Jonah 1The Blessings of the Storm

Sermon preached July 5, 2015

Opening

I love the story of a little boy who kept riding his bicycle around the block, and a policeofficer was sitting by the side of the road and he watched this little boy ride around theblock about ten times. Finally, he got out of his squad car and stopped him and said,"Son, you keep riding around this same block over and over, what are you doing?"

The little boy said, "I'm running away from home."

The officer said, "Running away from home? How can you be running away and keepgoing around the same block?"

The little boy said, "Because my Mommy told me I couldn't cross the street!"

Recap

Jonah didnt get much further in his attempt to run away from God, either.

To recap - last week we saw how God called Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach - preachthat they needed to repent from their evil. But Jonah didnt want to go to Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire, and the Assyrians were a cruel, brutal,conquering empire. They had destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC. Jonah didnt want anything to do with preaching to these pagan enemies.

So Jonah gets on a ship to sail away to exotic, faraway Tarshish, to sail in the oppositedirection from Nineveh, to get as far away from God and his call as you could get in theancient world.

The Storm

Jonah soon sails away from sight of land, and not long after, a tremendous storm hits.

When we were in Alaska last month, we saw the little boat that is featured on theshow The Most Dangerous Catch - we were on a great big cruise ship and thecaptain announced that right alongside us was the very boat from that TV showand we all looked and saw a wee little boat that was sailing out on calm waterstowards the big ocean. And if youve seen a few episodes of that show, youveseen footage of how storms can hit without warning and how utterly terrifyingthey are when you are on a small boat out on the big ocean.

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The storm is from God - the Hebrew says that God hurled the storm onto the sea. Thelittle wooden ship begins to break up from the pounding. The crew throws the cargooverboard to lighten the ship - the situation is so dire theyd rather face the wrath of theships owner than the wrath of this storm.

It seems that God has come in pursuit of his runaway prophet.

Jonah wants to be man overboard

But still Jonah tries to get away from God. The captain wakes him up and he comes upon deck and confesses all - and says, throw me into the sea and the storm will stop -throw me into the sea so I will sink down into its inky depths, drown and die so I can getaway from God forever.

For back in those days there was not a well-developed understanding of the afterlife -when you died, it was thought, you either went into a deep sleep from which you wouldnever awake, or you went to a place called Sheol - a place of darkness and shadows whereyou had a barely conscious existence - forever. Death, in Jonahs time, was the finalescape from God.

Jonah wants no part of any repentance, no reconciliation with God - his desire to bethrown overboard, suck in two lungfuls of water and drown, is his final escape from Godand Gods call to go to Nineveh. So Jonah asks for sailor-assisted suicide.

Now the sailors behaved well - tried to save Jonah by rowing back towards land, whichwas the riskiest thing to do in a storm - usually you went further out to sea to get awayfrom rocks and reefs which would sink you.

But when they cant make any headway, they do what Jonah asks, and in the marvelouswords of the preacher in Moby Dick, And now behold Jonah taken up as an anchor anddropped into the sea, when instantly an oily calmness floats out from the east, and the seais still, as Jonah carries the gale down with him, leaving smooth water behind.

But even in this final, rebellious act to get away from God, Jonah is protected by Godwho still comes after him and sort of puts him in a safe place, sort of puts him in time-out, to discipline and correct him - and get him on his way to Nineveh to fulfil hismission.

What God is up to here

At this point it would be easy to conclude that God hurls the storm at the boat and has thefish swallow up Jonah to punish him.

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And sometimes punishment is designed to humiliate. Like in Thailand, the policeforce has a unique way to punish policemen who have messed up.

What they have to do, is wear an armband. Not just any armband, but a pinkarmband. Not just any pink armband, but a Hello Kitty armband with a HelloKitty face and a pair of linked hearts. No matter how many ribbons for valor aThai officer may wear, if he parks in the wrong place, or shows up late for work,or is seen dropping a bit of litter on the sidewalk, he can be ordered to wear theinsignia.

Simple warnings no longer work, said the chief of the Crime SuppressionDivision in Bangkok, who instituted the new humiliation. This new twist isexpected to make them feel guilt and shame and prevent them from repeating theoffense, no matter how minor, he said. Kitty is a cute icon for young girls. Itsnot something macho police officers want covering their biceps.

Thats not what God is up to here. God sends the storm not to punish or humiliate Jonah,but to discipline and save him.

The grace of discipline

Think about this with me - why would God come after Jonah? Was Jonah the onlyprophet that could preach to Nineveh? Surely there were dozens of others God couldhave called off the bench and given the same call he gave Jonah - Go, preach to theNinevehites.

Think about this - what would you do if you had, say, an employee, or in the military,someone under your command, and you gave them an assignment - and they go AWOL -they ran away as quickly as they could, as far away as they could, and in effect like Jonahdid, give you the figurative bird?

Wed get someone else, wouldnt we, because the person we had asked to do thejob had proven unreliable. In face, wed fire them, never trust them again!

But God doesnt give up on Jonah, and he doesnt give up on us - God keeps coming afterus in order to accomplish his will through us - for the good of the people we are touchwith Gods love and word and compassion, but also for our growth and blessing

God is love, says the apostle John. And so God is. But Gods love is not mushy love,Gods love is not just sentiment, with God looking adoringly on us. Gods love ispurposeful, and God in love means to save us and heal us and make us useful building hiskingdom.

