Peace Lutheran Church - Austin, Texas                         January 22, 2012                              William J. Sappenfield

Jonah 3:1-5, 10

¹The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, ²“Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” ³So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. ⁴Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” ⁵And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

¹⁰When 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.

            The part of Jonah that we read this morning in the first lesson comes after the famous part about Jonah getting swallowed by a fish.  Everybody knows that part of the story.  God told Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh and tell everybody to repent and follow the teachings of God.  Jonah decided that the people of Nineveh were too sinful to bother with so he got on a boat and headed in the other direction.  A storm came, Jonah went in the water, a fish swallowed him and, after three days, threw him up on the shore.  That’s where we pick up the story with today’s reading.  God told Jonah again to go to Nineveh and this time he did – but it was against his better judgment.  I heard a story about a pastor who told some children the story of Jonah.  It makes a good story.  He finished and he asked the children what they had learned.  They thought about it, and one young member of the fold finally said, "People make fish sick."  We are again presented with the opportunity to learn a lesson from the book of Jonah this morning.  Maybe we can do better.

            I suggest a different lesson.  I suggest we learn from the story of Jonah - the divinity of change.  In the Old Testament reading from Jonah everybody changes.  That is a significant lesson.  Everybody changes except, maybe, Jonah.  It's true; Jonah changed enough to go to Nineveh.  He did not want to go but, after some famous persuasion that took place in the belly of a fish, the First Lesson reads: "The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.”  Jonah responded and told the people of Nineveh God would destroy them if they did not change, but he did not like it.  He did not want to change.

            However, Nineveh did.  The people of Nineveh really changed.  I do not know what they had been doing but it was bad enough to deserve some special attention from God.  It must have needed changing.  And the story reads: "The people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth."  Nineveh really sincerely changed.  And they were better off for it.

            And here is the greatest lesson of all.  God changed.  The scripture reads, “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.”

            God changed.  God is not afraid to change his mind.  We are not very comfortable with that idea.  We proclaim that God is unchangeable; but the fact is that God does change.  If God is a living God (and we say that he is) he is a changing God. We come here to praise God because he is alive.  We name God as the one who became Jesus Christ and defeated death.   To live is to change.  The only thing that does not change is God's love.

            We are not used to thinking of God as changing his mind.  It makes us uncomfortable.  That was Jonah's problem.  God changed his mind and forgave the people of Nineveh and it made Jonah very angry.  The idea of a changing God can make us angry, too; but think about it.  Isn't that all our hope?  That God changes?

            What if no one changed?  How would the story of Jonah read if no one changed? 

            When God called Jonah to go to Nineveh, Jonah replied, "Nobody has ever bothered going to Nineveh before and the world is getting along just fine.  We'll just keep things the way they are."  That kind of thinking could wind up with somebody in a fish.

            When Jonah called Nineveh to repentance, what if they had responded, "We've been getting along fine for all these years without your ideas.  Why change?"  Indeed they had.  Nineveh was a flourishing city.  It had become a flourishing city without any input from Jonah.  Just who did he think he was to suggest they should change?

            And when the people of Nineveh repented, what if God had said, "I've punished sinners throughout all of history and I seem to be doing all right.  Why change?"  -  And in the condemnation and destruction that followed at least the world could see that it could count on things staying the same.

            Change is the only hope we have.  God's unchanging love can only come to us as we change and our world changes. 

            Don't you want to change?  Wouldn't that be the greatest sign of God's love?

            When we no longer want change, we abandon God.  We abandon prayer.  That's what prayer is.  Asking God to change.  To change us - to change our world.  To make things better.  We pray when we want change.   To pray is to change.

            People dislike change for two reasons.  They are unwilling to change or they see no need for change.  If we are unwilling to change.  If we see no need for change - prayer will not be a noticeable characteristic of our lives.  That might be a good way to gage how satisfied we are with our lives and our world.  How big a part does prayer play in our lives?  How anxious are we to study the Bible?  How much do we value new people and fresh ideas?

            God doesn't have much to offer a person who is satisfied where he is.

            God has everything to offer us when we know we are dependent upon him.  We can only value what he gives us.  How he changes us.  God constantly changes his mind to keep us in his unchanging love.  We can say both things: Your life is in the hands of God.  AND Your life can change.  That message of change is genuine liberation.  We can be more.  We are free to grow, to learn, to make our world better.

            That message of change is also a tremendous responsibility.  Our future is not fixed and we are called to play a part in it.  We are working with God to determine the future.  Remember, the people of Nineveh changed, and so God changed, and the world was a better place.  People working with God to determine the future.  Paul uses the term "co-laborers with God". (1 Cor. 3:9)  That is the sort of responsibility that prayer will get you into.  It was too much for Jonah.  First he ran from it, then he resented it.  But those who walk with God make change the business of their lives.  Martin Luther said, "I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer."  There is an interesting twist.  Instead of saying, "I've got so much to do I can't pray."  He said, "I've got so much to do I have to pray for three hours a day."  Many of us are discouraged by such examples.  They are "giants of faith" and we are not like that.  No we are not, but that is the point.  We can change.   We can be more.  We can make our lives better and our world better.  Like Jonah, we get flustered when there is change.  But really, we want it.

            Look at your life.  Look at the lives around you.  We can make them better.  Are you ever anxious?  Do you ever worry that you can't do your job the way you want to?  Do you ever worry that you will have a job? Do you ever worry that you will let someone down, people you love?  Do you worry if people will like you, appreciate what you do?  Are you ever lonely?  Do you ever wish that people understood what you were trying to do for them?  Or that your family knew how much they mean to you?  We really do want change.

            Satan will tell you that things are good enough the way they are.  "You're happy enough."  "You're doing enough."  "The world won't get much better anyway."  "Our church is just fine the way it is." "We've all been doing just fine until now..."  And pretty soon we start saying those things ourselves.  So Satan doesn't have to.  All he has to do is sit back and laugh.  While we turn our backs on prayer and study and people because they all mean change  And we've decided things are just fine the way they are.

            Let's open our minds.  Let's begin to think God's thoughts after him; to desire the things he desires, to love the things he loves.  Let's start to see things from God's point of view.

            We change.  We grow.  Together.  Yes, together.  That's important.  It's no accident in the story of Jonah that we read "The people of Nineveh believed God's message.  So they decided everyone should fast, and all the people, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth to show that they had repented."  Everyone.  All the people.  When we change the world, we can't do it without the world being involved.

            It is for all of us together.  That's the purpose of the church.  Our lives that are anxious, struggling, looking for answers, are set here with all of these lives around us that are anxious, struggling, looking for answers.  When we pray for change we change ourselves and each other.  We live in person-to-person, face-to-face encouragement in the journey of faith.  Telling each other that we appreciate them.  Giving each other strength.  Cheering one another, comforting one another.  Loving one another.  Finding out what people need, and changing them.

            The people around you this morning are alive.  And living beings need change.  God loves us by changing.  God wants us to come around to his way of loving.  God wants us to change – to change ourselves, to change this church, to change the world.  That’s what life is.  Let's make things come alive.