I don’t like the cold. I don’t like mixed textures in my food. I don’t like to feel my own sweat on my body. I don’t like being late. I don’t like funerals. I don’t like to ask people for help. I don’t like being wrong. I don’t like feeling like I’m on the outside. I don’t like being sick and I don’t like public speaking.
These are 10 things that I don’t like. 10 things that I have found to be inconvenient or annoying or that I just simply don’t enjoy. 10 things that I definitely have found myself complaining about at one point or another, yet even with all of my complaining, stomping my feet, crying, screaming, these things have been unavoidable in life.
I know that I will eventually have a delicious potato soup and there will be a raw onion in it. The earth continues to orbit around the sun, and so the seasons will continue to come and go, meaning that winter and the cold will always come. Even though I don’t like being late, it still happens. And when it does, I will ask for compassion, grace, and mercy.
See, in the words of the great VeggieTales, “Jonah was a prophet. He really never got it. Sad but true.”
Jonah was not a prophet in the way that fairy tales and fantasy stories have us believe. He didn’t have any magical ability to see into the future and to tell what was destined to happen. Instead, Jonah and all of the prophets were mediators between God and the people of God. The prophets were called by God and given messages to share with others in their communities. These messages were often telling people that the way that they were acting or the things that they were doing were displeasing in the eyes of the Lord. And then encouraging people to turn from their wickedness to receive these gifts from God.
Most of us know the first half of the story. It’s a pretty common Sunday school and children’s church lesson, but I’m not going to assume that everyone knows it. So I’m going to do my best to speed run.
Jonah was awoken one day hearing the voice of God calling him to arise and go to Nineveh. He was being tasked with the responsibility of going to Nineveh and telling the people that the way that they were living was displeasing to God. And if they wanted to live, then they needed to repent from their wickedness.
So Jonah did what any great prophet of God would do. He arose and he fled to Tarshish, a place he felt was so far away that God would never be able to find him. Or at least that was Jonah’s plan.
Instead, God intervened and sent a great storm. The crew of the ship that he had paid to sail with cast lots to see whose God had been angered. Jonah knew that it was him and he was cast overboard. The storm ceased and Jonah was swallowed by a great fish where he spent three days yelling and ultimately complaining to God about this situation.
Finally, he was spit up on the shore of Nineveh and given no choice but to complete the call of God. So he did. Reluctantly. And then he left the city and that is where our story begins.
Jonah was no stranger to the message that grace, mercy and compassion, as I mentioned earlier, that was kind of his whole message. The difference this time was that he was being called away from his own people into a nation that was truly just cruel.
He didn’t want to see these people who were so accustomed to stealing, beating one another, taking slaves and so much more be redeemed for their horrible actions. Jonah was so upset by the fact that these people were being given a second chance that he complained to God.
He told God that the compassion, grace and mercy the Ninevites were receiving was ra’ah or evil. Jonah thought that God allowing them to live was so evil that he himself wanted to die. He was so angered that God showed up for the Ninevites in the same way that God showed up for Jonah and the Israelites. He begged for death.
The story doesn’t end there. God produces a plant to give Jonah shade to allow him to rest. But this is my favorite part. Because then in the night, God sent a great worm to destroy the plant. A great worm.
Something that seems so small and usually not considered to be great by anyone’s standards was appointed by God to teach a valuable lesson to a prophet. This was no accident.
When Jonah awoke, he was still quite angry. He didn’t see the lesson that God had just delivered. The conversation that transpires is far deeper than that of a plant. God is trying to use this moment to show Jonah that although redemption had been bestowed on the Ninevites, it was not forever unless true work and change continued within the city.
Just as a plant takes work to sustain life, the people will also need to continue to turn from their wickedness. See, grace, mercy, and compassion are all gifts of God, but they require repentance.
Jonah’s message to the Ninevites was to repent and turn from their wickedness. It was not a message that God was upset and to simply say, I’m sorry. The message was a call for change.
We all are receivers of these gifts from God. And as most of us know, it comes at a cost. The cost is often hard for us to be willing to give up, and yet the Ninevites were so willing.
We are not the deciders of who is worthy to receive the gifts of God; we are just the messengers. See whether we want to admit it or not, we all have a little bit of Jonah in us.
In today’s world, the Ninevites would be the rapists, the murderers, sex offenders, child abusers. The list goes on and on. They are the people that we tend to want to avoid, the people that we are hesitant to allow within the Big C Church because we as people have a hard time believing and understanding that true repentance.
I don’t think any of us, including myself, can say that we aren’t a little hesitant when we hear someone’s testimony of violence or something else and believe that there has been a real change. I’m sure we have all heard someone say that those who they perceive to have done evil should be locked away forever. And if we are honest, some of us might feel the same way.
Jonah was human. You and I are all human too, which means we don’t always understand the workings of God. We don’t understand how and why God can accept the repentance of someone who has hurt so many and in return give them grace, or mercy, or even compassion.
I think it’s wonderful that we don’t have to choose though. We don’t have to make the choice of who is worthy and not. We simply just have to be the prophet.
Jonah recognized how terrible the people of Nineveh were and how he and his people didn’t compare, or at least he thought. He didn’t understand why God would send the same message to the Ninevites that Jonah had preached over and over again within his own city.
Just like Jonah, we are all called to share that news, not to decide if someone’s worthy. We are called to present the way of grace, not judge whether they will receive it.
In the world today, we see a lot of people hurting each other. We see how quickly neighbors can turn against neighbor. It is not for us to decide whether someone should or should not hear the message of goodness. It is not up to us who should receive these gifts.
None of us are perfect, which means none of us can judge what sin is greater than another. We are, however, met with a choice. We can react and respond just like Jonah. We can complain and pitch a fit. But I’m gonna let you in on a secret. It doesn’t really do any good. God is going to show up. God is still going to give those gifts, whether we feel that it’s valid or not.
We can continue to focus on our own people and our own communities because it’s safe. Or we can go to Nineveh and understand that God is present there too.
We can share the message of a loving God. We can work to understand that the God who created the universe, created all living things, says that all people are very good. We can share the good news and encourage the true change that comes with repentance and celebrate when the gifts of mercy and grace and compassion are given and received.
It is uncomfortable. It’s scary. It can be confusing. God’s grace is a gift worth talking about to everyone.
We don’t decide who is worthy to receive it. But we can make an effort to make sure that everyone hears about it, that everyone is able to decide whether or not they would like to accept it and decide whether they’re willing to pay the cost of it or not.
Amen.