Reflections on "Sulking in the Shade" Jonah 3: 1 - 4:11

I had a lot of fun with this sermon.  If you can imagine me in shorts, sandals, and an Hawaiian shirt, sitting in a lawn chair with a tall bush providing me shade (until God struck it down), you have a picture of the first person sermon I shared yesterday.  In my notes on Jonah, I had mentioned that we ought to see the humor in Jonah, so I tried to live that out in the sermon.

Thanks to Kathy, our Program Director who designed the perfect bush for the scene and to Bill, the liturgist Sunday, who took on the role of the Narrator with his usual dramatic flair. Their added parts to the sermon really made it work.


“Sulking in the Shade” FPC, Troy; 8/30/15; Minor prophet series; Jonah 3&4

Jonah: I'm going to just sit here in the shade and watch old Nineveh. Here in the shade of the bush God gave me to keep cool I can watch what happens to those Ninevites.

Watch them get into trouble with God. They are nothing but a bunch of losers.

Narrator: Welcome to the minor prophet Jonah, perhaps one of the most familiar of all the prophets.

We tell the story of Jonah being swallowed by the big fish (we say that he was swallowed by a whale, but the biblical text only tells us a big fish).

Biblical scholars do not know when Jonah was written.

Jonah reads more like a short story than a prophecy, but is probably included in the minor prophets because it connects itself with the prophet Jonah, son of Amittai.

I am not sure why Jonah is wearing an Hawaiian shirt this morning. You might need to ask him that.

But the biblical text does tell us that God provided Jonah a bush with shade to sit under as he watches over Nineveh.

Jonah: So you want to know how I got here.

It all started when God called me to go and preach judgment to Nineveh. If anyone deserves God's judgment, it's the Ninevites.

I really don't like the Ninevites, so I wanted no part of going and preaching to them, even if it was going to be a word of judgment.

So I left. I hit the road and headed to the coast. I was going to go to Tarshish by way of Joppa, which meant traveling by boat.

My friends thought I was being ridiculous. “Jonah,” they said, “you always tell us that God is the God of everything – land, sea, heavens, the earth, everything. So how do you think you are going to run away from God?”

I was not in the mood to deal with their theological commentary. I just left.

I got to Joppa, found a boat that was going to Tarshish, and set sail.

And what does God do? God sends a big storm. I mean a giant storm. Winds and rain. The waves crashing in on the boat. Even the sailors were scared by this storm.

Not me. What did I care? So what if the ship sank and we all drowned. As long as I didn't have to go to Nineveh, it didn't matter to me. So I went down below and went to sleep.

The sailors were praying to their different gods. They were throwing things overboard to make the ship lighter. Someone saw me sleeping and decided that if I were able to sleep through the storm, then maybe my faith in God was so strong it could save them.

They asked me about God, and I told them about God and how God was in control of heaven and earth. That seemed to impress them and scare them a little bit.

Someone got the great idea that we would cast lots to see which one of us had made God mad enough to send this storm.

I figured I knew how that was going to turn out, and sure enough, I drew the lot.

Me. God would not just let me alone. Oh no, God has to chase me down on the boat.

The sailors grilled me about what I had done. I told them don't worry about it. Just throw me overboard and your problem will be solved.

They didn't believe me. They tried to do it their way. It didn't work. They finally listened to me and threw me overboard.

Guess what? The storm stopped. The waves calmed. The sailors were overwhelmed at what God was doing. So they all became believers.

Yay for God. I'm in the water in the middle of nowhere and the sailors are impressed with God.

But that was not enough. Oh no, God couldn't just thank me for my part in making the sailors believers. God couldn't somehow send me ashore aboard some big wave.

No, God had to send a big fish to swallow me.

Narrator: Let's stop here for a second.

Jonah gets thrown overboard and all the sailors come to believe in God.

In an odd sort of way, Jonah is being a pretty good prophet.

Of course, God's not done with Jonah.

Jonah: Have you ever been swallowed by a big fish? Of course not, God only did that to me.

Let me tell you, it was disgusting. Can you imagine what else that fish had been swallowing? Yuck.

Three days. I was in the belly of that fish three days and three nights. Dark and nasty.

Then, I had one of those moments when I just gave up and turned myself over to God.

“Whatever you want, God,” I shouted. “You are the one, the only God. I will be your servant and do whatever you want.”

God then made the fish spit me out. Let me tell you that was some kind of trip, with a pretty hard landing.

Of course, God still wanted me to go to Nineveh and preach judgment.

So I went. I preached that they had forty days until judgment would arrive. They were in big trouble.

But, of course, they decided to turn to God. They put on sack cloths. Even the king. Even the animals. Have you ever seen a cow in a sack cloth?

The king said, “who knows, maybe God will not destroy us if we ask repent and ask for forgiveness.

The king was right. God decided not to destroy them.

How do you like that? God decides not to destroy the Ninevites. I wanted the Ninevites to be destroyed. But they were saved, all because I came and proclaimed the coming judgment day.

Made me wish I were not a prophet and that I'd never heard of God.

So here I sit, watching Nineveh.

I must be back on God's good side because God has given me a bush to shade me while I sit here.

Narrator: Jonah either succeeded beyond his wildest dreams or he failed, depending on how you look at it.

ON the one hand, he preached the destruction of Nineveh, and he was wrong.

On the other hand, all of Nineveh repented. A prophet's dream

Maybe that's why Jonah's story keeps getting told – a reminder to Israel, a reminder to us, that God calls us to repentance.

But, God is not done with Jonah yet (Knock over bush)

Jonah: What have I done now God? You've killed the bush tree that was giving me shade. Really? What did that bush ever do to you.

Now the sun is beating down on me. It is so hot. What did I do to deserve this?

I'm sick of you, God. All this over the Ninevites. You really care that much about them?

That's why I didn't want to go preach to them, you know. That's why I ran away. Because I know you are a gracious God. I knew they would repent just like I knew you would forgive them.

And now you kill the bush that was giving me shade.

Some days I'm not so sure I like the way you choose to be gracious.

Narrator: There's Jonah, sweating a way. Still not sure what to make of God.

But God shut Jonah up with one simple question: If you are worried about that silly bush, why are you surprised that I am worried about Nineveh, a city of 120,000 people?

To which Jonah could only shake his head and remember the graciousness of God that not even Jonah could fathom.

Amen.