“Run, Jonah, Run!”

A sermon based upon Jonah 1: 1-16, NIV 

Preached by Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, 

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

January 7^th, 2018

Today’s sermon title has a familiar ring: “Run, Jonah, Run!” intentionally sounds like that memorable line the popular movie about Forest Gump, “Run, Forest, Run!”.

Forest Gump was a fictional character; a somewhat mentally challenged young man, who was taught by his mother that ‘life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna to get.’  Life was stacked against him, especially after his mother died.  He had to learn to survive in the world on his own, which was quite a challenge for someone like him.  But the love and wisdom of Forest’s mother, played by Sally Fields, lived on inside of Forest’s head and heart, so that he not only survived, but he thrived, as he kept ‘running’ his way through life.  No matter what happened, good or bad, sickness, war, social protest, economic meltdown, or unexpected tragedies, Forest didn’t stop running.  He never gave up.  He overcame all kinds of obstacles, which would have reasonably stopped most people.  But Forest was not ‘normal’ and this worked to his advantaged, as long as he followed his ‘heart’.

Critics and Movie experts will say that Forest Gump is a wonderful picture of the American ‘can do’ spirit, portrayed by this fictional American living through the major events of the 20^th century.  The movie won the “Best Picture” Oscar, perhaps because it underscores America’s ‘goodness and innocence’ in in spite of our shortcomings.  While some critics saw the movie as naïve and overly simplistic, most saw it as a classic, giving moviegoers a classic overview of who we are, and where we have been, as a country.  However, you view it, the point is clear, “Life is worth living, so don’t stop. Run, Forest, Run!”  Now, “that’s all I’ve got to say about that”.

As we start this New Year together, there are many things that America still has going for her; just as there are also many things appearing as obstacles in our way.  Life is this way, not just now, but always.  So, we’ve got to keep moving.  We’ve got to keep trying.  We’ve got to keep running, working, and doing the things that make life work.  We’ve got to be careful, not just to ‘take life as it comes’, but we’ve also got ‘run’ in the right directions and to be responsible in good we have to do.

This is what brings us to one of the most beloved stories of the Bible, the Book of Jonah.  Jonah, in many ways, is a book that tells us ‘a whale of a tale’ about a prophet who also was running.   But instead of running toward his responsibilities, Jonah was running away from them.   So, today, as we begin to study Jonah’s story, these first weeks of this new year, let’s begin by consider ‘why’ Jonah is running in the wrong direction.  A better title for this message: “Stop, Jonah!  Face up to your responsibility!

JONAH SET OUT TO FLEE. (3)  Reason’s to Leave?

As this story begins, God has told Jonah to ‘go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me’ (2).   This is the prophet’s job, to take the risk to ‘step on some toes’, right?   But Jonah does not want to.   He runs away from the presence of God and heads in the opposite direction, toward Tarshish.  Take note: Jonah is not just getting on a boat to merely escape his job, but Jonah is trying to ‘get away from the presence of the LORD’ (3).

This is a peculiar predicament, isn’t it?  Everyone knows you can run from God, but you really can’t hide.  God knows.  God sees.  God goes wherever we go.  The Jews taught this.  Christians still teach this.   Common sense also tells us: You just can’t run from God.  You can’t turn from your responsibility, and live.  But we still try, don’t we?

What is it that causes Jonah to want to run from the God he can’t outrun?  Well, what made me try to run from my mama, or you from yours?  What made Adam and Eve, try to hide in the garden?   What would that be?   In this story, we see that Jonah is not simply running from God, but he is trying to escape his own responsibility as a prophet, to preach and tell the truth.  Nineveh, these people who are not Jews, also need to hear the truth, but this prophet does not want to go there.  He does not want to get involved.  He wants to keep living his own kind of life.  He wants to keep ‘doing his own thing.’  Besides, who wants to go to Nineveh, anyway?  Jonah is a Jew.  His God is also the God of the Jews.  Who cares about what happens to the people in Nineveh?

There are so many ‘truths’ that immediately pop up in this story, it’s hard to know which one to address first.   First, you’ve got a job or career problem---a job Jonah doesn’t want to do, especially when it gets difficult.  You’ve also got an ethical, or moral problem---should you tell someone else their sin, or should you stick to your own?  Then, you’ve also got the religious problem.  Perhaps Jonah feels he needs to keep his religion to himself, since it is gets really personal, so maybe it should stay that way.  Then, finally, there’s also the political problem—Jonah is stepping across cultural, political and ethnical boundaries, to try to universalize a moral truth, that some say should relative.  “Jonah, you stay with your God, we already have a god, thank you very much!”  Whoever’s should say that Ninevah is ‘wicked’ ought to be Ninevah and her own prophets, doesn’t Jerusalem have enough ‘sins’ of her own.   “Keep, it all to yourself, Jonah!”  Wow!  Can’t you just see all these ‘hot button’, living, issues that we are still dealing with,  all wrapped up in Jonah’s ‘no’ to God.

