LAKE JAMES

NORTH CAROLINA

Proper 14A

05 August 7, 2005

            Jonah prayed in the belly of the fish, “I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the LORD!”

When Peter noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” ³¹Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him . . . And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

            Jonah and the whale and Jesus walking on the water present intellectual problems to many of us modern folks with a realistic and scientific mind set. My experience is that intellectual difficulties go along with moral difficulties. I didn’t want to accept the hard teaching of Scripture in my moral life, and I looked around for some reasons that I thought intellectually respectable to deny the spiritual authority of Scripture. 

            Brighter people than I am, and more morally better people than I am, have worked with these passages of Scripture and have found ways to accept them. When we take them as literal fact they are hard to believe. They always have been. And from very early the church has sought to understand both stories in ways that do not require us to see them as literal.

            Jonah is easier. Jonah is a short story, a parable, a reminder to all who hear it of God’s will that all be redeemed, and of his call to all of us to be his agents in redeeming the lost. The book of Jonah is found among the 12 so called minor prophets at the end of our version of the Old Testament – after Obadiah and before Micah. The mnemonic device to remember the books is, “Has Joel Any Onion Juice, Mercy No, H, Z, H, Z, M – Hosea, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. The two H’s are in alphabetical order, the two Z’s are reversed. But all the books are short, and you can just flip through to find what you want.

            The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai. In 2 Kings 14:25 a prophet of this name from Gath-hepher advised King Jeroboam II who reigned in the northern kingdom of Israel between 786 and 746 – 24 years before the Assyrians destroyed the kingdom and sent the people into exile – the Ten Lost Tribes. The Lord called Jonah to go to Nineveh, the Assyrian capital and “cry against it.” Jonah rationally decided that this would be a suicidal mission and took ship for Tarshish in southern Spain – as far west as he could get in the known world.  “But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea” and the ship threatened to break up. The sailors decided to cast lots to know on whose account this calamity fell on them. When they came to Jonah he said he knew it was because of him that the storm had come and asked them to throw him into the sea so the storm would cease. To their credit the sailors were reluctant, but finally did, and the sea ceased, and the sailors offered a sacrifice of thanksgiving to Jonah’s God. Then comes Jonah’s prayer we read as today’s first lesson, “then the Lord spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.” The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, and Jonah went to Nineveh, and the people of Nineveh repented. And Jonah became very angry, so angry he asked to die. Jonah went out on the hill to pout. The Lord God appointed a castor bean plant to shade Jonah from the sun, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. At dawn the next day the Lord sent a worm to attack the bush so it withered, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head, and he again was so angry he asked to die. The book ends with God saying, “Should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle.”

            Scholars see Jonah as a short story, with perhaps some connection with historical fact, but not necessarily to be taken literally. Jonah is a short story, a parable, a reminder to all who hear it of God’s will that all be redeemed, and of his call to all of us to be his agents in redeeming the lost.

            The account of Jesus walking on the water is more difficult for the rationalist mind. From early times some have written about sandbars on the northern shore of the lake and sudden storms spring and fall on this small body of water. But the Scripture says they were far from land, and both Jesus and Peter walked on the water. I think that if there had been a sandbar the gospel would say so. I don’t have any personal experience of walking on water, or walking on coals of fire either, though I am assured it happens.

            But I do have some personal experience of what the hymn is about. “Love lifted me, when nothing else could help, love lifted me.” Paul Zahl, the new dean of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, has a new book on the ministry of Jesus and the early church in which he notes that the early church grew in the cities where people had to depend on the fellowship of the church for their very lives. The self-sacrificing love of the early Christians for one another saved their lives. Missionaries tell of the support Christians freely give one another and the difference it makes in the life of the community.

            Western society values independence and self-reliance, and these are Christian virtues. But with them comes the danger of isolation and spiritual pride. “I don’t need anyone; I have done it all myself.” When we’re honest we know that is not true. We have accomplished; we have overcome great odds, but we had some help along the way. Someone believed in us so we could believe in ourselves.

            The other side is dependence, and along with it a heavy focus on ourselves, on how we feel, on how the world affects us. Some mutual dependence is necessary, and important, but a danger is frustration and anger. Like Jonah, angry enough to die.

            I encourage you to seek spiritual balance, recognizing God’s love and care for you, giving thanks for his gracious gift of salvation in Jesus Christ, a gift given you personally. “I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore . . . from the waters lifted me, now safe an I.”  Look for the work of God in your life, look for the evidences in your relationships with others and with God of God’s love and providence. Some introspection and self-care is good, even necessary.

            Recognize also God’s love and care for others, giving thanks for his gracious gift of salvation in Jesus Christ, a gift given to all, God’s saving grace received by faith. Don’t let the good go by without paying attention to it. God’s work is often subtle; the changes he makes are frequently small changes. A small change in the angle of the rudder or in the set of the sail can bring you to a different place.  It is easy to belittle and to deny the effect of God’s love. In the summer time I’m fond of sun tea. I put the tea bags in a quart jug and leave the jug in the afternoon sun. The tea brews slowly, but by supper time it is ready for a little sugar, and be poured over ice.

Jonah prayed in the belly of the fish, “I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the LORD!”  When Peter noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” ³¹Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him . . . And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

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