The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
January 22, 2006
Jonah 3:1-5, 10Psalm 62:6-14Mark 1:14-20
For God alone my soul in silence waits
So. The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time….What do you suppose happened the first time?
You probably do know, because it’s the part of the Jonah story that includes the whale. Jonah was a prophet of the Lord. That means he listened for God’s word and proclaimed it to the people. So it was no surprise when God gave Jonah an assignment to tell some people to mend their evil ways. However, it was quite a surprise to Jonah when God told him to go Nineveh, and not a pleasant surprise. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, an d the Assyrians were the enemies of Israel. As far as Jonah was concerned, Nineveh was the heart of the evil empire. God commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell them to shape up and repent of their evil ways or else God was going to destroy them. Of course the Ninevites, being Assyrians and all, didn’t know Yahweh. They had other gods they paid attention to. So being a sensible prophet from a small town who had no diplomatic standing, much less any know-how, Jonah books passage on a ship heading for Tarshish--in the exact opposite direction. He flees from the presence of the Lord.
Of course that worked out really well for him. He gets on the boat, heads down to take a nap and God hurls a violent storm at the ship so that the ship threatens to break up. The sailors are terrified and start praying to any god they can think of. They didn’t know Yahweh either. They wake Jonah up and tell him to pray to his god as well. The storm does not abate and being superstitious folks, as sailors are wont to be, they cast lots to see who brought this storm on. Of course the lot falls to Jonah.
Jonah has to admit that he worships the LORD GOD whom he has been trying to flee. He tells the sailors the only remedy is to throw him overboard. To give the sailors credit they are quite reluctant to do so. They row harder trying to get back to shore, but the violence of the storm increases. So they finally pray to the LORD GOD not to hold them responsible for Jonah’s blood and they throw him overboard.
The storm immediately stops. The sailors become instant believers in the LORD GOD. Jonah goes under and the waters close over him. But God sends a large fish to swallow him up and Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days. Three days. I suppose Jonah had some time to think. After three days he prays to God saying, “I called to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me.” If not before his sea change, then certainly now Jonah knows where salvation lies. It is in the hands of God alone. “I called to the Lord out of my distress and he answered me.” Sounds a bit like a psalm. Sounds like the psalm we prayed this morning:
For God alone my soul in silence waits….
Parker Palmer, a well known teacher, writer and speaker on spirituality says that the soul is like a wild animal: tough, resourceful and resilient, but also shy. If you go into the forest to see a wild creature you are not going to find it by marching about and shouting. It will not appear on demand. If you want the wild creatures to come out, you need to be quiet and still and patient.* If we want to connect with our souls, we need to be still and quiet and gentle with them. I believe we need to connect with our souls in order to hear and respond to God’s call for us.
For God alone my soul in silence waits.
It is in the belly of the whale that Jonah finds silence--and his soul. He repents: he places his trust in God, again, and God has the whale spit Jonah out. And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and tell them what I told you to tell them!” This time Jonah goes. I expect Jonah is still not happy. Nothing has changed about Nineveh. It is still the capital of the evil empire. Jonah begins his three days walk crying out, “God is going to destroy Nineveh in forty days.” Now, imagine your self leaving this cathedral and walking west through Bethlehem and toward Allentown for three days straight telling people God was about to punish them for their evil deeds. You can imagine what kind of reception you would get. Well, that is what Jonah feared. Yet, amazingly, the people heed Gods’ call to them and repent. Every last one of them, even the king. God acts, by not destroying them.
You might think that Jonah would be pleased. Surly this was a wildly successful gig for a prophet. But Jonah is still unhappy. You’ll have to read the rest of the story yourself. The book of Jonah is in your bible and its not very long. Make sure you read the last chapter.
For God alone my Soul in silence waits.
One of the things I take from the Jonah story is that despite Jonah’s reluctance and downright disobedience, God’s will was still carried out. The people of Nineveh were given a chance to turn to the Lord and they did. Jonah was God’s prophet. And he blew it. Even when he did go to Nineveh, he wasn’t happy. But God’s hope for the people of Nineveh was fulfilled. God can work with what God gets. We don’t get just one chance to get it right. Jonah got a second chance to hear God and to act on God’s word.
For God alone my soul in silence waits,
truly, my hope is in him
He alone is my rock and my salvation…
God has spoken once, twice have I heard it.
Perhaps God speaks only once. But then God’s word reverberates through time and space, there waiting for us when we are ready to hear it…or to hear it again. How can we hear God’s call for us if we are not listening with our souls? How can we connect with our souls if we do not find the space to be quiet and patient? Or do we need to end up in the belly of a whale to hear God’s word?
For God alone my soul in silence waits…God has spoken once, twice have I heard it.
Jesus, the Word, comes along preaching the word of God, telling people to repent and believe in the good news. As he passes along the sea of Galilee he sees Simon and Andrew, James and John, fishermen about their daily business. He calls them to follow him and they do. I don’t know why. They were not prophets, trained to hear God. They were fishermen. We don’t even know if they were particularly religious. We know of no deliberation or internal dialogue on their parts. They don’t talk to their families or tell Jesus they need to sleep on it. They don’t head off looking for a ship to Tarshish. They just follow Jesus. They hear and respond to God’s call.
Why is it so simple for them? Why do they hear and respond the first time? Why do they need no second chance? I don’t know. I don’t know why they got it right off the bat and Jonah didn’t. But it does make me glad because it says there is more than one way to respond to God’s call. There is not one way to get it right. Sometimes following God’s call for us it comes easily, almost without thought. Sometimes it requires a storm to get our attention. Yet even when we are deaf or reluctant, God’s purpose is still carried out.
For God alone my soul in silence waits…God has spoken once, twice have I heard it.
All of which says to me, prepared or not, God calls us and there is no way to know how we will respond. Some days we will be like Jonah, some like Simon Peter. As our collect for today prays, “Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the good news of his salvation….” Regardless of our response, God is relentless in the call.
For God alone my soul in silence waits.
If you want to hear God’s call for you, find a quiet place in the woods… and wait patiently for your tenacious soul to show.
*Parker Palmer, A Hidden Wholeness, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco 2004, pp. 57-59
Copyright © 2006 Anne E. Kitch
