1.21.24 "Jonah" Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Mark 1:14-20

The word of the LORD came to Jonah … a second time.

The first time didn’t work out so well …

God asked Jonah to go East, Go east! young man, go east, to Nineveh … of all places!

Nineveh is the capital city of the Assyrian Empire …   

A huge city, a three-days’ walk, says the story … today, it’s called Mosul, in modern-day Iraq.

The Assyrian Empire is the Enemy … the enemy of everything Jonah values … God, country, family, faith … ultimately, Assyria conquers the Northern Kingdom of Israel and takes the Ten Tribes into captivity.

Jonah wants nothing to do with it … he’s not afraid of Nineveh … he hates Nineveh … as far as Jonah is concerned, Nineveh can go to hell. 

So Jonah heads west … he flees to the Mediterranean coast, hops a ship bound for Tarshish … all the way through the Mediterranean, through the straits of Gibraltar, to the southeast coast of Spain.

Jonah wants to get away from God, as far as he can go … but who can get away from God?

God sends a huge storm to assail the ship … the crew knows what’s up because Jonah is foolish enough to tell ‘em … I’m on a spiritual trek to get away from God.  

Jonah heads below deck and falls fast asleep as the storm rages.

The crew is frightened … they strive valiantly to keep the ship and save the cargo … but the storm rages on all the more … 

The crew awakens Jonah - You’re the cause of this. What shall we do with you?

Jonah is determined to escape from God - if he can’t do it by ship, he’ll do it by death … Throw me into the sea! 

And that’s exactly what the crew does … the storm subsides … Jonah is lost at sea.

But the LORD provides a large fish to swallow up Jonah … it’s a tall tail … as tall tales go, everyone listening to the story would be smiling … it’s not the tale of a whale, but a whale of tale …

 Back to the story: for three nasty days, Jonah sloshes around in the belly of the big fish … Jonah realizes his goose is cooked, and there’s no getting outta the fish … so Jonah prays … no doubt - some second thoughts on Jonah’s part.

Then the LORD spoke to the fish, the story says, and the fish spewed Jonah out upon the dry land. An ignominious end to Jonah’s escapade - vomited up onto the shore.

Let’s try it again Jonah! 

God is the God of the Second Chance … and the third and the fourth and the fifth chance, for as long as it takes … 

So Jonah goes to Nineveh, with contempt and disgust in his heart … grumpy as all get out … he does what God wants, but he does it without love.

Jonah preaches his heart out to that great city … threats of hellfire and damnation … Jonah is at least partially right - if Nineveh continues its headlong pursuit of power and domination, it will end badly.

Lo and behold, the great city of Nineveh repents … when it’s clear to God that Nineveh is moving in the right direction, God changes God’s mind … there will be no disaster for the city, but a fresh chance to chart a new course.

Jonah is ticked off … I mean, really ticked off, steaming mad … he says to the LORD …

Is this not what I said would happen the first time you came to me with this proposition while I was still in my own country? This is why I fled to Tarshish … I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And, now O LORD, take my life from me … 

Jonah wants to die all over again.

God says to Jonah - Does this make any sense, that you should be angry about this?

Jonah heads outta the city, and sits down to sulk … he knits together some branches for shade, and there he waits to see what will become of the city. He’s hopes for hellfire and brimstone.

The LORD appointed a bush to provide shade for Jonah, says the story, and Jonah was very happy … and then, God appointed a worm to attack the bush, and then God sent hot winds … and once again, Jonah says, It is better for me to die than to live.

By this time, God is a wee bit impatient … Oh, for crying out loud, says God, does this really make any sense, that you should be so angry about that dadgum bush?

Jonah replies, Yes … angry enough to die!

God says to Jonah: You’re all hot and bothered about that bush, for which you did not labor … you didn’t grow it … it came up and went away … and you’re fit to be tied.

