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Jonah is possibly the best prophet ever. In just five words in Hebrew, Jonah convinces the capital of the current empire to reform and repent of their ways to do no violence or evil. There may not be a prophet who was ever more successful than Jonah. The prophet Isaiah spent 3 years naked to try to convince people to listen to him and they still didn’t. Jonah said five words and I think it wasn’t the start of his speech but that’s all he said and turned around and walked out. Best prophet ever.
On the other hand, Jonah might also be the worst prophet ever. Ignore that when God called him to be a prophet from the northern king of Israel to Assyria, Jonah didn’t argue or make excuses like Moses. He just said nope and tried to flee to Spain. And he wasn’t even successful at that. And I think that’s the part of the story. Most people know the part where Jonah runs away from God ends up in a storm on a boat, gets thrown into the ocean, and then saved by God by being swallowed by a fish.
It’s the part where Jonah gives up and makes the trek to Assyria, to Nineveh, to do what God told him to do.
Now, in case you forgot, we are a denomination and a community that takes the Bible seriously and does truth, but it doesn’t mean we believe everything happened exactly as it’s written. Most biblical scholars do not believe there was a prophet. Jonah, left the northern kingdom of Israel to give a word of destruction to the city of Nineveh the capital of Assyria. Most biblical scholars think that this story was written in the 500s-ish, when the people of the Southern Kingdom of Judah returned from exile in Babylon.
But if we were to place Jonah in the timeline of the history of the people of that land, Jonah and this story would have existed in the 700s BCE, 30 years before Assyria conquered and destroyed the Northern kingdom of Israel. And in that context, Assyria would have been making incursions into that Northern Kingdom as they expanded their empire across the fertile crescent. So when Jonah decides not to go isn’t just because he doesn’t really like them, that they don’t really get along. Whether it is by reality or propaganda that the Assyrians were incredibly violent and absolutely set on the destruction and conquering of Jonah’s people, they were the current Empire of the world, expanding their land and reach, through violent ends. And that included the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Jonah would be putting his life at risk by walking into their city and it was a long way away.
Why does God want to warn them anyway?
No, he’s better off in Spain.
The Bible is full of different kinds of literary genres and when I was in seminary I was taught that Jonah was a satire, it’s meant to be funny. Prophets don’t just nope in the other direction. Fish don’t come up and swallow people prophets don’t convince entire cities to repent with five words and no one covers their livestock and other animals in sackcloth and ashes. Imagine the chickens in little sackcloth capes. It’s funny.
And it’s absolutely not funny in so many ways. The sailors completely believe they are throwing a man to his death and beg for forgiveness and imagine the guilt that they would feel, especially if they did not know the fish showed up later.
Biblical scholar Robert Alter “To send a Hebrew prophet to Nineveh would be rather like sending a Jewish speaker to deliver moral exhortation to the Germans in Berlin in 1936.”
Jonah whips putting his life at risk by walking into Nineveh. So it makes sense that he didn’t walk into the city center. He didn’t walk a day and a half to this massive 3-day walk city which is like the size of Los Angeles. It’s absurd. He walked a day in and decided this was far enough. We don’t even know. Maybe he was surrounded by houses. Maybe it was the bad part of town. We don’t know anything and he just announced maybe in his normal, everyday voice that Nineveh was going to be destroyed in 40 days and he was “like see ya.” He peaced-out in the other direction, sat on a hill, and waited certain of the destruction of the people he hated most.
On Tuesday, did you sit on a hill just outside the city for the end of something that has seemed cruel and violent? And when the 40 days were over Wednesday morning, did you cry out to God? Did you have a moment of thinking of others as the enemy? Did you wish them destruction? You can tell me. It’s just me, you, everyone in the room,… and all those online.
And if when the day didn’t go as hoped, did you sit on a hill, did you complain, cry, hide in bed, did you think you could die, that you couldn’t live through the days ahead?
