3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) – January 21, 2024

St. Paul – Lyons, KS

Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Psalm 25:4-9; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20

The Real Story of Jonah

Do you remember the story of Jonah? Jonah and the whale? I remember hearing that story growing up. It’s a very famous story! It falls in the category of Bible stories like David and Goliath, or Moses and the Red Sea, Noah’s Ark. And what I mean is stories that we’re told as children, stories from the Bible—but stories that have been robbed of their meaning. We tell them like they’re fairy tales. So we know of them, but we don’t really know them. 

But the book of the prophet Jonah (which we heard one small part of in our first reading)—the book of the prophet Jonah, which is only about three pages long, is probably also one of the most mistold stories in the Bible. Usually, people retell the story this way. Jonah hears from God that he is supposed to go preach to the Ninevites. But he was too scared to preach God’s message and so he decided to run away. He hops on a boat, but then there is a big storm. And when the people on the boat find out that the storm is because Jonah is running away, they get angry at him and throw him overboard. But that’s when Jonah gets eaten by the fish, racks up the courage, and then goes and preaches to the Ninevites and they are saved. Hooray, Jonah! That’s not the story of Jonah.

Jonah is called by God to preach to the Ninevites, yeah. But what is Nineveh? Nineveh is the capital of Assyria. Assyria. As in the bitter enemy of the Israel, a military superpower that wants nothing more than world domination. Assyria is doing some pretty sketchy things, and so God calls Jonah (an Israelite prophet who works in the court of the King)—God calls Jonah to go and preach a message of repentance in Nineveh. Why? Because if Nineveh doesn’t repent, God promises to destroy them. And that’s when Jonah starts to run in the opposite direction—we’re told he’s running to Tarshish, which is another way of saying, “He starts running to the other end of the world, as far from Nineveh as possible.” 

The questions is, “Why?” Why does he run? Because he’s scared? No. Because he’s rebellious. Jonah runs because he wants Nineveh to be destroyed! Think: God has promised to destroy Nineveh if they don’t repent. Jonah puts two and two together: “If I don’t preach, our greatest enemy, our greatest threat will be destroyed.” So he runs! Does that make sense? He’s rebellious! The prophets are usually God’s hero’s, people we want to emulate. But Jonah—Jonah is the worst!

Ok, so that’s when he hops on a boat and that storm comes up. But when the people on the boat find out that it’s Jonah’s fault, that he’s running from God, they aren’t angry with him. They just ask him, “What should we do?” And that’s when Jonah says, he suggests, “Kill me. Throw me overboard.” Which, again, can sound like Jonah is taking one for the team—until you realize that Jonah is actually trying to avoid going to Nineveh! If running away doesn’t work, he’s going to do whatever it takes to make sure that he doesn’t even accidentally preach a message of repentance to Nineveh! He’s doubling down on his rebellion!

That’s when this great fish swallows him—which should be the death of him, but actually serves as a time for Jonah to turn back to God, to agree to do God’s will regardless of what he thinks. And so the fish barfs him up on dry land. And that’s where our reading picks up today.

Jonah goes through the town of Nineveh, half-heartedly preaching. It’s almost as if he is trying to sabotage his own mission. He’s doing the bare minimum. He simply says, “Forty days more and Nineveh will be destroyed.” In Hebrew, it’s only five words. He’s not even trying! But even though it should take three whole days to walk through the great city, after only one day—one day!—the whole city repents. And so God spares the city, and they’re saved.

But the story keeps going! Jonah is ticked. He is so upset with God! He tells God, “This is exactly why I didn’t want to preach! I knew that you are a gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.” And Jonah is so angry and so upset that he prays, “Please kill me, Lord. Just kill me. I would rather be dead than see this.” Jonah would rather die than live with the God that forgives his enemies. But then the book ends with God asking Jonah: “Shouldn’t I be concerned about Nineveh, and all of those hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their way?” And we don’t get Jonah’s answer because the question is meant for us.

Are you ok with the fact that God loves your enemies? Are you ok with the fact that God’s plans can seem to be completely in conflict with your plans?And can you see Jonah in yourself? Can you see in yourself that you try to get God to hate your enemies, just like you do? You are trying to avoid God’s plans, because deep down you just want your own plans? But also, aren’t you glad that God loves His enemies, and puts up with the Jonah in all of us?

“Repent” and “Believe”

Why do I spend so much time telling you the entire story of Jonah? Because we’re Jonah. We are people that easily get entrenched in our own ideas of how things ought to be—how our own personal lives ought to be, how society ought to be, how our schools ought to be, how our jobs ought to be; our social and political opinions and preferences and ideologies—just like Jonah. We justify our opinions with sound-bites from religious language—just like Jonah. We love to tell ourselves how other people are the problem, and that if they were just gone life would be so much better; we label people our enemies, and presume that they must be God’s enemies too—just like Jonah. And while none of us have gotten on a boat to run or tried to get ourselves drowned, we have probably avoided responding to God’s invitation to change, or said and thought about rather being dead than seeing the people we disagree with thrive—just like Jonah.

