Sermon – Jonah 4 – God's Concerns

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon – Jonah 4 – God's Concerns

Beaver Dam and Pitts Creek Churches

17th Sunday of Ordinary Time

July 29, 2012

Today I will be concluding my series of sermons from the Book of Jonah. I hope that this study has prepared the group heading to Sight and Sound in Lancaster PA to see their theatrical production of this book. Grace and I saw this show earlier this year and it is truly spectacular. My prayer is that you now have a better understanding of the this book which will lead to even greater pleasure as you watch the show.

So far we have been following Jonah through an amazing journey. It all started when Jonah was told by God to go to Nineva and prophecy to this hated enemy of Israel. Jonah wanted no part of this so he disobeyed God and tried to flea to the farthest place on earth. God stopped him with a raging sea and when the sailors through him overboard to appease his God, God sent a fish that swallowed Jonah and protected him for three days. After experiencing this salvation of God, Jonah was ready to obey God's command to prophecy to the people of Nineva. He told them that in forty days they would be destroyed. Then he climbed a nearby hill to watch Nineva's destruction. But what he saw angered him. The people of Nineva confessed their sins by fasting and wearing sackcloth. And they repented by turning from their evil ways and violence. Then God did something that made Jonah furious. God forgave the people of Nineva and reversed his sentence of destruction. It's time for God and Jonah to have a discussion about all this. We will listen in. But first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Jonah 4: 5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”(N)

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

God wanted to teach Jonah something about anger. Jonah was angry with the people of Nineva. They had attacked his nation, Judah, relentlessly. Judaen farms had been destroyed, and their cities besieged. The Assyrians of Nineva had attacked and conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and resettled the Israelites into other areas of their empire. They had been ruthless and would have destroyed Judah too but for the protection of God. So Jonah was angry at them, so angry that he did not want to go there, so angry he disobeyed God. And now as Jonah sat on a hill east of the city he was angry at God because God had forgiven them, the evil Ninevites. So this was a perfect time for God to teach Jonah something about anger and God's compassion.

Of course God too was angry at the Ninevites. He was angry at their evil ways. He was angry at the violence they used against their neighbors. God was so angry he was ready destroy them. But once they confessed their sin and turned from their evil ways God's love overcame His anger and they were forgiven. This is what we call grace. God loves us as our creator, but when we sin God gets angry and is ready to punish us. But if we confess our sins and turn away from them, God loves us so much we will be forgiven. God needed to communicate all of this to his prophet Jonah. He did that with a vine.

There is a porch on the southeast corner of the Dickinson Memorial Manse. It is the perfect place for breakfast after early morning prayers. But the sun rises in the southeast during the summer and the porch is just too sunny to sit there in the morning with some coffee. So I planted some morning glories along the foundation of the porch. And I am training them to climb string I have tied vertically around the porch. My hope is that they will grow the 15 feet I need with lots of leaves and flowers to shade me during breakfast.

God also used a vine like this to teach Jonah a lesson. As Jonah sat on the hillside, disappointed that the Ninevites had not been destroyed, and angry at God for not doing what he had promised, God sent a vine to protect Jonah from the intense summer sun. Jonah was overjoyed at the blessing he had received from God. But the next day God send a worm to kill the plant which then withered away. This made Jonah very angry. So what was God trying to communicate with this vine?

To answer this question we have to remember that Jonah was angry when God did not destroy the Ninevites, and that Jonah also was angry when God did destroy the plant. So at times Jonah is angry when God destroys something and at other times Jonah is angry when God does not. What's the difference between the Ninevites and the vine that would cause Jonah to want one destroyed and the other saved? The answer to this question is simple. Jonah liked the benefits he received from the vine, but he disliked the Ninevites. Jonah expected God to bless the bush he liked and curse the Ninevites whom he disliked. And Jonah was angry with God when God did not do this.

We have the same problem as Jonah. We expect God to bless that which we like, and we want God to curse that which we dislike. We think that God should take our opinion into account when deciding what to bless and what to curse. But God doesn't do that. God decides for himself what deserves to be blessed and what deserves to be cursed. God didn't consult Jonah about the Ninevites. When God heard their confession and saw their repentance he was ready to forgive regardless of what Jonah thought. Likewise when God decided to give a worm a nice vine to eat he didn't consult Jonah to see if it was o.k.

