Now the Lord provided a huge
fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days
and three nights.
2 From inside
the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.
He said: “In my
distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.
From deep in
the realm of the dead I called for help and you listened to my cry.
3 You hurled me
into the depths, into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves
and breaker swept over me.
4 I said, ‘I
have been banished from your sight;
yet I will look
again toward your holy temple.’
5 The engulfing
waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
6 To the roots
of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you, Lord
my God, brought my life up from the pit.
7 “When my life
was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer
rose to you, to your holy temple.
8 “Those who
cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.
9 But I, with
shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you.
What I have
vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”
It is such an odd thing to be
writing a sermon, to preach in a church where no
one will be physically present. As a part of the church you will be listening
in on a CD,
or by facebook, or reading this as a blog.
Who knew that we would order our days in this way?
Scripture reminds us that God knows, that He
is indeed king over the nations,
and that we are today in His keeping.
You might look at Isaiah 49:16 where He reminds Jerusalem that
‘I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are ever
before me.’
Or go to the Psalms where we read that ‘God reigns over the
nations;
God is seated on his holy throne.’ Psalm 47:8
As a church we had been reading and studying together from Jonah,
before these days of the Great Interruption. Few if any of us expected to be
heading towards Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter in these terms. But we carry
on because we remember God’s care for us, and we know that we are upheld by our
Heavenly Father in all things.
As a Father cares for His children, so the Lord cares for those
who trust Him. Psalm 103:13.
Jonah too needed to remember God’s purpose for Him. He was a
prophet of the living God. He was called and commissioned, and He ran away, as
far as he possibly could. He understandably wanted to protect the boundaries of
his own nation. He did not want to bring a message of the mercy of God, to a
people he feared, and who were his avowed enemy. So he ran and ran.
Or rather, bought a ticket, boarded a ship, and slept and slept,
in order to hide. We thought about the hardened sailors whom we thought
wouldn’t have known the living God, yet they were the very ones to pray, the
ones to show mercy and to seek God’s forgiveness.
You know of course that Jonah is eventually thrown overboard into
the sea. Interestingly, the Bible records that God appointed a great fish to
swallow Jonah. I feel reassured by that word appointed. It speaks again of
God’s orderliness, His authority and His power over His creation. Jesus showed
this too in the calming of a later storm.
And in his unexpected isolation, Jonah is made to pray, and think and
consider. For three days and three nights.
We are anguishing at what might be changed routines over many
weeks, but we have the comfort of home, and family, albeit by phone or skype or
Zoom or whatever. Jonah’s shocking surroundings must have seemed like the end
for him. A prophet reduced to this. In his
distress he calls out to the Lord. And God answers Him. He calls for help, and
God hears his cry. Although he has been banished from God’s sight, he looks
again to the holiness of God.
Threatened by the engulfing waters, fearing his own death, wrapped
in seaweed, barred into the earth forever it seemed, Jonah comes to know that
God had brought him low.
He still has a thought for those who turn away from God’s love to
worthless idols… is it a jibe, even at this time? Perhaps it is something of
the same rebellious spirit in Jonah that we meet again later, even after the
remarkable events of God’s mercy in Ninevah. But for now, he is in some sense repentant,
thankful, and able to acknowledge God’s salvation.
You’ll be glad to know that this sermon is more of a homily, and
we’re drawing towards a close. As we do, I am challenged again, not by Jonah’s
waywardness as a man of God, but by God’s mercy which is determined to reach a
people Jonah did not care for.
God’s saving purpose will extend to those on whom He will have
mercy.
He will order the nation, a great fish, a wayward prophet.
I have no idea what these days mean for any of us, except I am
learning to love more deeply those I have within arms reach, and to care more
deeply for those I only see by skype, zoom, or whose voice I only hear by
phone.
I am thankful today for the food I have, for the clothes I wear,
for the phone calls, and the good will.
I am thankful for school teachers, and fire officers, for nurses,
doctors, ambulance drivers, social care staff, shop workers, factors workers,
food producers, and farmers.
But in these unexpected days of so called isolation, I am aware
that I am fully loved and upheld by the God who has graven our names on His
hands. I know that as he is able to order a prophet and a great fish towards
His purpose,
so too these days are in His keeping.
May I end with the story told by the early church fathers,
relating to our search for God. It tells of a man who went out to catch a fish.
He fished all day long with no success. What he didn’t realise was that all day
long he had been fishing with his feet on the back of a great whale.
Perhaps in these strange days, we will come to realise that our
heavenly father is nearer to us that we ever knew. Amen.
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