Final Sermon. Dr. Canfield’s Jonah Series. Insiders and Outsiders

2013 02 03 Final Sermon. Dr. Canfield’s Jonah Series. Insiders and Outsiders. The Baltic Parish

In the "introduction" to the Book of Jonah, I pointed out that, while we know very little about the background and setting of the book, and even less about Jonah himself - we do know, with certainty, that the Book of Jonah was written by an insider, to insiders, about an insider.  And that we, too, are "insiders.”

Jonah was the foremost prophet of his day; the spiritual leader of the nation, an insider who worked for the king.  He was at least as important as any modern Archbishop or denominational leader of our day. He had the credentials; he had the power; he had the prestige.  And, to top it off, he had an inside track to God.  As a prophet he was God's spokesman.

That's not hard to understand. We all know people in every congregation, or in positions of authority in our own denomination, who are "special" insiders.  Some of us might even, at a weak and honest moment, admit that we are pretty special to the church.  And we take a certain amount of prideful satisfaction in that. For example, the truth is that I sometimes do that, even when I know that pride is a great sin! It is the nature of the human beast to be prideful, and that is a hard sin to shake. We have to really work at being humble. It takes a lot more effort to really BE humble than it does to tell ourselves we are humble!

But, as we saw last week, Jonah, the insider, comes off very poorly in this story. It is the "outsiders," those for whom Jonah has, at his best, disdainful tolerance; and, at his worst, bitter hatred, who come off looking good in the story. They come off looking good to us; and, at the end of the story, they come off looking good to God.
There are two groups of outsiders highlighted in the story: first, the sailors and their captain and second, the Ninevites and their King.

I imagine that the sailors to be a rugged bunch of individuals; they come from many different places; they apparently have little in common; they worship different gods; but they do share a dangerous, low paying vocation. And they have some other things in common.  They know the sea, and they respect the danger of a storm at sea.  And when a storm comes they know what to do - they pray and then they take action.  And not one of them is an Israelite - they are NOT part of "the people of God," at least as Jonah thinks of  “the people of God.”

Like the Ninevites, they represent the people of the world: outsiders - certainly not only outside the church, but also outright pagans, worshiping other gods.  To Jonah, they are anathema! But - and this is intended to be a shock to our self-righteous, "insider" digestive systems - these are people who DO the things that we insiders are supposed to do - and don't often actually do; and they have characteristics that we tend to associate only with insiders – as if common decency were a monopoly owned by we insiders. Let’s look at some of those characteristics.

 –– The sailors are HUMANE: they risk their lives trying to row the boat to shore to save the ship - and Jonah!
–– They are PIOUS: when faced with danger they turn first to prayer, then to action.
–– They are PRACTICAL: when disaster strikes they work, shoulder to shoulder, together, to do what they can.
–– And, most importantly, they are open to SPIRITUAL GROWTH: When at the height of the storm they learn about the true God from Jonah, unlike Jonah, they pray to that God, our God, for help, and they offer to him sacrifices.  Jonah sleeps, and when aroused, tells them ABOUT God; but does not, himself, bother to pray to God on either his or their behalf.

Taken on its face, the story is deeply ironic: common sense would expect us, fellow insiders, to identify with Jonah, the insider.  But the writer knows that our sense of what is RIGHT makes us want to be LIKE THE OUTSIDERS, not like Jonah.
What is going on here is that the scene of Jonah and the sailors asks us - insiders who see ourselves as God's people - to re-evaluate our attitudes and prejudices toward "outsiders," those whom we would never normally see as "people of God."

And in the light of what we now know about Jesus, perhaps doing that might force us to remember something written by St. John: 'For God so loved THE WORLD that he gave his only Son'; not "for God so loved US" that he gave his Son.  And that "world" includes those sailors, and all those other outsiders who dwell in the squalor of Rio, Damascus, Teheran, Beirut, Calcutta, and, of course, Ninevah.

Ah, Ninevah, that whore of a city.  Jonah hated it.  But, spit up on the beach Jonah is given another chance - Go to Ninevah and preach a simple declarative statement "Yet 40 days and Ninevah will be overthrown!" And, reluctantly, while deeply angry at God, Jonah did.  And the miracle occurs - the whore listens, the murderous King hears, and they respond with fasting and mourning.  The King himself sits in sack cloth and ashes; he calls a fast – extending even to the animals who are to wear sack cloth and ashes as well as the people.

Nor does the King assume that God will repent of his righteous wrath.  He knows well his own sin and the sin of his city. But he cares for his people, and so all he can say is the wonderfully ironic line: “Who knows? Perhaps God will have mercy on us."  This vile and sinful outsider knows he has no reason to expect deliverance, and so he throws himself and his city on the mercy of God.  He knows only too well their sin; but, like the captain of the ship, his overriding concern is for his people.  "Who knows?"  God may even deliver the Ninevites, a people deserving of punishment for generations of sin.

And the city is "overthrown" all right.  But not as Jonah expected. God does not consume it in his wrath.  It is over thrown by the repentance of its people - those lowly "outsiders.” And we must ask: Who cares that this miracle has taken place?  Well, it certainly isn't Jonah.  He is enraged. He walks out when he finds that God will not destroy the city that, by every standard of justice and decency and, yes, VENGEANCE, should be destroyed.  But God pities Ninevah, hears their cry of repentance and saves the city.  What do we - insiders all - think of that?

Jonah hated it!  He hated that the God to whom he sang in the belly of the fish "Deliverance belongs to the Lord!" would deliver THEM! He hated it because, all along, deep in his heart, he KNEW that God was capable of just such selfless, forgiving love toward all those of his creation. God could show a love to others that Jonah’s hate could never let Jonah feel.

This story asks us, God's people, those of us within the church, to re-evaluate how we feel about and act toward all those "outsiders" we hold morally inferior to ourselves.  As James Limburg says, "It speaks a word of criticism against a people who prefer huddling and cuddling in the safety of their own groups. (It calls them to be) about the tasks to which Jesus called them: 'Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.'  It warns the people of God against the danger of forgetting that they are ambassadors, participating in reconciling the world to God.”

 So, who cares?  God cares.  And we should care for the Ninevites of this world. There is no better lesson upon which we can build our upcoming Lenten prayers and actions.  Lent is much more than “giving up” something; a true and lasting Lenten discipline means "giving" something of ourselves to others.  

The book of Jonah tells us that those “others” include all the "outsiders" of this world that our God also calls his children. May we, in our lives and by our actions, open ourselves to be Christ’s ambassadors to a world full of outsiders; full of "Ninevites."  If we do, then “Who knows?  Perhaps our God might spare US a thought, and be pleased by the compassion of his people.

To our surprising, loving, forgiving  and compassionate God be all the glory!  Amen.