Grace and Peace Episode 45

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Grace and Peace Episode 45

Presbyterian Church of Easton

July 25, 2021

Watch Episode 45

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:2

Heidelberg Catechism

92Q.  What is God’s law?

A. God spoke all these words:

   

THE FIRST COMMANDMENT “I am the LORD your God,who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.”

THE SECOND COMMANDMENT “You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above,or that is on the earth beneath,or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God,punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me,but showing love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

THE THIRD COMMANDMENT  “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.”

THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT  “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy .Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work— you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.  For in six days the LORD made the heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.” 

THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT “Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving to you.” 

THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT “You shall not murder.”

THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT “You shall not commit adultery.”

THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT “You shall not steal.”

THE NINTH COMMANDMENT “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

THE TENTH COMMANDMENT “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Let’s pray.   Heavenly Father, we confess that we do not keep all of these commandments perfectly and deserve your wrath.   We ask for your Holy Spirit to help us repent and become obedient.   We thank you for the blessing of the law that gives us a good civilization to live our lives.   All this we pray in the name of our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Sermon Jonah 4 “God's Concerns”

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon Jonah 4 “God's Concerns”
Presbyterian Church of Easton
July 25, 2021

Watch our Worship Service

Today I will be concluding my series of sermons from the Book of Jonah. So far we have been following Jonah through an amazing journey.  It all started when Jonah was told by God to go to Nineveh and prophecy to this hated enemy of Israel.  Jonah wanted no part of this so he disobeyed God and tried to flee to the farthest place on earth.  

God stopped Jonah with a raging sea.  The sailors threw him overboard to appease his God.  God then sent a fish that swallowed Jonah and protected him for three days.  

After experiencing this salvation from God, Jonah was ready to obey God's command to prophecy to the people of Nineveh.  He told them that in forty days they would be destroyed.  The people of Nineveh confessed their sins by fasting and wearing sackcloth. And they repented by turning from their evil ways and violence.  

Then Jonah climbed a nearby hill to watch Nineva's destruction.  But what he saw angered him.   God did something that made Jonah furious.  God forgave the people of Nineveh and reversed his sentence of destruction. This made Jonah very angry.   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 Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city.

Jonah was angry with the people of Nineveh.  They had attacked his nation, Judah, relentlessly.  Judean farms had been destroyed, and their cities besieged.  The Assyrians of Nineveh 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 the Judean God.  So Jonah was angry at them, so angry that he did not want to go there, so angry he disobeyed God. And now after proclaiming the destruction of Nineveh in 40 days, Jonah has climbed a hill to watch the destruction of this hated city from a ring side seat.

But as Jonah sat there, the sun rose in the sky.   He watched as the Nineavites repented, turning from their evil ways.   He watched as the destruction of the city did not happen.  And as Jonah’s anger grew so too did the temperature.   The sun grew hotter and hotter.  Jonah became hotter and hotter. 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 to destroy them completely.  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.

6 The Lord God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush.

There is a porch on the southeast corner of the manse at Pitts Creek church in Pocomoke City.  It is the perfect place for breakfast.  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 trained them to climb strings I  tied vertically around the porch.  They grew to about 15 feet tall with lots of leaves and flowers to shade me during breakfast. It was a great blessing for me just as God bless Jonah with the shade from the bush.    

But after a good night's sleep Jonah woke up and saw and felt something else that upset him.  

 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

God used a vine 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 sent a worm to kill the plant which then withered away.  This made Jonah very angry.  

9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” And he said, “Yes, angry enough to die.” 10 Then the Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”

So what was God trying to communicate with this withered 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 destroy something.  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.  So 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 what he wanted.

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 whom God cares for and whom God destroys.   God's concerns belong 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 sin and repent, God will forgive us.  Like Jonah we have to learn this truth.  

When I planted the Morning Glories at the manse in Pocomoke, I thought I had done something really special.   I had a nice shady porch where I could enjoy my coffee every day.   But God wanted to teach me a lesson that what might be a blessing for me might be a curse for someone else.  In Pocomoke I had a regular Bible study with a group of farmers every Friday at 6 am.   They heard about me planting Morning Glories at the manse.   They told me that Morning Glories are terrible weeds.   Morning Glories  get into corn fields and wind around stalks.   Morning Glories clog combines.   The farmers wanted me to know that their pastor should not be planting Morning Glories at manse.     

