Posts

Scripture Lesson: The Book of Jonah                                                                                     Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

The main take away usually associated with the story of Jonah is that God saved Jonah from drowning by sending a big fish, or whale, to pluck him from the depths of the sea and deposit him on dry land.  Jonah’s life is saved.  Whew!  When taught in church school to children this story is used to teach about a miraculous interventionist God who will save you when you are in perilous circumstances.  You can count on God to help you no matter how bad a fix you are in.  

When we teach this story to kids, we don’t usually make a big deal out of Jonah trying to get away from God and God’s assignment to go to Nineveh to save the great city.  We don’t emphasize that in the story God sends the tempestuous storm that threatens not only Jonah’s life but also the lives of the others on the ship.  We don’t go on about the fish spitting Jonah out on the shore near the city that he did not want to go to to deliver God’s message.  And we do not make a teaching point out of Jonah’s resentment and anger at the successful repentance and transformation of the evil city of Nineveh despite the brief message Jonah is instructed to deliver.  Hm.  Just a fish story – a big fish rescues someone who is drowning.  That’s sometimes where we leave it.  Especially for kids.  

Among the many messages and meanings in the book of Jonah, I think there is one needling issue that we can all relate to.  When good things happen to bad people.  Yes, Rabbi Kushner wrote a very helpful book called, When Bad Things Happen to Good People.  While that problem confounds us, the situation of good things happening to bad people can lead to anger, resentment, and offense.  

And that is just what happens in this story.  Jonah is a faithful prophet of the Hebrew people.  He feels called by God to deliver God’s saving word to his people, the Jews.  But God calls him to go to Nineveh.  Nineveh?  The great city known not only for its size but for its wickedness and violence.  They are foreigners.  They are not allies.  They don’t even know that they need saving.  Why in heaven’s name would Jonah a prophet of the Hebrews committed to the well-being of his people want to go to Nineveh to proclaim God’s saving word and encourage them to repent and turn in a new direction?  Why would Jonah want to be part of this random act of salvation, helping facilitate When Good Things Happen to Bad People?  

After the storm, being tossed into the sea, and spending three days in the belly of the beast, tossed up on the shore near Nineveh, Jonah sees that he really has no choice in the matter.  But he is still resentful, inflamed with indignation.  He walks into Nineveh and declares the message God gives to him, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”  That’s it.  No “Thus says the Lord.”  No fire and brimstone.  No long drawn out prophetic recitations of the evils done by the Ninevites.  No imaging of the scenes of destruction.  Just one short sentence.  “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

But that is all it takes.  The people of Nineveh repent.  The king gets on board.  The repentance is so all encompassing even the animals of Nineveh participate in the rituals of repentance wearing sackcloth and fasting.  The entire city completely repents and turns to the God of the Hebrews.  The city is transformed.   In the eyes of God, this is a triumph.  In the eyes of Jonah, well, since he wants to die, he doesn’t seem to consider it much of a success.  

In this story, we see a God that will go to any lengths to dispense grace.  Goading a reluctant prophet.  Using the natural forces of wind and water to form a storm that threatens life.  Sending a fish to help the process.  All to save Nineveh, the great, wicked, violent city.  God’s sights will not be diverted from the mission of salvation.  And this recalcitrant prophet, Jonah, will certainly not get in the way of God’s purposes.  

When good things happen to bad people. . . This is a story of mysterious, unpredictable grace.  The wrong people, the unlikely people, get on board with God.  We are scandalized by grace.

Divine Love will go to any lengths to dispense grace.  We see this same impulse in Jesus.  Reaching out to those who others think are unworthy, should be forgotten, and are not important.  Yet Jesus is not reluctant or resistant like Jonah.  Jesus is all in.  Send me where the need is greatest.  Why bother being a reluctant prophet?  Why try to undermine grace?  When, as the story of Jonah and of Jesus show us, grace will prevail.  And it will be dispensed from the most unlikely sources.  To those who may not even know their need.  And it may very well prevail in spite of well-intentioned people who are actually in the way.  

