Jonah 3:10-4:11; September 20, 2026; Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
In every one of us there’s a Jonah who runs when called, who asks, “why me?” and grumbles about it.
Oh, we might want to say, not me, not I. But God knows, my friends, God knows.
God knows when we are called to forgive and we don’t. God knows when we are called to be humble, and we aren’t. God knows when we are called to care for the environment and yet come up with excuses. And God knows when we listen to Nickelback and shouldn’t.
But that’s okay, because…God knows. And God has seen it all before.
For since the beginning of time in every one of us there has been an inner Jonah, who gets upset when plans change, when a greater wisdom prevails… shaking our fist at the clouds, saying that’s not how it’s supposed to be, this is not how it was supposed to happen!
And in every single one of us there’s a Jonah who God reproves with wit and mercy.
Don’t you just laugh at the image of God giving this knucklehead shade only to immediately take it away?
Some people simply can’t be reasoned with, you need to literally show them, to make them see it: the error of their ways, the consequences of their actions.
And God does exactly this with Jonah, just as God will do with all of us one day (or perhaps already is in this timeline we find ourselves in). For in every one of us is that Jonah-Gene, that little strand of insolent DNA, that needs direct intervention and actionable correction.
What makes this story so good though is not just Jonah’s correction (and our own), but also this reminder that God edits trajectories.
My friends, one of the worst limits we put on God is shrinking God’s infinite knowledge to a predetermined point of knowledge. As if, what’s always been always has to be.
No, what makes God eternal is the ability to not be confined. To grow and expand, from the singularity to the beyond, and then beyond the beyond!
And here, with Ninevah, God does just that. As in, Ninevah had a judgment upon them to be destroyed. But God changes this trajectory, their history, because God is boundless.
Amen?
You might remember that Nineveh was a city known for its pride, wealth, and military prowess, not to mention its lawlessness and cults running around worshipping pagan gods… ring any bells?
Nahum 3:1 says, “Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims!”
Yeah, Ninevah was a city full of sin and corruption, and by their own doings, God declares, I’m done with y’all.
Which leads to Jonah receiving the message to tell Nineveh: figure it out or get wiped out. To which Jonah is like, “Peace out!” / “I’m out of here.”
See, I like that…not because Jonah might be cowardly, but because that would be my reaction as well. A perfectly normal human reaction if any of us were told to leave all that we know and go to the most powerful capital that exists, and in the middle of their seats of power declare, you all deserve to perish.
Yes, I think most of us would shrink from that task.
But you know why else I like this story? Because it reminds me, again, that we aren’t just puppets on a string. For if we were, Jonah wouldn’t have been able to run away in the first place. But more, that God wouldn’t have picked him in the first place, that is, if God already knew was going be a malcontent who would eventually be swallowed by a whale.
See, if God knows all, such that God pre-determines all, then the story of Jonah doesn’t make a lot of sense. And neither would the rest of life as we know it. Where horrible things happen without rhyme or reason. Where our actions or non-actions have consequences, because what we do or don’t do actually matters.
God knows, my friends, because God sees. And God sees us for the Jonahs that we are, because God has programmed us to be free. To be jerks or to be nice. To be ignorant or to be wise. To be corrupt or to be ethical. To be malcontent narcissists, or to be empathetic sympathizers.
And so, it’s up to us as it’s always been and always will be. For unlike God, we are confined to this planet and this single life; Mars fantasies and cryogenics notwithstanding.
So, are we going to answer the call on our lives, in this world, or are we going to run away? Are we going to be grateful for God electing us, for giving us this habitable planet, or are we going to complain and grumble away?
And man, that dude Jonah, all he does is complain away, shade or not. But God allows him to, for in so doing Jonah learns a valuable lesson he otherwise wouldn’t.
About not being such a poop, and about how grace actually works!
Whereas even though Ninevah had justification to be dealt with harshly, God changes trajectories and elects not to, because God prioritizes mercy over wrath.
And that’s nothing to complain about!
For even though in every one of us there’s a little Jonah who sometimes gets upset that’s how grace works… that justice doesn’t rain down like a raging fire…we must yet always give thanks that we are caught up in the whirlwind of God’s amazing grace. Where God is limitless in forgiveness, and beyond the boxes of our ascribed opinions.
For instead of sending another flood, God chose to send a Son. A humble son riding on the back of a donkey, baptized by a dude eating locusts.
And instead of condemning us to wrath, to death, this Son elected to live among us and to save us. Even the knuckleheads among us who do nothing but complain and grumble, who sit in the shade and still ask “why me?”
“Why me?” Jesus repeats back to us… “Because I love you” he says.
For, even though you might run from him, he will find you.
And there he won’t destroy you, but will free you. Bringing you with him into a place beyond the beyond, where the Almighty’s limitless mercy has already changed our trajectories.
Amen.
