January 22, 2006

Sermon: “Jonah Delivers”

Scripture: Jonah 3:1-5

 

Reverend Larry Gerber 

 

Timber cutters sit atop the list of the most dangerous jobs in America. But who would want to be a prophet in ancient Nineveh? Not Jonah!

Over the edge.

That’s where so many workers are being pushed these days. Todays workers labor 24/7 and the work never stops. Your job drains you, mentally and physically. You put in long days to the point of exhaustion, struggle with workplace stress, and wind up tired, irritable and uninspired.

It feels as though your job is killing you.

Of course, things could always be worse. The magazine mental_floss (May-June 2005) recently published a list of jobs that really do kill. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “timber cutter” ranked as the most dangerous job in America in 2002, with an annual fatality rate of 117.8 per 100,000 workers.

But timber cutters are only part of the story. Between 1980 and 1997, more than 100,000 people died in work-related accidents, and these deaths occurred in the construction industry (19 percent), the transportation industry (17 percent) and in manufacturing (15 percent). Mining, agriculture, trash collecting and job-related auto accidents also ranked high.

The 10 most dangerous jobs are: timber cutters, fishers, pilots and navigators, structural metal workers, drivers, roofers, electrical power installers, farm workers, construction laborers and truck drivers.

Working can be hazardous to your health.

No figures exist — that we know of — that tell us how dangerous it is to be a pastor these days, although reliable sources suggest that lingering too long at food-laden tables at church potlucks can be a problem.

To this list, however, we’ve got to add the category “biblical prophet.” No more dangerous job in the Bible than being a prophet. They frequently got killed.

And Jonah knew it. He knew how hazardous and difficult it could be to speak for God to the people, and he is far from enthusiastic when he receives a word from the Lord: Here is your mission: “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.” (1:2).

It sounded like an impossible mission. Jonah is being sent to the capital of Assyria, a powerful enemy of Israel, and is being asked to preach against it. Like, who would volunteer today to fly to Damascus, or Riyadh, to walk the streets and call Muslim extremists to repent of their sins? Didn’t think so.

So Jonah bolts in the opposite direction, taking off for Tarshish in an effort to escape the presence of the Lord. He hops on a boat, encounters a storm, is thrown overboard, and is swallowed by the famous fish. Finally he is spewed out on dry land, and the word of the Lord comes to him again: “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you” (3:2).

This time Jonah goes to Nineveh. Still smelling fishy, and his face and skin blanched and blotchy — the result, perhaps, of intestinal acids at work during his three-day sabbatical in a sea creature — he enters the city and walks for an entire day, making his way just a third of the distance across this daunting and dangerous city.

He must’ve looked like a paranormal apparition from The Nightmare on Elm Street. “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” he shouts like a madman (3:4). This stinking, sticky prophet cries out against the 120,000 residents of an enormous and powerful city, not knowing if they will hear him and heed him ... or just tear him to pieces.

To everyone’s surprise, the Ninevites believe in God, and repent of their sins. They proclaim a fast and put on sackcloth, young and old alike. Even the king of Nineveh rises from his throne, removes his robe, covers himself in sackcloth, and sits in ashes. He calls everyone in the city to turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands (3:8).

When God sees what they do, he changes his mind. They don’t die; they live. Bummer.

Jonah goes over the edge, taking a killer job about as far as it will go. And what he finds on the other side is ... life.

There is a message for us in this story, but it has nothing to do with how dangerous our work-world occupation may be, but instead with how dangerous it can be when in the service of a sovereign God.

Dangerous, however, only if we have pre-conceived notions about how God is supposed to function and operate within our own world.

If we volunteer to serve God with our own agenda, job description, outcome statements in hand — we’re setting ourselves up for powerful disappointment.

Ask Jonah.

The message of Jonah is all about hearing the word of God and obeying it. When we’re obedient to God — even after a time of running in the opposite direction, as Jonah did — we find that our efforts result in life, not death. Regardless of what career path, or life path after retirement, we are pursuing, obedience to God can open up new possibilities for renewal and regeneration.

New life comes from obeying God, even when we’re in a killer job.

Keep in mind that Jonah’s primary problem was one of willful disobedience. When he originally turned and headed for Tarshish, he was disobeying a direct command of God.

