Justified by the Nature of God

“Justified by the nature of God”

The Rev. Canon Patricia M. Grace

Epiphany III – Year B

Jonah

Church of the Ascension                                  January 21, 2018

Brothers and Sisters,

            today we’ve been shortchanged

by the Revised Common Lectionary.

Because we get only a wee snippet from the Book of Jonah    

in our Old Testament reading…

Well, I am fixing to remedy that – because this is a book

that contains an ancient story,

            which has great relevance for our current times.

Most of us know a little about Jonah –

            the prophet who spent three days

in the belly of a great fish.

But the story begins long before that event.

God directs Jonah, a prophet,

            to go to the people of Nineveh,

                        and warn them,

that if they do not forsake their evil ways,

            God will deal with them as they have dealt with others

and will destroy them and their whole city.

What’s not so clear in the text

            is that Jonah detests the people of Nineveh…

            they are Assyrians,

                        a people who boasted of long history

of cruel abuse and oppression

                                                toward the children of Israel.

Jonah is filled with a burning hatred of them…

            so much so,

                        he cannot bear the thought

                                    that God might shower them

with mercy and loving kindness…

Jonah cannot conceive that a people like that

            could or should be redeemed.

So, instead of hightailing it down to Nineveh,

            Jonah talks some sailors into giving him passage to Tarshish.

Once they were far out to sea,

            a mighty storm arises and threatens to destroy

                        the ship, its crew and cargo.

The sailors believe that Jonah’s refusal

to obey the command of the God of Israel,

            has brought this calamity upon them.

So, after much discussion,

            Jonah suggests, maybe somewhat jokingly,

that they throw him overboard –

“perhaps that will appease Yahweh, his angry God.” he says.

And so they do.

Somenow, Jonah is not drowned,

            but by the hand of the Lord,

 is delivered in one piece,

                                    into the belly of a great fish.  

For three days he languishes

            in that dank den of despair…

finally, praying to God for pity and release.

God hears Jonah’s prayer

and prompts the fish to spew him out onto dry land.

A second time, God tells Jonah to proclaim to the Ninevites

            that their only chance for survival

lies in a dramatic change of their ways.

Jonah grudgingly does what the Lord commands…

            but not before he gives God some lip…

Jonah says he would be better off dead,

            than offering those Gentiles a chance at God’s forgiveness.

And then, what do you know?

The Ninevites actually listen to Jonah and turn to the Lord–

            and all of them, the text says,

including some animals,

                                    repent and the city is saved.

This ticks off Jonah even more…

and he complains bitterly to God.

“I knew it!” Jonah seems to be saying. 

“I knew you would forgive and redeem them, Lord –

for your nature is to be slow to anger, abounding in mercy

and full of loving kindness.”

 “Which is exactly why I would have rather been dead

than to have been the one who turned them around.” 

            It is at this point

that the Lord asks Jonah what I would call a killer question –

a question which reveals the heart of this story

and its meaning for us.

“Is it right” asks the Lord,

“for you to be angry?”

“Is it right” wonders the Lord,

            for you to be so burned up?”

Now a careful reading of the Hebrew of this text           

            is called for here.

The word the writer of this passage uses for “right”

            is “yatab” –

which does not mean, is it right in the sense of being correct,

            or defendable in a court of law,

                        or permissible

according to some set of standards or rules.

The word means to be good,

            to be beneficial,

            glad or pleasing.

The word means to be well placed,

            that is, in right relationship with the situation.

God is asking Jonah if his anger

            is justified –

in the sense of aligning a piece of text along a column,

            or setting something straight along a plumb line.

God is asking Jonah about his anger…

            is it in proportion to what is just…

            does it make sense in relation to God

                        and God’s very nature –

as creator and lover of all human kind?

Jonah doesn’t provide an answer,

            just goes away mad.

He makes his way across the city to higher ground

                        to see what will become of all this.

The day is hot, so he builds himself

            a shelter against the heat of the sun.

God takes pity on Jonah

            and causes a bush to grow up around him…

                        providing some shade and comfort to the miserable prophet.

But as a test, the next day,

            God sends a worm to destroy the bush

                        and intensifies the heat by whipping up a strong west wind.

Jonah is immediately thrown back into his vicious anger

            and debilitating attitude –

again, telling God he would be better off dead….

            still burning up with resentment

because of God’s gift of mercy and loving kindness

            to those despised and unworthy Ninevites.

So God asks Jonah again,  

            about his anger…

“Is it right” asks the God of Israel,

            “to be angry about the bush?”

In other words,

“Dear Jonah”

the Lord inquires,

“is your reaction in right relation to the situation...and to me?”

We hear no response from Jonah,  

            but in the last verses of the book,

God offers a suggestion

for how Jonah might change his mind about things.

