The life to altering power of God’s word spoken, heard, and heeded, is dynamically evident in the story of the call of the disciples from the gospel of Luke from the very beginning the church is claimed that the word spoken in the beginning the word that became the incarnate in the fullness of time is the consistency and constancy of God at work in the world. From the moment that God spoke let there be light, there was light. When God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, Moses led the people of Israel out of bondage. When the word of the Lord came to the prophets, they called the people to return to God. When the voice spoke from heaven proclaiming the beloved son, God’s favor rested upon Jesus to go forth and spread the good news.
From the moment that Jesus left the wilderness, until he came to the seashore that day, his words, actions, and deeds brought the people out to hear his message of love, repentance, and salvation. What set Jesus’ words apart? From town to town and in the synagogues of Judea the people were given hope because Jesus proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God. They had heard of his remarkable powers of healing and never compelled to come, to see, to hear, and to listen. In this person, God’s word came alive and lived among them. In this story from Luke, God once again moves, as God has moved previously among and with the people of Israel, toward new and boundless horizons. Here God beckons; here in this place God’s anointed reveals and lives and makes real God’s word for the people to hear and see and experienced people.
The word has come to dwell in the midst of everyday lives, everyday people and everyday fishermen. Throughout Biblical history of the word has moved vertically from God to the people, now the word begins to move horizontally outward and outbound from Jesus to the people around him. It falls on the ears of crowds hungry for that word; it falls on the ears of Simon, James, and John, afraid, amazed, attracted, and ready. Not knowing what lay ahead on that open and uncharted journey. From their everyday lives and their fishing boats, they left everything and followed him, unbound, outward-bound, horizon-bound, captured by a word that they would, in turn, carry “on the ground” among people waiting for it, listening for it, yearning for it.
God’s living word cuts to a victim of pressing crowds and the lives and laborers of common people. It shakes the sweep of human history. It alters the lives of those who hear and heed. God’s living word cuts through daily life with the gift of freedom: the radical, radicalizing freedom that enables a person to leave everything and to follow. God’s living word draws people in. It calls and pulls and then pushes people out. As Simon, James, and John clean their nets after a night of unsuccessful fishing, they listen to this word that Jesus offers. And then they are astounded, when they find their nets filled to overflowing with fish that had eluded them only hours before. When they put back into shore, Jesus invited them to join in the journey, to become fishers of people, in that moment they left everything and followed him. The word came t them and captured them. They left their boats and nets. They left the old way and followed
Heard and seen and heeded, God’s living word demands our decision: it lays upon us the choice of staying in the boat or leaving everything and following, of moving into that transformative moment into the fullness of life. When our ears and eyes and hearts are truly opened, we cannot turn back. For followers of the living word, life is and can never be the same. It is forever altered.
But hearing word is not enough. Acting upon it is inherent. The demand to respond is always present when Gods’ living word is spoken. Jesus was very clear about those who heard but did not act: the word of the lord is not to be taken lightly. Hearing and acting upon the living word is not simply about “catching others” as the old Sunday School song used to say. God’s call has consequences. Following has a price.
But sometimes, I think, we have forgotten what it means to be called. We live in a time when it is difficult to hear the word, or see it made manifest in movement or in miracle. The crowds did not always press eagerly in to hear the living word and enact. Lives, nations, seemed empty. The workers are not always ready to leave everything and follow Jesus to the ends of the earth, or even into the neighborhood. We who proclaimed the word do not always believe fully in its power. We ourselves are not free of clogged ears or closed hearts, and we may not be ready to heed fully the living word, to that radical call to freedom; a call that compels us to turn away from accommodation to the ways of this world, ways that lure and entrap us and hold us in bondage.
A friend of mine a pastor in a small church in Wisconsin, just outside Madison sent me a link to a story about how his church responded to the call of Christ to leave their nets and go into the world. Last Sunday, they called of church, not because of weather, even though they have over 40 inches of snow on the ground. Instead people took seriously the call to reach out and touch lives of people around them. Instead of singing and praying and listening to a sermon as is their tradition, every member of the church volunteered to work that day at a local mission. People volunteered at the local nursing home to be adopted children for the lonely and the neglected. Some volunteered at the local food pantry restocking shelves, cleaning, sorting through the various applications for help and putting them into the priority categories that had been established but never really followed. Some members met at the church and baked hundreds of cookies for the local Habitat For Humanity Bake sale that was to take place this weekend.
Wayne told me that one family who came for the first time that Sunday got a Surprise when there was no worship service. But they joined in the fun that day and decided on the spot to become members. They said, if this is how they did church at least once a year, it was for them. That day over 100 people volunteered their time and talents and their energy to bring the Good News to their community in a concrete way. They left the security of their traditions, their nets so to speak and followed Jesus into the world. The Banner above the door to their sanctuary read: “JESUS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING! WE HAVE FOLLOWED!”

