A BAD TRIP BECOMES A GOOD TRIP - Sept 21, 2008
Jonah 3:10-4:11; Matthew 20:1-16
Dr. Lloyd Olgivie, tells the story of a woman who came up to him after church and complained that she was sick and tired of hearing him preach about Jesus Christ, and that she was going elsewhere.
Six months later, after the worship service in his church, Lloyd was confronted again by the same woman. This time she poked a bony finger into his chest and said, " I've been to every church in town, and they're all saying the same thing!"
Some trips are around town to attend different churches; some trips are much longer and farther away. I remember the trips my family took when I was in the 4th grade, where we packed the car and my Dad drove from Indiana to Florida -- three days in the back seat of a car with -- you guessed it -- my brother. Actually, for brother and sister two years apart in age, we did pretty well -- but putting any active 4th grader into the back seat of a car with an active 2nd grader, and sometimes we just had to draw that line down the middle of the back seat.
I remember my family making this trip three times -- three years in a row -- and the best part of those vacations was when we brought some things from our family (I don't remember what) back from Florida, and there was so much that it filled half of the back seat and my brother had to sit in front with my parents. I got the back seat -- only half, of course -- all to myself.
Now, those trips could have been bad trips -- but what I really remember is going to Florida.
We got to go to Florida in the winter, when it was cold and snowy in Indiana.
We got to stay at motels with swimming pools, and cool off at the end of the day.
We got to stop at places along the way -- one I particularly remember was Mammoth Cave -- spectacular!
We got to actually be in Florida, go swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, go water skiing, and visit our relatives -- my favorite ones!!
Would I have traded those three days in the back seat of the car for anything? No way!!
What could have been a bad trip, was a good trip -- a great trip.
Now Jonah had a really bad trip -- a really bad trip. It took a lot for Jonah to change his bad trip to a good trip.
Our story today picks up at the end of the story -- after Jonah had boarded a ship for Tarshish -- which is like our saying we're going to Timbuktu -- the last, farthest away place on earth you could imagine going to, instead of going to Nineveh (which is modern day Mosul on the Tigris river). They hadn't sailed far when a storm came up -- a fearful storm in which the crew was afraid for their lives. They determined that Jonah was the cause of the storm (we know better today, and realize that storms are caused by temperatures and wind currents), and even though they didn't want to, and tried to row to safety, but in the end, in order to save themselves and the ship, they threw Jonah overboard.
Many of us probably know the next part of the story -- Jonah was swallowed by a whale, the Bible story says a great fish. We might not know that Jonah prayed to God from the belly of that great fish, praying a prayer of praise to the power of God, a prayer in which he knows that deliverance belongs to the Lord. And God does deliver Jonah -- the big fish delivers him right onto dry land. But now, since God has delivered him, Jonah can't get out of going to Nineveh anymore -- he's backed himself into a corner, the corner where he has to do what God asked him to do, something he really didn't want to do, and still does reluctantly. He goes to Nineveh, and preaches to the people.
The bad trip becomes a good trip -- the people tell the king, and the king takes the lead and issues a decree:
"By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no heard or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish." (Jonah 3:7-9 NRSV)
What Jonah fear had happened -- the people actually heard his words of warning, they tell the king, and they all cry out to God just as Jonah did from the belly of the big fish.
But was Jonah happy with this turn of heart; the repentance of the people? "No way!" Far from being happy, Jonah was angry that all these people are going to be saved.
You know, there are some people who just are not going to be happy no matter what happens!! It seems that Jonah was more like a stubborn little kid riding in the back of a car, thinking only about wanting to keep to his half of the back seat, than an eager, excited kid on an adventure. So Jonah went and did what any little kid bent on having his own way would do -- he sulked! He walked a whole day to get out of the city, made a little tent for himself so he wouldn't get sunstroke, and sat down to have a good self-righteous sulk!
As I thought about Jonah, I also came back to another scripture, one of my favorite stories from the gospel of Mark. We had read it in Bible Study this week, on Thursday morning, so it was fresh in my mind as I read the story of Jonah. It's another story about a storm, with someone asleep while others were fearful that they would die because of the storm. It's in the gospel of Mark 4:35-41
"As evening fell, Jesus said to his disciples, 'Let's cross to the other side of the lake.' So they took him just as he was and started out, leaving the crowds behind (though other boats followed). But soon a terrible storm arose. High waves began to break into the boat until it was nearly full of water and about to sink. Jesus was asleep at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. Frantically they wakened him, shouting, 'Teacher, don't you even care that we are all about to drown?'
"Then he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, 'Quiet down!' And the wind fell, and there was a great calm!
"And he asked them, 'Why were you so fearful? Don't you even yet have confidence in me?'
"And they were filled with awe and said among themselves, 'Who is this man, that even the winds and seas obey him?' (Mark 4:35-41 The Way)
You see, like Jonah, God gifts us all with a great adventure, a great opportunity, a mission, if you will -- go, live well, and share the good news of God's offer of redemption. But often, like Jonah, like the disciples, we are fearful. We run the other way. The storms of life rage and threaten to swamp our boats. We might hide in the hold with depression, or go and sulk under a tree as Jonah did. Or we might be tempted to give up altogether like Jonah, who was ready to give up on his life three times in that short story. He really thought it would be better to die, than to give up on his petty, angry resentment at the thought that God might love the people of Nineveh, of Mosul, just as much as God loved him. Or we might be bailing water for all our might to keep ourselves and our families afloat, but to no avail.
Like Jonah, even if we feel like we are living the belly of a great fish, or even if we are like the disciples and are fearful that our lives will be swamped because of our problems -- we can also be like Jonah and praise God from the belly of our distress. We can be like the disciples and got to Jesus and cry out that we need help, or our boat will sink.
And God answered Jonah, and Jesus calmed the wind and the waves, and God answers us and calms the wind and the waves of our distress.
Did Jonah's bad trip became a good trip? Well, lets see:
We remember that Jonah was in the belly of a big fish -- a bad trip.
But we also remember that Jonah was spewed up on dry land -- so the bad trip became a good trip.
Do we remember what Jonah was to sent to do? Well, we do now.
He was sent to preach to the people of Nineveh -- and the bad trip became a good trip.
Do we remember that Jonah in the end, listened to God? Absolutely -- a bad trip becomes a good trip, a very good trip, through the goodness of God.
In the Gospel of Mark, did Jesus hear the cries of the disciples in the boat?
Absolutely.
Did those bad trips, become good trips. Oh, yes, they did.
I grew up in the 60's when a "bad trip" also had other connotations -- for many people in the 60's, a bad trip might be a psychological trip with hallucinations that were frightening and bizarre, and the bad trip that continue on or reoccur after the drug had worn off.
But God wants you and I to have a good trip through life -- a good trip where the effects of any bad trip will be erased, gone for good -- that's what salvation is all about.
In some ways, Jonah was lucky -- it only took him three days to discover that it was better to listen to God. It took the woman in Dr. Ogilvie's church six months to stop running and realize that all the churches in town were preaching the same thing. Sometimes it takes us much longer.
But like the laborers in the vineyard, it really doesn't matter how long it takes us, God is ready to answer our cries and hear our prayers, so that
"All Our Trips become Good Trips".
Pastor Fran