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.  That 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.

Grace and Peace Episode 44

 Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Grace and Peace Episode 44
Presbyterian Church of Easton
July 18, 2021

Watch Episode 44

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:2

Heidelberg Catechism

88Q.  What is involved in genuine repentance or conversion?

A. Two things:the dying-away of the old self, and the rising-to -life of the new. 

89Q.  What is the dying-away of the old self?

A. To be genuinely sorry for sin and more and more to hate and run away from it.

90Q.  What is the rising-to-life of the new self? 

A. Wholehearted joy in God through Christ and a love and delight to live according to the will of God by doing every kind of good work.

91Q.  What are good works?

A. Only those which are done out of true faith, conform to God’s law, and are done for God’s glory; and not those based on our own opinion or human tradition.

Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Every week in worship we confess our sin to God and receive God’s assurance of pardon.  This is salvation, the good news we proclaim.   And our hope is that the Holy Spirit will then come into us and begin a transformation.   This transformation is a life-long process.   As we go through this transformation we develop a desire to avoid sin.   We want to serve others.  We become more and more like Christ.  We experience more and more joy.

But there is one thing that we must do before all this starts.   That one thing is called repentance.    All repentance means is that we turn around.   Once we led our lives running from God.   Repentance means you run toward God.   You desire to follow God and obey his will.

God has already taken the first step.  He has forgiven us.   So let’s take the next step and start following him.   Then we will experience great joy and transformation to new life.  Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for forgiving us.   We pledge to follow you wherever you may lead us.  And we thank you for the great joy we experience as your followers.  In your son’s name.  Amen.

Sermon Jonah 3 “Turn from Evil”

 Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon Jonah 3 “Turn from Evil”
Presbyterian Church of Easton
July 18, 2021

Our journey with Jonah continues.  Two weeks ago we heard God call Jonah to preach a message of salvation through the repentance of sin to the evil Ninevites.  And we heard Jonah’s reaction:  No!.   And Jonah ran away.  

Last week we heard about God’s reaction to Jonah’s disobedience.   God sent a storm to stop him and gave Jonah three day in the belly of a fish to think about what he had done.  

Jonah's disobedience and flight from God now 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 finally 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 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."  

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, Jesus’ three days in a tomb, and now three days 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.  Forty days is usually a time for preparation.

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 expect 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”.  We keep meat in the freezer and potatoes in the basement and some of us still can or freeze summer vegetables so we will have good things to eat in the winter.   Sadly, for many American their savings are running out.  The shutdown is over, but some people have exhausted their savings.  And now with government benefits drying up, and prices rising,  some people are becoming desperate and will do whatever to save themselves..   But 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?

5 The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.  

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 solely on Jonah's God to save them.

This is an important lesson for us.  There is nothing wrong with setting aside resources to get us through some rough times.  In fact we must prepare for bad times.  But if times ever get really bad and we lose everything, as is happening to some 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?  

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.

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 fast because God was the only power who could save them too.

We would do well to follow this example.  There is 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 that 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 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.  

8b 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."  

The Assyrian king told his people to give up their evil ways and violence against each 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 imminent disaster they were ready to listen to and 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.  

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. 

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 the 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 richly.

So today we have heard two stories of repentance.   Jonah turned away from disobedience and embraced God’s command.   So too the Ninevites turned from their evil ways and dependence on wealth and power to worship, obey and depend on Jonah’s God. 

And today we have heard two stories of salvation.   Jonah was saved from the belly of a fish.  And the Ninevites were saved from destruction. 

Will we continue to depend on ourselves and our abilities to save us?   Or we will turn everything over to God, worship and obey Him,  and let God save us?  This is the choice we face today. 

Next week we will see that the salvation of the Ninevites 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.  Let’s pray.

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 gets really bad they will not save us.  Only you will save us, and that is why we worship you today.  Amen. 