What does that mean for us? It means that when we see, hear and listen we too must make a response. When we follow, we take upon ourselves the work of Jesus. We become one with him. We’re no longer satisfied with sitting and waiting to die, we become involved. We’ve heard. We’ve seen. We’ve experienced the life giving presence of the living word. JESUS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING. LET’S FOLLOW HIM!

The immigration policy of the United States in the wake of World War 1, which was capped with the passage of the Johnson-Reed National Origins Act in 1924, presents a situation all too common in our human history, both personally and communal in. Similar situation said existed through out human history and still exist even today. We hear the echoes of these feelings articulated in the first lesson that we heard today from 2nd Kings.

Naaman, a commander of an alien army group, held power and influence, but because he was a leper it was ostracized by all. Not only were people afraid, due to the contagious nature of this affliction, a people considered first if they fell victim to this particular malady that was quite rampant in that day. Thus, while he was a man and influence, Naaman had no real opportunity because he could not pass the litmus test that society place before him. Most of the societies of, his day, including Israel, marginalized lepers. The victims of leprosy were to be shunned by all, far they would render a person ritually impure if any physical contact was made. Here was a man at the height of his power, physically commanding, wielding great power with a word spoken. His disease placed him outside the circle of acceptance. He was forced now to live on the margins calling out a loud voice to warn people to stay away.

He is afflicted with this disease to such a point that he solicits help from where ever he can find it. His sole desire is to find relief from the suffering and ostracism that he experienced. Understandably, when we experience continuous suffering, we will try every possible remedy that might bring comfort and healing. Ideally, we’d like to control when and in what way is relief comes, yet as our story tells us truly healing lies not in our wants or our schemes but only in the providence of God.

While the presence of suffering in the world is beyond question, miraculous healings are unsettling and to our modern lives almost unbelievable. One fundamental reason we are disturbed about miraculous and extraordinary healings is that they diverge from what we believe is normative and rational. Yet in our modern world, we know that for every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction. Comprehensible and repeatable cause-and-effect cures are the norm. When we can examine, recognize, analyze, and define, we can control. But when it comes to human suffering, control is exactly what we want. In the story, Naaman’s world is all about command and control.

Naaman realizes that if he is to continue the way of life that he has become accustomed to he must find healing. It is at this moment that the providence of God becomes visible in the person least likely to help Naaman, his own slave. She tells him of a prophet in Israel who can help him. Naaman is desperate and will try anything. He goes to his own commander in chief the king of Arum and asks for a letter of introduction to the prophet in Israel. Then leaving his homeland with an army and vast treasures, he departs for Jerusalem and the king of Israel. In a display of his might and power, he asks the king to heal him. Instead of following the directive of the messenger, Naaman goes to the one that he sees as being the most powerful in Israel the king. He has missed the message.

It is at this moment that Elisha, the prophet enters the picture. Elisha is not in any way afraid of Naaman but rather calls him to him and offers him a solution to his problem, a cure for his affliction. Initially, Naaman was not impressed by the prophet of God; he wanted some kind of miracle cure. The text tells us that he wanted arm waving and magical phrases to be spoken. He couldn’t believe that something so simple as bathing in the river Jordan would cure him. He was convinced that Elisha was playing him for a fool. If all it took was to wash in the river why couldn’t he have washed in one of the rivers in his own country of Aram.

Angry and upset, he leaves. I can almost see it now this man who wielded power with the wiggle of his little finger, storming off down the road with his retinue following along in his wake. Once again, it is someone whom Naaman would normally have discounted who calls him to task and asks: “What harm would it do to go and wash in the river Jordan.” Naaman goes and washes and is healed. Naaman’s cure demonstrates that God has no particular litmus test for people. All that is necessary is that they have the ability to trust and to do what God asks. All are acceptable; none will be rejected, even those outside Israel. God chose no favorites are partiality; there is no litmus test for the lord our God.
As God showed no partiality toward Naaman, to outsider from the community of Israel, a man afflicted with leprosy, one who was considered unclean, so Jesus of Nazareth accepted all who came to him. No one was rejected; all were accepted. As one who understood human nature very well, Jesus realized human frailty and the tendency we have to make judgments on people in order to measure them. In other words, Jesus understood that we often require people to pass a litmus test before we find them acceptable.

