Sermon on 7.26.09

THE TOMB BECOMES A WOMB

Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish's belly. ² And he said:


      " I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction,
      And He answered me.


      " Out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
      And You heard my voice.
       ³ For You cast me into the deep,
      Into the heart of the seas,
      And the floods surrounded me;
      All Your billows and Your waves passed over me.
       ⁴ Then I said, 'I have been cast out of Your sight;
      Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.'
       ⁵ The waters surrounded me, even to my soul;
      The deep closed around me;
      Weeds were wrapped around my head.
       ⁶ I went down to the moorings of the mountains;
      The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;
      Yet You have brought up my life from the pit,
      O LORD, my God.
       ⁷ " When my soul fainted within me,
      I remembered the LORD;
      And my prayer went up to You,
      Into Your holy temple.
       ⁸ " Those who regard worthless idols
      Forsake their own Mercy.
       ⁹ But I will sacrifice to You
      With the voice of thanksgiving;
      I will pay what I have vowed.
      Salvation is of the LORD."

¹⁰ So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

 

 

 

Jonah chapter 2 challenges me. It challenges me for a number of reasons. It challenges me because in many ways, at this time, in this passage, I do not like Jonah. And I do not think he is worthy of God's special favor. I think he is spoiled, snarky, and self-righteous. Even in the belly of the fish as he prays this prayer, as he sings this psalm, I find him not completely turned around. Not completely where he should be. But perhaps what bothers me is the way Jonah 2 is plopped into the middle of the book. The rest of the book is historical narrative. A strange, yet fairly straight forward story. Yet this section here, we have a song.

Ok I admit it. I struggle with Jonah chapter 2 because it comes across as….well….a musical. I have always hated musicals. I have straight up refused to watch the Sound of Music. Partly because it is a musical, and partly because it interrupted a football game while I was watching it one time. You won't see me renting the movie Oklahoma. I watched the musical RENT once because I wanted to spend time with friends, and because we watched the movie in a well-known Christian ministries headquarters after hours in their mini-theatre. But usually, if I am watching a movie, and at some point the character breaks into song and people start dancing behind them, I am pressing eject on the DVD, walking out of the theatre, or switching the channel.

Yet, here in Jonah, we have a musical of sorts. Jonah has been swallowed by a great fish. That fish is swimming around, and we don't know quite where the fish is going yet. And just as he is in the belly of the whale, he starts to sing a song. To pray a prayer. The way it is written --it is this song/prayer that Jonah sings. And then immediately following the song, the whale vomits him up right where he came from.

Until this point Jonah has not spoken to God. God has spoken to Jonah, and Jonah has responded through his actions. But note this. In Jonah's running away he didn't argue with God, he did not try and talk with God. Instead of talking or arguing or doing anything that would keep him in relationship with the Lord, he chose to run away from God. To try and escape his presence. To try and avoid his call. To try and ignore his power. And God chased after Jonah. Jonah tried to run away from God, but God would not let Him go. He pursued Him, and he used any means necessary to bring Jonah back into a relationship with Him. And strange means at that, putting Jonah in the belly of a fish.

So what is the reason for the song? What is the point of this musical of sorts? Here is the point. Most of the rest of the book of Jonah, we here about what happened to Jonah. And what happened was not a pretty. But here, in Jonah 2 what we get is a testimony. A testimony of about God's saving work, his mighty hand, his rescuing love. What we get is a testimony from Jonah.

 

Now, I am not sure how many of you have had a pastor stand up in a pulpit one morning and say that he was led not so much to preach a sermon, but to allow for a time of testimonies. As a child I always thought this was a fun change of pace. Today, as a experienced churchman and clergyman, I have looked back on such events and wondered if the preacher did not have his sermon done that morning and was trying to cover for it by thinking on his feet. Anyway….there are always people who get the idea of sharing down the way they should. They share long enough for you to understand, but not so long that you find yourself wishing the person would shut up. You sense God working in their life. Then there are those people that figure is Amatuer Night at the preacher's mic, and preach everything they ever wanted to. But there is also that person, usually a guy, that stands up to testify to what God has done, and you discover about half way through they are talking more about themselves than God's grace. You hear lots of "me"s and lots of "I"s. You can tell God has done a great work in their lives, and they acknowledge that full-well. But they also seem to try and lift themselves up as they share their testimony. And somewhere in the middle of those testimonies you want to scream, "It is not all about you!" This is what happens when you read Jonah's song closely. You see the great things God has done for Jonah, and you thank God for it, but you also hear Jonah's pride in receiving such great graces and benefits. And you hear Jonah's pride, and you realize that he hasn't quite got the point the completely yet.

