WHAT S A WHALE GOT TO DO WITH IT

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1 WHAT S A WHALE GOT TO DO WITH IT Jonah 3.1-5, 10; Mark 1: rd Sunday of Ordinary Time January 21, 2018 PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION Loving God, help us to hear your holy Word that we may truly understand; that, understanding, we may believe, and, believing, we may follow in all faithfulness and obedience, seeking your honor and glory in all that we do; through Christ our Lord. Amen. The story of the prophet Jonah is four small chapters and an easy read. You heard most of the basics of the story as Betsy read it to the kids: Jonah s attempt to flee the call and the whale, or large fish in Hebrew, that appears at a critical moment in the story. This morning s passage is about Jonah s response to God s second attempt to call him to do God s bidding and the response of the people of Nineveh. Listen to God s word. Jonah 3 The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2 Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you. 3 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. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day s walk. And he cried out, Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown! 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. 10 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.

2 Our next passage is from Mark, the beginning of Jesus public ministry and the call of the first four disciples. Mark 1 14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news. 16 As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, Follow me and I will make you fish for people. 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him. This is the Word of God. Thanks be to God.

3 What s a Whale Got to Do with It? Today we continue with the theme of God s call to us woven into the worship and sermons of the previous two Sundays. As we read about Jesus baptism, Nick Redmond reminded us of our baptism: a sign and symbol of our relationship with God and with one another as members of the body of Christ. Betsy focused us on God s call to Samuel at the age of twelve and the importance of listening to God s leading and the challenge God s call presents to us. This on a day of ordination and installation. Today we approach God s call to us through Jesus call to Simon and Andrew and James and John and God s call to Jonah. Mark s style of writing focused on the basic information in the stories he writes that make up the first written gospel for the church. There is little in the way of detail. When compared with similar stories in Matthew, Luke or John, Mark s will inevitably be the shortest. The passage from Mark for today is very brief. Jesus is walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, sees Simon and Andrew and James and John and offers a command: Come, follow me and I will make you fish for people. Immediately they laid down their nets and follow Jesus. Imagine the looks on the faces of those they left in the boats: James and John s father and the men they employed. Is it possible Jesus had been in conversation about his mission with Simon and Andrew and James and John before this? Perhaps they were responding to words they heard Jesus say earlier, The time is

4 fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near, repent and believe in the good news. We don t know based on Mark s gospel. In a matter-of-fact tone, Mark reports that Simon and Andrew and James and John immediately follow Jesus. This reflects an unquestioning trust in Jesus and a wholehearted commitment to follow him. What would happen if we had such an unquestioning trust and wholehearted commitment to follow Jesus as his disciples? No question or hesitation believing fully and with our whole being Jesus when he says: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near, repent and believe in the good news. Such a radical response to Jesus is rare. It seems to me we are more likely to see ourselves in the story of Jonah at first resisting God s call than in Mark s story of Jesus calling Simon and Andrew, James and John. The story of Jonah is mostly known for Jonah being in the belly of a whale for three days. The other aspects of the story aren t as often remembered. Although you might have recalled the reason Jonah ended up in the belly of the whale before Betsy read it. Jonah was a prophet God called to proclaim to the people of Nineveh that they needed to turn away from their sin. Instead of responding with a Yes, send me!, Jonah boards a ship and heads in the opposite direction. God hurled a great wind upon the sea which threatened to break up the ship. The sailors determined Jonah was the reason for the storm because he was running away from his responsibility. The sailors picked Jonah up, at Jonah s request, and threw him into the sea.

