Bloomsbury
Central Baptist Church
23
August 2015 11.00am
Jonah
3.10 – 4.11 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God
changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them;
and he did not do it. 4.1 But this was very
displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry.
2 He prayed to the LORD and said, "O LORD! Is not this
what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish
at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to
anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from
punishing. 3 And now, O LORD,
please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to
live." 4 And the LORD
said, "Is it right for you to be angry?" 5 Then Jonah went out of the city
and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under
it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city. 6 The LORD God appointed a
bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him
from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. 7 But when dawn came up the next
day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God prepared
a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was
faint and asked that he might die. He said, "It is better for me to die
than to live." 9 But God
said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?" And
he said, "Yes, angry enough to die."
10 Then the LORD said, "You are concerned about the
bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into
being in a night and perished in a night.
11 And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great
city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do
not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?"
Matthew
6.25-34 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will
eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life
more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air;
they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father
feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And can any of you by worrying
add a single hour to your span of life? 28
And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they
grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29
yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of
these. 30 But if God so
clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown
into the oven, will he not much more clothe you-- you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying,
'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' 32 For it is the Gentiles who
strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you
need all these things. 33 But
strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things
will be given to you as well. 34 ¶
"So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its
own. Today's trouble is enough for today.
The
relationship between humanity and the natural world
has been one of hardship and toil
since humans first
emerged from the great rift valley,
to go forth and multiply
upon the earth.
The
struggle for survival is as old as our species,
and we have battled on many fronts
over the millennia.
From
early competition with other hominids,
to struggles to adapt to hostile
environments;
from
diseases and disasters,
to famine and crop failure.
Humans
have been at war with planet earth
in a battle for survival since the
very beginning.
Our
current fights about fossil fuels, global warming, and climate change
are simply the latest skirmishes in
a war that has claimed more lives,
and done more damage, than any other
conflict in the history of humanity.
So
it is no surprise that the Old Testament,
or the Hebrew Bible as it’s
sometimes called,
reflects this struggle for survival
in many of its narratives.
Those
who told these stories down the generations,
passing the wisdom of the Israelite
tradition from parent to child,
knew
first hand what it was to do battle with the earth;
and in their stories they reflected
before God
on what it might mean to be human.
And
what we find in their traditions
are a range of responses to the
question
of how humans might exist in
relation to nature.
The
Genesis creation narrative, for example,
starts by affirming the goodness of
all things:
from the heavens above,
to the depths of the ocean,
and everything in
between;
and it locates humans as part of
this God-inspired created order.
However,
it goes on to describe
the fracturing of the relationship
between humanity and nature,
pointing the finger
firmly at the sinfulness
of the representative
humans of Adam and Eve
as the
originators of the battle for survival.
If
we fast forward to their sons Cain and Abel,
we meet the battle between the hunter-gatherer
and agrarian lifestyles.
Agriculture
first developed in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East,
where Israel is located,
sometime around 10,000 years ago,
and
we have an echo of this in the deadly conflict
between Cain the cultivator of land,
and Abel the herdsman.
The
suggestion of this story is that God is more pleased
with Abel’s animal
than with Cain’s grain,
but
of course it’s ultimately Abel who dies at Cain’s hand,
and it’s Cain and his descendants
who survive
to continue planting the land and
reaping the harvest.
And
then we come to the story of Noah and the flood,
with God washing his hands of the
whole created order,
and ordering a total
wipeout and reboot,
with just Noah and his family and a
selection of animals surviving.
According
to the Noah story,
human sinfulness had so spoiled
nature
that the whole thing was
ruined beyond salvation,
and just needed to be destroyed and
re-created from scratch.
And
I could go on, and on, through the wisdom tradition and the prophets,
through the books of history and
monarchy,
describing the battles
for land, the times of famine,
all the stories of
plague, pestilence, and hardship that humanity has faced.
And
in all of these, the Hebrew way
has been to try to reflect before
God
on the relationship between humans
and the natural order.
And
so we come to the book of Jonah,
which is many things, including, I
want to suggest,
an ecological parable in the
tradition of the Hebrew wisdom literature.
We
have already seen over the last three weeks
how the Book of Jonah is a satire on
prophecy;
how it is a
psychoanalytical exploration of the human psyche;
how it challenges our assumptions
about God’s love;
and how it asks its
readers to think beyond themselves
in their understanding
of divine mercy and judgment.
But
this week, as we conclude our summer series looking at this little book,
I want to suggest that it also has
something profound to say to us
about the relationship between
humans and the natural order.[1]
The
clue comes right at the end of the book:
did you spot it when Luke read it
for us earlier?
Listen
again to verse 11. God says:
“And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that
great city,
in which there are more than a hundred and twenty
thousand persons
who do not know their right hand from their left, and
also many animals?"
It’s
always worth paying attention to the way biblical stories end,
and this one ends with many animals.
Once
we’ve spotted this, when we start to read back into the story,
we find that the natural world
plays an especially prominent role
in the book of Jonah.