Grace and Peace Episode 43

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Grace and Peace Episode 43
Presbyterian Church of Easton
July 11, 2021

Watch Episode 43

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:2

Heidelberg Catechism

86Q.  Since we have been delivered from our misery by grace through Christ without any merit of our own, why then should we do good works?

A. Because Christ, having redeemed us by his blood, is also restoring us by his Spirit into his image, so that with our whole lives we may show that we are thankful to God for his benefits, so that he may be praised through us, so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits, and so that by our godly living our neighbors may be won over to Christ.

87Q.  Can those be saved who do not turn to God from their ungrateful and unrepentant ways?

A. By no means. Scripture tells us that no unchaste person, no idolater, adulterer, thief, no covetous person, no drunkard, slanderer, robber, or the like will inherit the kingdom of God.

Ephesians 5:15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As Christian we are saved not by good works but by our faith in Jesus Christ.   This is the foundation of what we believe.  But it leaves us with a question.   Why do good works at all?  

The answer to this is that we have been richly blessed by God in many different ways.   We do good works out of gratitude for all the blessings we have received.

We do good works in three ways.   First, as we do good we are praising God with our goodness.  Acts of charity are really acts of worship.   Second, as we do good we benefit from the assurance that God has forgiven us and promises us eternal life.  And third, as we do good, other people will see what we are doing and will join us in praising God and enjoying God’s blessings.   Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for all the blessings we have received.  Help us to bless others just as you have blessed us.   And bless them with the gift of faith in your son, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Sermon Jonah 2 "The Fish and the Dove"

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon Jonah 2 "The Fish and the Dove"
Presbyterian Church of Easton
July 11, 2021

Watch our Worship Service

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.   Others say that this 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.  

Let’s first consider the idea that there was a real Jonah and he was swallowed by a real fish.   Is this possible?   Can a person be swallowed by a fish and survive?   Listen to this very recent story.

PROVINCETOWN (Cape Cod Times) — At a little before 8 a.m. on Friday, June 11, 2021, one month ago today, veteran lobster diver Michael Packard entered the water for his second dive of the day.

His vessel, the “Ja’n J,” was off Herring Cove Beach and surrounded by a fleet of boats catching striped bass. The water temperature was a balmy 60 degrees and the visibility about 20 feet.

Licensed commercial lobster divers literally pluck lobsters off the sandy bottom, and as Packard, 56, dove down Friday morning, he saw schools of sand lances and stripers swimming by. The ocean food chain was in full evidence, but about 10 feet from the bottom Packard suddenly knew what it truly felt like to be part of that chain.

In something truly biblical, Packard was swallowed whole by a humpback whale.

“All of a sudden, I felt this huge shove and the next thing I knew it was completely black,” Packard recalled Friday afternoon following his release from Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis. “I could sense I was moving, and I could feel the whale squeezing with the muscles in his mouth.”

Initially, Packard thought he was inside a great white shark, but he couldn’t feel any teeth and he hadn’t suffered any obvious wounds. It quickly dawned on him that he had been swallowed by a whale.

What happened when a whale swallowed me?

“I was completely inside; it was completely black,” Packard said. “I thought to myself, ‘there’s no way I’m getting out of here. I’m done, I’m dead.’ All I could think of was my boys — they’re 12 and 15 years old.”

Outfitted with scuba gear, he struggled and the whale began shaking its head so that Packard could tell he didn’t like it. He estimated he was in the whale for 30 to 40 seconds before the whale finally surfaced.

“I saw light, and he started throwing his head side to side, and the next thing I knew I was outside (in the water),” said Packard, who lives in Wellfleet.

Packard’s sister, Cynthia Packard, spoke with crewman Josiah Mayo, who relayed some of the details to her. Packard said Mayo saw the whale burst to the surface, and that he initially thought it was a great white shark.

“There was all this action at the top of the water,” Packard said Mayo told her. Then the whale flung her brother back into the sea. Mayo picked him up, called by radio to shore and sped back to the Provincetown pier. A Provincetown Fire Department ambulance took him to Cape Cod Hospital.

