Preacher: Benjamin Quilliam Bush Chaplain Frontier Services
Today I’m doing a very short reflection to sum up the prophet Jonah for our series on the minor prophets. I’m glad Emily already mentioned Jonah and set some of the scene for today in last week’s sermon, because today is as much a testimony and a book review as anything else. And if you missed last week’s sermon you can find it on the ASUC website, where Emily thankfully uploads transcripts of all her sermons! And I’m also glad we’ve had Jonah’s story told in the Godly Play format already, because I am not going to refer to the text of the story at all.
As you probably know, our youngest son is named Jonah. At the time Mel was pregnant with Jonah, she was in a small Bible Study with Celia, who most of you would remember, and Mikaila, and they were studying this book, “Sympathy for Jonah.” So one day Mel came home from Bible Study and said, “how about Jonah as a name for our baby?” Pretty sure I said something like, “No way! Why would you even suggest that name?” In my mind, Jonah was the least of the prophets. A bad example of a prophet. Certainly not one to look up to. To be honest, I was very judgmental toward Jonah. If Jonah had heard from God, why did he try to run away? Certainly I would not try to run away from what God was telling ME to do! The end of the book of Jonah was also very unsatisfactory to me. The people of Ninevah had repented, and God had not caused judgment to come upon them. But Jonah was sitting outside the city sulking! My conclusion was that Jonah hadn’t learned his lesson and hadn’t changed his mind about anything. From what I could see and had been taught, he was just a reluctant prophet, forced to do something begrudgingly that he didn’t want to do. For me, the story of Jonah was a moralistic story about what NOT to do when God asked you to do something. Certainly not someone to honour or commemorate by naming your child after him!
So how did I go from that attitude to naming my youngest child Jonah?! Well it all came about from this one book, Sympathy for Jonah. Mel gave it to me and said, “Why don’t you read this book?”. A month or 2 later the subject of names came up again, and again she suggested Jonah. I was still against it. “Have you read the book yet?” She asked. I hadn’t. “How about you read the book?” she suggested. Truth be told, the title did have my curiosity. Could such a small book really change my mind about Jonah? Could it REALLY cause me to have more sympathy for this infamous prophet? Well, eventually I found time to read this very small book, and the rest is history.
Three things stuck out to me from this book that I will share with you today. The first has to do with whether Jonah ever learned his lesson. Was he always the reluctant prophet? From what I was taught growing up and reading in the Bible, I always assumed he never changed. But David Benjamin Blower, the author of this book, had a new thought to offer. How did we get the book of Jonah in the first place? There wasn’t exactly any witnesses sitting in the belly of the sea creature with him. We are not told of anyone else sitting with him under the vine, waiting for Ninevah to be destroyed. Possibly the only reason we have any record of Jonah’s story is that he chose to tell it. Then Jews throughout history decided to preserve and copy it – even after Assyria ended up conquering them!
All of a sudden I had a very different understanding of Jonah. No longer was he the reluctant, pouty prophet who didn’t repent. He was a humble prophet who dared to share his weaknesses and mistakes for others to learn from. And this humility pointed the finger squarely back at ME, who had been so judgey toward him in the first place. Am I willing to share my mistakes with others? Do I admit when I’m wrong? I was starting to feel a bit of sympathy for Jonah.
The second thing I remember from the book has to do with Jonah’s relationship to the Ninevites. Did he ever stop hating them and learn to care for them like God did? Blower pointed out to me that Assyria, the nation Jonah was sent to, had a terrifying reputation at the time. *** I won’t go into details, but they used some very ugly torture of their captives to keep their conquered territories in line. This is the kid’s book version. Jonah was likely scared for his life! Or worse, he could have been kept alive and tortured to be made an example of. He had no reason to believe he would be an exception if he went there with the message God had given him. Another bit of sympathy for Jonah had crept in. There are certainly time when I am worried about following what I think the Holy Spirit is asking me to do… and none of those things have been at the threat of torture or death! Not yet, anyway!
A third thing I learned from this book is that Jonah was breaking boundaries with his actions. He suggests that we are all caught up in empires that try to pit us against one another. The result is dehumanising. Caricatures of “the enemy” dehumanise them and make it easier for us to pick on other people and fight against and kill them. But we often fail to see how we sign up to the lies of our own empire. And how signing up to our own empire’s lies also dehumanises us. The world is full of ‘us vs them’. ‘In’ groups who think or act like us, and ‘out’ groups who we don’t understand. Can we break out of these systems, these tribes, and be present with what Blower calls the ‘Terrible Other’? He suggests starting in our own neighbourhoods.
Did Jonah eventually change his mind about the Ninevites? Maybe he always struggled with how or why God would care about such wicked people as Hamas – oops, I mean Israel. No wait, Ninevah! I knew I’d get it right eventually!
Perhaps Jonah was humble enough to share that struggle with us. But regardless of how uncomfortable he was with it, he put himself in harm’s way and physically stood in the presence of the ‘Terrible Other’. Blower calls what he did a ‘Jonaic Interruption’. It’s not enough to just SEE our empire’s lies, we need to physically stand with our fellow humans on the other side of the fence. Blower goes on to describe how Jesus is a master of Jonaic Interruptions – vulnerably crossing social boundaries, physically standing with people he wasn’t ‘supposed’ to stand with. In the process, he restores their humanity. Jesus calls us to do the same – interrupting business as usual by our physical presence in spaces where we aren’t ‘supposed’ to be.
There is plenty more I could share about this book of the Bible, which is sometimes called ‘the gospel of the Old Testament’. *** But I will finish now with two poems, not from Sympathy for Jonah, but a book called ‘You! Jonah!’ by Thomas John Carlisle.
TANTRUM
The generosity of God
displeased Jonah exceedingly
and he slashed with angry prayer
at the graciousness of the Almighty.
“I told You so,” he screamed.
“I knew what You would do,
You dirty Forgiver.
You bless Your enemies
and show kindness to those
who despitefully use You.
I would rather die
than live in a world
with a God like You.
And don’t try to forgive me either.”
COMING AROUND
And Jonah stalked
to his shaded seat
and waited for God
to come around
to his way of thinking.
And God is still waiting
for a host of Jonahs
in their comfortable houses
to come around
to His way of loving.