Bear
with me a moment, and we’ll go back over it…
The
book starts with Jonah being called to go and preach a message
of repentance to the great city of
Nineveh,
but deciding to do a runner in the
opposite direction, and jumping a ship.
At
this point, the forces of nature start to move in against him.
We’re told in the 4th
verse of the first chapter that
“the LORD hurled a great wind upon
the sea,
and such a mighty storm
came upon the sea
that the ship threatened
to break up.”
As
soon as Jonah puts himself where he shouldn’t be,
he finds himself at war with natural
forces way beyond his control.
When
the sailors on the boat ask Jonah what’s going on,
he realises that there’s a link
between his own disobedience to God
and the disturbance in the natural
order.
So
he says to them that he’s a Hebrew,
a worshipper of the God who made the
sea and the dry land (1.9).
He
goes on to tell the sailors that if they pick him up and throw him into the
sea,
the great storm will quiet down and
their lives will be spared (1.12),
and this is, of course,
what happens.
The
link between Jonah and God and the natural order
moves at this point from the
theoretical to the practical,
as Jonah’s actions are seen to have
a clear effect on the forces of nature.
But
then they take a turn from the practical to the surreal,
as instead of drowning in the sea of
chaos,
Jonah find himself in
the belly of a fish,
and not just any fish,
but a fish provided by God to rescue him.
The
story is at pains to tell us that this isn’t some random act of luck
– rather, God is at work in the
natural world
to bring Jonah back to where he
should be in the order of things.
Eventually,
Jonah is spewed up onto dry land,
as he escapes the clutches of the
sea,
and makes his way to Nineveh to
preach his message of repentance.
And
the response he gets is astonishing, and actually quite funny
– not only do the people repent, not
only does the king repent,
but so do the animals!
The
king even issues a decree,
demanding that both humans and
animals together must fast,
and put on sackcloth;
with human and animal voices
together crying to God for mercy. (3.7-8).
Of
course, what Jonah knew would happen does happen,
and God lets the wicked city of
Nineveh off.
No
judgment, no fire from heaven, no punishment,
just mercy and compassion.
This
doesn’t suit Jonah at all, and so in disgust that justice has not been done,
he wanders off to sit under a
shelter and sulk.
The
sun beats down on him, relentlessly baking him into submission,
but then God appoints a bush to grow
up by him,
giving him some shade
from the sun,
and for a little while
he seems to lift out of his bad mood.
But
then God appoints a little worm to come and destroy the tree,
and then God sends a sultry wind and
more sun,
and Jonah decides that he’s had
enough of these games and that he wants to die.
God
has been merciful to the wretched Ninevites
with their comedy cows in sackcloth,
but
seems to be setting the whole of nature systematically against Jonah.
Of
course, it’s all a matter of perspective,
and so with the set-up complete,
Jonah and God have their big argument.
Jonah said, "It is better for me to die than to
live."
9 But God said to Jonah,
"Is it right for you to be
angry about the bush?"
And he said,
"Yes, angry enough to die."
10 Then the LORD said, "You are concerned about the bush,
for which you did not labor and
which you did not grow;
it came into being in a night and
perished in a night.
11 Should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city,
in which there are more than a
hundred and twenty thousand persons
who do not know their right hand
from their left,
and also many animals?"
(4.8-11) The End.
Jonah pitied the plant, but did not want God to
pity Nineveh.
The
irony is inescapable, and the inconsistency of his position becomes obvious.
God is not the God that Jonah thought and hoped
he was.
God
does not judge as Jonah judged,
and
Jonah had set himself above God,
and
at odds with nature,
in
his attempt to create God in his own image.
And those of us reading Jonah’s story are
invited to join him
in
reflecting on our own place within the natural order.
The
recurring theme in all of this is that whilst Jonah is disobedient to God,
the natural world acts not only in
obedience to God,
but also to bring Jonah back to a
right relationship with both God and nature.
And
here’s the parable.
Jonah represents humanity.
He represents all of us.
We are Jonah.
And
the lesson of the parable is that when we humans, like Jonah,
put themselves at war with God and
God’s world,
the consequences are catastrophic.
But
the hopeful message of the Book of Jonah
is that God is also at work through
the natural order
to bring humans back to a place of
repentance and restoration.
We
humans have consistently created a philosophical and practical division
between ourselves and the rest of
the natural world.
I
don’t think we can entirely blame Descartes,
but his famous dictum ‘I think
therefore I am’
is probably the best summary of this
approach.
We who
‘think’ have come to view animals as automatons incapable of consciousness,
and so we have taken permission to
treat animals as, in effect, machines,
which exist as a means rather than for their own sake.
In all
this, of course, we are acting entirely against the wisdom of Genesis
which declares that all of creation
is good;
but
nonetheless we consistently choose to see nature as a tool to exploit,
and animals as a means to an end.
We have
built our civilisations on a human-centred view of the world,
which regards nature as a commodity
available exclusively for our benefit.
Our
unfettered and rampant exploitation of nature
is challenged by the story of Jonah,
who
consistently discovers what we must also learn;
that when we place ourselves over
and against nature, there is hell to pay.
We
are a part of the natural order, not separate to it.