The Gospels provide many examples of Jesus reaching out to all. Jesus had no litmus test for one’s physical condition, one’s gender, once nationality, one’s particular up occupation, or one’s sexual orientation. We are told in various places in the Gospels how Jesus cured lepers, women who suffered from continual hemorrhages. We are told how he called and ate with sinners; women who were considered prostitutes, a man who was a tax collector, and religious zealots, all considered outcasts by the society in which they lived. Jesus was not concerned with such laws of purity; what was important to him was meeting the needs of those who asked for his assistance. Jesus broke all the taboos of his day by speaking to foreigners, eating with sinners and tax collectors, and the even touching the lepers who were considered an anathema in his day. What Jesus was teaching his apostles (and those who would follow him) were the values of being inclusive. Just as Elijah showed of partiality toward Naaman, Jesus demonstrated that he had no particular litmus test that a person was passed in order to gain his attention or help.

Jesus reached out not only to his own people but to those who were different, those who lived outside the bounds of proper society. He reached out to those that had been brushed aside by the ruling elite. Those who were in power, the Pharisees and Scribes, often accused Jesus of associating with tax collectors, prostitutes, drunkards, and sinners. that Jesus gave no apology for outreach to these people; on the contrary in some ways he seemed to seek them out in a preferential way. When his actions were questioned, he responded forthrightly, “Those who are well have no need of a Physician, but those who are sick; I have come not call the righteous but sinners.” (Mark 2: 17”

Jesus synthesized his teaching of acceptance when he said: “Here are my mother and brothers! Whoever does the will of God are my mother and brothers.” (Mark 3: 35) For Jesus, all who were willing to follow him were members of his family. Yes Jesus never required a litmus test for anyone-nor should we!!!

The Christian community needs to hear once again the message of Jesus’ inclusion of all people and rethink how it treats people both as a church and is individuals. Acceptance and tolerance must be the trademarks of our day-to-day existence, but unfortunately these important virtues are not the hallmarks that characterize our lives together in this community.

This past Tuesday, at the meeting of the Presbytery, ministers and elder commissioners were asked to vote to delete G. 6.106 b from our Book of Order. This paragraph known as the “fidelity and chastity” amendment was added to our Book of Order in 1996 in order to exclude certain individuals from ordained office in the Presbyterian Church USA. This amendment as it stands now has created grief, pain, suffering and great hurt too many individuals within our denomination; and has cost our denomination money in litigation, as well as loss of vital membership.

Last year, our own Presbytery sent an amendment to the General Assembly asking that this particular statement be rewritten in the Book of Order to bring the guidelines for ordination into line with Reformed Theology. On Tuesday night the Presbytery was deadlocked on the vote to remove G. 6.106b, and replace it with less polarizing and exclusive regulations,as a result of the amendment failed, relegating our gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender and anyone else that the Book of Confessions defines as sinners, to the status of second class citizens in the church. By the actions of our own church, we have set litmus tests for those who seek membership and the opportunity to serve God. We must reject these attitudes and seek to become a truly inclusive church, one that welcomes all people, no matter their race, gender, sexual orientation, or belief. Too often in our contemporary society we classify the poor, certain races, ethnic groups, religious denominations, and life-styles with the tag “to be avoided.” This pattern has been a persistent problem with our human society, but it does not mean that it should be tolerated. Systemic prejudice in our world can only be eliminated when people first recognize its existence, understand its sinful nature, and resolve to change institutions, laws, patterns of operation, and beliefs. Such changes do not happen overnight, but, as was dramatically demonstrated two weeks ago when we inaugurated our new president (the first African American to hold that office) takes time. It took us almost 138 years to achieve this remarkable change in the political landscape.

