September 19, 2004
Can You Hear Me Now?
Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, "Go at once to Nineveh , that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me." But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.
God is still speaking.
Hmmm …
You know, back in Palestine around twenty-five hundred years ago – about the time of Jonah, they didn't have all of the wonderful ways that we have to keep in touch. Today, we're communicating wonderfully …
Like the guy in a supermarket, talking on his cellphone: “Yeah, I'm in front of the spice rack here. Gotta be four thousand spices here. I'm not seeing the Szechuan Saffron pepper you want. Are you sure that's they make that stuff …”
Or in the v ideo store: “Hey have we seen Scream IV? We have ??? … How ‘bout the Cancun Vacation, Unrated …???”
Or my daughter, on the couch: “It's like really, really … like … like … sooo ….”
Is it that we're so busy talking to one another that we don't hear God? Could be …But, when we look at the Old Testament, one of the things that pops out the most quickly is this:
God has a speaking part. A major speaking part.
For example, in today's passage. God speaks directly to Jonah. I've always imagined Jonah as this little schlump of a guy – a Woodie Allen sort of character. So he's walking along, and he hears:
“JONAH! JONAH! GO AT ONCE TO NINEVEH AND CRY OUT AGAINST WICKEDNESS!”
Oh, that's just great, Jonah thinks. Nineveh . I don't want to go to Nineveh . It's like New York without the theater. It's just big and dirty and noisy and …
So Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD . He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the L ORD .
(Jonah on phone) “Isaiah, what's goin' down, dog? Isaiah? Isaiah? Can you here me now? It's Jonah. I'm sailing to Tarshish. It's beautiful, man. Nice big boat. And it's been sunny … well, it had been sunny … now it looks like it's going to .
And suddenly a storm appears on the horizon....
So the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the LORD even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows. But the LORD provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
We live today in the belly of the fish.
What do I mean by that? A couple of things.
We are so surrounded by the world, we are so enclosed in this bubble that is 21 st century America that we cannot hear God's voice. Let's be honest. The God of this country is not the God that we worship today. Not the God of justice and mercy that appears in the Hebrew Bible. Not the God of salvation and compassion who walked this earth as Jesus Christ.
No. Capitalism is the God of this country. And I am as much a part of that – I am a good soldier in the army of capitalism – as anyone in this culture. It is the thing we bump up against constantly in our effort to be Christians.
How do we get by comes up against how to we be Christians on a daily basis. In this world where the cathedrals in our cities – the tallest buildings – are monuments to insurance and banking. In this world where the Wall Street Journal is the de facto Bible.
We say God is still speaking.
And yet we know: Money talks.
Who is louder?
Somehow in the belly of the beast, Jonah manages to pray. This is what I really like about this story. Jonah can't see God. He can't hear God. And yet he knows, in the darkness, he knows enough to pray. From the belly of the fish, his prayer goes something like this:
mumble …. mumble …. mumble ….
Which, fortunately, we have been able to translate.
Jonah says:
As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the L ORD ; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty. 9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the L ORD !"
And then, the fish spits Jonah up like a hairball.
But God is not finished with Jonah. In fact, God is still speaking.
“JONAH! JONAH! GET UP. GO TO NINEVEH AND PROCLAIM MY MESSAGE.”
Jonah does not question God this time. He sets off for Nineveh , and preaching repentance to its inhabitants.
So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the L ORD . Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days' walk across. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's walk. And he cried out, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"
So Jonah finally does what God asks.
The one thing that God asks.
In this whole God Is Still Speaking idea, I think this is critically important. I like to think of this as the “In Box” problem. Every day, my In Box piles up with cries of the world begging for help. AIDS in Africa . Homelessness in this country, the richest country in the world. The plight of farmers in South America . Orphans in Romania . Orphans in Russia . Oppressed Christians in China . Genocide in the Sudan . Starvation in North Korea . Conflict breaking out again in Afghanistan .
If I went through the whole list, we would be here until mid-afternoon.
It's paralyzing.
Where do you begin?
Nineveh , that's where you begin. We all have to find what our own Nineveh is. The one place that God is asking us to go. The one thing that God is asking us to do. The one thing, when we are quiet, we can hear God saying to us.
We live in a time which a fellow named Barry Schwartz has called “The Paradox of Choice.” We have too many choices. He talks about experiments that have been done with rats. If you give rats a couple of ways to get out of a maze, they will find how to do it. If you give them too many ways – 10, 20 – they become paralyzed and die.
Who here does not know the sickening feeling in the pit of your stomach that there are just too many things?
Stop. Breath. And pray. Even in the belly of the beast.
God will not ask you to save the world.
God will ask you a simple thing.
It could be as simple as taking care of an aging parent. It could be as simple as joining the literacy program at the library.
I say this not without some risk because we, like all churches, are suffering a volunteer drain. We are draining our volunteers dry.
But perhaps, in listening to God still speaking, there will be an answer to this. Here's a good thought to remember:
Not once – not once – in the Bible does God speak and say: “Keep up the good work.” The voice of God is always the spirit wind of change.