In the story of Jonah we see that there is no escaping grace.  The immensity of God encompasses all of the people and the animals of the great city of Nineveh, as well as the fish of the sea, the wind and the waves, and that surly, quarrelsome prophet, Jonah.  Our small-mindedness and resistance is no match for divine grace.  So, why waste our energy and resources digging in our heels?  Look at all those people and the animals of Nineveh?  They immediately and wholeheartedly succumb to grace.  They don’t try to hold out, defend themselves, or bargain.  They simply accept, say yes, and give thanks!

Grace may be amazing, but it is not exceptional.  It makes no exceptions.  No one is exempt from grace.  Grace is also enigmatic,  awe-inspiring, and wonder-full.  Its impact is immense.  It is life saving.  And it encompasses everything and everyone.  We can’t escape it.  

Several summers ago, we went on a whale watch boat tour from Long Beach, California.  They don’t make any promises about seeing a whale, but we saw several in the waters off the shores of California among the oil drilling platforms.  We saw the humpback whale and the right whale.  It was stunning.  They were beautiful.  Then, when we should have been heading back, the boat headed further out from shore.  The announcer told us to get up and look off the side of the boat.  There was a huge light blue patch in the water that looked almost like a sand bar.  It was long and oval shaped.  And as we got closer, we were told that this was a blue whale.  The largest whale in the seas.  It’s really gray but it is called the blue whale because of the light blue patch seen in the water when it is swimming near the surface.  We got quite close to the whale.  We were standing on the deck of the boat.  Our son, Malcolm, and I were standing next to each other.  We clasped hands and wept.  There was nothing that could be said in the presence of this the largest living creature on the planet.  This was simply an unforgettable moment.  The immensity of it inspired awe and wonder.  

There was room in the belly of that whale for everyone aboard our tour and maybe even the boat itself.    And even that huge creature dwarfs the scope of the capacity of grace to impact all of life and creation itself.  So why bother trying to opt out or jump ship – grace will still take you in and save you.  Amen.  

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.

Date: July 21, 2019

Scripture Lesson: Matthew 14:22-36

Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells 

Fifty years ago yesterday, a human being walked on the moon for the first time.  There has been much in the news about that memorable day. How many of you remember that day?  What do you remember about it? Where were you? Did you watch it on TV? What did you think about it?  For those who did not see it live, have you seen video of the first moonwalk? What were your impressions?                 

Impressions shared from the congregation – 

I heard a report on NPR this past week that mentioned that when the astronauts got home, they toured the world giving talks about their experience.  And apparently everywhere they went, in every country, the attitude of the people was, “We did this!” All of humanity took ownership of this milestone in human history.  It wasn’t, “Look what the Americans have done.” It was look what WE have done, we, the human family. It created a great bond among people of earth.   

When we think about the story that we heard this morning about walking on the water, we think of Jesus overcoming the elements, calming the stormy sea.  We hear Jesus’ command Peter to step out of the boat. There is obedience and trust until fear leads to foundering and Peter is saved by Jesus. Fear, the great enemy of faith.  

But in addition to all of these messages and teachings from this story, there is more.  At the beginning of the story, Jesus sends the disciples across the sea of Galilee in a boat.  This is the first time they are sent on without Jesus. Obviously, Jesus has faith in them. He would not send them out if he was concerned for their safety.  He has confidence in them. Yes, there will be threats. The sea represents the forces of chaos in scripture. There are threatening forces. But Jesus has faith in the disciples.  He feels they have all the power they need. The presence of God is with them and within them. It seems he has more faith in them than they have in themselves. . . What if we take from this story that we have been sent out into the world together as a community with everything we need to live with love, compassion, peace, and justice? 

