“Nineveh In 40 Days You will Be History”

 

Once again the Lord spoke to Jonah. He said, "Go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to the people the message I have given you." So Jonah obeyed the Lord and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to walk through it. Jonah started through the city,

 and after walking a whole day, he proclaimed, "In forty days Nineveh will be destroyed!"

The people of Nineveh believed God's message. So they decided that everyone should fast,

and all the people, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth to show that they had repented.

God saw what they did; he saw that they had given up their wicked behaviour.

So he changed his mind and did not punish them as he had said he would.           

 

On the liturgical calendar, it is the third Sunday after the Epiphany. On the calendar of festival days, it is the feast of St. Titus, pastor and confessor. On the synodical calendar it is "Sanctity of Life" Sunday. And of course, on the calendar of American civil religion, it is Super Bowl Sunday.

And the readings are equally diverse. In today's Gospel, four fishermen are made fishers of people by the Word of Jesus. In the OT reading, a reluctant preacher named Jonah, who was fish food for three days, preaches the Word to Nineveh. And the Word of God has its way of making alive what was dead.

There was a young dedicated but rather reserved Christian girl reading her Bible on a bus. A pushy loud mouthed, quarrelsome man sat down next to her and confronted her about the Bible. He asked, “Do you believe everything in the Bible?” And she said, “Yes, I do.”

He kept on, “You mean to tell me you believe that Jonah lived for three days in the belly of a whale?” The girl answered, “Yes.” The man persisted, "Well then how do you explain that?” The young woman answered, “I can't, but I believe it.” The man became more agitated and said. “Lady, you should be able to explain whatever you believe!”

The young woman then said, “I don't know exactly how Jonah survived but I'll ask him when I get to heaven.” Then sarcastically, the man asked, “And what if Jonah didn't make it to heaven?” There was a pause, then she replied, “Then you can ask him.”

The story about Jonah and the big fish has always been a favourite with children. It has something of a fairy tale quality about it. It’s a story that appeals to the imagination. This is a story about Jonah, one of God’s most reluctant prophets. He is told to go to Nineveh – that hated, despised, Near Eastern power that had caused so much suffering in Israel.

Ancient Nineveh was the capital of Assyria - modern-day Iraq - and old Nineveh was much in the news just as modern Baghdad. God's instruction to Jonah was to go and rescue Ancient Nineveh. But Jonah wanted no part of that rescue business.

Jonah says in effect that he would rather die than go to Nineveh. There is no point in going to Nineveh because these folks wouldn’t listen, in fact he is more than likely be putting his own life at risk. The people of Nineveh were godless and wicked so why should he speak to them about God? They only deserved God’s condemnation and punishment. Why should he try to give them a second chance? Besides, people like that don’t change.

Yet God, as he often does, persists. Jonah attempts to ignore the call of God, in fact he tries to get as far away from God as he can. He boards a ship for Tarshish, a place on the edge of the world, but during a storm he is thrown overboard by the terrified sailors.

On his way to the bottom of the sea and to certain death, Jonah is swallowed by a big fish and in the belly of this fish Jonah cried out to God in prayer. After three days Jonah is coughed up head over heels on the sandy beach.

He reluctantly goes to Nineveh, believing all the time that this is a big waste of time. Jonah walks through this huge city calling out a simple message. There is no call to repentance, no message of God’s love, only a threat, “In forty days Nineveh will be (history) destroyed!” It seems as if Jonah is making his message as offensive and as blunt as he possibly can.

It seems as if he was looking for a reaction – a reaction of disbelief and rejection from the people of Nineveh. But a miracle happens. The entire city from the king down to the poorest peasant believed God’s message. Everyone wears sackcloth and ashes and prays that God will not destroy them. Can you imagine Jonah’s surprise and shock?

In spite of his reluctance, despite of his half-hearted attempt at speaking God’s message, regardless of his lousy attitude toward the people of Nineveh, and apart from his poor sermon, the whole city falls on its knees in repentance and prayer.

In fact, we are told that it took three days to walk through Nineveh from one side to the other and Jonah had only walked for one day when revival broke out.

Most of the city hadn’t even heard Jonah’s message personally, perhaps hearing it from neighbours and friends. Yet the response is overwhelming. Jonah’s half-hearted efforts resulted in Nineveh’s wholehearted response. Jonah was wrong. People like that do change. People do change

The one person in the whole story who found it difficult to change was Jonah himself. Reading on further in the book of Jonah we find that he becomes angry and disgusted with God’s whole attitude in this affair.