The transformation of society into to one that is more tolerant and accepting of all individuals must begin on the individual level and move upward. As the expression goes, “Think globally, but act locally.” This calls us as individuals and as Christians to make the perilous inward journey, to see the prejudices and the ways of exclusion that we practice in our personal lives and then make every effort to change. We exclude people, consciously and unconsciously, by their appearance, ethnic and national origin, religious persuasion, economic prosperity, gender, orientation, physical condition, and yes even the level of education. Whether you realize it or not, the people we encounter, even a regular basis must often pass a litmus test to be found acceptable. While our admission requirements are not as obvious as passing a literacy test, they are at times even more restrictive. This attitude however is inconsistent with the message of Christ who welcomed all.

But the Christian life is filled with many challenges, most of which we would probably choose to avoid. Yet, it is of the great challenges of life that we learn the most significant lessons. Once we are forced to reveal how we treat others, how we set barriers before them, we come to the realization that we miss so much by excluding others. From diversity comes the spice of life. But we will never to know by how sweet the taste of this diversity will be if we’re not willing to take a chance on others. So let’s not be conformed to the way that our society categorizes and excludes groups and individuals. We are to work to break the barriers that institutions, governments and even churches place upon others .Let us be like Elisha who called Naaman to him and through his action brought healing and the power of God. Let us all take up Christ’s work to be the Physician to those who need us most. Let us do as the author of the letter to the Hebrews suggests: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels unawares.” (Hebrews 13: 2).
Amen

Kenneth Grahame in his wonderful little book “The Wind in the Willows” tells of a time when Ratty and Mole were called upon to search for a little hedge pig that had gone missing. The two best friends who lived along the river’s edge had taken their boat out onto the water to search the riverbanks for the missing hedge pig. As they searched, they found themselves on a part of the river they had never seen before. The trees and bushes overhung the river, dappling the water with their reflections. The air with heady with the perfume of the flowers and bush’s that surrounded them. As they moved slowly up the river the air began to change, the light became brighter and the music of the insects and birds became louder. Ratty, who was sitting in the front of the boat, was filled with awe and wonder if the sound of this strange and beautiful music. He asks Mole if he can hear this beautiful sound. At first, Mole could not hear it, but then as they approached an island in the middle of the river, Mole was suddenly overcome with the joyous sound of music. At that moment, as they stepped out of the boat onto the land, they were surrounded with a brilliant white light, and the music intensified. Suddenly they came upon a sight too beautiful to behold, they saw the Great God Pan standing in the midst of the glade with the tiny hedge pig curled up asleep his feet. As they approached the sight, the vision vanished, leaving them filled with awe, wonder, and fear. They had witnessed a theophany, a manifestation of the presence of God.

Both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament scriptures for today are examples of theophanies. Each speaks to the presence of the divine and its own unique way. In the first reading, Elijah the prophet is taken up in a chariot of fire to heaven. In the second reading, Peter James and John are taken to a mountaintop by Jesus and witness a theophany of their own.

Jesus to Peter and James and john and let them apart up the mountain, for anyone familiar with the scriptures, going up a mountain meant the possibility of encountering the divine presence. And as most of us know, after seeing or hearing God usually meant trouble or lead to painful missions like those experienced by Abraham, Moses, and Isaiah. Perhaps the disciples were too disturbed by what they heard six days earlier, when Jesus said he must suffer, die and be raised three days later, to be expecting a divine encounter. But suddenly Jesus was transfigured before them. And in the brilliant white light that engulfed the mountaintop and the disciples they saw Moses and Elijah speaking with Jesus. The Jesus that they had known was no longer just an ordinary man, he was transfigured into something more. The whole place on the top of that mountain became instantly a holy place. And as history with most encounters with divine the disciples were overcome with fear, wonder and awe. At first they are speechless, too afraid to move or to speak. The text tells us that the person of Jesus became dazzlingly white, that his face was ablaze with divine Glory.

What an awesome experience it must’ve been. This was how the disciples must have hoped to see Jesus in the coming kingdom: radiant with divine Glory. For them this was a preview of what was to come. This is what Paul later described as the Glory of God shining in Christ’s face; and Peter, James, and John saw it firsthand before anyone else. They heard uses his teachings about suffering and death and the demands of discipleship. Now these three are given a glimpse of the Glory to come. Nearly 2000 years later how to we feel when we experience the painful demands discipleship? When we fail to see God’s Glory shining in the face of Christ among us? When we fail to allow it to shine through us as Paul called us to do. We are called to reflect what we say in what we do, or we speak in the words. We’re called to live the gospel daily and not simply talk about it. When our lives have integrity between word and action, we become transparent and God’s light shines through us enabling both house and others to see God’s Glory face of Christ revealed in those around us, but back to our story.

