“Turn or Burn Or....”?

A sermon based upon Jonah 3: 1-10

Preached by Dr. Charles J. Tomlin,

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

January 21^st, 2018, Winter Bible Study 2018, 3 of 4

In this world, that is filled with so much self-centered, misguided, and sometimes humanly destructive religion, we need to know the difference between good religion and bad religion more than ever.    The book of Jonah is a story written to help shape good religion.  It encourages God’s people to reach out beyond themselves.  In this way the story of Jonah is unique.  Whereas all other prophets in Israel were called to preach to specifically to Israel, for the good of Israel, Jonah is a prophet commanded to preach in hopes of bringing a saving message to another, even an enemy, nation.  Jonah is the only prophet whose sole mission was foreign missions.   

As we have already seen, Jonah was called to go preach to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, which he was very reluctant to do.  It was just not the norm.  So instead, Jonah got on a ship going in the opposite direction, toward Tar-shish, which would be in modern day Spain.  In other words, Jonah tried to go as far away from his missionary calling as possible.  But as the story unfolds, Jonah learns that you can run, but you can’t hide, from God, that is. 

After Jonah’s disobedience is discovered to be reason for a storm sinking the ship,   with Jonah’s permission, the crew throws him overboard in hope of appeasing God’s anger.   As Jonah sinks in the waves, we are told that he is swallowed by a very big fish.  The text doesn’t say it was a whale, but it was ‘a whale of a fish’; large enough to swallow a man whole. Being alive in the fish’s stomach, Jonah prays for God to save him.  After three days and nights in the fish’s belly, Jonah is finally regurgitated onto the shore alive.  Evidently, it appears, preachers can be very hard to digest.   Can I get an Amen?

Today we come to the heart of this very ‘strange’ story, where we must ask: What does this strange ‘fishy’, ‘whale of a tale’ have to do with the real world or with good religion?  Surprisingly, the answer has little to do with the fish, or with Jonah.  Jonah is in no way any kind of hero in this story.  And even this very big fish only gets a couple of verses.

 So, what is this story about?  This is a story about Israel’s God.   Israel’s God is a missionary God.   This is a God who reaches beyond one religion, one people, or one nation.  This is the God who will not give up, for now this saving message comes to Jonah again, for ‘a second time’.  God is not going to let this prophet go, nor this message die, until the preacher, despite his reluctance, or despite this fish’ appetite for preachers, does what God has called him to do.

NINEVEH SHALL BE OVERTHROWN (V. 4)

When I was a freshman in college, there were a lot of ‘preacher boys’ like me who were in training to deliver God’s saving word in the world.  We thought our job was one of the most important jobs in the world.   Not that we were that important, but our calling was.  One upperclassman in my dorm, just down the hall from me, was also studying religion like me  His name was Bobby Setzer.  Today Dr. Robert Setzer is the senior pastor at Knollwood Baptist in Winston-Salem.   

While getting acquainted with my new surroundings, I noticed that ‘Bobby’ had a nickname posted on his dorm room door.  The very interesting nickname given to the young preacher from Greensboro was ‘Turn Or Burn Setzer.’   I never saw Bobby as one of those Bible-beating, aggressive, irritating, hard-nosed preachers, so I figured the nickname was a kind of inside ‘preacher’ joke from his home town or own college preacher buddies.  ‘Turn or Burn Setzer’ was definitely a catchy title.  But can also be true in life.  If we don’t turn from the wrong we do, and learn from our mistakes, we can, so to speak, get burned. 

Of course, there right ways to warn people about the consequences to their wayward deeds and actions.  And historical records point out that Assyria was, at times, a very evil nation, sometimes being evil in ways like the Nazi’s or like ISIS and the modern Muslim State is today.   They were a notoriously bully nation.  Assyria was very aggressive militarily and she was greatly feared by her neighbors, especially by little Israel to its south. 

When Jonah finally arrived in Nineveh, he came with a really big ‘chip on his shoulders’.  Since God had rescued him, by nearly killing him,  he still seemed to be pouting, because he only preached a one-word sermon.  Wouldn’t you like that; a one word, one point, one idea sermon?  But this one word sermon was even more direct than ‘turn or burn’.  Jonah walked across this very large city, said to be a three day walk, that is, about 75 miles.  But he only walked across one third of it, not half of it.  He walked for just one day, probably about 25 miles, and then he preached just one word, or idea: ‘burn’.  He cried: ‘Just Forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown (3:4).  Jonah doesn’t say anything else.  He doesn’t give them a chance to change.  He doesn’t give them any hope of salvation.  All he does is warn them what is about to happen.  It’s not turn or burn, but just burn.  God is about to destroy you.  That’s it.  That’s certainly enough to say, isn’t it?       