Jonah becomes angry because God is not. Jonah wanted justice not grace, punishment not forgiveness. What are we to make of this whole story about Jonah? As I said at the beginning this Old Testament story makes a great story for children but what message does God want to convey to us, we adults today?                  

Most importantly this is a story of God’s love and mercy. Look how often God was patient with the hard-headed Jonah. If it was up to us we would have given up on this idiot long ago. We would have come to the conclusion that he will never change, he is too wrapped up in his own ideas and his own world that he will never change. Rightfully God should have dealt to Jonah what Jonah expected God to do to the people of Nineveh.

But notice how God comes back to Jonah again and again. He doesn’t give up. He even rescues him from the deep and orders a big fish to swallow Jonah. He is patient with Jonah’s half-hearted effort in delivering his message, and to top it all off he hangs in there when Jonah becomes angry with God saying, “I knew it! I knew you would be loving and merciful. I knew you that go back on what you said and save the people of Nineveh!” God was trying to convince Jonah that he loved the people of Nineveh as much as anyone else.

God hasn’t changed one bit from the days of Jonah. God knows how frustrated and impatient we can be. The way we hurt people around us through our selfishness and lack of consideration and the way we hurt God with our sin must leave him upset and offended.

And yet God doesn’t let this get in the way of his love and mercy and, like he did for Jonah, he comes back to us again and again wanting us to love him, trust him and turn our lives around from self-centeredness and sin to lives of love, and patience and understanding.

Just as God spoke his word through Jonah, as poor and inadequate as that was, he speaks to us through the bible, through other people, through parents, neighbours and friends, calling us to trust him and believe in him as the God who loved us so dearly that he sent his Son, Jesus into this world to be our Saviour.

Jesus came at Christmas born, not in a private hospital with nurses on hand to ensure his safe arrival, but in a cattle shed. From his earliest days on this earth, he was hated and hunted down by the jealous King Herod. He lived in this world and endured hunger, pain, thirst, sadness and death that he would not have endured had he stayed in heaven.

He did it for us. He died, not a peaceful and quiet death, but with nails in his hands and feet, a crown of thorns pressing on his head, because of his love you and me. Jesus came to this earth to tell us that believing and trusting in him as the only way to eternal life. He said it clearly and plainly, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no-one goes to the Father except by me.” 

He loves us, loves us, and loves us more and will do anything to ensure that we will live forever in heaven. That’s what happened in our baptism. Jesus has come to us in love and forgiveness and welcomed us into his family. He has promised to walk with us all our days, through the ups and downs.

God has assured us that he will always be there for us to call on in times of sickness, sadness, trouble, in life, and even in death. God loves us so much that he wants us to be his children forever. That’s how God felt about the people of Nineveh and grumpy old Jonah. That’s the way God feels about us now! 

Those who insist that believing and trusting in God is nonsense will one day face God’s anger. And who can blame God. He has given us every opportunity to trust in his love for us and still people turn their backs on him.

The other point that I would like to bring out is that people can change. There are those who say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. I lived without God, Jesus and the church for years, until God revealed his truth to me through the pages of the Bible at the age 19. My life changed from then on. Yes! With God people do change.

A psychotherapist of many years once said that the one thing he had learned in counselling people with problems is that “people almost never change. Change, real change, is rare.” Perhaps that counsellor was having a bad day when he said that. Perhaps he was like Jonah - not believing that God has the power to bring about change in the lives and hearts of the people of Nineveh.

This is where faith comes in. Faith is the willingness to be amazed, shocked by the surprising changes that God can bring about in our lives. Faith is the willingness to be surprised at the depth and power of God’s love for us and his constant willingness never to give up on us.

Faith is the willingness to believe the power that the Gospel can have a changing impact on our lives. Faith is the willingness to believe that with God’s power in our lives we can change. The first words Jesus preached were “turn away from your sin and believe.”

They are as relevant to us today as they were when they were first spoken. When we take God seriously, don't be surprised if he makes some radical and risky changes in our lives. In fact, just when we have our world settled, fixed, finished, God comes along with his amazing grace and turns our whole life up side down. That's what happened at Nineveh when Jonah preached. And that's what happens when God and his never-ending love touches our lives. Life is never the same.

 

With God People Do Change.

Amen.