Maybe Jonah is not that different from you and I. Maybe we are all a little bit like that. And our point here is not so much to judge Jonah as it is to listen to his testimony, and learn what God is like. Like I told you last week, we need to look at Jonah and see ourselves. And we need to see who God is in relationship to us.

Another review from what we learned last week is that we have this theme of Jonah going down to get as far away as he can from God who is "up there". He goes down from the temple to the gates of Jerusalem, he goes down from the city of Jerusalem on a mountain to the city of Joppa which is at sea level. He goes down from the city to the dock. He goes down from the dock to the boat. Then he goes into the bottom of the boat when it sets sail. Then when the boat is at sea, and the sailors cannot think of anything else to do they throw Jonah into the Mediterreanean Sea.

When we join Jonah's testimony he sinks down into the water. His psalm passionately describes how he was in freefall. The waves went over Jonah. He sunk further down. The tides pulled him down further. He hit the ocean floor. The sand bars became like prison bars. The seaweed wrapped itself around his head. And he honestly believed he was heading to the underworld. The place of the dead. Sheol. He believed he had been dropped from that boat straight to hell no less. And he prayed a prayer. And God answered his prayer. God, who Jonah thought was "up there" rescued Jonah from the "moorings of the mountains" He reached down to Jonah, who was about as far down as he could get. He reached down through the great fish that swallowed Jonah. And Jonah was in that fish for three days and three nights.

Jesus, in the New Testament compares himself to Jonah. Strange comparison. The crowds start gathering around Jesus. They start asking Jesus for a sign. A big magic trick that will prove to them and all the crowds around them that Jesus is really God incarnate, that he really is the Messiah. If you are the one sent from God, they challenge Jesus, then prove it. Give us a miraculous sign. Jesus says that they are a wicked and perverse generation. And no sign will be given them except the sign of Jonah.

Now the most obvious understanding of what Jesus says is the most literal. Jesus died on the cross. There is no doubt he was dead. Yet on the third day he rose again. Jesus said Jonah was in the fish for three days. I will be dead for three days and then rise again. That is what Jesus was saying. Just like Jonah was released from the whale, Jesus will be released from the power of death. And that is a good sign from Jesus, and good news. It is in fact, the ultimate sign that his word is true. It is in fact, what we are here this morning to remember and proclaim

But as we dig into the passage here, and we look at Jonah's experience in the light of Jesus' death and resurrection, we see that a literal death and resurrection is not the only thing to learn from Jonah. Not the only thing we can learn from this sign that Jesus proclaims about the similarities of the experience of Jonah's life, and the message he is trying to send.

What I discovered as I studied is that there is both womb and tomb language in this short little chapter. We have discussed the tomb language. Jonah was going to Sheol, the place of the dead. Jonah was going to the pit. He was dying. He was leaving this world. He was entering the prison of the dead.

But sneakily buried in the story is also the language of birth. He cries out from the "belly" of Sheol. The word "belly" here is not the word for stomach. It is a word for the midsection in general yes, but it is also a term that refers to a womb. And if you look at the language for the word fish, you get a similar vibe. In the last verses of chapter 1 and chapter 2, when the Bible talks about the fish is uses a general male form. In most other languages besides English nouns have gender. A boat may have a feminine article in French for instance, while a fish may have a masculine article to describe it. Hebrew is the same way. But when it gets to Jonah 2:1, right before the description of the womb of Sheol, the word for the fish is distinctively female. This female fish carries Jonah, and lets Jonah's faith gestate in her belly. At the end of three days, he is delivered to the shore a new man. Again, leading us to believe that this time in the belly of the whale is both a womb and a tomb. Jonah in verse 2 cries out "in his distress". This Hebrew word is a word distress, or travail, that is used most often for woman in the pangs of child birth.