During a funeral service, an overly zealous preacher stood to talk about the deceased.  Everyone knew that the deceased was not a very good person, and this very direct, unlearned, uncouth, cornfield preacher dared to name it.  He started naming all the bad things ‘ole Joe’ did in his life.  Some of the things the preacher said about him where rude, crude, and down right insulting.  Everyone could not believe the preacher dared to speak about all his faults in public; and at this man’s funeral, of all things.  Then, after saying all these negative things about ole Joe, not missing a beat, looking straight in the eyes of the surprised congregation, he spoke even more directly, saying: ‘It’s too late for ole Joe, but it’s not too late for you.  Is this any way to preach a funeral?  And do you know what was most upsetting?  It was all true.  

In Charles Dickens novel Bleakhouse, there are some very colorful characters.  One colorful character is a man named Krook who drinks too much. In the story,  Krook is an opportunists who holds something very valuable; some lost love letters that a wealthy woman does not want made public.  She would pay dearly to recover these letters.  But Krook was unable to cash in and sell the letters.   He drinks and drinks to celebrate his good fortune, even before he gains it.  Krook drinks so much that he strangely dies of spontaneous combustion.  The rich, heavy, alcohol explodes in his stomach, with a sudden, horrible, fiery blaze.  This was not just a spontaneous combustion, but this was also a death of self-consumption.  It was a point of no return. 

This is where we are now in this story about Jonah.  We have come to a fork in the road, but will it be a good fork?   God has given Jonah another chance to go and preach the missionary message.   He is to speak the truth and warn this wicked city.  But, now, as he preaches, here is something else we must not miss, not just about Nineveh, but about Jonah and Nineveh too.   While God gives this prophet a second chance, it is not a second choice.  God only gives Jonah another chance to choose what God chooses.  Jonah must obey God and tell the truth.  But now, what about this wicked city?   God is willing to give them a second chance too, but they do not get a second choice.   But Jonah hardly gives them even a chance or a choice.  He just tells them their time is up and they and they will burn!  

THE PEOPLE...BELIEVED GOD.. V 5

The surprise of surprises, is that, contrary to Jonah’s reluctance, these pagans get the message, even better than Jonah, or better than God’s people in either Jerusalem or Samaria.   

This is really the heart of the story.   Can you see it?   Just as those pagan sailors understood something Jonah didn’t, wicked Nineveh now actually understands Jonah’s message and takes it more seriously than Jonah.  Nineveh repents.  Nineveh turns, and doesn’t burn.  It appears that Jonah would rather have them ‘burn’.  But strangely, and I mean very strangely, contrary to all of Jonah’s expectations; and even contrary to Jonah’s wishes too, these ‘pagan’, notoriously bad, evil people are said to ‘believe God’ and his message better than God’s prophet and even better than God’s own people do.  And boy, do they understand!

We read in this story that not only does Nineveh believe, we are told that Nineveh ‘believed God’ (v.5).  This is the same verb used when Abraham trusted and obeyed God (Gen. 15:6).  True faith is meant.  This is a real change of heart by these bad, mean, and pagan people. 

We know this is true faith and radical change because they give us an example of genuine repentance.   Everybody shows public signs of repentance by fasting and putting on sackcloth and ashes (5).  That’s how publicly signified repentance in that world.  And even the king gets in on the seriousness of it all too (6).  He declares a national day of repentance for everybody.  We are even told that the domesticated animals are dressed in sackcloth to shows signs of repentance too (7).

If this story sounds too good to be true, you need to focus on the fact that it keeps rubbing in the something that is obviously true in Israel’s own history.   Even though no one knows when the story of Jonah was written, whether it was before or after the exile, it makes the same point either way.  The point that this book of Jonah keeps on making is that while God’s people paid no attention to what the prophets preached (Jesus too said they stoned the prophets, Luke 13:34), these pagans of Nineveh are now more serious and sincere about God’s message than God’s own people are.  And to make the point clear clearer, this is a message of repentance being taken to them by a half-hearted preacher who had come from, what appears to have been, a half-hearted people. 

Several years ago, in the late 1980’s, I had a returning Southern Baptist Missionary, speaking in my church in Shelby.   He had lived in Brazil as a missionary for almost 40 years.   While he and his wife were sitting in our home, I asked him: “What is the one big difference in American Churches now, and American Churches when you left 40 years ago.  How would you express the change in American religion over 40 years?  Without pause, he said he would express the difference with one word: “Repentance”.  Today there is a lack of ‘repentance’ in preaching and in the pew, he told me. 

Most of you know the name of Rudolph Hess.  Rudolph Hess was a notorious Nazi leader, who was Hitler’s assistant.  Early in the War, Hess flew to Scotland trying to negotiate peace with Great Britain and to get England to join up with Nazi Germany in their cause, but instead Hess was arrested as a war criminal and put in prison.   After the war, Hess was moved back to Germany and place into a red brick prison near Berlin known as Spandau.  After the war, this large prison only held one man.   Hess was sentenced to life imprisonment, where in Spandau,  the aged Nazi wandered the halls and gardens awaiting his death.  Then one summer he strangled himself, finally, the old prison is being torn down. 