While we aren’t ‘prophets’, I wonder what might make our own reluctance answer God’s call in our own lives.  Certainly, these days, a lot of people seem to be saying more ‘noes’ to God’s presence, call, and command in their lives, than are saying ‘yes’.   Do you feel like that?  Why is there all this reluctance to answer God’s call, right now? 

In our own American religious landscape, we are going the way of Europe has already gone, but faster, in that there are more people who claim to be of ‘no’ religious persuasion at all.   Many have come to believe that ‘faith’ is not necessary to be a ‘good person’ and that they can do just as much for the world without needing to invite the ‘presence of God’ into their lives.  

A good example, is Bart Campolo, son of an evangelical minister, Tony Campolo.  Bart Camplolo, who now serves as Humanist Chaplain at USC, that he can do all the things he used to do as a Christian ministry, better without inviting God into the conversation.  He says God complicates things.   He says God makes people feel guilty.  He says that it is much better to get people to do good things in the world because they want to do good things, than give them the burden of having talk about or believe in God.  People want to do good, so let them just do it, and he has found it better to leave God out of the whole picture.  “I didn’t walk away from God…I don’t disrespect religious people…no I’ve learned from then, but “I just don’t need God to do the good that needs to be done.”

This may be the viewpoint of more and more millennials, and many others too, as we watch the continual decline in church membership and Christian faith in the United States.  But what do we also see happening as people appear to be ‘running away’ from God’s presence, at least in a public way?   Do we see the dark social, political and ethical clouds rising on the horizon?   Do we also see the loss of kindness, and our inability to have civil social discourse?  Do we see that even our whole American dream might be too difficult to maintain, without inviting and engaging the mystery of God into our personal and public lives?

What I see too often, as a pastor, is people who grew up Christian, who were baptized and know that their baptism comes with certain calls to discipleship and responsibility, trying to have their ‘cake’ and to ‘eat it too’.  We want the world that our parents had, but who wants to stay, face, and own up to the responsibilities?  For without responsibility, taking full responsibility for the communities, the families, the faith, and the nation we love, we won’t keep what we’ve had, nor have the chance to build on what we’ve been given.

Whatever impulse caused Jonah shirk his responsibility, it is the same choice we all have, with each and every responsibility or gift we’ve been given.  The question of most every life is simply this:  Are we going to face up and accept the responsibility or vocation that is ours, or will we turn or run away to ‘let somebody else do’ it?    

A MIGHTY STORM CAME… (4)  God’s stormy love.

But again, no sooner does Jonah run, than the storm clouds came up.  This story reflects a spiritual reality that none of us can escape.  When we skirt our callings, our gifts, and our responsibility, there are consequences.  However you want to look at what is happening to the world around us; as we hear constantly of not only increasingly world threats, but also of constant local threats and fears of crime and mass murders, we can clearly see that the ‘storm clouds’ of consequences are on the rise in the western world that seems to have, at least publically, turned its face away from God’s living, abiding, and loving presence.

Who’s the first to get ‘hurt’ when the storms come?  Who do people blame when things fall apart?   Well, just look in this story, and see how the crew of the ship, when the winds began to blow, put 2 and 2 together and decided that the reluctance and unfaithfulness of this religious passenger name Jonah was to blame.  In this story, it was wasn’t just the of anybody that brought the storm that ‘rocked the boat’.  No, what brought the storm to threatened the lives on that ship was the sin of unfaithfulness, irresponsibility, or avoidance, of the God of God by one of God’s own.

“What does it take for evil to flourish?”  Edmund Burke once asked.  All it takes is that ‘good people do nothing’.  In other words, all it takes is for people who know better, to put their ‘head in the sands’ like an Ostrich, or to ‘turn away and pretend they didn’t see it happen or hear the screams’.   Yesterday, I stumbled across the website of a schoolmate of mine, who appears to have become very philosophical, perhaps even Buddhist, and sometimes a little off center in his mind, but don’t underestimate what even a troubled mind can see and say.   He posted on his Facebook page something that sounded a lot like Jesus might have said, and it haunted me, as a I reflected upon it.   It went something like:

“You wanna know what God looks like? 

       He looks like the person you just discriminated against,

the hungry person you just ignored, the people you just bombed,

          the homeless man you shook your head at,

the old man you left in the nursing home,

          the child you just hollered at, the lonely person you abandoned,

the dog you just ran over, the river you just filled with oil,

                     or the heart you just condemned….”

My classmate can be a little emotional and opinionated at times, but he can also speak prophetically at times.  What I often hear in his words are many of the very problems our world faces, exactly because we don’t see God’s presence in the simple, normal, everyday moments of our lives.  When we omit God, even in ‘the least of these’, the storm clouds will rise, and the strong winds will come.  How far do we have to run away from the truth we all need to face, until we finally realize, as the saying goes, ‘that you can run, but you can’t hide’?  Jonah ran, but he couldn’t really hide.  The ‘truth’ came out, and it was the truth that even his own shipmates had heard coming from his own lips.  Folks, you can’t overlook the fact that this text says that it was truth from Jonah’s own ‘unfaithful lips’ that gave him away (1:10). 

