August 23, 2020: The Darkness Between
Jonah 1-4 (Children’s Bible)
Rev. Dr. Rhonda Blevins
“Go to Nineveh,” God said to Jonah. “Tell the people there that if they do not stop their cruelty, I will destroy the city.” Jonah hated the people of Nineveh because they were enemies of Israel. He did not want them to be saved, so he jumped aboard a boat sailing for a faraway country. But God sent a storm. Huge waves crashed over the boat, and it was about to sink. Jonah knew it was because he was trying to run from God. He told the others to throw him overboard so the storm would stop.
Down he plunged into the cold, dark water. Jonah was about to drown when God sent a huge fist to swallow him up. From deep inside the fish, Jonah thanked God for saving him. The fish burped Jonah out onto the beach.
“Go to Nineveh,” God said again. This time Jonah went, and the people listened to him. They asked for forgiveness, and God did not destroy them. Jonah sat under a shady vine and said, “God, the Ninevites are our enemies! How could you save them?” God replied, “They are your enemies, but they are my children too.”
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You want to hear some good news for a change? Good news from right here on Clearwater Beach? On Wednesday, a team from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium released Luna, a 245-pound Loggerhead Sea Turtle, back into the Gulf. Luna was found washed up on St. Pete Beach back in April, lethargic, with barnacles and algae hanging on to her. Luna spent several weeks in critical care at CMA where she gradually grew in strength. Like some of us during this same time period, Luna started eating more and gained over 30 pounds! If you missed Luna’s release back into the wild on Wednesday, you can watch an inspiring video on their website. Well done, CMA!
While 245 pounds is pretty hefty for a sea creature, Luna is minuscule compared to the largest sea creature, and the largest mammal living today, the blue whale which can grow as large as 100 feet and 419,000 pounds. The blue whale is the largest mammal to ever live. It’s even bigger than the largest dinosaur.
Despite its enormous size, marine biologists tell us there’s no way a blue whale could swallow a human—its esophagus is simply too small. Sperm whales, on the other hand, might be able to swallow a human, as they often swallow large squid in one swift gulp. But if you were swallowed by a sperm whale, you’d end up in one of its four stomach chambers, you’d be swimming in digestive enzymes, with no air to breathe. Maybe a little methane, but that’s not going to help you out very much.
So the story of Jonah and the whale is basically a fish tale. Most biblical scholars worth their pipe tobacco will tell you that the Old Testament book of Jonah was never meant to be read as historical fact, but as holy allegory. There was a message the author wanted the people of Israel to hear, and sometimes fiction is the best way to get across otherwise hard-to-hear truth. Like Emily Dickinson once wrote, “Tell all the truth, but tell it slant.”
What message do you think the author of Jonah was trying to convey to the Israelites? Let’s look at the story to find out.
The book of Jonah is only four chapters long, a pretty quick read if you want to go home and read it in your “grown up” Bible (as opposed to the children’s Bible version I read to you.) It begins with the call of God on the prophet, Jonah’s, life. And like most of the Old Testament call stories, we see the prophet at first resisting the call. God tells Jonah to go preach to the people of Nineveh, an enormous city, considered enemy territory by the Israelites. Jonah will have nothing of it, so he boards a ship headed the other direction, so as to get as far away as possible from Nineveh and from God. That doesn’t go very well. When the ship goes out to sea, a huge storm threatens to capsize the ship. The crew casts lots and determines that Jonah is the cause of the storm, that Jonah has angered his God. They throw Jonah overboard, and the sea settles down immediately. Jonah, however, will surely perish in the sea. But a large fish swallows the prophet, and he finds himself in the belly of the sea creature for three days and three nights, where he prays and prays and prays. The fish vomits him up on shore, and God calls Jonah once again to go to Nineveh. Jonah relents, and goes to Nineveh. And with five Hebrew words—five words—he convinces the city of 120,000 people to turn from their wicked ways to God. And to Jonah’s chagrin, God spares the city. (You might call Jonah the most successful prophet of all time!) Jonah goes off to sulk, mad at God for sparing Israel’s enemies. God’s reply, which I love from the children’s Bible I read earlier: “They are your enemies, but they are my children too.”
So let me ask you again, what message do you think the author of Jonah was trying to convey to the Israelites?
To me, a summary statement would go something like this: “Be careful, Israelites, because the people we hate are people God loves.”
It seems to me that 2,500 years after this story was written, we still need to hear its core message. “Be careful, Americans, because the people we hate are people God loves.” I appreciate how Anne Lamott frames this concept: “You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”
To whom do you see hate directed these days? Who is the equivalent of the “Ninevite” in contemporary culture? (Receive congregational responses.)
There’s plenty of hate in this world, would you agree? Maybe there’s some hate inside you, just like (I don’t like to confess) there’s some inside of me. Just when I start to think of myself as “holy” and “righteous” and above the “hating your neighbor” thing, I’ll catch myself snarling at that guy on TV or thinking myself better than that woman at the store or catch myself congratulating myself for being so much more intelligent than “those people.” I’m not proud of this. I want to be better than this. But I really don’t want to have to hang out in the belly of a big fish to grow more Christlike.
So if the overall message of Jonah—the message of loving our enemies—still hasn’t prevailed in over 2,500 years, is there hope for us and all of our petty hatreds? I . . . er, hope so.
Sometimes you’ll hear people in recovery talk about having to hit “rock bottom” before they were ready to make the difficult but necessary changes. While doing recovery before “rock bottom” is preferable, the hackneyed notion is that sometimes a person isn’t willing to make changes unless they lose everything and find themselves in a pit they can’t climb out of without making those hard changes. Some of you may have been there or loved someone who’s been there.
Jonah being in the belly of a big fish—it’s hard to imagine a rockier, or perhaps fishier, bottom. And speaking of “bottom,” Jonah’s probably glad he was burped out onto the shore, am I right? J
So are we there? Are we at rock bottom? Is 2020 rock bottom? The pandemic, the vitriolic political climate, stock market highs, er, lows, er, highs again, two storms out in the Gulf. Maybe you’ve made it through these past couple of months in great stride, but as I heard it put this past week, “Everybody going through something.” Even before 2020, a common meme made its way around the internet that reads, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
What the story of Jonah teaches us across these 2,500 years is that Jonah’s story is our story. Jonah’s call is our call. To get over our petty hatreds—to recognize that all people are God’s people—that God pours God’s grace out on just and unjust.
You know what’s the funniest part about the story of Jonah? It isn’t that Jonah was swallowed by a great fish and hung out in a fish’s belly for a few days. It’s that after finally, reluctantly going to Nineveh to deliver God’s message, and after God decided to spare Nineveh the destruction Jonah warned them about—the last chapter of the story is all about Jonah pouting about how effective he was, that the entire city turned to God and that God spared them.
Here’s the irony: Jonah. Never. Got. It.
So here’s a closing word of advice. Be better than Jonah. Get it. Now. As the yard sign you can buy on Amazon reads: “Love your neighbor: your black, brown, immigrant, disabled, religiously different, LGBTQ, fully human neighbor.” I can’t promise you won’t end up in the belly of a big fish, but I can promise that wherever the fish spits you out, you’ll be with people you love.