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Sermon - January 25th, 2009
In the Belly of the Whale
Rev. Gwen Drake
Scripture: Jonah 3:1-5, 10
We all want to know, why on earth are we here? What is the reason, the purpose, the meaning of our life? What is so unique about us, that God would create us and turn us loose in this dark, scary, beautiful, remarkable journey called life?
Maybe you already know why you are here. Maybe you know people who seem to have it all figured out. They have found their place in the universe. It makes sense. It’s a good fit. Their lives shine with meaning. You see that their life’s purpose seems to give them strength to get through rough spots. You see the joy in their lives. You see a kind of peace, a sense of contentment and satisfaction. Maybe you yearn for that. Maybe you envy it. But the truth is many people are not at peace, some are confused, some are completely in the dark, some don’t know what their reason for living is.
That’s why it is easy to relate to Jonah. Because this parable is about Jonah sitting in the middle of the belly of a whale. Jonah is confused, without direction, he is rebellious. He knows he is a prophet; he hears the voice of God. Yet, he doesn’t know what that truly means. He finally responds to God, yet, it does not give him a reason to live. And at the end of the story, we are left wondering if the whole rest of his life was spent in the belly of a metaphorical whale.
Jonah was called by God to go preach the good news to the people of Nineveh. The problem with that call was the Ninevites were the enemy. They were the terrorists of Jonah’s world. I can understand why Jonah boarded a ship in the opposite direction. He was escaping. He was avoiding God’s call to save a people he despised. Once on the ship, he went below deck to sleep. It wasn’t long before the sailors of the ship went below to wake up Jonah. The ship was about to be wiped out in a terrific storm and the sailors were very suspicious of a stranger who could sleep through the whole thing. Jonah immediately confessed that he was the problem and they should throw him overboard. (I’m thinking that Jonah would rather die, than go to Nineveh.)
The sailors were hesitant in sacrificing Jonah, but they were operating on an ancient principle, “better him, than us,” and tossed him into the raging sea. That fixed the storm, but much to Jonah’s disappointment, he didn’t die. Instead, he was swallowed by a very big fish. It was from the belly of the whale where he began to pray to God. From the belly of his grave, he acknowledged that God had pulled him up from the depths of Sheol, the great ancient abyss. When his breath was slipping away, Jonah remembered God, and God pulled him up from the grave alive. Jonah promised to do what God called him to do and God made sure that Jonah kept his promise. The whale carried him to the shores of Nineveh and in a case of extreme indigestion, or a case of not being able to stomach Jonah any longer, the whale up-chucked him into the enemy’s territory.
Jonah walked the streets of Nineveh and preached. He hated every minute of it. Yet, the Ninemites succumbed to his eloquence. They promised to shape up. Jonah went out of the city and sat under a big-leafy plant to shade himself from that round fiery thing in the sky that we western Oregonians love to see. God could not resist giving Jonah one more lesson in this journey. God sent another one of earth’s critters, a worm, to cause the plant to shrivel up. The sun beat down on Jonah, the hot east wind blew. Once again, Jonah told God that he would rather die, than suffer the heat.
God said to Jonah in response, “Here you are, angry over the death of one tree that gave you shade, even though you had nothing to do with its planting or watering. What do you find so wrong in my having mercy for these thousands of people who were headed for hell in a hand basket if something was not done?”
The end. That’s the end of the story of Jonah.
Jonah was his own worst enemy. He was the “scrooge” of all God’s prophets, major and minor. Here we have the strongest, most dramatic message anywhere in the Old Testament that God loves everyone. God does not want anyone to perish. God so loved Nineveh that God sent Jonah to save them. But Jonah was a “scrooge.” The last thing he wanted to do was to save his enemy, to tell the terrorists that God loved them. God said to Jonah, “Isn’t it wonderful that the people of Nineveh wanted to be saved?” And Jonah said, “Bah! Humbug!”
Like Scrooge, Jonah found the enemy and the enemy was in his own heart. Only Scrooge had the ghosts of the past, present, and future come to save him. Jonah had a whale and a worm. As far as we know, these visitations didn’t even put a dent in his hardened heart. His words saved a whole city of people. But the story ends with Jonah’s own salvation at stake.
Who was the true enemy for Jonah? What was the enemy inside him? What was he really struggling with? Fear? Resentment? Anxiety? Regret? Loneliness? Worry? Anger? Perhaps to understand Jonah, we need to understand ourselves. How often are we our own worst enemy? Not that there are things outside ourselves to be wary of, there are. But someone very wise said, “I have met the enemy and the enemy is us!” If we don’t take a look at ourselves and who we are first, then we are in danger of ending up like Jonah—lonely and angry and not really knowing why. What is it that keeps us from being bold, taking risks, living life passionately? It is because we are shy? Because we don’t know how? Or because we don’t really know ourselves and who we are?
A college student walked into a pastor’s office for counsel and said, “I just hate myself.” The pastor answered, “I like you.” The student shot back, “But you don’t know me the way I do.” How many times to we feel like Nineveh? By that I mean, we wouldn’t be surprised if we heard that some new Jonah would rather be shipwrecked and swallowed by a whale than coming over and embracing us. Who are we? Nineveh? Or Jonah?
The story of Jonah does not have a happy ending. It really has no ending at all. God asked Jonah a question and we are left wondering if Jonah answered it. Just like one of Jesus’ parables. We are left hanging at the end, so we can live into our own answer, our own end of the story. We are the rest of the story. God so loved the world to send you, and me to save the people of Nineveh, or New York City, or Bagdad, or Jerusalem, or Gaza, or Hillsboro. So, the question is for us, if God sent us, then what is our response? What does loving our enemies look like? If we claim to have experienced God’s love, then how do we, in turn, love others?
That’s what the story of Jonah is about, I believe. God calls us to pray for those who have hurt us, lied about us, made us miserable. God calls us to love those we find it hard to even look at with kindness. God calls us to extend an arm of mercy and embrace them. The question is for you and me, how would we respond? Would we, like Jonah, choose rather to flee to the farthest reaches of Tarshish?
I encourage you to look at the Jonah inside of you. All of us have been burned and betrayed and left bitter or fearful at sometime in our life. Is your purpose in life to hang onto that bitterness and anger and fear? I think God is telling you, absolutely not. If you do, it is like living in the belly of a whale. It is like sitting in the sweltering sun alone with no where to go. It is hell of your own making. Let it go and grab onto something else…. Like hope.
There is good news in this story. The good news is that despite Jonah’s resentment, fear, anger, bitterness, desire for revenge, his words miraculously connected with the people of Nineveh. Jonah was their salvation. If God can work through Jonah, then God can work through you and me. The tragedy of Jonah is that he did not allow the people of Nineveh to save his soul. Jonah’s soul was in desperate need of saving and it didn’t happen. Reaching out beyond ourselves is not so much about saving souls out there. It is about saving our own souls.
Amen.