It is easy to fall into despair, rage, hatred, or… and hopelessness. And it’s easy to get stuck there, to set up a lawn chair and settle in, live in those dark feelings. It’s easy to lose hope, especially when we are alone. It’s easy to believe the worst, turn into ourselves, under whatever shrub we find, it is easy to nurture despair, and bitterness, planning vengeance and leading to violence, it is easy to live there.
We can lament, we should. We should remember lament can be a collective activity. Lament and grieve and cry out and… fold up the lawn chair and walk down the hill.
Because, God is still a God of mercy and justice, compassionate and slow to anger. God is still calling us to mercy and justice, compassion and kindness.
On top of everything else this week, a friend died this week, and went to the funeral on Friday. When folks got up to speak of him at the funeral they told stories of his never backing down from a fight for the well-being of others, for the care of his community, for kindness, he did nothing halfway, in all things he was all in. Unlike our Jonah, he didn’t run way and he didn’t stop a third of the way in.
Jonah only walked a third of the way, he only said 5 words, he stayed in his bitterness on the hill, longed for vengeance on others, and didn’t see the image of God in another and instead saw them as his enemy. What we do know is that God never let him God, never abandoned him.
And we, we are still called to the work of God, to words and actions of justice and mercy, compassion and kindness, we are still called to love. And to be all in. To not run away. To look out for those without power and say all the words to the powerful. To hold onto hope and move in love.
There is still work to be done, there is justice yet to done, there is love yet to be given. Grieve, lament, cry, move in love, rage, scream, be all in for justice.
There is work to do. To walk into the middle of it all, despite the fear, despite what might be difficult days to come, despite the uncertainty, despite…
The time ahead is filled with the same work, we’ve always been called to do justice to love Mercy to love our neighbor as ourselves, to care for those on the margins, those without food or clothing or shelter, those for whom love and compassion has been withheld, to set the captives free, to raise up those who have been under heel. Our calling is the same, to hold onto hope that we find in the present and loving God, the life, teaching, and resurrection of Christ. We live between the world as it is and the world as it is made to be and we live in active love until it is, until it becomes.
So, take a breath. We are not alone, God has not and will not let us go, from ends of the earth, to the bottom of the sea, we will not be lost. We will need not be overwhelmed or stuck. We need to be moved to anger or cruelty. We need not fall into nihilism.
We are not alone, we are not abandoned, our call to love is the same. Always.
A LITANY FOR AFTER THE ELECTION
Presider: Let us pray for those who are grieving all across our nation, that they will not lose hope.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Presider: We pray for those celebrating their victory, that they will do so without spite or cruelty.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Presider: We pray for the rich, that in gaining the world they will not lose their souls.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Presider: We pray for the poor, that what little they have will not be taken away.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Presider: We pray that we will give heed to the earth’s travail and will act for the healing of all creation.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Presider: We pray for immigrants and refugees, that they will find a place of welcome, prosperity, and safety.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Presider: We pray for indigenous people and people of color, that they will know how dearly their lives matter.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Presider: We pray for LGBTQ+ families, that they will not lose the protections they have gained.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Presider: We pray for our transgendered siblings, that they will not lose access to the healthcare they need.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Presider: We pray for all those who have suffered sexual violence; may they know that we believe them and hope for their healing.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Presider: We pray for women in difficult pregnancies, that they will not lose their lives.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Presider: We pray for all those who feel forgotten by our society, that they will feel welcome at the table.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Presider: We pray for our democracy, that this great experiment will not fail.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Presider: We cherish the memory of all who have died in the cause of freedom, and we pray that they have not sacrificed their lives in vain.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Presider: We pray for those who have grown tired in the struggle for justice, that their strength might be renewed.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Presider: We pray for the veil that has been cast over the face of our nation, that it will be removed.
People: Lord, have mercy.
Presider: We pray for courage, in the sure and certain hope that no tyrants can prevail against your resurrection power.
People: Lord, have mercy. Amen.
(Written by the Rev. Dr. John Mabry the morning after the 2024 election. Please feel free to use or adapt for your own worship community.)