09.22.2013 Jonah 1 - Which Face of God do you run from?

You are a gracious God, full of compassion and mercy – forgiving. Jonah is a story of a big God with a big heart with compassion for all. Help us to see who You really are – that You have forgiven us for all we have done – bad choices – sin – of which You have forgiven us. May we know Your great love – thank You for Jesus and giving Him to us and for us – in Your name we pray.
Jonah is – I have a quote here – this is a unique book – Eugene Peterson – under the unpredictable plant. “The book of Jonah brings a sharp personal awareness of truth to people whose spiritual perceptions are dulled from living habitually in an overt religious context”
The point of Jesus’ parables were to get religious people to understand how they have missed it. It helps people who think they are okay to realize they are not. It leads us down a path – convincing us of where the book is going – and it is not. It leads us to believe there is a lesson to learn – and then we discover that what we thought we knew was wrong – and there is a new lesson. This story will challenge our current understanding of God and how He works in the world.
The problem – we know the story all too well – and that is all we can focus our minds on, when there is a lesson, so much to be taught – in the story.
One of the reasons I have it read – I want us to look at it as if we are hearing it for the first time – the first readers – to whom it was originally written – and to track without knowing the end. I will highlight some of the verses.
Jonah 1:1
Jonah has a calling – a command to go to Nineveh and proclaim judgment on it. For Jonah, and for Israel – at this point, hearing this – they would be thinking – YES! It is about time. Nineveh is the capital of Assyria, Israel’s enemy – causing great pain and suffering. You would think that Jonah would jump at the chance to proclaim the name of judgment. This gives us theological insight into Jonah and Israel. This is their understanding – the way that God is supposed to act. He is finally judging them! This is God! This is His primary role – to judge the evil and to dole out retribution. You would think he would be excited about this.
Jonah lived in the time of Jeroboam II – some of the northern territory that was conquered – Assyria was known for their cruelty – doing terrible things to the lands they had captured. Some of the worst you could imagine will be contrasted with Jonah – whose name means DOVE – peace – someone who is innocent – at least we are led to believe that. A dove is used in a number of cases – one flying away from danger – Psalm 55 – o that I had wings like a dove to flee to the mountains. Oddly – that is what Jonah does.
Jonah 1:3
Why is the dove fleeing? Why is Jonah fleeing from the presence of the Lord? I want to ask you that question as if you don’t know the rest of the story. If you were hearing this for the first time – God tells Jonah to go to the capital of the world power – the hub of evil – why would you think Jonah is fleeing? Because he is afraid – they will kill me! That is what the story wants us to believe. The hook is set. The story wants us to go down that path in order to teach the lessons we are to learn.
Tarshish – is always mentioned as an incredibly wealthy city – to bring it to our context – it is like God calling us to minister in the slums of Detroit – and we go to the wealthy suburbs instead – fleeing to minister to the wealthiest. Still doing ministry – but God is calling us to one thing and we decide to follow God in another way. That is what Jonah is doing here. The term – Presence of the Lord is mentioned twice – literally – the face of the Lord. Jonah is fleeing God’s face. If you think about it – think of a baby – what does a baby focus on? Faces. We know that. Maybe because we do that to them – you know what it is like – they zero in on the face. That is how they develop an intimate relationship with their parents. What face of God is Jonah fleeing from? Think of the faces you might flee from. When a child is wrong – what do they do? They hide – they hide from a face. Maybe it is a face of disappointment or anger. It is amazing how much we can express. What face of your boss do you want to flee from? A friend – or a spouse?! We need to be aware of the power of our facial expressions in our relationship – we know how much they can affect people.
Cindy showed me a post from a blog this week. Six words changed her parenting – I lost it but I know the point – I love to watch you play! Think about it as parents – when kids play their instruments or sports – you love to be there, but how often are you critiquing, evaluating, or grading? They need to see the face that just accepts and enjoys what they are doing.
What face is Jonah hiding from? Is he hiding from the righteous anger of God?
Genesis 3:8 – this same phrase is used – They hid themselves from the face – the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden…
I was afraid…
What Jonah is doing – it is trying to get us to think that this is the face that Jonah is hiding from. We know God must be lovingly disappointed – - or righteous anger - usually our anger is not that. It is difficult to have God’s righteous and proper anger.
Cindy – with her kids – sometimes gives what her kids call ‘the stink eye’! Time to get back to what you are supposed to be doing. That is not the face that Jonah is running from – not from God’s righteous anger – he is running from God’s compassionate and loving and gracious face. He knew that God would forgive them and have compassion.
In reality – I think that is the face we hide from the most – God’s loving and compassionate face – and we don’t even know it! All of the religious people of Jesus’ day – did not like the God who welcomes sinners! They did not like it. They did not like the story of father who would embarrass himself with the compassion of a father who would welcome a wayward son.
Where did the sin come from for Adam and Eve? God is not good, they were told.
We see Jonah and feel guilty for our lack of obedience – we think of the time we ran from God. But that is not the point – what the story is doing – it confronts not our disobedience, but it confronts our obedience in our so-called spirituality – it will confront the areas of our spirituality where we are overconfident. The author wants us to believe that Jonah is running out of fear and disobedience – if that is the case – we can believe our spirituality is better than Jonah’s.
Jonah is running because he believes that God will forgive Nineveh, and it goes against everything he believes about JUSTICE.
The same thing when Jesus came – Jesus was not the messiah they thought they would get.
Our spirituality is often a way to protect our way of life – and that does not advance the mission of God – it didn’t for Jonah and it doesn’t for us. His mission for Jonah was to bring this great evil city to repentance. Now
Jonah 1:4
There are a number of characters in this story -
Jonah
Nineveh
Storm
Wind
Sailors
Plant
Worm
God
Every character submits to God’s plan and purpose – except for one! Isn’t that funny! And – when it appears that Jonah is submitting to God’s will – he is running the most!
There is a storm – God sends this storm – there is a parallel in Acts with Paul. A storm is an environment where lives are lost or saved – something that is something we cannot control.
Up until this point – Jonah made all the decisions. We do that – and it usually takes a storm where we can’t make any decisions. Once the storm hits – everything else Jonah does, he is passive until the end – it all happens to him. The storms come in to help us to teach us to rely on God. We heard the story – the sailors and the captain talk
Jonah 1:12
Jonah has compassion for the sailors. Jonah is sticking tightly to his theological position – even in the face of death. I have disobeyed and I deserve to be punished. When someone does wrong – they get punished. When Nineveh does wrong – they deserve punishment. Jonah is holding on to this belief to death. He submits to the punishment to preserve his theology
Since Jonah has passively submitted to his own punishment… what Jonah fears is not God and His wrath, but a world where His wrath does not fall equally on the guilty.
In this story – who are we? We are Jonah.
Then it closes – the men feared the Lord greatly – and they were saved. Even in Jonah’s disobedience – God saves – He doesn’t need us to do His work.
When we think of this story – we think – he is getting his judgment! But the fish is saving Jonah. These events appear to be events of punishment – but every event – the wind, the worm, the tree – are God’s face of compassion and grace.
God appears to be angry focused on judgment – but even though these events seem to support this – they draw us in.
How much do you see God’s face of grace and compassion? Do you long for it?
How often?
God wants us to view the events – the storms, the winds, the trees that grow up – as events as part of the face of Grace – the face of compassion – just one more way it is entering into my life.
Lord, we thank You – help us through this book – this story of Jonah – to grasp the God who loves – the God who longs to forgive – the God of grace – extravagant forgiveness and love.
Next week – we are going to start the high school group back up.
November 2 – we’ll have a men’s dinner here at the church.