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Sermon January 24, 2021
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers,
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Third Sunday after Epiphany, Year B
http://lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Epiphany/BEpi3_RCL.html
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The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” Jonah 3:1-2
One of my favorite Disney movies is Pinocchio. There is something about the rich colors of the animation. Maybe it is the Italian accent of Gepetto, reminding me of my grandfather. And there’s Jiminy Cricket, the conscious and guide for the little wooden boy and a slew of other characters like Figaro, the cat and Cleo, the pretty goldfish.
In the movie, you may remember, Gepetto is swallowed by a huge whale, while trying to rescue Pinocchio from Pleasure Island and his terrible fate of turning into a donkey. Pinocchio, with the help of Jiminy Cricket, escapes Pleasure Island only to learn that Gepetto is living in the belly of the whale. Pinocchio gets himself swallowed by the whale, too, and devises a plan for them to escape. They build a fire in the whale’s belly so the whale will sneeze them out.
This scene always reminds me of the story of Jonah and the Whale. Now, let me say that being swallowed by a whale or large fish and surviving is certainly a fanciful tale. And yet, it does serve a purpose, doesn’t it? This story of Jonah is one that tells us a lot about God’s relationship with us and with all people.
In our reading today, Jonah has escaped from the belly of the whale or large fish, and is back in Nineveh. God had asked Jonah to deliver a message to the Ninevites that the Ninevites would surely perish if they did not change the way they lived individually and as a community.
Jonah was horrified by this request. Nineveh was a foreign land. They did not worship the God of the Israelites. They did not speak the same language as Jonah. They were also considered enemies or at least not on friendly terms.
Wouldn’t you think God was asking an awful lot from you to carry a message of destruction to a foreign community? Can’t you think of a hundred reasons why this is a bad idea from the fact that there would be no logical reason for the people to heed the message you were bringing to even wondering if you would get out alive?
Then there is the fact of how large Nineveh was – a 3 days journey walking. It’s huge. There are a lot of people there.
So, yes, when God first tells Jonah to go to Nineveh and proclaim a message from God, Jonah tries to escape from God…escape from his calling.
This story is so wonderful and humorous and yet so typical of us. I mean, how could you ever escape from God? Jonah ends up on a ship, trying to go to Tarshish. God sends a terrible storm that threatens to wreck the ship. Jonah implores the sailors to throw him overboard, which they eventually do. The storm calms and Jonah has been swallowed by the large fish. Jonah prays to God and God has the fish expel Jonah onto dry land. Our reading today begins with God’s second attempt to have Jonah deliver God’s message to the people of Nineveh.
The people of Nineveh hear Jonah’s message. From the king to the cows in the field, they don sackcloth or burlap and sit in ashes. They heed God’s word about how they are living and change their ways. Thus, God decides the people of Nineveh shall live; they will not be destroyed.
The people listen to the message from God that Jonah proclaims!
There is so much for us in this story, isn’t there?
Things like how God calls us and sometimes asks us to do hard things…asks us to do things that do not seem logical or even possible.
How we, like Jonah, try to hide or run away from what God is calling us to. Yet, God is persistent. While we may not believe it, God has given us skills and talents that are perfect for what God calls us to do. God’s call is persistent. We may try to run away or hide from it. We may even succeed for a time. We may not end up in a storm at sea or in the belly of a large fish, and our lives may feel stormy and unsettled nonetheless.
Each of us is created in the image of God, the imago dei. God calls us to do work specifically suited to us in ways that may be different from what we imagine. We may try to run from God’s call and God is persistent. We will continue to hear the call.
This is the season of light…of Christ coming into the world as light to the world and of the light that we as followers of Christ bring into the world. That’s what answering our call does; it brings light into the world.
Did you hear the amazing Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman on Inauguration Day? The poem she wrote and performed was called, The Hill We Climb. She ended it like this and I apologize, because I will not read these words in the same way she did:
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid,
the new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light,
if only we're brave enough to see it.
If only we're brave enough to be it.
God calls us to work that brings light to the world. You beautiful, God created people, be brave enough to see it. You beautiful people created in the image of God, we brave enough to be that light.
Amen