WHAT SHALL WE DO… (11).  The right question of salvation

I, like you, like all of us, have tried to run away from what I know I should do.   But now, in this story, Jonah learns.  Jonah learns that God will not let us go, at least, not without trying to get us back on track.  This story is not the story of a God who comes to take revenge.  Yes, the storm comes.  Jonah is singled out.  He is thrown overboard into the waves.  He comes to realize he must take responsibility because God knows where he is.  But God comes to take Jonah back alive, just like God hunts us down to give us back the life we know we should live.

Next week, we will get to this, and learn how Jonah gets caught by God’s love and God’s will, but today, as I conclude, I want us to return to the question on the hearts of these sailors, whose ship was about to sink in the stormy purposes of God.  These sailors are the ones who put 2 plus 2 together.  They are the ones who figure out how Jonah is not supposed to running away from his calling.  They realize, with Jonah’s help, that this unsettling storm points to the most important ‘unsettled’ issue of all.  So, following Jonah’s request, they throw him overboard, but at first, the waves get even wilder.  So, then, they start to cry to the Lord, Israel’s God, whom they didn’t know from from Adam’s housecat.  But now, most unexpectedly to Jonah, and to us, these pagans, now turn to the LORD, for help.

Now, don’t try to read too much into all the detail.  Let the story as a whole do its work.  This is not a story about how we settle our all our problems, especially not by putting all the blame someone.  When you are on a wind-tossed ship you need to keep your eyes on the big picture.   That’s what I told my wife once, when we were on a ship crossing the English channel if 50 knot winds.  As the winds tossed us and our car around, she was getting sea sick, so I told her to keep her eyes on the horizon, and not the watch the waves.   This is what the story of Jonah is also asking us to do.  Don’t get caught every detail, but keep your eye on the big picture. 

Again, this is not a story about ‘who’s to blame’, but it’s a story about calling us to look straight into God’s heart.  It’s easy to look at our problems from the wrong point of view.  We can get caught up in blame, shame, guilt, and miss what we need to see, know, and understand.   Here, for the sailors, getting to the main issue was a matter of life and death, and they couldn’t mess around.  If we want to face our own responsibilities in life, we can’t get bogged down in feelings, but must face the hard questions, do what can be most difficult, and come to terms with what matters most so we can ‘save the ship’.

What will bring ‘salvation’ to our own storm tossed ship?  Do don’t need to appease God by throwing the unfaithful overboard (which by the way didn’t work), but we certainly do need to address our own ‘unfaithfulness’ as part of the problem that allows so many moral and ethical storms around us.  But, if you look deeper, you will see that what these sailors are doing is much more than throwing unfaithful Jonah overboard or merely feeling sorry for themselves. They are looking for a true way to face the problem, not because of what God must do to stop it, but to discover what they must do.  The point is that these sailors are not like Jonah.  They know they can’t escape the waves, the storm, and the threat, unless they acknowledge the presence, will, and purposes of God.  So, they face the problem head on, and at Jonah’s request, cast him overboard, straight into the ways and waves of God’s will.

What these sailors did not realize, at least at first, was that God is there, already there, right there, in the midst of the storm and the waves.  By casting Jonah into the stormy waves, the storm still wasn’t calmed, not until they themselves put their own lives in God’s hands.   This is where the repentance begins, not by casting blame, but by our coming to God.   Will we do that?   Can we face the waves and confront the real problems by putting ourselves into God’s hands?   Again, we don’t have to throw people overboard, nor condemn, even ourselves, but we do have to face the true problems and the real issues.  If we want God’s help in the storm, we must do our part present ourselves directly to God and his compassion for us? 

One of the all-time classic novels and movies, as you well know, is Gone with the Wind. You may not know, however, that the original story had more than just a kernel of truth in it. There was a Rhett Butler, but his real name was Rhett Turnipseed. Scarlet O'Hara was Emelyn Louise Hannon.

In fact, Rhett did walk out on her and joined the Confederate Army. When the war was over, Rhett Turnipseed became a drifter and gambler. He ended up in Nashville, where his life was turned around on Easter morning in 1871 when he attended a Methodist revival meeting and became a committed Christian.

Soon after, Rhett Turnipseed enrolled at Vanderbilt University and became a Methodist preacher. He was worried about a young woman in his flock who had run away and was working in a house of prostitution in St. Louis.

This godly pastor rode off to look for her and found her, but incredibly the madam of this house was his former love, Emelyn Louise Hannon—or Scarlet. She refused to let Rhett see the young woman, so Rhett challenged her to a game of cards. If he won the young girl would be free, if Scarlet won she would remain and Rhett won.

Well, the story had a happy ending. The young girl married well and became the matriarch of a leading family in the state. Emelyn was so impressed with the change in Rhett's life, she also became a Christian and joined the Methodist church. Eventually, she opened an orphanage for Cherokee children. She died in 1903, and her grave is marked to this day.

It just goes to show you that truth is really stranger than fiction. The book of Jonah fits into that category. When a man catches a fish, that's not big news, but when a fish catches a man, that is big news.  Acknowledging God’s presence, which we can’t escape, is the way the threats to our own ship of life, can be answered, so that we can have the salvation God desires for us all.  Amen.