This is an important lesson for us. We don't decide who God cares for and who God destroys. God's concern belongs to God not us. And this is really good news. God does not check with anyone else about our own salvation. God decides what to do with us on our own merits. If we confess our sins and repent, God will forgive us. Like Jonah we have to learn this truth. For Jonah God sent a vine and a worm. What will God do to teach us? What God did was to send Jesus Christ into the world. The world arrested him and had him put to death. But God was not concerned with what the world thought about Jesus. God knew that Jesus was righteous. So after three days in the tomb God raised Jesus from the dead. This was a clear demonstration for us that God has no concern for what the world thinks. And in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead God has sealed upon us the promise that if we confess our sins and repent we too, like the Ninevites in the book of Jonah, will be forgiven. So I urge you this Sunday as I do every Sunday to bow your heads in prayer to confess your sins and turn from evil so you may embrace the gift of forgiveness from God.

With this we conclude our look at the book of Jonah. Like Jonah we hear God's call to proclaim God's forgiveness for all who confess and repent. But we flee from this command convinced that God will punish those we consider too evil to forgive. God won't let us get away any more that he let Jonah get to Tarshish. Like Jonah we symbolically drown in the baptismal waters and spend three days in the tomb with Jesus. When we emerge from the waters of baptism we are washed clean, forgiven and empowered to proclaim the gospel of forgiveness. It is not up to us to decide who should be offered forgiveness and who should not. This is God's decision. We are to proclaim the gospel of forgiveness to everyone, offering them the opportunity to confess and repent to receive God's promised forgiveness. God is concerned for all of his creation, so whenever he hears confession and sees repentance he does forgive. All of creation is offered this wonderful gift. Let us pray.

Lord God, we confess our sins and turn from our evil ways. We thank you for the blessing of forgiveness we have received. Help us to proclaim this good news to people in our community who desperately need to hear it so that they too will experience your forgiveness. This we pray remembering Jonah and in your son's name. Amen.

Sermon - Jonah 3 – Turn from Evil

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon - Jonah 3 – Turn from Evil

Beaver Dam and Pitts Creek Churches

16th Sunday of Ordinary Time

July 22, 2012

Our journey with Jonah continues. Jonah's disobedience and flight from God are over. The raging sea and three days in the belly of a fish are behind us. All of this has had a transformative effect on Jonah. He has earned his name, “dove”, a symbol of God's forgiveness because God has forgiven his disobedience. Jonah has been transformed. And in the scripture you heard earlier from chapter 3 Jonah is now obeying God and will travel to Nineveh. We will soon see what happens next, but first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Jonah 3:3-10 Now Nineveh was a very important city-- a visit required three days. ⁴ On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned." ⁵ The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. ⁶ When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. ⁷ Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. ⁸ But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. ⁹ Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish." ¹⁰ When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.

When Jonah arrived in Nineveh he found a gigantic city that required a three day journey to walk from one end to the other. This should sound familiar to Jonah and to us. Where have we heard about a giant already in this book? Maybe a giant fish? And what about three days? Three days in the fish, three day in a tomb, three day in Nineveh, it all sounds familiar. As Jonah walked across the city he proclaimed what God told him to proclaim, "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned." Forty days? We have heard this too. What about the forty years the Israelites spent in the desert before entering the promised land? What about the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness being tempted by Satan before starting his ministry. Forty days, something important is going on here.

So what will the Ninevites do to prevent this disaster? Will they expand their army and build additional weapons? Will they strengthen the walls of the city? Will they stockpile extra food and water in preparation for a long siege? Will they pray to the Assyrian gods for success in battle? This is what we would expected them to do to prevent catastrophe. They would do whatever they could to protect themselves.

And so too would we. We save money so we can use it on a “rainy day” or this year when it is too hot to grow corn or raise chickens. We keep meat in the freezer and potatoes in the basement and some of us still can summer vegetables so we will have things to eat in the winter. Sadly for many American their savings is running out. The recession has lasted for over three years and people have tried to maintain their life styles with unemployment, food stamps, and their savings. But now with their savings gone and benefits drying up they are becoming desperate. Whenever we try to save ourselves from disaster we soon find out that we are not enough. We cannot save ourselves. We are not saviors.

The Ninevites realized that they had come to the end of their rope. Their money and military strength could not save them. They did not have the resources to continue to dominate the world. And they were about to find out what it was like to be slaves to others just as they had enslaved the people they conquered. What do you think they did?

