I have some issues with Jonah! And no, I am not talking about the whale or the big fish. I have issues with Jonah himself! I have two specific issues with Jonah, both of which relate to his and indeed our clarity of vision and purpose.

Issue Number 1.
Jonah hears the call of God very, very clearly and then decides to go in the other direction. “Go to Nineveh” is what Jonah knows God is saying, so he makes an immediate booking for Tarshish - exactly the other direction! If Jonah was in New York city and being told to go to Los Angeles, he boards the luxury liner Queen Mary 2, if it ever gets its engines fixed, and sets sail for Europe! This is why I am mad at Jonah; he knows with clarity what God is telling him to do and he utterly rejects it. Isn’t it true that we would give our eye teeth to be 100% certain about God’s plan for our lives. Hey we might give all our teeth, our hair to be sure! Caught in the midst of choices and chances, it takes time and effort for us to hear God’s call!

Issue Number 2.
The second issue I have with Jonah relates to the end of Jonah’s story. After the message of God is proclaimed and the people of the city repent, Jonah gets all huffy with God, he bemoans that God grants mercy and forgiveness. When reacting to God’s wrath, most prophets beg God to be gentle, they plead asking God to show mercy, to give people another chance. But not good old Jonah, the runaway prophet. He grunts and groans because God is merciful and forgiving! This is the very guy who himself has already benefited from God’s deliverance from the aquatic stomach, the prophet who could have ended up on display in the Georgia Aquarium, the guy who proclaims that God is “gracious...  and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.” But when it comes down to it, he gets real angry and bitter when God demonstrates this same mercy to the Ninevites. His anger and frustration vents and then boils over.

Jonah, just what is up with you buddy? Jonah is the poster child for what happens if we volunteer to serve God with our own agenda, our self-designed job description, and self-agreed outcome statements in hand. We’re setting ourselves up for powerful disappointment.

For the last several months, our officers and staff have been seeking to understand God’s vision and mission for our congregation as we move forward. We spent this weekend in Retreat where we made Priorities. And we publicly state these priorities on the quilt you see. [Here Jim shows a quilt made up of the priorities as stated by the session and deacons]

God's Grace
Our lives as God’s children are marked by times of turning from our own ways to respond to God’s tenacious call, the call that has always been there for us because God is committed to us and to the world. We experience God’s love and judgment as two sides of the same coin, and rejoice in the mercy that is God’s nature. In the light of God’s grace, God’s love and mercy to us and for us, what will we do? Will we obey, will we turn around and follow? Or will we attempt to run away from God and from what God asks us to do?

There is great good news for all of us in the story... in all of these quick turnarounds: Jonah turning to and from God, the Ninevites turning to God, and God turning from judgment to mercy we see that God’s grace will always trump condemnation, God’s forgiveness will mitigate God’s anger, God’s mercy, God’s love is what lasts forever!

Service/Sacrifice
Jonah goes fishing in a big city, outside of his comfort zone, among the heathens. Jesus’ disciples were asked to go fishing where they were, their home town, among their own folk. Which would you say is easier and which more daunting? Not an easy question to answer. Do we want to face the known or the unknown? Neighbors or strangers? People we have lived alongside for many years, who know us warts and all, or people that may only ever see us once and hear us preach our one good sermon?

There are times when the last place that I want to be is here. Something will have gotten under my skin, somebody will, by their actions or inaction, have caused hurt to someone else and yet I have to declare God’s love and forgiveness. And sure, there are other places out there where God might send me that I would rather avoid. As the people of Christ in this place, our role is to be gone fishin’ all the time here at home and to the ends of the street, the county, the State, the nation, the world. And as we do this we can expect trouble; it will demand sacrifice.

To modern and postmodern ears, the word sacrifice is a big “Ouch!” It is not something that most people want to hear about, never mind practice. It may sound downright discouraging. And yet, according to the words and life of Jesus, sacrifice is the truth. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” Even though the first disciples may not have fully understood what they were in for at their initial moment of decision, Jesus soon made it abundantly clear that, at the very least, they were in for quite a strenuous ride.”

Inclusion
The Book of Jonah is one of the most important books of the Old Testament, again not because of the whale, and Nineveh never was that big, it never was sixty miles around three days‘ journey across. The Book of Jonah is important: because it is a parable, a coded message, about race prejudice and hatred. In the New Testament, we have the parable of the good Samaritan, in the Old, Jonah. Jonah’s story is Comedy Central in the Bible. That picture of Jonah sitting in the city he had saved, mad and heartbroken and fussing and cussin’ at God. He didn’t even want to live anymore. You know why? ‘Cause God had made him preach an eight-word sermon, and he had saved over a million “Heathen Assyrians.” Jonah was out of his mind, mad, heartless because these Gentiles were on their way to God and he was to blame! A dude has to be awful prejudiced and bitter to save that many people and then be suicidal sorry that he might see them in heaven. The author of this story was talking to the whole bitter, prejudiced religious community of his time. He knew he was going out on a limb, taking a huge risk, exactly the reason he used a parable!

The task of being and growing an inviting, welcoming inclusive community called “church” has never been easy, but this is one calling that our Officers affirm as part of seeking the fullest understanding of the vision which God has for Northminster. Is it scary to some of us. Yes, is it new territory. But one thing is for sure, it is God’s work. In a world blinded by ambition and divided by prejudice, welcoming, inviting, understanding, including, embracing, is God’s work.

Using Our Gifts/Evangelism
My friends, you all have life experience, skills, and insights which are needed right here, right now to bear the message of God’s realm of love and justice to our neighbors in the world. There is no one canned evangelistic technique which alone can bear the message to all people. After the calling of Jesus, we must tailor our approach according to the people we are encountering. Just as a fisherman or fisherwoman has to select the correct net or bait to attract the fish, so we must understand that people who are our neighbors, colleagues, and friends. From this understanding, we can figure out how each and all of us can reach out to them with the good news of God’s love and the call to faith.

Your participation in worship, in listening to the reading and proclamation of God’s Word, your involvement in Sunday School or Circle or Study Group can help you better understand your faith and give you some ways of speaking and sharing your life and faith experience. There are many people in your street who have hunger for deeper spiritual lives, who thirst for the real meaning of life and their lives in particular. By coming to know them, by paying attention to them, you can share with them the invitation to know our Savior. From the very beginning of His ministry, this is what Jesus was teaching his disciples to do: proclaim the coming reign of God to all people, invite all people to receive God’s love, forgiveness, and empowerment, so they also could become ambassadors of God’s peace.

Obedience
Obedience is dangerous, because we might be laughed at and we might be misunderstood. Obedience is dangerous, because we’ll have to put the interests of others ahead of our own; because it could send us into territory hitherto unexplored, because we can’t be sure what God might ask of us. Obedience is dangerous, because being obedient doesn’t come naturally to us, because we’ll be asked to turn the other cheek, we’ll be asked to love our enemies. Obedience is dangerous, because we’ll be asked to be a peacemaker. We’ll be asked to pray for those who “despitefully use” us.

But remember this: Before you book your ticket for Tarshish, remember that while being in God’s service can be hazardous, it is also the only place that offers blessing and a sense of peace. Our center, our vision, our mission is to do God’s work, to obey, and follow, to share and serve, to live out of God’s grace and share that grace and love and mercy with our hurting friends and neighbors and world. To obey as friends together and disciples of our Savior; this is God’s work. This is what Northminster Presbyterian Church means to me and means to us all. God is calling; are we obeying? It is time to be gone fishin’!  Amen.