“Look at it from my perspective”

            God seems to be saying.  

“Given what you know about me…

            slow to anger, abounding in mercy,

                        full of loving kindness,

how could I not try to save

            those Ninevites….

those 120,000 men, women and children…

            and some animals.”

We’re left, like Jonah,

            to ponder our answer to that question.

This story is about anger, that’s for sure…

            but about a specific kind of anger.

Therapists tell us that anger is an emotion

            that’s natural,

that’s inevitable,

            and is often, helpful.

Anger prompts us to recognize the need to fight or flee

            when we are in danger,

when we’re being abused,

            or when injustice threatens us or those for whom we care.

Anger, they tell us,

            is better to be dealt with,

                        worked through,

than to be ignored or repressed.

But, that’s not the kind of anger that God is asking Jonah

            and us, about.

Again, the Hebrew in this passage

offers a clue to what God is really wondering about.

“Charah” – anger –

            does not suggest a mild sense of annoyance,

but a deep and inflammatory state of rage.

The word means to be kindled with anger, like a great fire…

            suggests a burning sensation in the throat

            from the pain of rage.

This word means to be, literally, incensed,

            to be wax hot,

            seared, charred, scorched by the emotion.

It’s notjust the kind of anger

            that prompts us to defend ourselves or others

                        who are in trouble,

or to right a wrong.

It’s an anger steeped in the heat of hatred

filled with rancor and hostility.

The anger that God speaks to Jonah about

            is destructive, deadly…

that leads a person to deny the very nature of God…

and that part of us which is created in the image of God…

            whose property, as our Rite One Prayer says,

                        is always to have mercy.

This anger is seated in the blistering belief that leads us to conclude

            that another is beyond the saving love of God…

which is heresy!

This is the anger that allows us to write off another,

            or a group of others…

                        as unredeemable.

And, if truth be told,

            it’s an emotion that will singe us

worse than any heat we can apply to another.

This kind of anger will burn us to a crisp

as quickly as the touch of molten lava…

reducing us to ashes,

            beyond recognition

                        as a child of God.

Now, there’s a lot to be angry about in this world today.

There’s all that stuff on the personal level…

            it feels to me like just getting on I-40 every day on my way to work

                        or trying to get a human being

to answer my customer service call

                        are daily opportunities

 to work on anger management skills.

And there’s all that interpersonal stuff...

            when people we love or trust disappoint or betray us.

When we perceive that others get more than their share…

            when we feel like cheaters do prosper…

despite what our mothers told us to the contrary!

There’s the times when we see that and those who are the least worthy

            always seem to get the gold ring at the fair.

And then there are the myriad aggravations,

            the host of distressing

and seemingly overwhelming issues

that confront us in the public arena –

as our public officials fail to serve and represent all of us;

there are daily examples of unbridled injustice,

            of abject cruelty,

                        of wanton oppression and abuse

perpetrated against the most vulnerable among us.

There are countless opportunities for

righteous indignation

                        to inspire a desire in us to make things right…

to make things more beneficial,

and in right proportion.

But the temptation is also there,

            the tendency,

            for that helpful anger to heat up,

and boil over

                        into a venomous judgement of another’s

                                    worthiness to be chosen,

to lead us into doubt that all, all, all!

can be redeemed and transformed by God.

And when we get to that point,

we might agree with Jonah…

that we’re better off being dead  

than finding ourselves trapped in that place.

There is in all of us,

the potential for that kind of scorching rage

            which can pitch us into unsafe waters;  

into dark and stinking places,

            into acid pits of hatred from which only God

                        can release us.

We find an antidote in the words of Jonah’s prayers…

            that it is God who rescues our lives from those pits…

                        and deliverance belongs to the Lord.

In the face of such anger,

            such judgement,

                        God sends us a clue to a better way.

Look at things from my perspective,

            says the Lord…

whose very essence is to find a way to forgive,

            to offer kindness rather than punishment.

Look at those who inspire such anger

            like I do, says the Lord…

            as vulnerable children in need of a second chance

-       to be held accountable, oh yes!

-       but not left without hope of new life.

The story of Jonah invites us to consider God’s question for ourselves…

            are we in the right place?

Is our point of view in line,

            it is justified,

                        by what we know of God…

and the fact that although we, too,

may cause God no small amount of anger,

we can rely, with sure and certain hope,

 on God’s inclination

to show us abundant mercy and loving kindness.

The story of Jonah invites us to consider,

            when we are consumed by the kind of anger that destroys,

            where we might find a better way and a better place…

to live and breathe and have our being.

The search for that place begins

with remembering,

that all of God’s creatures are justified with God,

not by anything we are or do,

but by God’s very nature…

To recall that all of us are first justified

by God’s first inclination

to show abundant mercy and loving kindness

towards us all.