Of course the Book of Jonah is filled with surprises. The evil Ninevites, the most depraved people on earth did the last thing you would expect. They believed what Jonah said and in Jonah's God. And they did exactly what the Israelites would do. They set aside their rich diet of gourmet food and began a citywide fast. And they took off their expensive clothes and made new ones out of the empty bags where they had once stored grain. By doing these things the Ninevites demonstrated that they were no longer going to depend on their wealth and power to save them. Beginning now they were going to depend on Jonah's God to save them.

This is an important lesson for us. There is nothing wrong with setting aside resources to get you through some rough times. If fact we must prepare for bad times. But if times ever get really bad and we lose everything, as is happening to many people today, we can depend on God who will save us.

As the Ninevites were turning to God the setting of our story changes to the royal court and the King of Assyria. What would he do? Would he order his army and his people to prepare for war to protect what little they had left? Or would he follow his people and believe in Jonah's God? We are told that the king removed his royal robes, put on sackcloth and sat in the dust. He too realized that depending on wealth and military power was no solution to the problems his kingdom faced. Their only hope of salvation was to believe in God. He ordered a fast throughout his kingdom and dressed everyone, even the cattle, in sackcloth. He ordered the cattle to mourn because God was the only power who save them too.

Our government would do well to follow this example. As we enter a political season there will be no shortage of ideas of how we can solve the problems we face. There will be arguments about how we can increase our wealth and power. We will be told tat wealth and power will save us. But we know differently. Here, we do not worship wealth and power. We worship the only one who can save us, our savior, Jesus Christ. So the one thing we can do is to select leaders who understand that our wealth and military power will only go so far and that our only hope of salvation is God.

Then the Assyrian king did something that is really surprising. He told his people to give up their evil ways and violence against other and against their enemies. In other words he told them to repent, to stop doing what displeases God and start doing what God calls us to do. Fasting and wearing sackcloth wasn't enough. They had to begin loving God and loving their neighbors as they loved themselves. This command had to be difficult for the people of Nineveh, They had always behaved a certain way. They took what they wanted from others using their superior wealth and military power. But now the king wanted them to think in another way. Facing immanent disaster they were ready to obey God.

Hopefully this will happen to us as well. As we face unemployment or drought or loss of health as we get older what will we do? Will we try to depend on our savings and abilities and social security? Or will we turn from our evil ways and turn to God?

And we have one more surprise in this chapter of Jonah. We hear that the Ninevites not only listened to their king, but they also changed their behavior. They threw out their evil ways and embraced God's law. This is something we can follow. By coming to church and meditating on God's word we can find out what God wants us to do. And we can turn from what we are doing now and obey God. This is called repentance.

And this brings us to great climax of the Book of Jonah. The evil Ninevites repented and turned to God and they experienced God's abundant love and forgiveness. God changed His mind. He withdrew his sentence of destruction on the Ninevites and blessed them.

Next week we will see that this was hard for Jonah to take. How can a people so depraved like the Ninevites be forgiven? Aren't good people supposed to be blessed and evil people cursed? But Jonah found out that his idea of God was way too small. God was not just a local God of the Hebrews. God, the creator of the world, is the God of everyone in it, including the Ninevites. And anyone who accepts God and repents and turns from their evil ways will experience God's forgiveness and abundant love.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for being our savior. We know that setting aside something for a rainy day is a good thing to do. But we know not to worship the things we have set aside because we know if this get really bad they will not save us. Only you will save us, and that is why we worship you today. Amen.

Sermon - Jonah 2 – The Fish and the Dove

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon - Jonah 2 – The Fish and the Dove

Beaver Dam and Pitts Creek Churches

15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

July 15, 2012

I am continuing today with my series of four sermons drawn from the Book of Jonah. Last week we talked about Jonah's disobedience. God specifically told Jonah to bring God's message of forgiveness through repentance to the most depraved people on Earth, the Ninevites. But Jonah was not going to do something like that so he fled from God trying to get as far away as he could. Of course God is the creator of the world and so has the power to stop anyone trying to flee. And that is exactly what God did to Jonah. He sent a storm to prevent his ship from getting away.

