Delivered on Sunday 03 September 2006 in St George's Chapel

Jonah 3

The Book of Jonah, as I said last week, is a two part story: the first part of the story tells us about Jonah and the large fish, the second about Jonah and the people of Nineveh. The first part begins with these words: "Now, the word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai , saying, 'Arise, go at once to Nineveh'". The second part of the story begins in a very similar way, as we heard in our first reading this morning: "The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, 'Arise, go to Nineveh'". The parallel is obvious and it is intentional. We are drawn back to the first part of the story when Jonah responded to the word of the LORD as any good prophet should: he arose ... but then - most unlike a good prophet - he ran away. Second time around, he arose and obediently went to Nineveh. But why, I wonder, had he been so reluctant to visit Nineveh in the first place?

Not much is known about Jonah but he is mentioned in the second book of the Kings. There, we learn that Jonah was a prophet in the court of Jeroboam the second, a king with expansionist tendencies. The likelihood, then, is that Jonah was a nationalistic prophet supporting the extension of Israel's boundaries and also looking out at the neighbouring countries with either displeasure or suspicion. In the case of Assyria, with its capital city Nineveh, he would have had reason both to be displeased and suspicious, for there was a great empire. For a nationalistic prophet to be sent on a diplomatic mission to a country he disapproved of, and felt threatened by, would have been a tough pill to swallow. It might be like an ardent republican on the Falls Road in Belfast being asked to deliver a message of repentance to the loyalist Shankill community; you'd think twice before you committed yourself! But this second time, Jonah was obedient; he heard the call of God and he packed his bag and set out for Nineveh.

According to our text, the city of Nineveh was a very large place, so Jonah must have set out thinking he would have been there for a while. Yet on his very first day he stood in a marketplace on the outskirts of the city and called out to the people, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown". With a message like that, coming from someone like himself, he must have worried about how the crowd might react. The response was immediate ... but surprising. The people of Nineveh did not pick up stones; instead, they believed. There were no questions, no philosophical debates, no prevarication, no exceptions; they heard the word of God and they believed. In fact, they not only believed they also called a fast. Jonah must have been very surprised, but so far so good. But what would the king make of it? The king, that mighty despotic leader of the empire, even more surprisingly, followed his people. He arose from his throne and took off his royal robes - he replaced the robes with sackcloth, and his throne with a heap of ashes. In this state of mind, the mighty king ordered a national fast; he institutionalised a period of fasting and repentance. No-one, not even the animals, was to eat or drink. Everyone was to be covered in sackcloth. Everyone was to turn from their infamous violent ways. Everyone was to call out mightily to God. The hope, as far as the king saw it, was that God would see this great national repentance and would not bring calamity upon them. As the king said "Who knows?" It's at least worth a shot!

Jonah had, at the very least, been successful in delivering his message and in having the people, and even the king, take the word of the LORD with utmost seriousness. Remember the message: "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown". Although this message sounds pretty unambiguous in English there is room for some latitude in Hebrew. The phrase can mean one of the following, either, as we have it, "Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown" OR "Forty days more and Nineveh will have a change of heart". Literally the verb used means "overturn" but that has the possibility of being understood as either a military overturning or a spiritual overturning. This ambiguity would not have been lost on the people of Nineveh. They would have heard this message as both a threat and a promise and certainly, having heard the calling, they were ready and willing to repent, to overturn. It was indeed worth a shot. "Who knows?"

Throughout this story is a mingling of judgement, repentance and deliverance, all ingredients also seen in an incident recorded in Luke's gospel. Jesus is in the company of a crowd of people, many of whom are badgering him for a sign. As Jesus was trying to explain himself, a woman in the crowd yelled out, "Your mother was a great woman, may she be blessed". "No", said Jesus, "blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Here you are pestering me for a sign but I'm not going to give you a sign, except for the sign of Jonah". He went on, "The people of Nineveh repented at the message of Jonah, and look, something greater than Jonah is here now!"

The crowd demand a sign because they want to be able to judge for themselves whether or not Jesus is who he says he is. But Jesus reminds them of the people of Nineveh who did not ask for a sign, or an explanation, or a debate; they heard the word of God, recognised it for what it was, and obeyed it. The crowd wanted to judge but in fact they are the ones being judged; they are being judged by their response to the word of God. You see, although I said that judgement, repentance, and deliverance were all intermingled in the Jonah text, all concentrated in the ambiguous understanding of what it means to 'overturn', there is another layer of meaning. This layer focuses on the word of God and on calling. At the very start of our text Jonah hears the word of God; he is then instructed to 'call' out that word to the people of Nineveh. Then, obediently, he goes and calls. The people believe and call a feast. The word of God reaches the king and he calls a fast, instructing all his people to call out to God. ... And it is to this layer that Jesus points when he reminds the crowd about the people of Nineveh. They want a sign; they want to be able to judge for themselves. We, today, are in much the position: we feel that, with our knowledge and intellectual ability we must be a better position to judge than ever before. We want to stand over the word of God in judgement, when in fact we are being called to sit under the word of God in obedience. We are being called to overturn our attitude.

But, now I must be careful. "To sit under the word of God in obedience", is itself an ambiguous phrase. This could be understood as a kind of fundamentalist mantra but that's not what I intend. To explain I need to briefly outline what I mean by 'the Word of God'. The Word of God is an act which God undertakes, it is an act which God undertakes so that he can reveal himself to us. So it is that Jesus can say to the crowd, "Something greater than Jonah is here now": he means that in himself the Word of God is made flesh. At the heart of what is meant by the Word of God is revelation; God revealing himself. But surrounding that revelation are the human acts of Scripture and proclamation. It is through Scripture and proclamation that we encounter the revelation. Proclamation, preaching, calling, is the Word preached - however poor a preacher is, if he or she remains faithful to their calling - God can speak through their words; it is not that the actual words of the preacher are the Word of God but that God can speak to us through those words. The Word of God is also the word written, that is, Holy Scripture. It is a record of the fact that God has spoken and that through these words God continues to speak to us. The Word of God, then, is a complex union of the Word, preached, written, and revealed. It is this understanding of the Word of God that I have in mind when I say that we are called "To sit under the Word of God in obedience". It is a tough calling, as the story of Jonah reminds us; it is a calling to change our attitude from one of judgement to obedience. But as the King of Nineveh said, when he first heard the Word of God, "It might at least be worth a shot! Who knows?"