Unpacking Sunday's Sermon: Jonah

How are those who have experienced the grace of our Lord Jesus to respond to the brokenness and injustice we encounter in the world.

Do we overlook sins? (boys will boys... just forgive and forget) Do we seek retribution? (an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth). Is there a place where justice and mercy meet?

In today's sermon we heard how Jonah was sent to Nineveh because its wickedness was stinking to high heaven (Jonah 1:2). Both God and Jonah knew that the city was responsible for great evil. Both God and Jonah wanted this evil to end.

But God and Jonah had a different response to what was happening. God was willing to warn Nineveh, in hopes that they would change their behavior. Jonah prefered a summary trial and quick execution. When he didn't get what he wanted he complained about God being "gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love" (Jonah 4:2 NIV).

As listeners to his story, we see the irony in Jonah's complaint. Jonah isn't a good and faithful servant. More than that, Jonah fails to realise how he depends on God's grace. When he refuses to go where God sends him, God redirects him. When he is thrown overboard, God lifts him from the deep. When he speaks against God, God kindly questions him. Does Jonah really want a God who is not so kind and merciful? He would simply be sawing off the branch he is sitting on.

Jonah we realise, is a recipient of God's kindness. God seems to be as interested in reforming Jonah as reforming the people of Nineveh.

Remembering grace and compassion does not mean that we overlook sin, or fail to hold people accountable for it. But any challenge to sin should be made with an eye to reforming people's behavior. For our God is the God of grace, a God of second chances. As the Psalmist reminds us: "If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?" (Psalm 130:3).

Jonah's story reminds me of a lesser-known hymn that was included in the Old Book of Praise (1973 edition):

There's a wideness in God's mercy Frederick William Faber

There's a wideness in God's mercy,
like the wideness of the sea.
There's a kindness in God's justice,
which is more than liberty.
There is no place where earth's sorrows
are more felt than up in heaven.
There is no place where earth's failings
have such kindly judgment given.

For the love of God is broader
than the measures of the mind.
And the heart of the Eternal
is most wonderfully kind.
If our love were but more faithful,
we would gladly trust God's Word,
and our lives reflect thanksgiving
for the goodness of our Lord.