We also saw that like Jonah, we have been commanded by Jesus Christ to go into the world to make disciples. We are to talk with others about our faith and invite them to church. And like Jonah we try to flee from this responsibility because evangelizing depraved people in our community is just too difficult. But God will not let us get away either. So expect storms in your life. Today we will look at what happened to Jonah when he was thrown into the raging sea, but first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Jonah was tossed into the sea and swallowed by a giant fish in which he remained for three days until being spit out on dry land. Wow, what a story! What are we to make of this? There are some who say this is factual history. And certainly God has the power to do a miraculous thing like this. Other say that it is a story like Jesus' parables and we should look for meaning in the way the story was written. I think the answer is both. Jonah was swallowed by a fish, and there is deeper meaning if we take a closer look at how it was written. To do this we must remember that Jonah was written in Hebrew sometime before the 3^rd century before Jesus. In Hebrew, words can have multiple meaning and do many different things. For example a word might have both it own dictionary meaning and also be the name of a person. So let's look at the Hebrew text of the Book of Jonah and see what we find.

The first clue for understanding what the author is trying to communicate to us is to look at the name “Jonah”. “Jonah” is a Hebrew word that means “dove”. So you could translate the passage read earlier into English like this.

Jonah 1:15-17 ¹⁵ Then they took the dove and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. ¹⁶ At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him. ¹⁷ But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow the dove, and the dove was inside the fish three days and three nights.

This reminds us of another raging sea, a flood and a dove. In Noah's time a dove was sent out from the ark and when it returned with a olive branch in its beak Noah knew that dry land had returned to the earth. Since the purpose of Noah's flood was to deal with sin in the world, the dove was a symbol that sin had been purge away. We can also see this in the ancient sacrificial system where a person desiring forgiveness would bring a dove to be sacrificed on the altar. So the dove is a sign of God's forgiveness. And so we see the irony in the Book of Jonah. The dove, the very symbol of God's forgiveness, refused to proclaim that forgiveness in Nineveh.

In the Old Testament the eyes of the dove were considered the height of beauty. And the cries of the dove when in danger are likened to the prayer of God's people when facing calamity. In the New Testament the dove appears again. All four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John report that a dove descended upon Jesus at baptism. They all see this dove as a symbol of the Holy Spirit coming upon Jesus. So the dove is present on Noah's ark, Jonah's raging sea, and Jesus' baptism in the Jordan. In all three of these God uses water to wash away sin. So when we read that Jonah was thrown into the raging sea we should think about baptism. In baptism we pass under the waters, symbolically washing away our sin. We become like a dove, innocent without blemish. So too with Jonah, he was baptized in the raging sea. His sin of disobeying God was washed away. Jonah, the dove, became innocent like a dove.

One thing to note in all of this is that Jonah did nothing to deal with his own sin. He did not decide to do what God wanted done on his own. Jonah did not try to deal with his own sin in any way. The initiative for washing away Jonah's sin in the water came from God. Jonah fled, slept and was thrown in the sea. He did nothing to save himself. But God intervened. God caused the sailors to throw Jonah in the water. And God sent the fish to save him. So too with us. There is nothing that we do or can do to wash away our own sins. There is no reason to even try. Our only hope is that God will save us. If God does that by having us thrown in the sea and swallowed by a fish, or if God saves us when we confess our sins and pass through the waters of baptism, then praise be to God.

The irony in the Book of Jonah does not stop here. Next we find the Jonah was eaten by a fish. This is the opposite of what we would expect. Usually we are the ones who eat fish rather than fish eating us. So what is going on here? Fish is the sign of God's abundant love for us. The four gospels teach us that Jesus was able to feed thousands of people with just a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. And Jesus demonstrated his power by filling the nets of the fishermen. In both of these examples Jesus showed God's abundant love for his people. So we have in the Book of Jonah, the symbol of God's forgiveness, the dove, swallowed by the symbol of God's abundant love, the fish. Suddenly the story of Jonah sounds pretty good because God's forgiveness and abundant love come together and offered to us in our baptisms.

Jesus taught his disciples from the Book of Jonah. And he focused on the three days when Jonah, the dove, was in the fish. And he told them that Just as Jonah was in the fish for three days so to would he be in the tomb for three days. This was a reference to his upcoming death on a cross and burial in a tomb. Jesus used this analogy so that we would know that in his suffering and death the fish would swallow the dove, and God's abundant love and God's forgiveness would come together in the person of Jesus Christ.