And we can no more run from our
place in God’s creation
than Jonah could run from the
presence of God.
We
humans keep placing ourselves at the centre of our own story,
we place our own desires above our
responsibility to the planet,
and so we create a situation where
we are at war with nature
in a struggle for survival.
It’s
the story of Adam and Eve’s rebellion
told over-and-over again in each
generation,
as we somehow convince ourselves
that we’re right and God must be wrong.
Yet
the story of Jonah is that in God’s world,
it is compassion that lies at the
heart of the story.
God’s
mercy in Jonah’s story is extended to all creation.
God has compassion on the just and
the unjust,
on animals, plants and
planet.
In
the story of Jonah we find our human-centred view of creation challenged.
We, like Jonah, have to learn that
God is not just ‘our’ God,
but that he is the God
of the entire earth,
from animals to plants
to the elements to Nineveh itself.
Nature
is not there to be exploited by humans,
as if the two were somehow
separable;
but
rather humans are a part of the natural world,
and all exist together and continue
to co-exist because, and only because,
of God’s compassion.
Creation
itself suffers because of human greed and idolatry,
and the voices of the animals are
crying out in our time for mercy,
every bit as much as the animals in
Nineveh cried out for compassion.
Humans
and the natural world will rise and fall together,
and the wilful human destruction of
ecologies
is a sin against the nature of God.
So,
what to do…?
Well,
there’s an interesting comparison to be drawn
between the story of Jonah and the
Whale,
and the story of Noah and the flood.
Both
stories begin with a threat of destruction
against wicked people for their
sinfulness.
Both
stories involve a perilous sea journey.
Both stories involve animals.
And,
interestingly, both stories also involve a dove.
You see, Jonah means ‘dove’,
and in both stories, it
is the dove which flies off and eventually returns,
bringing the hope of
salvation.
In
Noah’s story the dove brings the olive branch
which marks the end of the flood.
And
in Jonah’s story,
Jonah is the dove that brings the
message of repentance.
However,
there are important differences.
In Noah’s story, God destroys the
wicked people
along with almost all of
the natural order,
with only Noah’s family
and a few select animals
surviving to
repopulate the earth.
In Jonah’s story, God is merciful to
the wicked city;
and the natural world,
represented by the animals of Nineveh,
is spared.
In
many ways, Jonah’s story is a reversal of Noah’s,
and offers a hopeful glimpse of God
at work in the natural world,
calling humans to discover ways of
living in peace with creation.
So
what might this mean for us tomorrow?
Should we re-think our addiction to
meat, for example?
There
is no doubt that there are far more sustainable ways
of feeding humanity than feeding
cows, pigs, and sheep
and then shooting them
and eating them.
This
may or may not mean that we fully embrace vegetarianism,
but it should certainly challenge
our relationship
to the animals on which we are
dependent for our ongoing existence.
We
might want to think carefully about issues
of animal experimentation, exploitation,
and genetic modification.
We
could well ask ourselves at what cost are we at odds
with the natural world in our own
time.
There
certainly is a cost, but whether we are counting it or not is far from certain.
Maybe
GM crops do hold the future for feeding humanity,
but if so, where does that leave our
battery chicken farms,
and our herdsmen
industries.
If
we are not careful, the conflict between Cain and Abel
could easily resurface in
contemporary guise
to haunt a globally warmed world
which is struggling with mass starvation.
These
are issues that Christians cannot and should not turn away from.
We cannot afford to hide our heads
in the sand
and eat ostrich instead
of beef.
Rather,
we need to keep ourselves educated and informed,
and to take informed and educated
decisions together
as to how we will partner with God
in the care of this world
that has been entrusted
to us.
The
message of Jonah is that God has not given up on creation,
and that neither has creation given
up on humanity.
We
are part of nature, we are part of God’s good creation,
and we are called to repent of our
wickedness,
of our exploitation, of
our destructive patterns of living.
And
the invitation is that if we find ways together of existing in harmony with
nature,
we are opening ourselves up, with
the inhabitants of Nineveh,
to the compassion and mercy of God.
We
are called to repent of our acquisitiveness,
to turn away from our obsessions
with possessions,
and to discover together what it
means to live as children of this earth.
Or,
as Jesus put it:
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your
life,
what
you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body,
what
you will wear.
Is not life more than food, and the body more than
clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor
reap nor gather into barns,
and
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not of more value than they?
27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to
your span of life?
28 And why do you worry about clothing?
Consider
the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin,
29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not
clothed like one of these.
30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field,
which
is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,
will
he not much more clothe you-- you of little faith?
31 Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?'
or 'What will we drink?'
or
'What will we wear?'
32 For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these
things;
and
indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33 But strive first for the kingdom of God and his
righteousness,
and
all these things will be given to you as well.
34 "So do not worry about tomorrow,
for
tomorrow will bring worries of its own.
Today's trouble is enough for today.
[1] I
have been helped in the preparation of this sermon by reading Yael Shemesh,
‘“And Many Beasts” (Jonah 4:11); The Function and Status of Animals in the Book
of Jonah’, Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, Volume 10, Article 6.
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