a Ninevite and who is with us. That is God's problem. Who is God sending you to this morning? Go there, knowing that you are embraced by the love of God, that you might embrace another