1-24-21 "The Trouble with Mercy" Jonah 3:1-5, 10; 4:1-5 Central Christian Church David A. Shirey

The reading began with the words, “The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” If this is the “second time” God instructed Jonah to go to Ninevah, what happened the first time? Well, the first time is at the beginning of Chapter 1 when God says, “Arise, go to Ninevah.. and cry against it; for their wickedness has come up before me” (Jonah 1:1, 2). “Go to Ninevah,” God says. Ninevah—capitol city of Assyria. Assyria, the nation that destroyed Israel in 721 B.C. Assyria, the nation that then subjugated and oppressed the southern kingdom of Judah for almost 100 years. Assyria: present-day Iraq. The book of Jonah begins with a prophet called up for duty—drafted to serve in the Persian Gulf as a missionary to his nation’s bitterest foe. Well, Jonah was a draft-dodger. He said, “Go to Ninevah? Nothin’ doin’!” and rather than heading north to Canada, he fled west toward Tarshish. Ninevah was due east by land. Jonah sailed due west by sea. Caught the first ship out of Joppa the next morning and went AWOL from the Lord’s command. Tarshish, many scholars believe, was a coastal city in Spain. Think Acapulco. Maui. Shangri-la. In other words, a much more preferable place to serve God than Ninevah. Being called to go to Ninevah and instead opting for Tarshish is tantamount to being called to urban ministry in Cleveland and opting instead for being Chaplain on a Caribbean cruise. But before we wag our fingers at Jonah for his disobedience, let’s be honest and admit how we, too, prefer to serve God on our terms. Have you never told the Lord your preferences for how you’d like to serve or with whom? I remember back in ‘85 Jennie and I telling God we’d be open to serving anywhere east of the Mississippi and ending up in downtown St. Louis. Got stretched a little! And when we were approached to start a new church 17 years later, we put in our preference again-- “East coast.” Got Phoenix! Got stretched a lot! I’ll do anything you ask of me, Lord, as long it’s something I’m comfortable doing. That’s David Shirey left to my own devices. That’s human nature. But this story suggests it’s divine nature to beckon us to Ninevah sometimes. Challenge us. Stretch us. That’s a truth to take into consideration these days as we ponder individually and collectively what God may be calling us to do. But there’s more to Jonah’s choosing Tarshish over Ninevah than the human propensity to choose comfort over challenge. There’s also the human propensity for, how shall I put it? Disdain. As in the propensity human beings have to disdain other human beings. Hold others in contempt for who they are. How they look. Who they love. Where they’re from. Disdain them for their ideology, their worldview, their politics. A way to discover your Disdain List is to note who “they” are when you speak of We and They, who “them” is when you talk about Us and Them. The causes for human beings’ contempt of others is legion. (I hold in contempt people who hold others in contempt). Jonah chooses Tarshish over Ninevah because Ninevah’s out of his comfort zone, but moreso because Ninevah is out of his caring zone. Jonah the Israelite could care less about the Ninevites. He disdains them. He sure doesn’t want to be party to saving them. So what did Jonah do? The Scripture says, “Jonah rose to flee from the presence of the Lord” (Jonah 1:3). That’s a laugh line by the way. Tell me:where is a place away from the presence of the Lord? Name one. The Psalmist says: “Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?... If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there thy hand shall lead me and thy right hand shall hold me.” (139:7-10). Jonah found out smack dab in “the farthest limits of the sea” that God was there. En route to Tarshish, there was a storm. Jonah was tossed overboard, whereupon Scripture says “the sea ceased from its raging” (1:15), thereby sparing the lives of a boatload of heathen sailors who didn’t even know God, let alone worship and serve the Lord. Then “the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah” (1:17), thereby saving a man who knew the Lord, but defied him. Which evidences a glorious truth about our God: We can’t run away from God’s presence nor run out of God’s mercy. Neither Jonah, nor the sailors... nor the Ninevites. Nor you. Nor me. There is nowhere you can go to flee God’s presence. There is no one on the face of the earth who can outdistance God’s relentless desire to inculcate a sincere repentance -- a change of heart and life for both Jonah and the Ninevites -- a repentance born of God’s relentless mercy. You’ll remember that having been cast overboard and swallowed up, Jonah prayed from the belly of the great fish. It’s a long and pious-sounding prayer that fills up the entirety of chapter 2. Here’s a fella who moments before had wanted nothing to do with God, but when trouble struck he “got religion” real quick. “Lord, you know how much I love you and if you’ll just get me out of this mess, I’m yours forever.” It’s been said “There are no atheists in foxholes.” Well, neither are there any in whales’ bellies. Jonah prayed a prayer that strung together every pious word he knew, whereupon the Scripture says, “The great fish vomited out Jonah upon the dry land” (Jonah 2:10). Don’t you know that some of things we human beings say and do in God’s name are enough to cause God to roll his eyes and make him sick at his stomach? I’m sure I say and do things that cause a Divine face plant. Kyrie eleison. Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Which brings us to where we began. “The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh… and proclaim to it the message that I tell you” (3:1-2). This time Jonah went. And what did he do? He went a third of the way in (which says to me he still wasn’t “all in” with what God wanted him to do). And to prove it, he proceeded to preach... an eight-word sermon (five words in Hebrew). I know, you wish I’d take a hint from Jonah. Jonah said, “Forty days more, and Ninevah will be overthrown!” (3:4) and then he dashed back out of the city again. Do you get the impression Jonah didn’t want the Ninevites to hear what he had to say? That he didn’t want them to have a chance to repent? Eight words and out he went to find a pleasant spot outside the city limits from which to watch the city and its people destroyed. Did we say Jonah disdained Ninevah and all it stood for? But what happened? Nineveh repented. God had mercy. And Jonah got mad. And Jonah proceeded to let God have it in no uncertain terms. Quoting from Jonah 4: “This was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.” End quote. My paraphrase: ‘I knew you’d have mercy on the people I disdain. I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! “I knew you were ‘a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love!” ‘That’s why I ran from this job in the first place.’ Nineveh repented. God had mercy. And Jonah got mad. What’s wrong with this picture? A man who disobeyed God’s call and received mercy, who was dead and buried in a fish’s belly but was saved, forgiven, and given a second chance, didn’t want other people to receive the same mercy. Here’s the trouble with mercy: When we’re in trouble, we want mercy. But when someone else does us or others wrong, we want justice. Not biblical justice as in the reparation of personal and social relationships frayed and broken by sin by the painstaking personal and social repentance born out of a sometimes severe mercy. No, we want justice as in condemnation and throw-away-the-key punishment. The trouble with mercy is that God insists on showing it to people we disdain-- who don’t deserve it…any more than we do. I’ve got a confession to make. I wrote my Let’s Go Deeper on Wednesday, January 10, on WWJD: What would Jesus do? I listed all the things Jesus did. I wrote how Jesus prayed. Jesus taught in parables. Jesus refused to be king. Jesus welcomed and ate with all. Jesus turned over the moneychangers’ table in the Temple. Jesus raised his voice now and again in stern rebuke. Jesus healed the sick, fed the hungry, enabled the lame to walk, gave sight to the blind, provided water to the thirsty, and showed mercy to sinners. Jesus comported himself as a suffering servant and was crucified. Jesus was raised from the dead, is seated at the right hand of God, and will reign until every enemy is put under his feet (1 Corinthians 15:20-28). And this week I realized I left something out of that list. I’m sure I left several things out, but the thing that came to me this week as I followed that reluctant prophet Jonah around the ancient Middle East is that Jesus loved his enemies. Funny how I left that off my list. Is it on your list as you ponder what to do these days to walk as a child of the light? I know “love your enemies” doesn’t mean love as in having lovey-dovey feelings for them. I know it means love as in working for good for them. And I know it doesn’t mean disregarding the unlovely things said or done by the unlovely. I know it means taking all the wrong seriously and striving to evoke repentance and make right en route to reconciliation. Knowing that, but not knowing exactly how to do it, I’m wrestling with what it means to love enemies in Jesus’ name, in Jesus’ way. It’s hard. That’s the trouble with mercy. It crossed my mind that it’s time for a vacation. So I’m announcing that I’m leaving for a while. Beginning tomorrow morning. I’ve got a spot picked out where I’m going for a little R & R. I found an Air BnB, beach front, with a view of the sea to die for. I’m going there until all this passes over. It’s in a wonderful place where you don't have to do the hard work of discerning how to walk as a child of the light in such a time as this. It’s in a place called... Tarshish. I’m just kiddin’. Sort of. You hear me, don’t you, when I say it’s hard to do the right thing in the right way at the right time. Lord, have mercy. And the Lord does. That’s the trouble with mercy. And that’s the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.