Turning Around
January 25, 2015
Jonah 3:1-5, 10 & Mark 1:14-20
Grace and peace to you from God our
Father and from Jesus Christ the one calling
us to follow him, amen.
I grew up about two blocks away from
Lake Erie and we also lived near a small pond
named Lake Palmetto. So I was either fishing
on the big lake or more frequently (almost
every day) you could find me on the bank of
Lake Palmetto fishing for blue gills. I used to
really love fishing, but I wore it out. I don’t
fish much anymore. I don’t like to get smelly
anymore.
I can’t explain why Simon, Andrew,
James, and John all dropped what they were
doing, left family and their vocations behind
to immediately follow when Jesus called.
Maybe they, like me, had just wore out the fun
of fishing. Maybe Jesus was just so
charismatic they were struck by the sheer
force of his personality, or maybe it was just
love at first sight. Whatever their mental
state, Mark tells us they immediately left their
nets, father, boats, and coworkers and
followed Jesus. Our First lesson also involved
a call from God. It’s this call story of Jonah
we’ll be spending the bulk of our time
considering this morning.
Jonah was a reluctant prophet. The
book of Jonah is a story of many
"turn-arounds." It begins with God speaking
to Jonah, "Go to the great city of Nineveh and
preach against it, because its wickedness has
come up before me." But Jonah ran away
from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He
went down to Joppa, where he found a ship
headed for Tarshish. He paid the fare and
went on board and sailed off. Before I go any
further, we need a brief geography lesson.
Joppa was a city on the coast of the
Mediterranean Sea, and Nineveh was about
500 miles EAST inland. While no one really
knows exactly where Tarshish was, most
scholars believe it was somewhere in Spain,
2000 miles WEST of Joppa. So God told
Jonah to go EAST, and Jonah immediately set
off going WEST, exactly the opposite
direction as far as possible to the edge of the
known world!
What possessed Jonah to do such a
thing? Well, you have to understand Nineveh
was the capital of Assyria, the most powerful
empire during Jonah’s lifetime. Assyria was
ruthlessly expanding and edging closer and
closer to Israel, destroying and ransacking
cities like Damascus, which was just across
the border from Israel. In fact, the prophets
Hosea and Amos, Jonah’s contemporaries, had
predicted if Israel continued in her rebellious
ways, God was going to use Assyria as God’s
punishment. So imagine Jonah’s horror when
he heard God’s call to go into the heart of that
evil empire and pronounce judgment upon
Nineveh.
How many times do we sense God’s
call to go one way, and we respond by
actually going in the opposite direction? I
suspect many of us have sensed God’s leading
at some point and we either ignored it or
found excuses for not following it. Perhaps
it’s swallowing our pride and admitting we’re
wrong. Perhaps it’s extending an olive branch
to someone who hurt us. Perhaps it is seeking
help for an addiction or self-destructive
behavior. Perhaps it is recommitting our lives
to Christ and the Church. Like Jonah, perhaps
some of us have been trying to run away from
God. I did exactly that for most of my adult
life. I ran as far away from my call as I could
get. I told you about my call story last week.
If you missed it, you can read last week’s
sermon, in fact all of our recent sermons, on
the Trinity web site. The web address is
www.pitsburgtlc.org.
The good news is that God is always
with you everywhere you go, but the bad news
is God is with you everywhere you go. I was
hiding out in Alaska when God reached out
through the preaching of a pastor and spoke to
me. The message I received was plain and
simple. The reason I wasn’t fulfilled and
wasn’t finding the success I felt I deserved
was because I wasn’t following where God
was calling me. Running away from God’s
call doesn’t work so well, as I found out and
as Jonah found out soon enough. While the
ship Jonah was on headed for Tarshish, God
sent a mighty storm that freaked out the crew.
To make a long story shorter, a big storm
threatened the ship, the sailors threw Jonah
overboard. The seas became calm, but Jonah
was swallowed up by a big fish.