Jonah is so angry, and God is exasperated with him …

Ok Jonah, you’re angry about the bush … but think of me for a moment … ought I not to care about this great city, more than 120,000 people, and they don’t know their right hand from their left?

And if that isn’t enough, God says: and also many animals.

I care about all of that Jonah … all my creatures, great and small.

I suspect the person who wrote this story did so with an ironic smile … tinged with a sense of tragedy … the contrast between God’s great love, and Jonah’s sickness of soul … the human condition in technicolor. 

So, what’s the point of the Jonah story?

It’s a simple story of God’s love for the world … to see the world with God’s eyes!

In the recent movie, ISS, astronauts on the Space Station talk of the overview effect … 

Reported by some astronauts while viewing the Earth from space. 

Researchers have characterized the effect as "a state of awe with self-transcendent qualities, precipitated by a particularly striking visual stimulus". 

The effect can cause changes in the observer’s self concept and value system, and can be transformative.

To see the world with God’s eyes … a world without boundaries, without enemies, without territory to conquer, or territory to defend … just a beautiful blue marble in the vast expanse of space.

Jonah’s story is a fine example of Hebrew fiction, like Gandalf and Bilbo Baggins from Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter … or Sherlock Holmes … or Star Trek or Star Wars …

It’s not about a fish or a whale … or even a guy named Jonah … we know that Nineveh never had a spiritual awakening … the Assyrian Empire continued to dominate the Middle East and destroy … until another power, the Babylonia Empire, rose up and destroyed Assyria …

The story of Jonah is a short story, a piece of fiction, with big questions:

Which way am I going? Am I running from God? 

Am I taking on the work of God? 

Am I doing the work of God gladly, or am I doing it resentfully?Am I in the belly of a fish, sloshing around? Have I been given a second chance, a third or fourth? Am I going to Tarshish or Nineveh?

Am I becoming more human, or less … or am I stuck somewhere in between?

What’s my attitude? Am I angry? Sad? Frustrated? Lonely? Am I grumpy, gracious, sweet, or sour?

And why?

What’s going on with me?

The Jonah story ends abruptly - boom! … mic drop … does Jonah ever get it? Do we?

Can we see the world through God’s eyes? …

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
naught be all else to me, save that thou art -
thou my best thought, by day or by night;
waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Hallelujah and Amen! 

8.6.23 'God, Christianity, and Religions!" Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

Psalm 17.1-7; Romans 9.1-5

In the beginning … God created the heavens and the earth.

Some would say, “there is no God” … 

and they have good reason for saying so … 

the cruelty of religion, its lies and superstitions … libraries are filled with the tragic tales of religion gone bad …  

All religions have their shameful story …  

But it’s up to us to deal with our story, our Christian story … 

The Crusades, the Inquisition, the burning of Servetus, colonialism and slavery; the Salem Witch Hunts, wild-eyed preachers damning everything they can find … the oppression of women, the abuse of children - the KKK and the lynchings … the rise of the Neo-Nazis in our day and White Christian Nationalism …

Yikes, and then some … 

This morning, with the Apostle Paul and his meanderings in Romans 9 - 11, I focus on one of the darkest chapters in the Christian story …  

Christianity’s failed relationship to the Jews …

A Jewish friend of mine moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan in the early 70s … she wrote, “half the people I knew called me ‘Christ killer.’”

Centuries worth of discrimination, Jews killed by Christian swords … thousands more exiled and sent away, often to perish from disease and hunger … or forced to live in ghettos …  

The culmination of all of this was reached in the Holocaust …  

Throughout the Western World, anti-Semitism is on the rise … synagogue shootings, homes defaced, slurs uttered in public meetings and right-wing protests … 

Much of this rooted in the ancient struggles of the early church … the first Christians were Jews … these were dangerous times, difficult times … what’s real? what counts? … and so began an in-house debate, a family argument … about Jesus … in time, the debate, the argument, grew into a monstrous divide … as Christianity spread across the Roman Empire, as Christianity became the religion of Rome, the Jews became the enemy … Bible passages were written in such a way that it was possible, with some twisting, to despise the Jews as a failed people, a people who turned their back to God, a people who killed Christ.