Why does the Church have us mediate on the story of Jonah? Why does the Church give us the story of Jonah in connection with our Gospel today? Well, what happened in the Gospel? Jesus preaches his first sermon, sermon number one: “Repent, and believe in the good news.” We have spent months and months talking about this sermon, in fact this is pretty much all I preach about. “Repent” is that Greek word, “metanoiate”—comes from smushing two Greek words together: meta and nous (ring a bell?). Meta, go beyond, and nous, your mind. Meta-nous, go beyond your current mind, your current way of of seeing the world and reality, and see it in a new way. Remember we talked about milk transfusions, how we used to think that was a good idea instead of blood transfusions? We needed to metanoia, go beyond that mindset and embrace a new one. “Believe” is another word we spent so much time talking about. “Believe” is that Greek word for faith. We spent weeks talking about faith. Charles Blondin and the wheelbarrow across Niagara falls, right? Everyone knew that he could do it, everyone saw it, had an intellectual knowledge that he could cross the tightrope while pushing a wheelbarrow. But the issues is would they entrust their life to him? Would they put their life, their actual life into his hands, get in the wheelbarrow? That’s us: will we put our life, entrust our life to Jesus Christ and his Church? Jesus message, his sermon isn’t, “Stop doing bad things and be a Christian,” no. His sermon is, “Metanoiate, go beyond your current way of seeing things; turn away from your plans, how you think life is supposed to be; you don’t know all the pieces, you don’t have the full picture; go beyond your narrow way of seeing things. And entrust your life to the good news; entrust your life to me; put your life not in the hands of the government, or a doctor’s diagnosis, or your bank account, or whatever—entrust your life, your children’s lives, the country, the Church—entrust everything to me.”

Jonah shows us what it looks like when we don’t repent and when we don’t actually believe in God—we double down on our own plans, we avoid God’s plans. Do we see that? God said he was going to destroy the Ninevites if Jonah didn’t preach to them—and in Jonah’s mind, God destroying them was a great thing! He needed to metanoia, go beyond that mindset. Why was it so hard? Because what Jonah actually believed in wasn’t God plan, God’s providence, God’s ultimate goodness—Jonah believed in his own plans. Do we see that? It’s very important that we see that.

Why? Because it gets worse. I would like to say that the story of Jonah has a happy ending. But you know what? A couple of years later, Assyria, the same nation that Jonah was going to let be destroyed—that same nation came and wiped out the ten northern tribes of Israel, the northern kingdom of Israel, Jonah’s people. In other words, by doing what God asked him to do, things got worse, not better. Jonah’s greatest fear came true!  But God’s plan was so much bigger! And God never ceased working his plan. And when the time was fulfilled, when everything was ready, God sent his son. And that son came proclaiming the good news: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the good news.”

Do As Jonah Did (Kinda)

So how do we do this? Because let’s be honest, it’s not like we don’t know that we’re rebellious. But how do we change? We know the right answers, we know what the Church teaches, we know that we are rebellious, but we don’t change. (I’ve told you before, it’s my favorite confession: “Bless me Father for I have sinned… Same as last time!”) So how do we change? What’s the key? What’s the secret?

Well, go back to the story of Jonah. When did Jonah change? Where was it? In the belly of the fish. What Scripture tells us is this: “The LORD sent a great fish to swallow Jonah, and he remained in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. And Jonah prayed.” The missing ingredient, the missing piece for Jonah—prayer. And notice: not just “saying prayers,” but “prayer.” Prayer that gave birth to deep realizations, a change of heart, a miraculous peace, a firm resolve. There in silence, in a place free from distraction, in an extended time alone with the Lord in prayer—everything changed for Jonah.

Like I’ve mentioned, next week we’re going to begin our new ten-week series called “Reconnecting…” It’s going to operate in a way similar to “Rerouting…” last year (handouts, deeper dive videos, a chance to gather in small groups). But “Reconnecting…” is really the next piece in our journey. “Reconnecting…” is designed to give us the tools, the method to “dial in” to a life-changing connection with God. “Reconnecting…” is all about this prayer that can truly change us, change our lives. Why? Because it finally gives us, gives God access to our heart. Jonah knew what God was asking, he knew what God taught—that wasn’t the issue. Jonah’s issue, our issue? It has to reach the level of the heart, or its just empty words. And nothing is more important than this, nothing. What did St. Paul tell us in our second reading? “For the world in its present form is passing away.” The way we think things operate, the things people tell us are important—no, nothing is as important as this.

So I just want to invite you: during these next ten weeks, really jump in, really engage. When Jesus preaches that sermon, he doesn’t just drop the words and that’s it. He immediately does what? He calls people to follow, to be with him, to drop their nets and follow. And that’s the secret: Simon and Andrew, James and John, they dropped the important things in their life and made the time and space for the most important thing, the one thing necessary. And that’s the same invitation Jesus makes to each one of us as well.