Also, we want to notice that the image of the boat is a common symbolic image for the church.  So in this story, we see Jesus’ faith in the church. The disciples are together in the boat. They have each other for community and solidarity and support.  Sure, they will be buffeted and there will be conflict and threat, but they have each other, they have the community, they have the presence of God in the faith community.  So Jesus has faith in their strength and solidarity. But again, they waffle. And Peter wants to get out of the boat, exposing himself to more peril and danger. He does not feel secure in the boat.  But when he gets out, he realizes that the situation is worse. What if we recognized and trusted that we need the faith community for our fundamental well-being?

The disciples seem to want some kind of magical display, some kind of spectacle to engender enough faith; to give them enough reason to trust.  But Jesus seems to be showing them, by sending them out together, that they have what they need in one another and in their solidarity, to face the challenges of life – accidents, disease, aging, difficult circumstances, conflicting values.  Jesus believes that in their community, they have the resources they need to live everyday life imbued with divinity, with a sense of the sacred, as part of a transcendent reality beyond them and within them and among them. In Jesus’ eyes, they have been given what they need to face the challenges of life.  So, if Peter, if the disciples, had enough faith, they would have believed from the boat and trusted that all would eventually be well. They wouldn’t have needed a test, a spectacle. The walking on water. Jesus had faith in them, in the boat, as a group, as a faith community – you are enough, you are what you need, God is with you.  There is nothing to fear. What if we truly had faith in what we have been given; no otherworldly spectacles and signs and wonders needed?

In this story, we see that Jesus came to equip and empower his followers to be agents of peace and love in the world.  He gave them all that they needed for this mission. He sent them. They were in the boat. They were fine. Yes, there were the stormy seas but they were safe.  They had been given what they needed. But because of fear, panic, anxiety, and doubt, they did not trust. They wanted to be rescued. And they wanted some kind of spectacle to engender their trust.  So, Jesus does it their way. He rescues. He gives them a spectacle in hopes that they will learn to trust the power of the love within them and among them each and every day.

In the book. Living Buddha, Living Christ, Buddhist teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh offers a reflection on this story of walking on water:  “When I was a young monk in Vietnam, each village temple had a big bell, like those in Christian churches in Europe and America.  Whenever the bell was invited to sound (in Buddhist circles, we never say ‘hit’ or ‘strike’ a bell), all the villagers would stop what they were doing and pause for a few moments to breathe in and out in mindfulness.  At Plum Village [a Buddhist community], every time we hear the bell, we do the same. We go back to ourselves and enjoy our breathing. Breathing in, we say, silently, ‘Listen, listen,’ and breathing out, we say, ‘This wonderful sound brings me back to my true home.’

“Our true home is in the present moment.  The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth in the present moment.  Peace is all around us – in the world and in nature – and within us – in our bodies and our spirits. Once we learn to touch this peace, we will be healed and transformed.  It is not a matter of faith; it is a matter of practice. We need only to bring our body and mind into the present moment, and we will touch what is refreshing, healing, and wondrous.”  [Quoted in Resources for Preaching and Worship: Year A, compiled by Hannah Ward and Jennifer Wild, p. 216]

Fifty years ago, a human stood on the moon; touched the moon.  It was not some kind of magical miracle wrought by otherworldly forces.  It was an accomplishment based on the application of knowledge and scientific achievement, trial and error, creativity and ingenuity, money and luck.  And from that experience, we got a new image of the earth, the picture taken from space considered the most recognized visual image in human history. From this endeavor to go to the moon, we learned about the earth.  We saw that this earth is a precious, tiny blue green marble floating in a vast ocean of space. And we are together, on this earth, our boat, in the sea of the cosmos. What we see is our need to band together as a human community, as a planet, to survive and to thrive.   

We are the people who have walked on the moon and in so doing gotten a clearer view of our reality here on earth.  Every moment is a gift. Reality is infused with divinity. Life and creation are sacred. Humanity is a community.  And like the disciples in the boat, we have been given everything that we need. We are capable of amazing things! We must not cave in to fear.  We must trust and work together for good, for peace, in the midst of the chaotic forces around us – even though sometimes this seems as impossible as walking on water.   Amen.

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.