What was once a family feud become a fatal divide … 

In the middle of this family feud, the Apostle Paul … 

His name was Saul … he was utterly against the upstart folks who claimed Jesus was the Messiah … Saul was determined to put an end to the movement.

On way to Damascus, Paul was blinded by a bright light, and a voice said to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?

Saul was thrown to the ground … blind as a bat … he had to be led by hand to Damascus … he neither ate nor drank for three days … and then Ananias came to pray for him, and the scales of blindness fell from Saul’s eyes … 

And so began his mission to the world … with a new name, Paul.

I love Paul … his passion, and his honesty.

We see both of these in our reading this day … and the important chapters that follow.

We hear Paul’s lament - he wants desperately for his people, his kin, his family, to know Christ …

Paul laments because it wasn’t happening … yes, there were Jews, just like Paul, who believed in Jesus, and many more Jews who chose to remain faithful to the covenants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob …

Paul is bewildered, upset, disappointed, slightly ticked off …  

Like any new convert, Paul wants the world to see things his way:

Paul reveals what we all feel when we've discovered something really good …

We see a movie, and we want everyone to see it.

We discover a restaurant, and we want everyone to eat there.

We read a book, and we want everyone to read it.

Paul wants everyone to know Christ as he knows Christ … Paul wants everyone to experience God’s love as he experienced it.

Chapters 9 - 11 are a twisted road … but Paul reaches some important conclusions.

With brilliant self-analysis, Paul finally bows before the wonder and mystery of God’s purpose … 

Paul makes clear to his readers that God remains the God of Israel, as well as the God and Father of Jesus … the Jews retain the glory of the covenants, the worship of God, and laws of God … and from the Jews comes the Messiah.

Paul warns his Gentile readers to not get too smart for their own britches … do not become proud, says Paul, but stand in awe.

A lesson the church forgot rather quickly … a truth the church abandoned … 

We’re in a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise … White Christian Nationalists shout Nazi slogans and attack Jews.

Other religions, too … Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Muslims, all targeted by White Christian Nationalists … 

During a speech to a conservative Christian audience on the ReAwaken America tour in Texas, Michael Flynn said: "If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God and one religion under God, right? All of us, working together."

I'm a Christian, through-and-through, and my faith in Christ leads me to the love of God.

American doesn’t need one religion, a religion defined by Michael Flynn … or Marjorie Taylor Greene … America needs all the religions, because every religion has value … every religion adds to the wealth of human knowledge and understanding … in the end, all religions point to the same incredible mystery … the mystery that we all worship, and all misunderstand, all at the same time … the mystery that unites us finally, as human beings.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks put this way: 

“Jews cannot fight antisemitism alone. The victim cannot cure the crime. The hated cannot cure the hate. It would be the greatest mistake for Jews to believe that they can fight it alone. The only people who can successfully combat antisemitism are those active in the cultures that harbour it.”

For me, as a Christian, democracy is the best environment for religion - my religion, your religion, all kinds of religion, faiths and philosophies … Democracy is a place where we can all have a home, a place to call our own - where freedom of speech is defended, the freedom to worship is honored … where racial, ethnic and gender diversity are celebrated, and defended.

In the end, for this life, we all want the same things:

A decent roof over our heads.

A table and some good food.

A safe place for our children.

Equal opportunity.

Welcome and respect.

And a fair shake for others.

As for faith, I’m pleased to share my faith with others, and I'm pleased when others share their faith with me … together, we’re stronger, better people … together, we can defeat the lies and lift up the light of hope.

Let freedom’s light burn bright.

Revealing the path of life.

To live in love.

With God above.

And the neighbor at our side.

Amen and Amen!