Journey's Weekly Homilies

3rd Sunday-Ordinary Time cycle B
January 26, 2003 
Homily:  Laurie

Jonah 3:1-5,10 
ICor.7:29-31
Mark l:14-20)

Jonah is a prophet after my own heart. He had the “I don’t wanna”, whine perfected. Jonah, like Simon and Andrew, James and John, like us were and are called to be God’s people and to do God’s will.  That call is no simple invitation to lunch, but a life changing, life long invitation to freedom and life. I think it is safe to say that Jonah had answered the call and in our story today is struggling with what it is to be a human being called by God to say or do something beyond what he thinks he can do or even what he wants to do. 

God called on Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh and to say to the people there to repent and return to God.  Jonah thought this was a complete waste of his time, and instead decided to take a little cruise down to Tarshish, thinking to have some fun and to get away from the annoying call of God. 

Now Jonah knew God. He just conveniently forgot that God had called him by name. So Jonah boarded ship, talked to a few of the crewmembers, one that wanted to know why he was sailing for Tarshish.  Jonah told him, in the subtle, read between the lines style of one who hopes to hide truth and yet at the same time wants to share a burden with another human being, that he was looking for a time away from his responsibilities. Then Jonah went to the hold to settle down for a nap, for running away from God’s call, requires someway to distract ourselves from what we know is unshakably, sometimes unbearably true.  God, of course, knew exactly the plotting of Jonah’s mind and set a violent wind blowing and soon the ship was close to breaking up and sinking.

Each member of the crew cried out to this God and that God, at the same time throwing over the cargo, hoping the lightened ship would survive the assault. The captain noticed that Jonah was absent from the panicked bunch on deck and went and found him asleep.  Not the calm sure sleep of Jesus in the midst of the frightened apostles on the boat in the Sea of Galilee, but the restless sleep of one who hides from what must be done, what must be lived.  

The captain woke Jonah, imploring him to pray to God, that somehow they might all be saved.  By this time they crew too had arrived at the knowledge that this was no random storm, but an angry assault directed at their vessel, probably even targeted at one individual on their boat.  The crew cast lots to see whom it was that brought down such anger upon them.  Just as randomly as the storm itself came upon the ship, Jonah was singled out. 

Now I have told you that Jonah knew God and God knew Jonah.  When the crew began to question Jonah, Jonah had to fess up that his God was the god of heaven and earth, the very God who had made the dry land and the sea.  The crew knew now who was the cause of their predicament.  Any one who could rile God up that much might also know how to bring calm to the turbulent waters round their ship. 

Jonah might be entirely too human, sure that his knowledge surpassed that of God at least when it came to the people of Nineveh, he might have a strong streak of pride and independence, swaggeringly confident that he could do God’s will his way, but, like I said, Jonah knew God.  So, he said to the crew, throw me overboard, so that the sea may quiet down. The crew were good people. Throwing Jonah over board went against what they knew was right and good.  They continued to work hard at rowing toward land, out of the storm, but they made no headway. Now you might have noticed that there was sure a lot of talking and deliberation by this crew, considering that the storm was so severe they feared for their lives.  Maybe they hadn’t seen the movie the Perfect Storm, or maybe the hand of God was at play.  

Anyway, the crew finally decided that sacrificing Jonah would have to be their course of action. So, praying to God, basically laying responsibility for Jonah’s life on God alone they threw Jonah into the sea. Now when Jonah told the crew to throw him overboard, was he accepting the consequences of his actions or did he hope beyond hope in a merciful God?  I certainly don’t know, but we all know what came next.  

A giant fish swallowed Jonah whole, where his was for three days and three nights.  Now there is nothing like three days in a fish belly to get you thinking and praying.  There is nothing like the dark unknown to strip us of pride and self-assuredness, to leave us only with our relationship with God and what we have or haven’t made of it.  So Jonah, after realizing that, for whatever reason he had been swallowed unharmed by a fish and even a greater miracle was not being digested by that same fish, set about praying.  A bold prayer of repentance and thanksgiving it was, so much of the heart of Jonah and his relationship with God, that God commanded the fish to spew Jonah out upon the shore.

Jonah, being human, returned to his life, changed of course, who wouldn’t be? But time passed, and life had a comfortable routine to each day.  One day, Jonah heard the word of God again, and this time did as he had been told, setting of for the city of Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a large city, it would have taken Jonah three days to walk through the city.  But Jonah started at the edge announcing to the people what God had told him to say.  “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed”.  To Jonah’s surprise the people began to repent, declaring a fast and putting on sackcloth.  News reached the king and he sent a decree out to all the people, that all should fast and call out to God. Every person was to turn from evil and violence.  God saw that the people of Nineveh responded to the words of Jonah in word and action, and he did not destroy the city.

Good news, you would think, but not for our very human Jonah.  After all a little violence and suffering of others distracts us from our own less than holy realities.  He was damn angry saying to God, I know you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, rich in clemency.  I knew you would forgive the people of Nineveh, I was a fool to go there, yelling in the streets, like some possessed idiot. Please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.

God, in that most infuriating way that a parent or a good friend has of pointing out our prideful stupidity said to Jonah, “have you reason to be angry?”

Jonah, left Nineveh in a huff, headed for a hill overlooking the city, where he could sit and watch what happened. He built a hut to shelter himself from the sun.  God graciously provided a large leafed plant that gave shade to Jonah and the hut. Jonah was happy with the plant. But God sent a worm to destroy the stalk of the plant and it withered.  The sun was very hot that day and God sent a wind that provided no relief.  Jonah grew faint, and he asked again for death, for it seemed to him that he would be better of dead than alive.

But, God said to Jonah, Have you reason to be angry over the plant?  Jonah, of course given over to drama as he was, replied I have reason to be angry, angry enough to die! 

God, I can just hear the sigh, said to Jonah, You are concerned over the plant, which cost you nothing, it came up and it died.  Should I not be concerned over Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot distinguish their right hand from their left, not to mention the many cattle.  Our story of Jonah ends there. I don’t imagine though that God stopped calling him and that Jonah kept employing every human option to avoid that call, finally though doing God’s will, grumbling and cursing all the while.

Simon and Andrew, James and John answered the call of Jesus to come after him, to learn and then share the good news with other people. They took that first life-changing step.  Maybe they had more grace than Jonah, but Mark tells us that James and John had a stupid argument about who would sit at Jesus right hand in the reign of God.  And Simon Peter, well Peter, tried to run away, but finding himself drawn towards what was happening to Jesus, we found him round a fire denying that he had every known Jesus.   

We too are human beings following after one who asks more of us than seems reasonable.  We deny that we have ever heard the voice of God.  We run here and move there looking for an out.  Finally realizing the futility of running, we build a hut and sit and wait to see what will happen.  Even then, the merciful God calls us forth engages us, asks again and again to follow after Jesus.

We are here, we are believers, because we have been called, we cannot deny it. To hear that call in the midst of chaos and storm is to sit quietly, to listen intently for God even in the midst of a culture bent on death and destruction and to speak or act as God calls us.  We know the costs; we know best our feeble attempts at hiding from Gods will.  Following one’s call is a journey of surprises, not a guided tour. We will walk through pain, come to know our passions and to know God. What better way could there be to spend a life?