Third Sunday after Epiphany 1/25/09 Text: Jonah 3:1-5 & 10
Third Sunday after Epiphany
1/25/09
Text: Jonah 3:1-5; 10
Title: Amazing Grace
For the past several weeks we have be learning about God and his power to make things happen when he speaks. He speaks and chaos becomes form. He speaks and ordinary people become disciples. He speaks and the deaf hear, the blind see, the crippled walk, and the dead come from the grave. He spoke on the cross and peace was made between God’s human creation and God. He speaks still today through his Word. He speaks and your sins are forgiven, the bread and wine become body and blood and ordinary water gives faith, life, and salvation. He speaks and things happen.
Today our Gospel lesson focuses on Jesus calling his first disciples to be fishermen of people. He called and they left what they were doing and became his disciples. Our Old Testament reading for today tells us part of the story of Jonah. God spoke to Jonah, but he did not listen and things did not happen. That is good things did not happen for we all know the rest of the story. Jonah makes a break for it. He actually turns his back on God and goes the opposite direction of Nineveh.
If you look on the map he gets pretty far before God’s judgment comes down on him and the rest of the sailors on the ship he was fleeing. Jonah knows why the storm and so he tells the sailors to throw him in the drink. After a short time he does that, and in Jonah’s prayer we read of his terror, yet faith in God’s deliverance. God has a great fish swallow him where he spends three days. The whale regurgitates him. I guess he did not set too well in the whales digestive tract. Can you imagine the smell and look of Jonah. I am sure he was not a pretty sight.
Here is an interesting fact. The goddess of the city Nineveh was represented by a fish in a wire cage. I don’t think that it was a coincidence that he was swallowed by a fish. It is a good thing that the god of the city was not a lion or a bear. Anyway Jonah got the message and eventually ends up at Nineveh. We read that Nineveh is a big city, for it took three days to walk across it. In chapter 4 we read where there were 120, 000 people in the city.
God tells Jonah that he is to tell the people that if they did not repent that God would destroy them in 40 days. In the original language the time frame is 3 days, an idiom meaning a length of time needed to accomplish something. We might say today, “There is no time like the present.” or, ”The time is ripe.” When the Hebrew got translated into Greek 3 days was changed to 40 days, another idiom that meant the same thing. I mention this because in understanding this we see that God knew what was going to happen. His purpose was to have the people repent of their evil ways.
The people believed Jonah, although they did not know God, and they repented in a big way. They put on ashes, rough clothing, and even had their animals fast and not drink water. I love the words of the king, as he addressed the need for repentance, “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” Repentance is an interesting subject. Was their repentance true or just a reaction to Jonah’s God who was more powerful than their god. While we will never know if their repentance was true we do need to know what repentance is. While being sorry for one sins leads to repentance, being sorry is not repentance. This is what I mean. Being sorry is focusing on the past while still being absorbed in self. On the other hand repentance is turning oneself around; that is not focusing on an act done, but on the future, as one looks toward God in forgiveness.
God did not destroy the city, but Jonah was a happy prophet. He went outside the city and pouted. When God asked him why he was unhappy with his decision Jonah told him that he knew God was going to forgive them; that is why he fled to Tarshish. As if God was going to buy that excuse. Jonah knew and God knew why he fled. He did not want God to forgive the enemies of Israel.
What we usually hear about this text is that it is to teach us that when God calls us we had better listen to what he tells us to do, otherwise bad things will happen. I don’t know about you, but this text really did not mean much to me, for God was not going to call me to go to a city that was an enemy of the United States. And as far as being swallowed by a big fish, as long as I stayed off the ocean that was not going to happen anyway. So it just did not teach me anything.
Several months ago, I volunteered to be Jonah during our Sunday morning Bible time I started studying the story of Jonah to see what it is that I wanted; more importantly what God wanted our children to learn. Could it be that he wants them to learn that if they disobey God he is going to get them? Could it be that he wanted them to learn that God always gets his way? Could it be about our ability to change God’s mind? Or is the story about repentance?
As I studied the text I decided that the main focus of the story is not about any of those things, although you could teach those things. This story is about God’s amazing grace; his love for all people. This is what I mean. God could have let Jonah die in that great storm, but he did not; he sent a fish to swallow him. He could have let the great fish actually digest him, but he did not. He caused the fish to vomit him up. God showed amazing grace toward Jonah.
You see, God showed amazing grace toward Jonah because he wanted him to tell the people of Nineveh that if they did not repent they would die. God’s amazing grace was showing through that day, for he did not destroy the city. You see this text is about God and his willingness to forgive. Jonah turned his back on God and God forgave him. The people of Nineveh who were the sworn enemies of God’s people repented and God forgave them. That is God’s amazing grace. God did not do any of those things because God wants all people to repent. He did not change his mind, for his holy will is that all be saved. He wanted the people to turn to him for their salvation.
God forgives the Ninevites of our world, for he made peace for them when he died on the cross. Like Jonah, we are quite sure that we know upon whom God should wreak his wrath, not upon us, of course; Jonah didn’t think God should judge him! But the Lord of heaven and earth and sea forgives and saves the most unlikely people—the Ninevites, a thief beside him on a cross, a bunch of deserting disciples, a Saul who had persecuted Christians, and yes, incredibly, even you and me, for even as we sit here today, we still deserve God’s wrath, his condemnation, for even though there is peace between us and God it is only because of Jesus’ love that we can without fear look toward the future; that time when Jesus comes back in all his glory and ends this world as we know it calling up those who have died in the Lord to live with him in the new heaven and earth.
Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. Amen
1/25/09
Text: Jonah 3:1-5; 10
Title: Amazing Grace
For the past several weeks we have be learning about God and his power to make things happen when he speaks. He speaks and chaos becomes form. He speaks and ordinary people become disciples. He speaks and the deaf hear, the blind see, the crippled walk, and the dead come from the grave. He spoke on the cross and peace was made between God’s human creation and God. He speaks still today through his Word. He speaks and your sins are forgiven, the bread and wine become body and blood and ordinary water gives faith, life, and salvation. He speaks and things happen.
Today our Gospel lesson focuses on Jesus calling his first disciples to be fishermen of people. He called and they left what they were doing and became his disciples. Our Old Testament reading for today tells us part of the story of Jonah. God spoke to Jonah, but he did not listen and things did not happen. That is good things did not happen for we all know the rest of the story. Jonah makes a break for it. He actually turns his back on God and goes the opposite direction of Nineveh.
If you look on the map he gets pretty far before God’s judgment comes down on him and the rest of the sailors on the ship he was fleeing. Jonah knows why the storm and so he tells the sailors to throw him in the drink. After a short time he does that, and in Jonah’s prayer we read of his terror, yet faith in God’s deliverance. God has a great fish swallow him where he spends three days. The whale regurgitates him. I guess he did not set too well in the whales digestive tract. Can you imagine the smell and look of Jonah. I am sure he was not a pretty sight.
Here is an interesting fact. The goddess of the city Nineveh was represented by a fish in a wire cage. I don’t think that it was a coincidence that he was swallowed by a fish. It is a good thing that the god of the city was not a lion or a bear. Anyway Jonah got the message and eventually ends up at Nineveh. We read that Nineveh is a big city, for it took three days to walk across it. In chapter 4 we read where there were 120, 000 people in the city.
God tells Jonah that he is to tell the people that if they did not repent that God would destroy them in 40 days. In the original language the time frame is 3 days, an idiom meaning a length of time needed to accomplish something. We might say today, “There is no time like the present.” or, ”The time is ripe.” When the Hebrew got translated into Greek 3 days was changed to 40 days, another idiom that meant the same thing. I mention this because in understanding this we see that God knew what was going to happen. His purpose was to have the people repent of their evil ways.
The people believed Jonah, although they did not know God, and they repented in a big way. They put on ashes, rough clothing, and even had their animals fast and not drink water. I love the words of the king, as he addressed the need for repentance, “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” Repentance is an interesting subject. Was their repentance true or just a reaction to Jonah’s God who was more powerful than their god. While we will never know if their repentance was true we do need to know what repentance is. While being sorry for one sins leads to repentance, being sorry is not repentance. This is what I mean. Being sorry is focusing on the past while still being absorbed in self. On the other hand repentance is turning oneself around; that is not focusing on an act done, but on the future, as one looks toward God in forgiveness.
God did not destroy the city, but Jonah was a happy prophet. He went outside the city and pouted. When God asked him why he was unhappy with his decision Jonah told him that he knew God was going to forgive them; that is why he fled to Tarshish. As if God was going to buy that excuse. Jonah knew and God knew why he fled. He did not want God to forgive the enemies of Israel.
What we usually hear about this text is that it is to teach us that when God calls us we had better listen to what he tells us to do, otherwise bad things will happen. I don’t know about you, but this text really did not mean much to me, for God was not going to call me to go to a city that was an enemy of the United States. And as far as being swallowed by a big fish, as long as I stayed off the ocean that was not going to happen anyway. So it just did not teach me anything.
Several months ago, I volunteered to be Jonah during our Sunday morning Bible time I started studying the story of Jonah to see what it is that I wanted; more importantly what God wanted our children to learn. Could it be that he wants them to learn that if they disobey God he is going to get them? Could it be that he wanted them to learn that God always gets his way? Could it be about our ability to change God’s mind? Or is the story about repentance?
As I studied the text I decided that the main focus of the story is not about any of those things, although you could teach those things. This story is about God’s amazing grace; his love for all people. This is what I mean. God could have let Jonah die in that great storm, but he did not; he sent a fish to swallow him. He could have let the great fish actually digest him, but he did not. He caused the fish to vomit him up. God showed amazing grace toward Jonah.
You see, God showed amazing grace toward Jonah because he wanted him to tell the people of Nineveh that if they did not repent they would die. God’s amazing grace was showing through that day, for he did not destroy the city. You see this text is about God and his willingness to forgive. Jonah turned his back on God and God forgave him. The people of Nineveh who were the sworn enemies of God’s people repented and God forgave them. That is God’s amazing grace. God did not do any of those things because God wants all people to repent. He did not change his mind, for his holy will is that all be saved. He wanted the people to turn to him for their salvation.
God forgives the Ninevites of our world, for he made peace for them when he died on the cross. Like Jonah, we are quite sure that we know upon whom God should wreak his wrath, not upon us, of course; Jonah didn’t think God should judge him! But the Lord of heaven and earth and sea forgives and saves the most unlikely people—the Ninevites, a thief beside him on a cross, a bunch of deserting disciples, a Saul who had persecuted Christians, and yes, incredibly, even you and me, for even as we sit here today, we still deserve God’s wrath, his condemnation, for even though there is peace between us and God it is only because of Jesus’ love that we can without fear look toward the future; that time when Jesus comes back in all his glory and ends this world as we know it calling up those who have died in the Lord to live with him in the new heaven and earth.
Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. Amen
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 5:13 PM
|
0 comments
