Today’s reading from the book of Jonah gives us the ending of this short book, that is written like a satirical fable. The story is probably one with which you are familiar, perhaps through children’ s stories of Jonah in the Whale.
Jonah, an Israelite, is tasked with going to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom, and an enemy of Israel, to warn them of God’s anger and forthcoming punishment because of their wickedness. The Assyrians were notorious for violence and depravity, and in years to come it would be the Assyrian empire that obliterated the northern kingdom of Israel.
So perhaps we can understand Jonah’s reluctance to go – an Israelite walking into this massive, dangerous enemy city, would fear being attacked without mercy. Jonah must have been terrified at the idea, so he tries to escape God’s presence, fleeing on a boat heading in the opposite direction.
Great storms then hit the boat and the sailors ask whether Jonah might be the cause of God’s anger being unleashed in the storm. They decide to throw him overboard into the stormy seas. But God is not finished with Jonah; he is swallowed by an enormous sea creature which, following Jonah’s prayers of repentance and thanksgiving, spews him out onto dry land.
Finally Jonah does go to Nineveh where he gives God’s message of judgement, at which all the people, from the smallest to the greatest, including the King, repent and hope that God will show mercy.
And so in today’s reading we get to the story’s ending, where we have aspects of God’s character revealed to us, and at the same time we may recognise ourselves in some of Jonah’s responses. First, God, seeing the response of the people of Nineveh, changes course, and shows mercy. Jonah is furious, and turning to God in anger he reveals the true reason for his original reluctance to embark on this mission, which was apparently not fear of being attacked. In fact Jonah says that he knew all along that God would show mercy, because he knows God’s nature – merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment.
This is the God Jonah knows and loves, but when God chooses to show mercy, forgiveness, grace and love to people that Jonah hates, he feels cheated and betrayed. Suddenly, it seems, he witnesses the reality of God’s limitless mercy, shown to Jonah’s enemies as much as to him and his people.
God does not admonish nor reproach Jonah, for his anger and resentment, but simply asks him ‘Is it right for you to be angry?’ In this question God challenges Jonah to bring the truths he knows about God’s character alongside his hatred and resentment, and to allow those two things to wrestle with each other.
I find this encouraging. Things happen, or fail to happen in our lives, that leave us feeling angry, or confused, or scared, or resentful, and these feelings can be directed at God. Our Scriptures are full of people just like you and me who told God how they felt. And God can take it! In fact God welcomes our response, and wants to engage with us. God wants us to speak out how we feel, and open the door to a transformation.
The book of Jonah itself ends without an answer as he sits outside the city of Nineveh waiting to see what will happen to the enemy city and its people that he hates and apparently – and very inconveniently – God loves. God asks Jonah, ‘Should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left and also many animals?’ and there the book of Jonah ends.
Jonah had been asked, by God, to be the messenger who would bring God’s gift of judgement, that became freedom and love, to his worst enemies. And, seeing God’s mercy, he was left with his anger. We simply do not know what happened next for him. But we do know that God saw and recognised his anger, and so the door to a process of transformation had been opened. Jonah, who tried to flee from God is now with God, with his anger.
Reflecting on this story, I was put in mind of a news story this week, about a village in England that has spoken out against plans for the development of a residential centre nearby for refugees seeking asylum. The asylum seekers who may be accommodated there have already been cast as ‘other’; people who are dangerous and potentially violent.
Not knowing the details I don’t feel competent to comment on the specifics, other than to note how easily the concerns of local people have become weaponised in the polarised debates about immigration to the UK, and the menacing and sometimes violent demonstrations arising from them. But there is something in here about the assumptions we may be inclined to make about anyone who is not one of us, not like us, unknown, and different. We don’t know about individuals, but we do know a lot about asylum seekers in general.
They are people who love their home, and their families like we do. Political and social conditions in their country mean that they no longer feel safe, and often have already been subject to violence and discrimination. Against their deepest wishes they feel they are left with no choice but to flee, often leaving family behind, and with no knowledge of what their future may hold, but desperately hoping that other people and nations will recognise their plight and offer them asylum.
Let’s just remember the nature of God as Jonah understood it: merciful… gracious… slow to anger… abounding in steadfast love… relenting from punishment…
What do you imagine this merciful, gracious, loving God would say to those arriving in the UK full of fear, and looking for asylum?
And how do you feel about that?
Might you feel angry towards God perhaps, for the scandalous, limitless love offered, for the forgiveness and generosity that God offers to all, even those I don’t want it to be offered to? Perhaps you feel a bit of anger or irritation towards me for raising these questions here in Holy Cross this morning?
The theologian Frederick Buechner, gave this advice about reading scripture: ‘Don’t start looking in the Bible for the answers it gives. Start by listening for the questions it asks … When you hear the question that is your question, then you have already begun to hear much.’ He is suggesting, I think, that when we read Scripture, rather than expecting to find answers to questions that we bring to Scripture from our own lives, we should first read Scripture and notice the questions that jump out at us, and then seek to discover how those questions speak to the issues around us today. So following Buechner’s approach of finding ‘my’ question, here is my personal (and personally challenging) question…
What do I do with my desire for revenge on, or punishment of, those who, in my eyes, deserve it? I am told that God sees them, knows them, loves them. I am told that God desires all that is good for them. Is this something I can accept, or – like Jonah – do I want to run away from this God?
If I am still at the stage of feeling suspicion, anger, hatred even, and am reluctant to let go of that, I might not want anything to change. Because there can be something very comfortable and comforting about a justified anger or hatred that makes it hard to leave it behind. Then, perhaps, I can pray that God will help me, not even to help me to let go, but to begin to want to let go of my hatred.
Whatever I need to say to God, I can say. God can take it. And the way for me to move from my superior position of self righteousness, and distrust or hatred of the other, is to keep turning to God, even when it’s uncomfortable. For I know that, in the words of today’s psalm, God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. That includes those I might hate, and it also includes how God is towards me.