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This morning's Old Testament lesson is one of the most enduring stories of all time - known to most people as the story of Jonah in the belly of the whale...

Daring to Dream Again: Identify With God's Heart for the World - Jonah 1 

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This morning's Old Testament lesson is one of the most enduring stories of all time - known to most people as the story of Jonah in the belly of the whale. In truth, the Bible doesn't say 'whale', it says 'big fish,' and there are many more important aspects to this story. But the 'big fish' is the most colorful part, the part children remember, and, as long as you don't let your imagination go too far about what three days inside a big fish would be like, a humorous touch to a serious story.

In fact, this is a powerful story about how God relates to us, and that's what I want to focus on this morning. If you're taking notes, I have six points to make.

1. First of all, this story tells us that God is speaking. That's a good thing to start with, in a time and a world when it's so easy to imagine that God is either silent, or blabbing allover the place. Sometimes it seems like God is silent. A tsunami hits a defenseless village, a conflict displacing thousands of innocents drags on and on, a ravaging disease makes slow but steady progress across a hurting continent - where is God, we ask? Why can't we hear Him? Tell us what to do - what to think, we demand.

Or, sometimes it feels like God is speaking everywhere, and not making sense. A slicked-up preacher looks into the TV camera, and says that God has sent him to deliver a message that seems less loving toward others, and more profitable for the preacher than you would imagine God would have in mind. Or over here is a modem prophet pronouncing God's thoughts on something, and over there is another prophet doing the same - except the messages don't match. What's that all about? Many people have grown not to trust much in the idea that God is speaking.

So what do we make of the beginning words of the book of Jonah: "... the word of the Lord came to Jonah...?" In fact, that phrase - 'the word of the Lord' - is a very important phrase in the Bible. It conveys God's power. In the book of Genesis it's, "And God said, 'Let there be light!' and there was light." That's the word of the Lord. When God's people were crushed and exiled, and should have been wiped off the face of the earth, it was Isaiah the prophet declaring, "... the word of the Lord will stand forever,” and God's people persevered. And when it was time for the Savior of the world, God's own Son to break into history, it was, "the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory..." When the Bible talks about 'the word of the Lord', something very powerful and special is happening.

And we may not know just what voice God used to speak His word to Jonah, but we know that when Jonah finally went to Nineveh, and shared that word, the most evil city of the time bowed down to God and asked for forgiveness. One of the things we have to trust in our confusing and noisy lives is that God is speaking, and that means power. Maybe Jonah's story can help us understand where and how to listen.

2. So, consider points 2 and 3 - two sides of the same coin. First of all, God sends his word to unlikely people. In this story, Jonah received what many people long for - a clear word from God. And, blessed with such a clear message, Jonah mustered up his inner courage and enthusiasm, prepared himself in every way possible to address this great task he had been given to do - and ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction! Jonah decided to flee from God to Tarshish. Look at a Bible map sometime, and find Tarshish. It is in Spain. You don't hear a lot about Spain in the Bible, because it is as far across the sea as you can go. That's how far Jonah wanted to sail to get out of doing what God wanted him to do. This was not what you would call an heroic person.

Nor was he especially compassionate. If you read through the whole story, you see that Jonah didn't share God's joy at all when the Ninevites repented and were saved. So, point 2 to keep in mind is that God often sends his word to unlikely people - even ungodly people. People who just don't get it.

3. But then point 3 becomes important - and that is, that God can see past that. God can see things in us we can't see in ourselves, and can't see in others. If you look through the whole story that the Bible tells, there is a question that springs forward in the reader's mind again and again - Why him? Or, Why her? Why Noah to build an Ark? Why Moses to lead the Hebrew people? Why a shepherd boy to face a giant? Why a peasant girl to mother the Messiah? And so on. Our story this morning brings up that line of questioning - why a reluctant, short-on-compassion, scaredy-cat to deliver God's message to the Ninevites?

The answer: because God sees past those faults. God sees in us what we can't always see in ourselves, or in one another.

The most surprising part of Jonah's story for me is not the big fish. It's a moment when the captain of the ship, holding on for dear life in the storm, asks Jonah what they should do to save themselves, and Jonah gives this answer: "Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you." That took a lot of guts. And I didn't see that in Jonah; most people see the cowardly side. God saw something different.

4. And, perhaps for that reason, God persevered. God didn't give up on Jonah. Jonah, chapter 3, begins, "The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time..." This time, the result was different - Jonah didn't run. I've never tried it, but I suspect that three days and nights in the belly of a fish is a transforming experience. It gives you lots of time to think. You look around and you might conclude, "You know, maybe Nineveh wouldn't be so bad after all." Sometimes it takes us a whole range of human experiences before we realize that what God is offering us is a pretty good deal - the best deal of all. And God waits for us to come to our senses.

