God s Secret Agents: Jonah Jonah 1:1-4, 10b, 15, 17; 2:10; 3:1-5, 10; 4:1-3 January 29, 2012 UUMC On January 13 of this year, Captain Francesco Schettino steered his ship, an Italian luxury liner, too close to the rocks of a Tuscan bay. A massive tear in its hull caused the Costa Concordia to take on water and eventually it was grounded on a rocky ledge. Panic-striken passengers piled into lifeboats or jumped into the water. Most of the 4200 people on board made it to shore, but not all. The death count currently stands at 17, with 15 still missing. Shortly after the tragedy, the transcript of the conversation between Captain Schettino and Capt. Gregorio De Falco, of the Italian coast guard was obtained and released by the Associate Press. Here it is, translated into English, with Andy Kilpatrick playing the role of Capt. De Falco: Andy: "This is De Falco speaking from Livorno. Am I speaking with the commander?" Jennie: "Yes. Good evening, Commander De Falco." Andy: "Please tell me your name." Jennie: "I'm Cmdr. Schettino, commander." Andy: "Schettino? Listen Schettino. There are people trapped on board. Now you go with your boat under the prow on the starboard side. There is a pilot ladder. You will climb that ladder and go on board. You go on board and then you will tell me how many people there are. Is that clear? I'm recording this conversation, Cmdr. Schettino " Jennie: "Commander, let me tell you one thing " Andy: "Speak up! Put your hand in front of the microphone and speak more loudly, is that clear?" 1
Jennie: "In this moment, the boat is tipping " Andy: "I understand that, listen, there are people that are coming down the pilot ladder of the prow. You go up that pilot ladder, get on that ship and tell me how many people are still on board. And what they need. Is that clear? You need to tell me if there are children, women or people in need of assistance. And tell me the exact number of each of these categories. Is that clear? Listen Schettino, you saved yourself from the sea, but I am going to I'm going to make sure you get in trouble. I am going to make you pay for this. Go on board!" Jennie: "Commander, please--" Andy: "No, please. You now get up and go on board. They are telling me that on board there are still--" Jennie: "I am here with the rescue boats, I am here, I am not going anywhere, I am here--" Andy: "What are you doing, commander?" Jennie: "I am here to coordinate the rescue--" Andy: "What are you coordinating there? Go on board! Coordinate the rescue from aboard the ship. Are you refusing?" Jennie: "No, I am not refusing." Andy: "Are you refusing to go aboard commander? Can you tell me the reason why you are not going?" Jennie: "I am not going because the other lifeboat is stopped." Andy: "You go aboard. It is an order. Don't make any more excuses. You have declared 'abandon ship.' Now I am in charge. You go on board! Is that clear? Do you hear me? Go, and call me when you are aboard. My air rescue crew is there." 2
Jennie: "Where are your rescuers?" Andy: "My air rescue is on the prow. Go. There are already bodies, Schettino." Jennie: "How many bodies are there?" Andy: "I don't know. I have heard of one. You are the one who has to tell me how many there are." Jennie: "But do you realize it is dark and here we can't see anything " Andy: "And so what? You want to go home, Schettino? It is dark and you want to go home? Get on that prow of the boat using the pilot ladder and tell me what can be done, how many people there are and what their needs are. Now!" Jennie: " I am with my second in command." Andy: "So both of you go up then You and your second go on board now. Is that clear?" Jennie: "Commander, I want to go on board, but it is simply that the other boat here there are other rescuers. It has stopped and is waiting " Andy: "It has been an hour that you have been telling me the same thing. Now, go on board. Go on board! And then tell me immediately how many people there are there." Jennie: "OK, commander" Andy: "Go, immediately!" None of us knows the whole story behind the wreck of the Costa Concordia. News reports have been full of charges and counter charges between the captain and the company that owns the cruise line. But from where you and I stand, it seems pretty clear that, whoever else was involved, Capt. Schettino failed to live up to his responsibilities as a ship captain. 3
In this morning s Scripture lesson we heard of another, even more famous, story involving a man running away from his responsibilities as an agent of God, and his use of a ship to do so. Andy: This is God speaking from the heavenly throne room. Am I speaking with the prophet? Jennie: Yes. Good evening, Almighty Lord. Andy: Please tell me your name. Jennie: I m Jonah, son of Amittai, Lord. Andy: Jonah? Listen, Jonah? There are people trapped in sin and wickedness in the city of Nineveh, in Assyria. You will go there at once and tell them to repent. Is that clear? I m recording this conversation, Jonah. Jennie: Lord, let me tell you one thing Andy: Speak up! What s the problem here? I ve given you a command; you are one of my prophets; you must announce that they have one more chance and that s it! Jennie: In this moment, Lord, the people of Nineveh are blaspheming your name, they are committing unspeakable horrors, they are a truly wicked society. They do not deserve another chance. Andy: I understand that. Listen, Jonah, you may not like them, you may not like the way they live, but that s not your job. There are people there women, children, men in need of my mercy. They need to hear a word of grace from me. You can try to save yourself, Jonah, but I can assure you it will only get you into trouble. Go to Nineveh! Jennie: Lord, please Andy: No, please. You get up and go! Jennie: I am here on this boat to Tarshish 4