After three days in the fish Jonah was spit out on dry land. There is no way that person could be thrown into the sea and swallowed by a fish and live. Jonah had to die. His old sinful self passed away. It was no more. This is what happens to us in our baptisms. Our lives as slaves to sin come to an end, and we emerge from the baptismal waters reborn to new life in Jesus Christ. When Jonah was spit out on dry land he was reborn as Jonah, the dove, the symbol of God's forgiveness. And he was ready to obey God and bring the message of God's abundant love and forgiveness to the people of Nineveh. And Jesus emerged from the tomb proclaiming God's abundant love and forgiveness to the world. So too with us in our baptisms we are reborn as children of God and called to proclaim God's abundant love and forgiveness to people in our world who desperate need to hear it.

While Jonah was in the belly of the fish he had time to think about God. He remembered all the blessing he had received. He realized that God is a God of forgiveness and abundant love. Jonah reflected over his life and what had happened to him. And he realized how close to death he had come. So Jonah made a vow that if God saved him from the raging sea and the belly of the fish then Jonah would come to the Temple to make a sacrifice of thanksgiving for God's preserving his life, Jonah made this vow in a prayer he spoke from within the fish. Let us pray with Jonah,

Jonah 2:2 He said: "In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry. 3 You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. 4 I said, 'I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.' 5 The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. 6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God. 7 "When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. 8 "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. 9 But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD."

Let us pray. Lord Jesus we thank you for passing through the baptismal water and the tomb bringing together God's abundant love and forgiveness. We are so grateful the you love us and forgive us, and we vow to proclaim this good news to the people we know and the people we meet. This we pray in your glorious name. Amen.

Sermon Jonah 1 Running Away from God

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon - Jonah 1 – Running Away from God

Beaver Dam and Pitts Creek Churches

13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

July 8, 2012

Next month a group from the church will travel to Lancaster PA to Sight and Sound to watch their production of Jonah. Grace and I had the privilege of seeing this show earlier this Spring. It is a wonderful show and I hope everyone has a good time. But before they go, I think that it is necessary for us to study the Book of Jonah from our Old Testament. So, I am beginning today a four part series drawn from this wonderful book. Before we get to Jonah, let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Jonah was a prophet in the eighth century before Jesus Christ. He came from the region of Galilee and a village near Nazareth where Jesus would grow up eight hundred years latter. So it is not surprising the Jesus grew up knowing the story of Jonah not only from the Hebrew Bible, but probably also from a community who remembered their own prophet from years before.

Jonah is an unusual book. First, “Jonah” is a Hebrew word which means “dove”. This is a most unusual name for a prophet. Consider the prophet Elijah. His name means “Yahweh is God!” Calling a prophet “dove” is strange because it sounds a little passive and prophets are active. Another thing that is strange about this book is that even though it is a prophetic work it doesn't sound like one. Most of the prophetic books are written something like this: “The word of the LORD came to Elisha ...” What follows is God speaking through the mouth of the prophet. But in the Book of Jonah there is no such pronouncement. Rather we have a story about Jonah. So we have to find the meaning of the book in the story, just as we find meaning in Jesus' parables.

In the verses you heard earlier the Prophet hears a command from God to go to the place he most wants to avoid, Nineveh. Nineveh is the capital of the hated Assyrians. God had promised to destroy them because of their wickedness. So why would God want to send a prophet to these evil people? Could it be that God wanted to call them to repentance? Was it possible that God wanted to forgive them? Jonah was incapable of thinking in this way because he hated them so much. How could he proclaim God's redemption and love to the enemy?

So Jonah just refused to do it. Instead of traveling east toward Nineveh he went west to the Mediterranean and booked passage on a boat heading to the coast of Spain, the end of the known world, and as far from Nineveh as Jonah could get. He was determined to flee from God as far as he could.

Don't we face the same thing. God tells us to evangelize our neighbors and we find this command so difficult we run from God as fast as we can. When God asks us to do the impossible we flee from Him going as far as we can to get away. God calls us to reach out to sinners and bring them to Christ. But who among us wants to recruit child molesters, drug addicts, or adulterers and bring them into our church? Do we really believe that our God wants to redeem the most wicked people in our society? And if so what would our church look like if we did that? These were the kind of questions that went through Jonah's mind, and he decided that he was not going to proclaim God's word of salvation to the most depraved people on earth. That's why he fled, and we would run away too. Now, let's see what happened when Jonah tried to flee from God.

