JONAH 1: 1 - 17
As if being someone who has struggled with depression for longer than some serve a life sentence isn‘t enough, crazily I find myself working as a Methodist minister. Sure there are very many good things about being a Methodist minister but there are also difficult things such as working for the church at a time when the mainstream church is we are told in a state of decline - and the statistics sure bear that out with Methodism struggling more than most. And as someone whose every school report spoke of extreme shyness, there are times when being in a public role is about as close to torture as it is possible to get - without being water boarded by George Bush and his merry friends.
So why? It’s not that I fell in love with chapel culture as a youngster in Cornwall - far from it! It’s not that I am committed to a system that will ensure that things stay as they are or even enable us to visit the past - far from it! It’s not that I long to see the world in black and white with clear rules - far from it! It’s not that I wish to stand against things that are new and unsettling - far from it! These things are totally and utterly meaningless to me - even in some cases abhorrent!
No the only thing that makes me voluntarily stand here this morning is my belief in a word called “grace.” What is grace? Well in short it is the sovereign favour of God for all humankind irrespective of our deeds, earned worth, or proven goodness. In the words of the U2 song by that name, grace is a “thought that changed the world,” that which finds beauty and goodness in everything. And such is the nature of God who finds beauty and goodness in each of us, God who sees the potential within us however buried from the world it might be.
And this morning, grace is at the heart of our service. We have seen it in the three baptisms that have taken place. All three children are so young, too young to have earned God’s favour. And yet we baptise them into the family of God in celebration of God being committed to them in love, with Jesus living dying, being raised and interceding to the Father for them. In the words of our liturgy and in words that we have sung, we can look at these children knowing that the story of Jesus is a sign of God’s love for them - “All this for you.” Yes, God is for us, even at cost, before we could know anything of it. Yes, God loves us well before we are able to love God.
But even this does not reveal the full scope of grace. And that is why this morning, we find ourselves looking at the story of Jonah. And what time we have wasted on speculation about man eating fish and the likes - time wasting that has diverted us from the incredible power of this story. For I am convinced that what we have is a Biblical satire which reveals great truth to us just as Jesus reveals so much through the parables that he told.
Anyhow, first let’s look at the likely background to the book of Jonah. The view of most scholars is that it was written about 500 years before the birth of Jesus. The elite of Jewish society who had been in exile in far away Babylon, had returned to Jerusalem and begun the task of rebuilding their community, their city and their temple once more. Under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, this rebuilding had taken a somewhat nationalistic turn in which foreigners were distrusted. Two examples of this were Ezra forcing men to separate from their foreign wives and the rejection of the offer of help in rebuilding the Temple from Samaritans. Xenephobia at it worst and religion at its most hateful!
And so we encounter this story that paints a subversive alternative view of what being God’s people is all about, a story full of unforgettable imagery. And the story is hung around the person of Jonah, son of Amittai, a fiercely nationalistic prophet who is mentioned in the Second Book of Kings. This Jonah is in our story told to go to Ninevah, the capital city of Assyria, the historic empire that includes portions of modern Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq. Such a suggestion would have shocked the first readers of this story for Assyria had been a violent empire. Indeed it was the great enemy that, soon after the historic Jonah, overran much of the Northern Kingdom of Israel taking many into exile and repopulating the lands with amongst others those who merged with the remaining population in Samaria to become the despised Samaritans. Jonah like most of those who first heard the story would hardly want Assyria to be given a second chance when instant destruction was a more palatable alternative. So in our story, Jonah decides to reject the commission and to go in the opposite direction. Anyhow thanks to a storm he gets thrown overboard and swallowed by a fish. Vomited up, he once more gets the commission and this time he goes to Nineveh - only he is so successful that the King takes heed and leads a process of repentance. And at this God shows mercy. Poor old Jonah hits the very depths of depression. He is devastated and angry with God - so angry that he goes to a place to sit alone wishing he could die. Sat in the shade of a shelter he has made, he is blessed by the provision of a vine to protect him from the sun. But when the vine is chewed by a worm his mood deteriorates further. And so the story ends with God rebuking him with these words;
“You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Ninevah has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”
See it! The story is a warning that when we put limits on the love and grace of God as Jonah did, we are putting ourselves further from God than those whom we might see as the outsiders. For God’s grace is not merely for a nation or a type of people but it is for all. To the nationalists who dominated the rebuilding of Israel after exile, no suggestion could be more scandalous than the people of Assyria being within God’s love. For here is the absolute prohibition of exclusion.
This story which we have too often tamed into being a fishy story, this story which we have wasted far too much time over arguments about historicity, is a thoroughly outrageous story that outraged respectable opinion when it first emerged. And I believe it continues to do so today. For here is the message that all are of value to God even those who are caught up in a life denying, destructive, decadent culture as was the case with Assyria. God’s love is as much for the outsider as the insider. God’s love is for the reprobate as much as for the saint. God’s love is put out by none of the stenches that we create.
I worry that too often Christianity has been defined as not being as others. If you read the Daily Mail you find Christianity being defined as much by not being Muslim as anything else. But building barriers does not take you closer to God as can be illustrated by that particular rag trawling only recently for stories to reinforce prejudice against East European migrants. But you cannot define Christianity in terms of rejection. It just will not do!
You see, Christianity is rooted in a vision of inclusive love. It is so rooted in this story and indeed in the life of Jesus. God wills good for all and that includes those who are slaughtered by the weapons we make and sell. It includes those who are incarcerated for God does not say “throw away the key and forget them.” It includes those who are deemed to be life’s losers. Why? Back to that U2 song;
“Because grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things.”
That is the wonder of grace. Not based on the anti Christian shame culture that pervades society but on the limitless possibilities that flow from the love of God.
Yes, grace turns the world upside down. And because of that we have been hesitant to let it invade our world. It is a bit like the late Donald Soper who visited this church for the 75th anniversary celebrations, once put it;
“Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it’s been thought too hard and never tried.”
And there’s the rub! Grace is a fundamentally revolutionary concept. It is uncomfortable to the powers within our world. But Christianity in its earliest days had an uneasy relationship with the powers until the coup when a non violent faith based on grace suffered a takeover at the hands of the bloodstained Emperor Constantine in the fourth century. And yet, the message of grace has never been eliminated.
Today, the church stands on the verge of marginalisation. And that is no bad place to be. It is after all where Jesus stood. Church privileges are challenged as never before and the church is but one of many voices. Yet here comes the opportunity to re-emphasise the one and only thing we have to offer - grace! You do not have to have earned it as baptism has reminded us. You do not have to deserve it as the news in Ninevah reminds us. It is simply that which God offers us. It is God’s statement that every one of you count and if society says otherwise, then society is infiltrated by demonic values. The task of the Christian Church is to challenge the culture of domination with that which liberates. And that is grace. My grace be lived and experienced by each of us. May grace be unleashed in the public policy of this and other lands. Enough of domination! Enough even of justice! Grace is our hope!
And it is that and that alone which keeps me within the church. Good news for Ninevah of old and all the Ninevahs of today.
BIDEFORD METHODIST CHURCH SUNDAY APRIL 13TH 2008
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