“Thank God, it wasn’t a white shark. He sees them all the time out there,” said Cynthia Packard. “He must have thought he was done.”

https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/nletter/2021/06/11/just-in-lobster-diver-swallowed-humpback-whale-off-provincetown/7661582002/

This is a true story.  So I think we have to conclude that it is at least possible that Jonah was swallowed by a whale and lived to tell about it.

Now, let’s look closely as some of the symbolism of the biblical story.

The Book of Jonah was written in Hebrew sometime before the 3rd century before Jesus.  In Hebrew, words can have multiple meanings and do many different things.  For example a word might have both its 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 purged 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.  

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 that 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 are 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 too 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.  It is doubtful that a person could be thrown into the sea and swallowed by a fish for three days without scuba gear and live.  In some way, Jonah died.  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.  Just as 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 community who desperately need to hear it. 

While Jonah was in the belly of the fish he had time to think about God.  He remembered all the blessings 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 preserving his life.  Jonah made this vow in a prayer he spoke from within the fish.  Let’s listen to Jonah’s prayer.

Jonah 2:3 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 that 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.

Grace and Peace Episode 42

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Grace and Peace Episode 42
Presbyterian Church of Easton
July 4, 2021

Watch Episode 42

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:2

Heidelberg Catechism

85Q.  How is the kingdom of heaven closed and opened by Christian discipline?

A. According to the command of Christ: Those who, though called Christians, profess unchristian teachings or live unchristian lives,  and who after repeated personal and loving admonitions, refuse to abandon their errors and evil ways, and who after being reported to the church, that is, to those ordained by the church for that purpose, fail to respond also to the church’s admonitions— such persons the church excludes from the Christian community by withholding the sacraments from them, and God also excludes them from the kingdom of Christ. 

Such persons, when promising and demonstrating genuine reform, are received again as members of Christ and of his church.

2 John 9 Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. 11 Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.

Christian discipline requires obedience to Jesus’ teaching.   This obedience is not a requirement for salvation because salvation comes from belief in Jesus Christ and not works.   But obedience is required for those who would be part of a church.   And the elders of the church have the responsibility of admonishing people to Christian living and excluding from the church those who refuse to repent.

This is at odds with much Christian teaching today.   In many pulpits, pastors proclaim that Christ loves you regardless of your behavior.   In some churches sin is celebrated.

We must never go down this path.   We need to listen to sermons that call people to obedience.   We need to study the Bible to make sure that we know what is required of us.   We must confess any behavior which the Bible calls sin.   We must truly desire for our lives to be free from sin.    And we must ask the Holy Spirit for help in obeying biblical commands.  Only by doing these things can we prepare ourselves to be a part of Christ’s kingdom.  Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, send you Spirit upon us so that we may delight in your will and obey your commandments.   Help us as your church to instruct the faithful in Christian living and discipline those who fall short.  Amen.

Sermon Jonah 1:4-16 "Running Away from God"

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon Jonah 1:4-16 "Running Away from God" 
Presbyterian Church of Easton
July 4, 2021

Watch our July 4th Worship Service

I am beginning today a four part series drawn from the Old Testament Book of Jonah.   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 later.  So it is not surprising that 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. 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 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 very 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 narrative.

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 was the capital of the hated Assyrians.  God had promised to destroy the Assyrians 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 away 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 here in Easton 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 always flee from Him going as far as we can to get away.  God calls us, like he called Jonah,  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 here in Easton?  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 just 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.  And when Jonah fled from god he ran into a great storm.

Many years ago I was with a church group on a water ski weekend.   I drove the boat that towed the skiers through the water.   One day we were out on the water.  The sun was out.  The winds were calm.  We were having a wonderful time.   Suddenly black clouds appeared on the edge of the lake.   The winds picked up.  I said a quick prayer.  I knew that I had to get everyone back to the shore before the storm started, but I had two people in the water.   I stopped the engine and got everyone in the boat.  Then I headed straight for home as fast as I could.   We reached the shore just before the storm hit.   God had protected us.  

Let’s take a look at the storm God sent to Jonah.

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."  

Jonah had decided to run away from God in disobedience.  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 to proclaim the good news of a God who saves.  

Are 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 and 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?