Andy: What?! Where are you? What are you doing? Jennie: I am here on this boat as a faithful believer. I m ready to coordinate the work of your good, faithful people. Andy: What are you saying, Jonah? Are you refusing? Jennie: No, I am not refusing, Lord. Andy: Are you refusing to go to Nineveh? Can you tell me why you are not going? Jennie: I am not going because I know you, Lord. You are merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. You will relent from punishing them. But they deserve to be punished, Lord! They deserve it! Andy: You go to Nineveh, Jonah. Don t make any more excuses. I am in charge, remember? I am ready to rescue to the people of Nineveh. Jennie: That s the problem, Lord. That s just not fair. Nineveh is a dark place. It s an evil empire. Do you realize that? They break every one of your commandments and happily! Andy: And so what? It s a dark place and you don t want to go there, Jonah? You want to go home, instead? Jennie: Isn t there someone else you could send instead? Someone more suited to this kind of work? There are lots of other preachers and prophets out there, Lord. Andy: I m not asking someone else, Jonah. That s not the point here. What I care is that you do as I have called you. This is the mission for which I created you! You have been whining about this for too long. Get off board that ship and go to Nineveh! Jennie: OK, commander. Andy: Go, immediately! 5
When it comes to the story of Jonah and the Great Fish, questions of how to read the Bible and what we re expected to believe in the Bible, inevitably come up. Is this just a fish story, albeit a biblical fish story? Did the writer stretch the truth in order to make a point? Certainly the part of the story that s best known, Jonah s three days in the belly of the fish is pun intended hard to swallow. I once led a Bible Study group with 8 participants. When we got to the story of Jonah, we had 8 different opinions about how to understand it. One person viewed it as literally true. If you can believe that God created the world out of nothing, he argued, why can t you believe that God can make a man live for three days in the belly of a big fish? Another viewed the whole story as an obvious fable that had made its way into the Bible. You can t expect people of the 21 st century to believe the same things about the natural world that people believed 2500 years ago, she said. The remaining six opinions fell in between those two, covering the full spectrum of biblical interpretation. In the end, everyone in the group agreed that there was much truth in the Jonah story. And we agreed to disagree as to whether historical accuracy was included in that truth. The truth that we all found in the Jonah story has nothing to do with the nature of fish and whether or not there s one big enough to swallow a man and spit him back up again alive. The truth we found has to do with the nature of God merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and the nature of humanity stubborn, slow to forgive and abounding in the desire to see our sense of revenge be done. 6
The short-and-easy version of the Jonah story is that he was the reluctant prophet: the one who tried his best to avoid God s call and learned in the end that you can t. That is a true summary of the story in the Bible, but it s not complete. Jonah wasn t a reluctant prophet because he was lazy or unfaithful. Jonah tried to avoid God s call specifically because of what God was calling him to do: preach repentance to the non-believing, violent, cruel enemies of the Jews the Ninevites. Imagine if God sent you to Syria, where the government oppresses its people, isolates itself from the rest of the world, and threatens to respond to global pressure to stop its violence by increasing the mass torture and killing of its people. God tells you to march to Damascus and announce to President Bashar al-assad that he must repent, stop his tyrannical rule, end the violence, and hold democratic elections. Your job is to get the Syrian government to dress up in sack cloth and ashes and ask God for forgiveness. No one would blame you for turning that mission down! But God knew what God was doing in selecting Jonah. Once Jonah finally got himself dried off and through the gates of Nineveh, he preached the shortest, most successful sermon ever. It consisted of 8 words: Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. The result? Instant repentance. And the people of Nineveh believe God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. Jonah was the right man for the job; he had exactly the gifts that were needed to change the future for the people of Nineveh who, as it turns out, God cared for as much as God cared for the people of Israel. Jonah was the perfect agent of God for this mission; he just didn t approve of it. 7