5 Then the whale shows up swallowing Jonah and he was in the belly of the whale for three days and nights. What happens next is actually surprising: Jonah offers a prayer or psalm of thanksgiving instead of lament. A few more of the verses served as our Call to Worship. It ends with these words: 2 9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the LORD! God spoke to the whale and the whale spewed Jonah out upon the dry land. Next is what we heard in our reading from Jonah. Jonah responds to God s call to him a second time and goes to the great city of Nineveh proclaiming their need to repent of their wicked ways or risk destruction. They had forty days before God would destroy their city. The king of Nineveh believes Jonah and sets the example for all humans and animals to turn from their evil ways and from violence with the hope that God would turn away from the promised destruction. God saw their repentance and did not destroy the city. The story continues with one more chapter. This is where we will leave it today. Tune in next week to hear how the story ends. Or, read it for yourself. Just not right now. A part of every Presbyterian s seminary training is learning Hebrew and Greek. In a class using various books of the prophets to sharpen our Hebrew when I was in seminary, there was one student who took it upon himself to ask questions of the professor to get him off track

6 and talking about topics unrelated to the prophets and our learning of Hebrew. One of the books we translated was Jonah, which our professor was convinced was from start to finish a story written originally as Hebrew poetry. During one of his lectures, my classmate asked: Do you really believe Jonah was swallowed by a whale? The professor replied, I tell you what. When I get to heaven I ll ask Jonah that very question. But what if he isn t there, my classmate asked. Well, then, replied the professor, you can ask him. The part of Jonah s story where he is in the belly of the whale is literally the center of the story. Jonah s prayer of thanksgiving offered from within the whale s belly is a turning point in his life when he reaffirms his faith and reliance on God leading him to become God s messenger to Nineveh. God provided Jonah the opportunity to reassess his life and determine what was truly important to him. Last week Betsy talked about the importance of finding that quiet time to listen to God in the midst of our hectic and noisy lives. Although, I doubt any of us considers spending three days in the belly of a whale as our idea of the place for us to seek a quiet and calm place to reflect on God s presence and leading. Yet, the appearance of the whale does present an unexpected twist to the story. For Jonah to find himself in the sea was the result of a selfless choice he made: to give up his life so the sailors on the ship could live. Perhaps, then, God sends the whale to save Jonah from drowning and to give him some time to take stock of his life and his relationship with God. We could describe the time in the whale s belly as a very peculiar spiritual retreat.

7 Jonah experiences a change of heart and mind while in the whale s belly and is ready to hear God s call a second time and to accept the call to go to Nineveh. Jonah, a Jew, accepts the call to go to Nineveh, known in its prime as the capital of the Assyrian empire. The Assyrians conquered Israel taking the Jewish people into exile. Jonah accepts a call likely to cost him his life. Once within the walls of the city, he proclaims the God s judgment and call to repentance the people respond. They take upon themselves the attitude of repentance: they fasted and put on sackcloth. They turn from their evil and violent ways. We here in the story God s response: 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. (3.10) Jonah listened and responded to God s call and a people were saved. Eugene Petersen, a Presbyterian pastor and author, wrote a book using the story of Jonah as the framework to reflect on vocational holiness living the life God calls us to live as God s children. Commenting on the passage of Jonah in the whale s belly, Petersen writes: God does not appoint a [whale] to swallow us into the place and time of prayer. We have to find our own place, carve out our own time. It is hard because, however necessary we believe it to be, it does not feel necessary. (Under the Unpredictable Plant, p. 97) Petersen goes on to list fourteen of the more common spiritual disciplines ways for us to discern God s leading and our response: spiritual reading (ex lectio divine), spiritual direction, meditation, confession, bodily exercise, fasting, Sabbath-keeping, dream

8 interpretation, retreats, pilgrimage, almsgiving or tithing, journaling, sabbaticals and small groups. Choosing any of these and making a few of them part of our regular practice helps us create the space to discern God s presence and leading. In ways unique to our own gifts and abilities, God calls us to be involved in the world. The call of discipleship, living a life of love and proclaiming to the world God s love revealed in Jesus is very straightforward. Just as straightforward as Jesus saying to Simon and Andrew, James and John: Follow me and I will make you fishers of people. Yet, once we say yes, we begin to see the challenge: proclaiming God s unconditional love to all of God s children means we must accept it and live it for ourselves. This is always God s call to us: proclaiming and demonstrating God s love for us in our love of others.