If there is one thing Rudolph Hess should be remembered for, it is this: He never repented. Guilty of the most atrocious sins a man could commit, he never once felt any remorse. Until the day he died he thought of himself as the deputy fuehrer of the Nazi party. Listen to Hess' last public statement at the Nuremberg trials.  Hess wrote:  I was allowed for many years of my life to work under the greatest son that my people produced in their 1,000 year history. Even if I could I would not want to erase this. I am happy to know that I have done my duty to my people...as a loyal follower of my fuhrer. I regret nothing. "If I were to begin again I would act just as I have acted, even if I knew that in the end I should meet a fiery death at the stake. No matter what men may do to me, someday I shall stand before the judgement seat of the eternal. I shall answer to Him and I know that He will judge me innocent.

Hess saw no need to repent.  His stubborn, human pride would not allow him to admit that he had been guilty of barbarous crimes.   A strong part of him, that can run deep in any of us, is that part which which says, like Jonah said “You need to repent”, or “They’d better repent or else, but I don’t need too.”  

GOD REPENTED OF THE EVIL... V 10

What I think is most amazing in this story of Jonah, is what happens next.   Not only do the evil people of Nineveh freely and intentionally repent, but our text tells us that God also repents.   Israel wouldn’t repent.  Jonah won’t repent.  But Nineveh does.  And when Niveveh repents of their sins, God is also willing to ‘repent of the evil that he said he was going to do’ (3:10).  Yes, you heard it right.   This God who gives calls people to repent of the evil they have done, stands ready and willing to ‘repent of the evil…he said he would do.’

It’s certainly a strange thing to read in the Bible that repents.  But it happens several times, like in Genesis 6:6, when God is ‘sorry’ that he created people, because they are so evil, and in Exodus 32:14, when God almost wiped out his people because they had made a idol of a Golden Calf out of God.    In both of these situations, like here in Jonah, we read that God changes his mind.   It is not saying that God changes who he is, since the Scripture also says that God does not ‘change like the shifting shadows’ (James 1:17).  But what these texts, and this text in Jonah is saying, is that God can indeed change his mind about what he is planning to do, especially when it comes to punishing people for their sins.   And this kind of ‘change’ does not point to God’s weakenss, but it points to God’s strength.  Here in Jonah, like in Exodus, God changes his mind because God loves.  It is sincere, faithful love; not just a love for God’s people, but a love for all people, that can change God’s mind.

While Jonah acted like a "Scrooge," God reveals, right here, in this great book, that He is a God who cares and loves.  Who cares about wicked Nineveh?  God does, and God goes to great effort to see that a prophet was sent to the city.   One might go so far as to say that "God so loved (John 3:16) Nineveh that he sent Jonah to preach to them."   Our God can cut through all the evil; even the ‘evil’ he is about to do, and he can change his mind about people for the sake of love.  Can you?  It isn’t always easy.

Paul Yongi Cho pastors what is believed to be the largest Pentecostal church in the world. When his ministry in South Korea began to receive international acclaim,  Cho told God that he would go anywhere to preach the gospel except Japan.  Cho could not forget what the Japanese had done to Korea and her people, as well as members of his own family.  Eventually, however, an invitation came for Cho to preach in Japan. He accepted the invitation,  but with bitterness.

His first speaking assignment was to address a pastors' conference with a thousand Japanese pastors. When he stood to speak, these words came out of his mouth: "I hate you, I hate you. I hate you." Cho broke down and wept. His hatred had gotten the best of him.   One Japanese pastor, then another, until all one thousand stood up.  One by one these Japanese walked up to Yongi Cho, knelt in front of him, and asked forgiveness for what their people had done to Cho and his people.  As these pastors humbly sought Cho's forgiveness, Cho found himself saying to each one, not, "I hate you," but, "I love you, I love you, I love you." The Japanese were Paul Yongi Cho's Ninevites.  But repentance made everyone look different.  Who are your Ninevites?

What does the story of Jonah then mean for the Church? It asks those of us within the body of Christ to examine our attitudes toward those who not like us, which includes the worst around us. This story also warns us about the falsely conceived idea, that "We are on the inside, and you are on the outside, so stay on the outside because we don't want anything to do with you."  The story of Jonah reminds us that we don’t exist, as a church, to pat ourselves on the back, but we exist for the sake of taking the gospel to the world. Who cares? God does, and God's people should care too. 

So here's the question for you and me: If Jesus came to save the people of Kabul, New York, London, Tokyo, and even North Korea, that is to save people elsewhere and everywhere, what kind of love should we show, if we claim to have experienced God's love?    This does not mean that ‘anything goes’ or that don’t call people to repentance.  No, 

It means that Israel’s God is the God who gives us a second chance, but the is not a God who gives us a second choice.   The choice to love and to preach a gospel of repentance is our only way to have this chance; so that God’s love can change us, just as God’s love never changes.  Amen.