I have been serving on our Conference Board of Ministry for the past few years, and so am involved in interviewing candidates for the ministry. And one of the recurring stories I notice is that of people who heard the call to ministry early in life - when they were a child, or a teenager, or a young adult. But then they went off in a different direction - their own version of a boat to Tarshish. And along the way, there were storms, and there were big fish bellies, and so on. And God waited. And in that person's life, the time came when the word of the Lord came again, and they responded differently. To some extent, that's true in my own life. Some of you here this morning are living out such a story. God has called, you are on the voyage somewhere else, forming, growing - but God is waiting. The call is still there.

5. The fifth point is one we get easily wrong - and that is, God's message is about mercy. Certainly Jonah, as I said, didn't get it. When he finally went to Nineveh, he walked through the city crying, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be over thrown!" He thought God's preference was a message of judgment. In his mind, he had demonized the people of Nineveh. We do that a lot. We have lists of people we have demonized, as if we can see into the human heart, and judge with the eyes of God. But God did not rain punishment down upon the Ninevites for their sins. Instead, he showed mercy upon them. More so than Jonah did.

After delivering his message, Jonah said, in effect, "Wait a minute. I spent all my money on a boat to Tarshish? I got woke up and blamed for a storm? I got tossed overboard, eaten by a fish, and spit up like a bad burrito? And then, I finally deliver the message in Nineveh, and no one even gets smitten? No one gets struck down? They can just repent and be forgiven, and that's it?"

Yeah, that's it. That's God's surprise. It surprised the brother of the Prodigal Son - "Wait a minute. He went away and debased his life, while I stayed and held down the farm, and now he's back, and we throw a party for him?" Yeah, that's God for you. It surprised the early Christians who had shivered for fear for their lives at the mention of the name Saul - "Wait a minute. He was the worst hater and killer of Christians in the whole region, and now we're supposed to believe that he has been cleaned off and transformed, and chosen to carry the word of faith to the Gentiles?" If anybody was listening at the foot of the cross of Jesus, it would have surprised - no, shocked them- "Wait a minute. Jesus is betrayed, arrested, accused and convicted, beaten and mocked, and nailed and speared and crucified - and his prayer is “Father, forgive them...?”

That's the amazing surprise that we are asked to believe and to share. When we think about how incongruous that is - how unlikely that such forgiveness is possible, then maybe it begins to make sense that the most believable messenger might be someone who has been through a few storms, been thrown overboard a few times, even had to sit and reflect upon his or her life in some pretty smelly places. There's not a lot of forgiveness in the world today. The mood of the public is that criminals be harshly punished, wars be harshly waged, and all slights avenged. We want our God to behave the same way, on our behalf, of course. We tend to be a lot more understanding of our own offenses.

But instead, God both holds us accountable and forgives generously. And that opens the door for amazing transformations in this world. God accomplishes, by forgiving love, what armies and prisons and laws of retribution could never do - true change of heart in people. It's an amazing thing - to be truly forgiven - it is a freedom and grace that can only be received as Good News - in fact, the best news anyone could bring. That's what God wants us to realize today, and what He makes possible for each of us through his "Son Jesus Christ, and the amazing story of the cross and Resurrection.

6. So, point number 6. God wants such Good News shared with the world - with the whole world. This is the theme of our 50-Day Adventure for the coming week. Last week we talked about breaking down the prejudices that stifle our dreams. This week goes one step further - to be willing to go wherever God might send us to share the Greatest Gift in this world - the gift of God's love. This is the story of Jonah.

What is your story? Of course, our stories are as many and varied as there are people in this room. But the framework, I believe, is the same for each one of us: God's voice is speaking to you. It is communicating a dream and a power for you that is way beyond anything you have yet imagined. You are a flawed choice for the job. You can probably sit and name all of the reasons that someone else is more qualified. You may even be on a long journey to avoid what God has chosen you to do. Doesn't matter. God can see past the flaws all the way to the amazing potential that lives in you to do just this thing that God is calling you to do.

And God can wait. God can persevere while you go through your false starts and hard lessons. God will persevere because He knows that what must be shared is the most important gift the people of this world can ever receive - what they need most of all: mercy. Forgiving love. Spiritual peace that comes from knowing you are forgiven- given a new start. This is what God offers to you today; and this is what God sends you forth to declare to others.

Where do you need to go to share God's love? Maybe you need to go to Sabine Pass, Texas, on the mission trip this June. Maybe you need to go to Brown Memorial down on the West Side of Syracuse, and volunteer in a program there; maybe you need to go to Casowasco or Camp Aldersgate this summer and counsel children. Maybe you need to share the Good News of forgiving love in word or deed at your office, or in your family, or in your neighborhood. But don't make the mistake of Jonah: don't sell the love of God short. In this messy, hungry world, it is still the road to salvation. People are clamoring for something that is real and honest - and nothing fits the bill more than the truth of Jesus, shared from the heart of a forgiven person. It doesn't have to be eloquent; it doesn't have to be spectacular. It just needs to be real. It just needs to be you. And every one of us is called and empowered to bring it. Every one of us has God's message burning inside us, waiting to be shared where God sends us. Where is that for you? What are you waiting for?