Ancient Hippies – Jonah
Sycamore Creek Church
November 18 and 19, 2012
Tom Arthur
Jonah

Note: The basic idea of this sermon came from David “Welshy” Wilson who preached an excellent sermon on Jonah at the Wesley Fellowship at Michigan State University.

Peace friends!

Hippies are kinda weird.  They’re sometimes offensive.  At their best, they speak truth to power.  That’s the 1970s variety.  The ancient variety is called a prophet.  The prophets were ancient hippies.  The prophets in the Bible were kinda weird.  Sometimes they were offensive.  And they always spoke truth to power.  But sometimes the prophet needed truth spoken to him.  Today we explore an ancient hippie: Jonah.

One of the great things about the book of Jonah is that it is short and compelling and an entertaining read.  It has four chapters.  Pick it up this afternoon or this week and read it all in one sitting.  It’s not long at all.  Today we’ll have the chance to range over the entire book.  So let’s dive right in.

Jonah 1:1-3 NLT
The LORD gave this message to Jonah, son of Amittai:  “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh! Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.” But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction in order to get away from the LORD.

Most of us are pretty familiar with this part of the story.  God calls Jonah to go speak truth to power inNinevehand Jonah runs from his mission.  He went in “the opposite direction”!  What mission are you running from?

Sometimes even though I’m a pastor I run from the mission of sharing God’s love with others in explicit ways.  I’m a pastor but I’m timid to bring up spiritual things in conversation with people I don’t know well, or people that I think might not like me if I bring them up.  The other day I was talking with someone I had recently met and she brought up her spiritual story.  I’m such a bozo that I changed the topic!  What was I doing?!

Other times I’m timid to bring up questions of eternal significance with people who haven’t explicitly signaled to me that they want to talk about these kinds of things.  Maybe this is because of my experience “Mall Witnessing” as a teenager.  Do you know this behavior?  You go with your youth group to the mall and you try to lead people to Jesus who are complete strangers.  I was about as successful at mall witnessing as I was at picking up girls at the Mall!  Which is to say zero percent successful.  And all either ever did was make me feel really uncomfortable.

Or maybe I think I’m afraid of coming across like the guy who shot me with theological questions and Bible verses one day before our Monday night worship at Grumpy’s.  He came up to me and within thirty seconds said:

• Do you believe in being born again?  It’s in the Bible.
• What about regeneration?  Being made a new creature?  It’s in the Bible.
• Do you believe in hell?  Do you preach about it?  It’s in the Bible.
• Do you preach the Bible?
• Do you believe that the body of Christ can be split?  The Bible says…

I don’t think he really cared about what I thought, he only wanted to quote the Bible at me.  He didn’t even really seem to care that I was working on setting up for a worship service!  I felt like hiding under a table.  Really.  I just wanted him to go away.  And I’m the pastor!

So if you’re a guest here today, I want you to know, that we’re not like this.  We’re curious about God.  Questions are welcome.  You don’t have to have it all figured out to belong here.  You’re free to even disagree with me!

I know I’m not alone when it comes to running from this mission of sharing God’s love with others in spiritual conversation with others.  I asked my friends on Facebook what keeps them from inviting people to church.  Here’s what I heard back from them.  They fear:

• Forcing a conversation
• Being pushy and preachy
• Not wanting to look judgmental
• Scared that their own faults will make them look hypocritical
• Guilt by association – The church hurts people
• Being asked a question they can’t answer
• Being “out argued”

So sometimes we run from the mission before us, just like Jonah.  We run for a variety of reasons.  Let’s get back to Jonah and see what happens.  The big question in the book of Jonah is: What exactly is the mission in the book of Jonah?

As we keep reading we find that Jonah hops on a boat and goes the opposite direction that God wants him to go.  A big storm picks up and Jonah realizes he’s the reason for it.  He tells the sailors to throw him into the sea to stop the storm…

Jonah 1:15-17 NLT
Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once!  The sailors were awestruck by the LORD’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him.  Now the LORD had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

Growing up you’re told that the story of Jonah is about trusting God to provide in a time of trial, God sent a whale to save Jonah.  But that’s not what the story is about!  The mission ultimately isn’t about the whale.  Although God “appointed” or assigned a mission to the great fish.  The whale follows God’s mission when Jonah wouldn’t!  As we keep reading we find that the whale spits Jonah up on dry ground.

Jonah 3:1-4 NLT
Then the LORD spoke to Jonah a second time:  “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message of judgment I have given you.”  This time Jonah obeyed the LORD’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all.  On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!”