 

Jesus dies on a cross. He spends three days in a tomb. And we think it is over. We think all hope is gone. But then, when the situation looks bleak, a new day dawns. And on Easter morning new hope is born. That cross, that seemed like an instrument of death, has become an instrument of new life. That tomb, which seemed to be a symbol of lost hope, has become a symbol of our resurrection joy. Those places of death have now become places of deliverance.

The same is true of Jonah. What seemed to him a place of death and hopelessness has become a place of deliverance and new life. Just when he thought there was no hope, Jonah realized there was new hope.

The sign of Jonah is that there is always hope. The sign of Jonah is that God is ready and eager to deliver us. Oh we may run. We may have sink to depths of our sin and its consequences. But right when we think we are experiences a life where it seems we are headed to the tomb. Where our life reeks of sin and death and vomit, it is then that God may be creating new life in us. If we cry out to Him like Jonah did.

This is the truth that many of you heard when I preached the Thanksgiving Service last year. The message of Jonah is that our God is a God of Second Chances. That is also the Message of the Gospel. It is the message that God wants us to hear right here and right now.

You may have run far away from God. You may have tried to hide from him or ignore him. You may have shaken your fist at Him. You may have demanded that you have things your way. And you rebelled. And you made a mess of your life. Perhaps you just ran away. You are realizing that your life is not winding up the way you dreamed that it would. And you feel that you are alone. And you may feel that it is hopeless. And you may feel that it is too late to change. And you may feel that it is too late to start over. But I have good news for you. Our God is a God of Second chances. Let those attitudes that do not honor God die away. Allow God to deliver you from your selfish and self-destructive ways. And accept his love and his grace. Then realize that our God is a God of Second Chances.

You may think that you have ran too far from God. That there is no turning back. Know this: No place in this world, no circumstance in the universe, is too far away from God to reach out and deliver you. To give you new life where there was only death. Because this one thing is true: Our God is a God of Second Chances.

You may have been like Jonah and believed that being a member of a church, or showing up at a worship service, or being the right kind of person could save you. And then God kind of snuck up on you. And you realize that this tradition you had is not honest real faith at all. And you wonder if the kingdom has room for a fake and a hypocrite like you. I have news for you. Our God is a God of Second Chances.

And because our God is a God of Second Chances that is the truth that we must proclaim. We are not perfect. Even in our relationship with God, at times our faith and our testimony can become too self-centered and too much about us instead of about God that saved us, even though we did not deserve it. We need to remember our God is a God of Second Chances.

You see, even our sin is testimony to the truth of God's goodness and grace. As sinful a person as I am, God is rescuing me. God has given me a Second Chance. And a third chance. And a fourth chance too. So when you see me failing, realize that I am just a sinner like you. And it is God who is still striving to rescue me and use me as stubborn as I am.

This must continue to be our mission. Before we are FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, we should be the FIRST CHURCH OF THE SECOND CHANCE. I have said it before and I will say it again. If I had my druthers I would place a sign, a big sign, along our wall on Main Street. And it would be about 20 feet long. And in bold letters streaming across that banner it would say this.."NO PERFECT PEOPLE ALLOWED". And in smaller letters underneath it a message would be written: ALL OTHERS WELCOME". I would put this up because I believe our God is a God of Second Chances. And third chances. And fourth chances too.

So this morning, this altar is open.

Perhaps you want to join this rag-tag crew of followers of Jesus. We are not perfect, but we strive to listen to God and be faithful to his call. If that is your wish today, come during our invitation.

Perhaps you want to accept Christ. Come and do that this morning. Accept that Second Chance God offers. Cry out to him. He will save you and deliver you.

Maybe you have just made a mess of your life. You have trusted Christ at one point, but have run far from Him. Come forward today. Recommit your life to Christ. Trust that God has a second chance for you too.

Cry out to the Lord. He will hear you. He will make the suffering that feels like preparation for the tomb a womb for new life, new hope, and God's Amazing Grace.

Come to Jesus today. Come.