Jonah 1: ⁴ Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. ⁵ All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. ⁶ The captain went to him and said, "How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish."

^{So God's reaction was to prevent Jonah from getting away, and to convince Jonah to obey Him. God did this with a violent storm and a test. The test was: which god would save them, one of the gods of the sailors, or Jonah's God? But Jonah was not up for the test. Unlike Elijah, who created a spectacular test on Mt. Carmel and proved that God was superior to Baal, Jonah remained silent. His faith was just not strong enough. Our we willing to allow our faith to be put to a test? Are we willing to step out of our comfort zone and do what God wants us to do? Or like Jonah, do we roll over a fall asleep whenever God asks us to do something difficult? Do we lack the faith that God can use us to do things that ordinarily would be impossible for us to do?}

^{The sailors on the boat with Jonah were desperate. They needed a god to save them. They needed a sacrifice for this god to appease him. What should they do?}

⁷ Then the sailors said to each other, "Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity." They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. ⁸ So they asked him, "Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?"

^{So finally they knew that Jonah was the source of their problem. He had done something to bring this calamity upon them. They demanded some answers for their questions. And Jonah gave it to them.}

⁹ He answered, "I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land." ¹⁰ This terrified them and they asked, "What have you done?" (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.)

^{The sailors were terrified because the God that sent the storm was not some insignificant local god. Rather the storm was a result of the anger of the very creator of the world. Jonah had manage to anger the most powerful God of all, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.}

¹¹ The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, "What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?" ¹² "Pick me up and throw me into the sea," he replied, "and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you."

^{The sailors asked Jonah what to do appease this creator God. And Jonah said, make me your sacrifice. Throw me overboard and you will be saved. But the sailors refused and tried to save themselves.}

¹³ Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before.

^{Then the sailors, facing certain death, did the only thing that was left for them to do. They prayed.}

¹⁴ Then they cried to the LORD, "O LORD, please do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O LORD, have done as you pleased." ¹⁵ Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. ¹⁶ At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.

Like Jonah we have been called to go to our own Nineveh. Remember Jesus' words from

Matthew 28:19-20. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

If we do things to reach out to people in our community and around the world our church will be blessed. But if we refuse to do what Jesus commands us to do we will be facing violent storms.

If our faith is strong enough we can do what God wants us to do. We can proclaim the gospel of forgiveness to our own Nineveh. We can approach sinners and tell them that new life is available through repentance because of God's overwhelming love. We can wake from our sleep and reach out to people in our community whom God loves and wants in church. We can do this because God empowers us to do the seemingly impossible if we are not afraid to use it.

Lord Jesus we confess that we have let your church decline. We run away from your command to reach out to others and make them your disciples. We prefer the comfort of the church we are in to the church that could be. And we are suffering the storms of our complacency. Fill us with your Spirit and with faith so that we may go into the world, into our Nineveh, and make disciples for you. Amen.

Sermon – Job 38:1-11 - “Where Were You?”

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon – Job 38:1-11 - “Where Were You?”

Beaver Dam and Pitts Creek Churches

13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

July 1, 2012

As your pastor I have come to realize that there is a question you would like to ask me or God, but many of you are afraid to ask. This question is implied is most of our prayers and is often just below the surface of many of our conversations. It is a question that has plagued humankind since creation. And this question is fundamentally tied to who we think God is. But we don't ask it, because we think it is not OK to ask this question of God. Thankfully, Job asked it, and God responded with an answer. Let's see how God answers the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” But first, let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

For 37 chapters Job asks the same question over and over again. We are told that Job is a blameless person. He did not sin. He was faithful to God. But when an invading army killed his sons he asked, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” When a fire destroyed his farm he asked, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” When a hurricane destroyed his home with his family inside he asked, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” When skin cancer coved his body he asked, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

The same question is on our hearts too. When a granddaughter who has just given birth suffers from cancer don't we ask, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” When you have been unemployed for two years and the day you finally get a full time job your truck breaks down and you have no money to repair it or get a new one don't we ask, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

When you get lung cancer having never smoked or liver disease without drinking heavily don't we ask, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” And all this happen just last week. What will happen in the week ahead. The problem is that we think God's justice requires that the good be blessed and the evil be cursed. But sometimes this is reversed. This good suffer while the evil go on with their lives. So with Job we ask over and over again, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