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You hear prosperity preachers talk about how God wants us to be a success. Theyre exactly right - God does want us to be a success - but theyre usuallyexactly wrong about the form of that success. Gods definition of success is notdriving a Jaguar and having a big swimming pool and a hot tub in the backyard -Gods definition of success is being obedient to him so we can be people whoshare the love and compassion of Christ.

Karl Barth said about this, Humanity cannot stand up to God's wrath because it is thewrath of God's love...Those whom God loves, God chastens. Those whom God will havefor himself, God pursues to the remotest corner where their backs are to the wall and theycan no longer escape from God. For those whom God wills to be all in all, God stripseverything else (away).

Now of course not all the storms that hit us are sent by God - some storms are just whatlife barfs up into our laps. But - hear this - God is ALWAYS in the storms that hit us. Because we have the promise that in all things God is working for our good. In everystorm, we can find some good purpose of God and align ourselves with it.

Why God sends storms - so we see our mess

Sometimes, God sends storms, allows storms, to get our attention so we see ourselvesclearly. Because there are things about us we dont want to face up to, dont want toadmit to.

Recently there was a post on Reddit post called My sister teaches 5th grade. Nicetry Jackie. The post shows a picture of an audacious attempt of one youngstudent named Jackie to deal with a question on a test. Rather than skip thequestion, make a terrible bad guess or scribble a sad, crying face in place of ananswer, Jackie got creative with some white out. Too bad Jackie's teacher is notblind and/or totally clueless.

In one of life's ultimate reality checks, the teacher wrote back, Jackie, you can'twhite out a question you don't want to answer.

There are some things we just have to deal with - and in grace God sometimes sends astorm to force us to do so.

I have a pastor friend who was viewing pornography in his office. He was careless, andgot caught. He was fired from his ministry and disciplined by the Presbytery. It was ahumiliating, painful experience. Yet that is what it took for him to admit his problem andget help.

Why God sends storms - to lead us to obedience

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The greatest good God can give us comes through obeying him. And if were going inthe wrong direction, God will do what it takes to spin us around so we are heading in theright direction.

Barbara Brown Taylor tells about spending a vacation at a barrier island when seaturtles were laying their eggs. One night when the tide was out she watched ahuge female sea turtle heave herself up on the beach, dig a hole in the sand and layher eggs. The next day Taylor returned to try to find the nest, and was surprised tosee turtle tracks heading not back towards the water but inland. She followedthem, and found the turtle exhausted and just about baked in the sun.

After pouring water on the turtle and covering her with sea oats, Taylor called apark ranger. The ranger drove up to the turtle in his jeep. He proceeded to flip theturtle on her back, wrap chains around her front legs and connected the chains tothe hitch on his jeep. Then he got in the jeep and stepped on the gas and draggedthe turtle over the dunes and towards the beach, going so fast that the creaturesmouth filled with sand. At the waters edge, he unhooked the turtle and turnedher right side up again.

The turtle lay motionless in the surf as water lapped over its body. Then a biggerwave broke over her and she lifted her head slightly, moving her back legs a bit. Every wave that broke over her revived her a bit more, until finally she was ableto push off into the water and swim away.

That turtle had no idea it was being saved while the ranger dragged her across the dunes. And being caught in a storm feels the same way. What you do when a storm hits is cryout to God, move closer to God, pray that he give you the gift of faith and trust. Thegood that God may be working to bring about in our lives may simply be the power totrust him no matter what. That may be the greatest thing we can learn in this life - that wecan trust that God is there, that God has not abandoned us, that God is working for good -no matter what.

And ask that if there is something youre missing that he reveal it to you. Or, if youalready know youve run from God and from Gods call, probably best to submit to hiswill. And you may need help from trusted friends to discern what God is up to.

Grace again

I know that some of us must be uncomfortable with hearing that God sends storms, usesstorms, to correct and redirect us. You may have grown up with an image of an angryGod who is on the lookout for any act of moral disobedience and just itching to smite usfor it when we do, a God who punishes out of anger and vengeance.

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Yet we see here that God sends the storm out of grace and love. And would we reallywant it any other way?

In Romans, Paul says that Gods judgment takes the form of God giving us upto our own desires. It is as if God says, You want to live apart from me, youwant to choose your own definitions of what is right and good? Knock yourselvesout. And God lets us go to experience the consequences of our willful rebellion.

But that is not how God is towards those he has chosen and called. Thank God for that. Were broken people and we do things - still - that harm us and others - and a God whojust smiles indulgently as we make a mess of our lives and the world is not a God of love- a God who didnt intervene once in a while and whomp us upside the head wouldnt bea God who cares about us, who is at work in us to free us from what is harming us. AGod who didnt intervene in our lives would not be the God who is determined to help usgrow in wisdom and goodness.

Closing

How do we know God is at work for good in the storms? Well, its like this story.

It happened when Hurricane Hugo was hitting Charleston, South Carolina, there was agroup of Christians in a small little whiteboard church who were praying like mad. Thewind was howling outside when one man, known for his eloquent prayers, said, "Oh God,send us the spirit of the children of Israel; send us the spirit of the children of Abraham;send us the spirit of the children of Moses; send us the spirit of the children of thepromise land!" They said one guy interrupted him and said, "God, don't send no spirit,you come yourself, this is no time for children!"

In the storm of human sin and wretchedness, God came himself in the person of JesusChrist. Who went right into the teeth of the storm, and endured the worst of it nothuddled in a shelter but hanging on a cross. Who on that cross he absorbed our sin andwretchedness into his great heart and forgave it; broke the powers of sin and death. Andbecause of him, we know that we are never alone, no matter how hard the storm windsblow. Amen.

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