Jonah 1:7 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, reluctantly, answered their questions.

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 managed to anger the most powerful God of all, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.  

Like the sailors we face storms in our lives.  Our backs hurt.  Our legs won’t move.  Our speech is slurred.   We are becoming forgetful.  Our parents are unable to care for themselves.  Storms rage all around us.   But we have a savior who calms the storms.   Listen to this wonderful story from the Gospel of Luke.

Luke 8:22 One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they put out, 23 and while they were sailing he fell asleep. A windstorm swept down on the lake, and the boat was filling with water, and they were in danger. 24 They went to him and woke him up, shouting, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he woke up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” They were afraid and amazed, and said to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?”

Our savior, Jesus Christ, will calm our storms.  Whatever we are going through our savior will be there with us, with healing and strength to get us through.  We, who are going through so many storms in life, need our savior right now.   That is why we gather on Wednesday nights for prayer.  We ask the savior to calm our storms.

The sailors with Johah needed a savior too.   So they asked Jonah where they could find one.

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 to appease his God.  John confessed his sin and told them, make me your sacrifice.  Throw me overboard and you will be saved.   Jonah was willing to sacrifice his own life for the needs of the sailors just as Jesus offered his life for us.  But the sailors ignored the sacrifice idea and tried to deal with problems 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.  

This is what it is like whenever we ignore our savior and try to deal with our problems ourselves.   We row harder and harder and harder but the head winds of life keep pushing us backwards.  We get nowhere until we face certain death.  The sailors, also facing certain death, did the only thing that was left for them to do.  They prayed to Jonah’s God.

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. 

When all appeared lost the sailors finally did the only thing that works.   They prayed to Jonah’s God, the Lord God of Israel.   And that is true for us too.   When the storms of life overwhelm us, when everything seems to be out of control, we finally turn in prayer to the source of all power, our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Next week, July 12, 13 and 14 we will have a well known evangelist from Korea at our church.   The Rev. John Sang Won has traveled the world bringing with him news of a savior who calms storms of life.   Come join us and bring your friends.  This will be a time of healing and wholeness.   Prayers will be offered to Jesus to calm the storms we face.  Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, we confess that 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.

Grace and Peace Episode 41

 Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Grace and Peace Episode 41

Presbyterian Church of Easton

June 27, 2021

Watch Episode 41

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:2

Heidelberg Catechism

83Q.  What are the keys of the kingdom?

A. The preaching of the holy gospel and Christian discipline toward repentance.  Both of them open the kingdom of heaven to believers and close it to unbelievers.

84Q.  How does preaching the holy gospel open and close the kingdom of heaven?

A. According to the command of Christ:  The kingdom of heaven is opened by proclaiming and publicly declaring to all believers, each and every one, that, as often as they accept the gospel promise in true faith, God, because of Christ’s merit, truly forgives all their sins. The kingdom of heaven is closed, however, by proclaiming and publicly declaring to unbelievers and hypocrites that, as long as they do not repent ,the wrath of God and eternal condemnation rest on them.  God’s judgment, both in this life and in the life to come, is based on this gospel testimony.

Matthew 16:18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Christ gave the keys to the Apostle Peter.   The purpose of the keys is to be the foundation upon which the church of Jesus Christ is built.   What is the foundation upon which the church stands?   The church stands on the word of God faithfully proclaimed and repentance taught.   

This word of God, the Gospel, was entrusted for safekeeping by the Apostle Peter and all of the ordained leaders of the church since then.  That is why whenever a pastor or elder is ordained in the church the other elders all lay on hands.  The laying on of hands is symbolic of the continuous line of elders, going back to Peter, who have faithfully preserved and proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And so the keys of the church are not kept in the pocket of a trustee.   Rather the keys of church are the faith elders and pastor who make sure that the gospel of Jesus Christ continues to be proclaimed in every community.   Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for the keys that you presented to Peter and to all elders and pastors who faithfull proclaim your word to the world.  We thank you for the elders and pastors who make it possible for us to worship every Sunday.  And help us to train a new generation of pastors and elders to proclaim the gospel to future generations.   This we pray in your glorious name.  Amen.