When Job was asking this question his friends came over trying to help. They told Job that at some point in his life he must have disobeyed God. He must a sinner even though he can't remember doing it. These friends explained that God is just and blesses the righteous and curses the sinner. The curses that Job has received are from God, punishment for his sins. So Job has to repent. He has to change from being a sinner; he has to stop sinning. But Job wasn't a sinner. The Bible tells us he was blameless. The curses he received were not a punishment for sin. Something else was going on. Job's life became so bad that he began to curse the day he was born. He demanded an answer from God. “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

Beginning in the 38^th chapter of the Book of Job, God answers this question.

Job 38:1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said:

² "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?

³ Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.

⁴ "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?

Tell me, if you understand.

⁵ Who marked off its dimensions?

Surely you know!

Who stretched a measuring line across it? ⁶ On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone-- ⁷ while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

⁸ "Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,

⁹ when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness,

¹⁰ when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place,

¹¹ when I said, 'This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt'?

¹² "Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place,

¹³ that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it?

¹⁴ The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment.

¹⁵ The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken.

¹⁶ "Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?

¹⁷ Have the gates of death been shown to you?

Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

¹⁸ Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?

Tell me, if you know all this.

¹⁹ "What is the way to the abode of light?

And where does darkness reside?

²⁰ Can you take them to their places?

Do you know the paths to their dwellings?

²¹ Surely you know, for you were already born!

You have lived so many years!

²² "Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail,

²³ which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle?

²⁴ What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,

or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?

²⁵ Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm,

²⁶ to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it,

²⁷ to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?

²⁸ Does the rain have a father?

Who fathers the drops of dew?

²⁹ From whose womb comes the ice?

Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens

³⁰ when the waters become hard as stone,

when the surface of the deep is frozen?

³¹ "Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades?

Can you loose the cords of Orion?

³² Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs?

³³ Do you know the laws of the heavens?

Can you set up God's dominion over the earth?

³⁴ "Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water?

³⁵ Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, 'Here we are'?

³⁶ Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind?

³⁷ Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?

Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens

³⁸ when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together?

³⁹ "Do you hunt the prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of the lions

⁴⁰ when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in a thicket?

⁴¹ Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God

and wander about for lack of food?

God's answer to Job was not what he expected and not at all what we expect. Rather than answer our question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” God asks us questions. What's going on here? I think that two things are happening. First, God wants us to know that our idea of who God is is way to small. We think that our God is a God that mechanically passes out blessings every time we do something good and punishes us whenever we do something bad. But that is not what God is about. God is much more than just a dispenser of blessings and curses. And this brings us to the second thing that God wants us to know. God is the creator and sustainer of the whole world. God's responsibility is to make everything work together. God creates each day, sends the sunshine and the rain. God nurtures the seed in the ground to make it grow. But sometime the seed dies for lack of water because God has sent the rain to water someplace else. If we focus only on ourselves we would think that God is unjust. But if we could see things from God's perspective we would know that God is good and acting justly. So when we see bad things happening to good people we need to remember that this is only a small part of the much larger plan that God is managing. Since this larger plan is often hidden from our sight we are left with a mystery.

So when a loved one loses her health, or a family member loses a house or a job it is OK to ask, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” But we have to be prepared not to receive an answer, at least the answer we want, because the world we live in is mysterious. We don't know fully what God is up to. So all we can do is trust God to do what is best for the whole world. And if God is at work in the world we will be truly blessed.

Not knowing fully what is going on around us is difficult for us. We like to be in control. So we pray to God asking God to do what we want done. But if our prayers are not answered and we ask God, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” be prepared to receive not an answer but a question. God will ask you, "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?” And you will be left with a mystery that somehow your loss and pain and suffering is part of God's plan for the whole world. We need something to sustain us as we face this mystery. That's why God has given us prayer and a Bible to meditate on. And that why God has given us this table where in the elements of the bread and juice the Holy Spirit seals God's love on our hearts. So take and eat, do this remembering Jesus, and be sustained by his continuing presence as we face the mysteries of our God.

Father in heaven, we know that you love us and always do what is best for us. But sometimes we just can't figure out, “Why bad things happen to good people?” Sustain us in this mystery with your love and presence and assure us that whatever happens you are in control. We worship you O God, our creator and sustainer. Amen.