In the belly of this fish was where
Jonah literally hit bottom, he repented and
turned around. This is the first "turn around"
point of this story. Jonah in the fish reminds
me of Psalm 139 where the psalmist writes:
"Where can I go from your spirit? Or where
can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to
heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in the
depths of the dead, you are there. If I take the
wings of the morning and settle at the farthest
limits of the sea, even there your hand shall
lead me, and your right hand shall hold me
fast." These words are so comforting when
we feel lonely and alienated from God, but
when we’re trying to run away and hide from
God, I’m not so sure… They tell us it’s futile
to play a game of "hide and seek" with God,
because we’re always going to lose! Jonah
tried and failed. I tried and failed. I can’t
speak for you, but I’ll bet if you think back on
your life you’ll see times when you also tried
to hide or run away from God’s call in your
life.
My experience has been that when we
try to run from the call of God we found
ourselves spiraling out of control until we’re
swallowed, not by a big fish, but by the
consequences of our own actions. It’s often
said alcoholics and drug addicts have to hit
bottom before they can admit they need a
power higher than themselves to turn their
lives around. That’s what Jonah did. He
repented and confessed salvation comes from
the Lord, and with that, the LORD
commanded the fish to vomit him up on the
shore.
That’s where our story for today picks
up. Once again the LORD spoke to Jonah.
"Go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim
to the people the message I have given you."
This time Jonah obeyed and went to Nineveh.
He started through the city, and after walking
a whole day, he proclaimed, "Forty days more,
and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" Here, we
have the second "turn around" of this story.
Jonah preached the greatest revival sermon of
all time. His sermon had only eight words:
“Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be
overthrown!” Wonder of wonders, this
sermon prompted a city-wide revival in
Nineveh, a city of at least 120,000 inhabitants!
This means that for every word Jonah
preached, over 15,000 people repented and
turned to God! Even Billy Graham, at the
height of his career, couldn’t do that! Maybe
I’ll try a sermon like that “In forty days
Pitsburg, Arcanum, and Greenville will be
destroyed!” The only one repenting would be
me--for preaching that sermon!
What would it look like for an entire
community, city, or entire country to turn
around? What are some things that our
community needs to repent of and turn
around? I’m not thinking about “turning
around” back to the good ole days of a
Christian America. There is no “golden time”
for us to turn back to. We are called to look at
our present age to see areas where we fall
short of God’s ideal and turn around to work
toward meeting it. What’s even more
amazing is when God saw the city of Nineveh,
from the king to the lowest slave fasting,
putting on sackcloth, and sitting in ashes, God
repented. This is the final "turn around" in the
story: God himself turns around. God
repented, not from evil or sin, God is holy and
sinless, but God repented or turned around
from His judgment in order to show mercy to
the enemy of His people and in doing so, God
revealed the depths of His love and the
wideness of His mercy. After preaching the
most successful revival sermon of all time,
you’d think Jonah would be ecstatic, but no,
he was furious! His most hated enemies were
not going to be destroyed after all. Instead
God showered them with grace and Jonah was
responsible for it!
Isn’t it funny that Jonah was
swallowed up by a fish and Jesus says his
Disciples will fish for people? Sometimes
we’re like Jonah and run the opposite
direction when God calls. Sometimes we’re
like the fishermen and we do somehow
manage to find that mustard seed of faith to
respond as Simon, Andrew, James, and John.
Here’s the truth of our human condition, we’re
always like the people of Nineveh. We’re the
ones in need of repentance and change and
we’re always the objects of God’s love! God
will stop at nothing to offer the gift of
forgiveness and the opportunity to live right
now, today, as if God were reigning totally
and completely in your life.
May you experience the joy of
answering the invitation Jesus still offers
today. May our congregation listen to God’s
call and always proclaim the Good News of
God’s forgiveness, mercy, and grace. May we
all realize that we don’t have to hit bottom
before changing our lives. God is waiting
with arms spread wide for all people, even
perceived enemies, to come and receive His
love. Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at
hand! Thanks be to God, amen.