Jonah finally obeys God’s command to go and speak truth to power inNineveh.  His heart isn’t in it, but he goes anyway.  How many times do we go through the motions out of obedience (for fear we’ll get swallowed by a whale!), but our hearts are far from God’s heart?  So what happens when we obey without our heart in it?  Let’s keep reading…

Jonah 3:5 NLT
The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they decided to go without food and wear sackcloth to show their sorrow.

We find that obedience is important.  God will work in spite of our hypocrisy, our going through the motions on the outside, but not caring on the inside.  That’s pretty amazing.  God works in spite of us!  Thank you God.  And when you read the rest of chapter three, you see that even the animals repent.  The king orders everyone to wear sackcloth including the animals!  (I’ve always wondered if the cats submitted to this?).

So this is the mission of Jonah, right?  This is what we’re supposed to get out of this book, right?  Jonah was given a mission to speak truth to power.  At first he disobeyed but then he obeyed. Ninevehrepented and God did not destroy them.  That’s the moral of the story.  Right?  Well, actually no.  The mission of Jonah isn’t ultimately aboutNineveh.  In fact, most of us don’t even know what happens in the fourth and last chapter of Jonah.  So let’s keep reading…

Jonah 4:1-4 NLT
This change of plans upset Jonah, and he became very angry.  So he complained to the LORD about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, LORD? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you were a gracious and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. I knew how easily you could cancel your plans for destroying these people.  Just kill me now, LORD! I’d rather be dead than alive because nothing I predicted is going to happen.”  The LORD replied, “Is it right for you to be angry about this?”

Here we find what the real mission is for Jonah.  It’s not about Nineveh.  The mission, the truth that needs to be spoken is more about Jonah himself!  The mission is to change Jonah, for Jonah to care about people he didn’t care about before, people who were literally his enemies. Nineveh was their capital of the Assyrian Empire which sacked Israel and took them off into exile.  Jonah understandably does not like them and only wants God to wipe them off the face of the earth.  But God cares for the Assyrians and wants to make a point to Jonah.  God’s heart is one of compassion and mercy to all, even our enemies.  That’s the truth that needs to be spoken to Jonah.  It’s the true mission of the book of Jonah.  Jonah needs to be saved as much as Nineveh!

The Problem and the Point
Here’s the problem both with Jonah and us: Our hearts don’t beat with God’s heart. We don’t care about the same things God cares about, people far from God.

Here’s the main point of the book of Jonah: The mission is to sync our hearts with God’s heart, to care about the same things that God cares about, which is to share God’s compassion with all.

Lately I’ve gotten a little…OK a LOT…hooked on The Voice.  I haven’t watched it before, but I have kept up with it this year.  Something happens each time someone leaves the competition: there’s often a disconnect between the mentors/judges and those watching the show.  Their hearts aren’t always synced.  The audience likes one person and the judges/mentors like someone else.  The mission of Jonah is to sync all those hearts together, to get them beating in unison.

The end of the book of Jonah is somewhat startling.  A plant grows up to provide Jonah some shade.  But the sun kills the plant.  Jonah is pretty upset that this plant died.  And we continue reading…

Jonah 4:8-11
And as the sun grew hot, God sent a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah. The sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and wished to die. “Death is certainly better than this!” he exclaimed.  Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?” “Yes,” Jonah retorted, “even angry enough to die!”  Then the LORD said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. And a plant is only, at best, short lived.  But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness,not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”

That’s the abrupt end of the story.  What happened?  I don’t know.  Jonah’s heart at this point is such that he cares about his own comfort, while God’s heart is such that he cares about whether God’s comfort has come into the heart of all people.  The book of Jonah is written as if the end of the story is now up to you!  Will you obey even if your heart isn’t in it, but go even deeper by seeking a heart change, by seeking to sync your heart with God’s heart?  God’s heart is this: that all people would know the compassion and comfort of God.

So when was the last time you had a conversation about the compassion of God with someone who didn’t know the comfort of God?  When was the last time you invited someone to come to join our church in worship?

This month is our twelfth anniversary as a church.  We are twelve years old.  We’re only a pre-teen.  Pretty soon we’re going to get rebellious!  To celebrate our twelfth birthday, we recently interviewed Barb Flory, the “rebel grandma” who was the founding pastor of Sycamore Creek Church.  We asked her what excited her about SCC these days.  Here’s what she said:

Did you hear that?  Barb is excited that we’re stepping out of our comfort zone to creatively reach new people for Christ.  Yes!  Yes!  Yes!