Peter has a way about an up being have comic and half on target with his reactions to goes on around him. Perhaps it is this ability that makes him so appealing and easy to identify with when we see him in action. He has probably one of the most human of the disciples and the one most prone to missing the mark when it comes to understanding this man Jesus. This time Pierre finds himself in the midst of a full fledged epiphany, an experience of the divine, a preview of the Glory to come, and being the human that he is, overcome with all and wonder, and wanting to preserve the moment, break since the moment with his outlandish idea of putting up tents or booths so Jesus, Moses, and Elijah can stay around.

Perhaps Peter is not reacting so simply after all; perhaps something more complex is behind this offer. Yes, Jesus has been transfigured before them. Yes, Jesus reflects the Glory of God. But this is but a preview. The tree glorified state comes only with the resurrection and the resurrection comes only after the cross. There is no escaping the cross, not even by keeping Jesus on the mountaintop with noses and Elijah. Perhaps Peter only wants to prolong this experience because it is a moment of consolation. Perhaps he thinks that if Jesus was go to Jerusalem to suffer and die than perhaps this momentary comfort can last a little longer. Aren’t we often just like Peter? We also want to avoid what we do not understand, what is too painful to face, to avoid our own crosses even when we know that that is the only way to salvation. It is natural to keep want to keep Jesus close and transfigured. But epiphanies did not last forever. When this come down from the mountaintops and like disciples, we missed over juice goes, be transformed and changed into his image and let him shine through us.

On that mountaintop Peter, James and John were also transfigured and changed. Their understanding, their consciousness of the situation was changed. They knew that Jesus was determined to see this journey to its end, even if they still did not fully understand. And that moment, the heavens opened and the lights became even more brilliant and a voice spoke saying, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him!” God has claimed Jesus, in the presence of these three, as his beloved son and heir commanded to listen.

This is more than a stamp of approval. This is more than a sign of friendship, a recognition of good were, or an award for faithful service. This is a sharing in God’s life and Glory, of being loved and known by God at a deeper and more intimate level. They are being invited, as we are invited, to join in this journey to and through the cross. They cannot remain on the mountaintop, nor can we. They’re called as we are called to forge ahead to what awaited them. Peak experiences are good and necessary, but we bust always returned to the daily. Mountaintops can offer consolation, encouragement, and hope; daily life is the setting in which we carry out our roles whatever they might be. The peaks are where we experience the transfigured Christ. Daily life is where we become transparent so Christ and shines through us. We need both the mountaintops and the daily line. We need both hope to sustain us and a reality in which to live out that hope in transparency.

As they came down from the mountain, Jesus charges them to tell no one. How confusing this must’ve been. To have an experience of the Glory of Christ and then be charged with silenced… Until after Jesus had risen from the dead-in other words until after the suffering and death and resurrection, which is the inevitable, inescapable cost of discipleship. They were back face to face with the problem that they wanted to escape: behind this glimpse of Glory Allies the cross. But behind that cross also lies Glory, everlasting Glory. And so they come down, as must we, and must carry on courageously.

So where does this leave us? Are we puzzled by Peter and James and John? Do we want to return to the mountaintop, prolong the vision, avoid across? Are we hope-filled and ready to move forward alongside Jesus? Perhaps we’re a little of each. But move on we must. We move on to our work, our leisure, our prayers, our lives as Christians with all the demands sorrows enjoys, the omens essential for daily life. But with the assurance that god gave to the disciples that day on the mountaintop we can face them with hope and with faith. It is God who removes the obstacles within us and makes us transparent. And as Paul says: “In our transparency, God shines forth with glorious light. ”

Amen.

Bless thou, the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts
that they be of profit to us and acceptable to thee, oh our rock and
our redeemer. Amen

Today I want to tell you a whale of a tale, it is about the prophet Jonah, and perhaps it too is about us.
Jonah was a man of faith, a man who loved his God and his people, yet Jonah got himself into a mess of trouble.

It all began when the word of God came to Jonah in a dream.

In this dream God told Jonah to leave Israel and to go to the great city of Ninevah and to preach against it because of its great wickedness.

God’s opinion of Ninevah did not come as a great surprise to Jonah, the evil of Ninevah was known throughout the world.