Faithful people of God, let us think together for a moment about the mission God has given us. Each of us has been gifted to be an agent of God for some mission in the world. Hospitality, caring, teaching, music, administration, stewardship, justice advocacy these are just some of the gifts I see in you. But God does not call only individuals to be agents on separate missions in the world; God also calls congregations. Every gathered assembly of Christ s followers has a calling, a purpose for being together that has to do with sharing the good news of new life in Christ, serving people in need, and building the Kingdom of God, the kingdom that Christ taught and brought to us through his life, death and resurrection. How do we discern that shared, congregational mission? We can look at all sorts of factors: the make-up of our membership, the demographics of our community, the needs of our neighbors, the location of our building. But primarily, just as for individuals who search for their personal callings, the congregation seeking to identify its mission must engage in thoughtful, respectful, faith-filled dialog. We must talk with each other and listen to each other in order to hear God s voice calling us into the future, and we must pray constantly to hear that voice over our own fears, anxieties and plans. Some of you may know that in my last Tower Alert newsletter article I introduced the idea of a new form of partnership between University UMC and Wesley at MSU. If you haven t read it yet, I hope you will. If you do not receive the Tower Alert, I have printed off some extra copies of the article that are available in the Gathering Space. I won t even try to summarize it or we ll be here until noon and Jim Doyle will have my head! 8
But here are the three major elements of the mission that I believe God has given us as the campus-connected, center-of -the-state United Methodist congregation in Michigan. I believe that God is calling us to serve: 1. The Michigan State University community -- as the location of a revitalized, outreach and mission-oriented United Methodist campus ministry; 2. The larger United Methodist church -- as the location of the Bishop s Office for the two conferences in the state of Michigan, and the Lansing District office; 3. As an example of environmental stewardship as a renovated, energy-efficient facility offering Christian hospitality to our denomination, the campus, and the larger community of which we re a part. Maybe these ideas are new to you. Maybe you ve been part of conversations that have been talking about this kind of thing for years. My question for you now is this: What do our place (location) and our people (the gifts of our individual members) tell us about the mission to which God calling us? Would you find one or two conversation partners and discuss that question? (Include new people! If you are visiting, feel free just to introduce yourself. We value your opinion, too.) (The congregation engaged in small-group discussions for 2 minutes.) It s wonderful to hear so much active conversation about this! I know it s frustrating to have such a short time. Please remember this is just the beginning of this process! I hope you will attend our time for further conversation after the brunch next Sunday, February 5. If you aren t 9
able to do that, or if you have a comment or question that you d like to submit in writing after this morning s brief discussion time, please feel free to write it on the back of a One-Stop Sign- Up sheet and submit it to me via the offering plate. I can t promise that I ll be able to answer quickly, but I ll do my best! What a wonderful opportunity we have to respond together to God s call to University UMC and Wesley at MSU! Let us pray: You have given us charge of this beautiful church: its proud history, its extraordinary people, its tradition of service, its remarkable location. Let us hear your voice as you lead us into the future that you hold in your hands. May we respond with courage and wisdom neither running away from challenges nor steering too close to rocky shores. May we care for one another neither disdaining differing opinions nor failing to act out of false politeness. May we deepen our understanding of what it means to follow Christ Jesus in our time and place. May we be your agents of justice, peace and mercy here and wherever you send us. Amen. 10
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References Transcript: Costa Concordia captain and Italian coast guard, The Associated Press, Jan.17, 2012. http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/story/2012-01-17/transcript-costa-concordia-captain-and- Italian-coast-guard/52613814/1 Nick Squires, Costa Concordia: photograph of stricken liner show passengers fleeing. The Telegraph. 26 Jan 2012. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9040578/costa-concordiaphotograph-of-stricken-liner-show-passengers-fleeing.html 12