|
This week's text is the story of Jonah. If you haven't read the book of Jonah in awhile, I encourage you to read it... it's a very fast read--just four very short chapters... It begins with God calling Jonah to preach to the city of Nineveh, and immediately, Jonah is trying to run away from God! Most of us know this story and remember that Jonah ends up in the belly of a whale.
I have been hearing this story ever since I was a young child, and I had questions then, and still do now. First of all, can you even imagine what it must be like to be swallowed by a whale? Or realize you're still alive once you're in there? I imagine it's not a pleasant place, much less somewhere anyone would like to spend three days.
Have you ever tried to run from God and ended up in a similar situation? Maybe not inside an actual whale, but a dark, unpleasant place in your life, where you weren't sure if or how you were going to get out? I think it's fitting that the Jonah text shows up in the lectionary one week after Psalm 139, which we heard last week.
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the
sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness will
hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine
like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
-Psalm 139:7-12 NIV
Wherever we try to run from God, and for whatever reason we do, God is already there with the intention of restoring the relationship. At the end of the book of Jonah, we find the prophet sulking underneath a plant, angry at God for showing mercy to Nineveh, yet God further extends mercy to Jonah. This Sunday's anthem beautifully describes this mercy:
There's a wideness in God's mercy like the wideness of the sea;
There's a kindness in His justice, which is more than liberty.
There is welcome for the sinner and more graces for the good;
There is mercy with the Savior; there is healing in His blood.
There is no place where earth's sorrows are more felt than up in heav'n;
There is no place where earth's failings have such kindly judgment giv'n.
There is plentiful redemption in the blood that has been shed;
There is joy for all the members in the sorrows of the Head.
For the love of God is broader than the measure of the mind;
And the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind.
If our love were but more faithful, we should take Him at His word,
And our life would be thanksgiving for the goodness of the Lord.
I hope you will join us in worship this Sunday online or in the parking lot to hear more!
|