Ninevah was an ancient city, built in the dim recesses of time by Nimrod, the mighty warrior, and the violence of Nimrod seemed to have been stamped upon his city – it was a den of iniquity and the source of much suffering upon the face of the earth.

So Jonah was told by God to go and preach against the wickedness of Ninevah and to warn the people there that the city would be destroyed forty days after he arrived.

Jonah was a man who hated evil and so we might assume that he would be willing to deliver this message of doom to the city of Ninevah. Yet – as the Book of Jonah tells us, Jonah wants nothing to do with delivering this message of warning and judgment.

Instead of answering God’s call to him to go to Ninevah, Jonah tries to flee in the opposite direction. The Bible says that Jonah ran away from God.
Instead of making the 500 mile trip eastward from Jerusalem Jonah boards a merchant ship at the port of Joppa and heads towards Tarshish, a city some 2000 miles to the west.

Why did Jonah do this? Why did he refuse to deliver God’s message to Ninevah?
Many of us I am sure are tempted to think it was because Jonah did not want to see thousands of people die. But this is not the case, as we shall see.

Our whale of a tale continues with Jonah at sea, when the ship he is on is caught in a huge storm.The storm is so bad that the ship begins to come apart at the seams.The sailors are terrified.

Each man prays to his own god for salvation, and they run to and fro throwing the cargo into the sea, hoping against hope to lighten and therefore save the ship, but to no avail.

Instead the storm gets worse and it seems that the ship is about to founder.Working on the theory that where the various gods of the crew have failed, perhaps the god of his passenger might succeed, the Captain of the ship goes below to ask Jonah to pray for the ship’s salvation.

To the Captain’s horror he finds Jonah fast asleep, the ship is in mortal peril, and yet Jonah snoozes; He does not seem to care.

Meanwhile the fear of the crew is increasing moment by moment, and being both desperate and a superstitious bunch they decide that someone on board must have made a god angry and so they cast lots to determine what person is responsible for causing the storm.

The lot fell to Jonah and honest man that he was, he confessed to the crew that he was running away from the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land. This confession frightens the crew even more and they ask him: “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!”, and as they ask, the storm gets even worse, the seas become rougher and rougher, and so finally, in desperation, they ask Jonah:
“What shall we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” Jonah was a man of faith, a man who loved his God and his people. He was also a man of conscience, and to his credit he tells the crew,
“Pick me up and throw me into the sea and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” The crew refuses to do what Jonah suggested to them. Instead they break out the oars and attempt to row the ship back to land.

But they are not successful. The seas became even wilder, the waves became even higher, and finally they have to give up, and they cry out to the God of Jonah, they cry out to our God, they ask forgiveness for what they are about to do, they ask forgiveness for taking the life of an innocent man, and they take Jonah – and they toss him overboard.

Almost immediately the storm abates and the crew is once again afraid, afraid because they realize that they have encountered a truly powerful God, and they offer a sacrifice to the Lord and make vows to him.

As for Jonah, well he was swallowed by a great fish, some say it was a whale, and for three days and three nights he was in the belly of that whale, where, as you can well imagine, he prayed to God.

In his prayers Jonah thanks God for saving him from drowning, and he promise God that he will once again seek to do his will, that he will make sacrifice at the temple to him, and do for God all that he has vowed to do.

God hears the plea of Jonah, and as the ancient ones tell the story, the Lord commands the fish, and it vomits Jonah onto the dry land.

Gives you kind of a vivid picture doesn’t it? I think the story is told this way for a purpose. I think that we are meant to understand that for all Jonah’s good points, the whale couldn’t stomach Jonah for very long.
I say this because of what happens next in this whale of a tale.

God once again commands Jonah to go to Ninevah and proclaim to it the message that He had given him.
Jonah has learnt his lesson, he keeps his vows and he obeys – he goes to Ninevah, to that great and wicked city, a city so big that it requires three days to see it, and he proclaims the message of God, saying: “Forty more days and Ninevah will be overturned”.

The rest of the story you know.

The people of Ninevah, from the least who lived in slums and stole for a living to the greatest who lived in luxury & grew fat on injustice, every single one of the Ninevites repented, they gave up their evil ways
and they put on sackcloth and ashes and fasted and prayed to God for mercy.

The people were so desperate that they even dressed their animals in sackcloth and caused them to observe the citywide fast.
And God saw the repentance of Ninevah and he had compassion, and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.

Imagine it if you can.