Now here’s the deal as I’ve begun to experience it.  When you start something new like our Monday night Church in a Diner at Grumpy’s Diner, it’s super easy to invite people to it.  It’s also super important.  Because it’s obvious that if you don’t invite people, it won’t live to see another day.  Something I’ve noticed about our Sunday morning venue is that twelve years into it, we’ve become a little more concerned about our own comfort and a little less concerned about whether we’re sharing the comfort of God with others.  We can kinda coast on Sunday mornings.  But if we coast too long, we’ll end up slowing down and dying.

So I’d like to give you some practical tips this morning on how to invite people to experience the compassion and comfort of God by joining us for worship some Sunday or Monday.  I asked several different people how they invite people.  Here’s the responses I got:

Amberlee

Amberlee focuses on the feel of the venue.  It’s relaxed and casual.  The teaching is practical.

Mark

I love how Mark makes it seem so simple, like sharing about your favorite restaurant.

Gretchen

Gretchen has an idea that I’ve used myself.  When someone asks you how you’re doing, don’t just say, “Fine.”  Tell them you’re excited about something going on at your church.

Bill

Bill is the owner of Grumpy’s, and he’s always inviting people to join us.  He can’t attend a church on Sunday morning so this has become his church.  He simply shares with people what he gets out of it.

It doesn’t quite work the same way for me that it works for all of you.  A conversation with me always brings up church because people ask me what I do.  Then when I tell them I am a pastor, they ask about the church and location.  But I could stop there.  On my good days, I take the conversation at least one step further by asking, “Do you have a church family?”  I find that question is a non-judgmental way to ask about church.  If you ask if they attend church, then it kinda puts them on the defensive if they don’t.  But if you ask if they have a church family, then you’re asking about their community.  I had a conversation like this the other night with a dad I met at the pajama reading time at the Holt Library.  We both had sons in their pajamas “listening” to the librarian read bedtime stories.  He asked what I did, and we got into the conversation.  I asked him if he had a church family and he said he didn’t because he thought that religion causes a lot of damage around the world.  I told him I couldn’t agree more.  He told me that he still didn’t have his religious views figured out and I told him we were a community that is curious, you can bring your questions with you.  I said, “I’m a pastor, and I’ve still got questions!”  The conversation didn’t go much further than that, but I did invite him to our daddy kid night out.  I look forward to seeing him again at another pajama story time and continuing the conversation.

Now I wasn’t always comfortable in that conversation.  In fact, when he brought up the whole religion-does-a-lot-of-damage thing, I was working really hard not to get defensive.  But what I knew deep down was that God loves this guy.  And he’s got some kind of pain in his life that needs God’s comfort.  I don’t know what it is, but maybe someday I’ll get to know him better and will learn what that is.  But the mission in that moment was for my heart to sync with God’s heart for this other young dad whether I was comfortable with it or not.

Friends, look for God in the midst of your discomfort.  What is your discomfort telling you about what God cares about, where God’s heart is at?  It may be the exact opposite of where your heart is at.

Imagine this: we could double in size next week if everyone invited one person!  We could reach out to twice the number of people and share with them the love and comfort of God if each one of us brought a friend, family, neighbor, or co-worker with us next week.

It’s the Christmas season.  That’s the perfect season to invite people.  If someone is going to be open to coming to church, this is the time when they’re open.  We’re shooting a commercial today to help till the ground for you ahead of time, so that when you invite them, they’ll have already heard about us.  Our Christmas series is simply called Carols.  Each week we’re going to look at a Christmas Carol in a new way.  They’re songs you’ve heard over and over, but you’ll walk away each week hearing it in a whole new way.  Who can you invite to this series?  Take a moment and write down three names.

Here’s how I’ve seen invitation happen lately: Bill invited Carl and he came.  I invited Molly and she brought ten people with her!  Daniel invited Julie and Julie invited her whole family: 4 “kids” and 3 or 4 grand kids! Josh walked by and saw the Grumpy’s sign and invited his roommate, Tom.  His roommate invited a friend.  That guy invited a friend too!  Each of these people’s heart was synced with God’s heart to share the comfort and compassion of God with others.  Is your heart in the mission?

Prayer
Here are two prayers from a prayer guide I’ve been using lately:

Lord, you have such compassion on all you have made.  Thank you for loving this fallen world so much that you gave your only son to redeem it.  Help those who are lost to realize that you don’t want anyone to perish, but instead desire for everyone to come to repentance (Psalm 145:9, John 3:16, 2 Peter 3:9).

Lord, help me be more sensitive to those who are lost and outside the family of God.  Give me your heart of compassion for them because they are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:36).

Amen!