Father Mapple, the preacher in another great fish story, Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick, points out that God often speaks to us in commands, because he knows that what he wants of us is difficult. “If we obey God, we must disobey ourselves,” Mapple says; “and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists.”

Jonah disobeyed God, and this led to the near-death experience of being thrown into the sea and swallowed by a fish. But when he repented, as he was about to ask the citizens of Nineveh to do, and was obedient to God, then he discovered life for himself, and for the people of Nineveh. Renewal and regeneration came when he did the hard work of being obedient to the Lord.

The problem with obedience is that it is a tough sell. You hear the words “be obedient,” and it sounds as if you are being asked to eat your vegetables and exercise 30 minutes a day. There’s just nothing exciting about it, nothing to get you pumped up and inspired. But like good nutrition and exercise, obedience can enrich and even extend your life. There is nothing more deadly than poor eating habits, inactivity ... and disobedience to God.

In some Christian wedding ceremonies, the preacher asks the wife if she will be obedient to her husband. The husband has a sly grin on his face. Ha ha. This will be interesting. I front of family, friends, and God, the bride will answer: “Yes, I will be obedient to my husband.” Then the preacher finishes the sentence, “as your husband is obedient to Christ”.  The grin fades, the face turns ash white, he gulps. “Say that again, preacher.”  “OK, ‘Will you be obedient to your husband, as he is obedient to Christ?’” …….

Think about it. Disobedience can be seen in marriage ceremonies. In front of my family, friends, and God, I must say that I will be obedient to Christ, and only in that regard, does my have to be obedient to me!!

Disobedience is at work when you cheat on your taxes, and fail to pay your fair share toward maintaining and improving the common good as well as setting aside a portion of our income for the work of the church. We can disagree with how our federal, state and local taxes are being spent, but the bottom line is that a ton of dollars, including our own, support medical programs for low-income children, feed dollars into our educational system and so on. Besides, we’re told to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God, what is God’s.

You’re doing the Jonah jog from God when you lie, whether it’s to your friends, coworkers or family. When you fail to be a truth-teller, you lose the trust of people around you, and shatter the strands of accountability that hold a group of people together. Lying is a deathblow to community, whether you are part of a circle of high-school friends or a team of coworkers.

Promiscuity, cheating, lying, justifying your “mistakes”, unjust actions toward others, — these are “running away from God” kinds of sins. One needs to know when one is not doing the right thing, and when not sure, turn to God for a sense of direction.

The idea that we might be and ought to be faithful to a set of moral constructs will have people looking at us as though we’re living in a fictive matrix, an alternative universe that bears no resemblance to postmodern realities.

Obedience. It’s dangerous, because we might be laughed at.

It’s dangerous because we might be misunderstood.

It’s dangerous because we’ll have to put the interests of others ahead of our own.

It’s dangerous because it could send us into territory hitherto unexplored.

It’s dangerous because we can’t be sure what God might ask of us.

It’s dangerous because being obedient doesn’t come naturally to us.

It’s dangerous because we’ll be asked to turn the other cheek.

It’s dangerous because we’ll be asked to love our enemies.

It’s dangerous because we’ll be asked to be a peacemaker.

It’s dangerous because we’ll be asked to pray for those who “despitefully use” us.

Before you book your ticket for Tarshish, remember that while being in God’s service can be hazardous, it is also the only place that offers blessing and a sense of peace.

High risk/high reward. That’s what it’s all about.

The 10 most dangerous jobs in America. The list says nothing about “disciple of Jesus Christ.”

Sign up for that “job” and you’re signing up for the toughest — but most rewarding — “job” of all.

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Sources:

“401 KO’ed: Jobs that kill.” mental_floss, May-June 2005, 13.

Khan, Kim. “The ten most dangerous jobs in America.” MS Money, October 14, 2003. money.msn.com/content/invest/extra/P63405.asp. Retrieved August 24, 2005.

Melville, Herman. Moby Dick or the White Whale. New York: The New American Library, 1961, 57-58.

Mattox, William R. Jr. “The hottest valentine.” Mennonite Brethren Herald, old.mbconf.ca/mb/mbh3704/mattox.htm.