Imagine if every terrorist today who preaches hate and murder were to suddenly change their minds and lay down their weapons and to pray to Allah, to pray to God, for deliverance from the destruction coming upon them.

Imagine if all the pornographers and thieves and environmentally brutal
corporations were to change their minds about how they lived and worked.

What a cause for celebration it would be! All of us here, all of those in Ottawa and Washington and capitals around the world would sing and dance for joy… It would be so tremendous – so exciting.

But my friends, this is not how Jonah felt.

Even though the miracle that happened in Ninevah was greater than we can imagine, even though it was better than what we could possibly pray for,
Jonah was greatly displeased, and he became angry.

He became angry and he prayed to God saying:

“O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is
why I fled to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and
compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love; a God who
relents from sending calamity. Now, O Lord, take away my life, for
it is better for me to die than to live.”

My friends, how should we understand Jonah?
Why is this incredible story, this just so story, told to us?
Why is it in the Bible?

The answer is in Jonah’s anger, and in the prayer he makes in his anger.
Jonah, as I have said, was a man of faith, a man who deeply loved his God
and his people. He had integrity, he hated what was evil.
Certainly, as his story shows, Jonah was not a man who would do evil himself, that is why he confessed to the crew of the ship that he was running from God and suggested they toss him into the sea.

He was not a man who would bring suffering upon the innocent. But when all this is said, THE FACT REMAINS THAT JONAH hated evil more than he loved good, and this my friends, is the root of his problem.

In this whale of a tale we are told that the reason Jonah fled from God,
the reason that Jonah did not want to go to Ninevah with God’s warning,
and the reason he got so angry at God later on, is because he was afraid that Ninevah would repent and that God would save the city.

Does this seem incredible?
Well, it is. Yet some people I know are unhappy about those among us who
repent of their evil later in life.
They cry out “why should they have all their fun” and then get off the hook at the last moment? Others I know pray for the destruction of their enemies, they long for the grasping rich to loose their wealth the selfishly beautiful to loose their looks, and the brutal bullies of live to be imprisoned so they can claim it For themselves. Last week we watched in awe at the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States. In his address he said that we are a nation of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and others who are all children of God. The next day in the news the Evangelical wing of the church attacked his statement saying they were not children on of God because they didn’t worship the same God we do.

Jonah was not unlike many of us.
He hoped that God would punish evil, that he would utterly destroy Ninevah,
- in much the same way some of us hope that God will get our enemies,
- in much the same way we hope some bad thing will fall upon those who
afflict us or our families and our friends
- in much the same way that we hope with regard to others – that what goes
around will come around – and come around quickly.

Where Jonah differs from some of us is that he knew God does not seek to punish evil for the sake of retribution, he knew that God punishes only so that those who do evil may learn to
repent and to walk in a new way.

However, while Jonah knew the purpose of God’s judgments, Jonah didn’t like that purpose – he hated more than he loved. He desired that the doers of evil die, instead of longing for their salvation, for their change, their conversion to righteousness.

The Book of Jonah is a fantastic story, it is like a just so story, it is a whale of a tale, and it is like that so that it will grab our attention.

We are meant to look at Jonah and his attitude and then consider our own.

Jonah is a model for us of the wrong kind of faith, a model of those who forget the lesson of their own salvation, a model of those who forget that we too deserve to perish, for we too, like Jonah, often flee from God and do not do the things he asks of us.

Are we like Jonah? Do we want to see our enemies destroyed? Or do we want to warn them of their peril, and sincerely hope that they will respond and repent and turn from their evil ways?

The gospel lesson this morning referred to the call issued by Jesus to Simon and Andrew, a call that is issued to us all by our Lord.

Jesus asks us to follow him, and to become “fishers of men” much as he asked Jonah to go and fish for men in Ninevah.

We cannot catch anyone, we cannot bring a good harvest to God, if we desire that all evil people be punished, all that we can do if we desire this is condemn ourselves.

We can only bring a rich catch to Godif we speak God’s word to others, the word he has commanded us to speak through Jesus Christ.

We can only fill the nets for God, if we do what God asks of us, and love our enemies, and do good to those who would hurt us.
God will take of judgement in his own time and way, we are called, like Jonah, to be but his messengers, his followers, the people who call upon others to repent as we repent, the people who call upon others to love as we love. Praise God for his judgement and his mercy upon us and all people who turn to Him in faith and trust. AMEN.

Pastor Bill