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12 Pentecost
August 7, 2005 Sermon
by Rev. Peggy Tuttle, Interim Rector
Readings
A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because, even though they were very large mammals, their throats were very small.
The little girl said, “But Jonah was swallowed by a whale.”
The teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it is impossible.
The little girl said, “When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah.”
The teacher asked, “What if Jonah went to hell?”
The little girl hesitated, then replied, “Then you ask him.”
So, what is the story of Jonah and the whale all about? First of all, the Bible just calls it a fish, not a whale. But for the sake of our own storytelling, we’re going to stick with Jonah being swallowed by a whale.
If you’ve ever seen a whale
up close and personal it is easy to understand why we choose to say he
was swallowed by a whale.
On to the story:
What are the biblical writers trying to tell us by keeping this story in the Bible? Let’s look at the story itself and see what we can glean from it beyond debating whether or not it is physically possible for any kind of fish to swallow, and then release, a human – and the human to live through it.
It is the story of a prophet, Jonah, who is sent by God to preach judgment to the heathen city of Nineveh. But Jonah, who doesn’t want to go, catches a boat going in the opposite direction. The boat meets with strong gales and high seas. The others on the boat look around to see what could possibly be the cause of this disaster. Meanwhile, Jonah has fallen asleep in the front of the boat, unaware of the pending gloom. The crew decides that Jonah is the cause of this disaster so they toss him overboard.
God, then, arranges a most unusual means of alternate transport: the belly of a whale. Swallowed by this fish, Jonah has time to reflect on his situation. Surrounded by water, certain he is going to die, being strangled by seaweed wrapped around his neck, and no doubt being tossed about, and perhaps a little seasick. Jonah says, “I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever.” He is watching as the whale’s teeth close and the whale swallows. And Jonah calls out to God from the pit of the stomach of the whale and God answers his prayer. Jonah goes to Nineveh.
As he couldn’t avoid it, Jonah preaches. And the people of Nineveh repent! It seems Jonah would have preferred to see them destroyed rather than forgiven. So God gets it through this unwilling prophet’s head, both personally and through the people of Nineveh, that God doesn’t desire the death of a sinner, but rather, that he should turn from his wicked ways and live.
Jonah’s prayer from the belly of the whale is one of thanksgiving that the Lord has heard and answered with deliverance.
The deliverance: “You brought me up from the Pit. When my life was ebbing away, I called the Lord to mind and my prayer reached above. Therefore I will sacrifice, and what I have vowed I will perform. Deliverance is the Lord’s!”
How appropriate to read this account of Jonah’s deliverance from drowning with Matthew’s account of Jesus walking on the water and Peter’s attempt to imitate the act.
Jesus has been preaching and
teaching all day. He has performed the miracle of feeding 5,000 men, not
counting women and children. It is the end of the day and he is tired so
he sends the disciples ahead in the boat and he goes off alone to pray.
Praying until the fourth watch of the night, Jesus then looks over the
water and sees that the disciples are facing heavy going as their boat
contends with a contrary wind. To come to their aid, Jesus has to cross
the water. The disciples are frightened at the sight of this figure
walking on water toward their boat.
Petrified, the disciples cry ‘Ghost,’ when Jesus appears, walking on the water. When Jesus assures them that he is not a threatening apparition, Peter seeks to share in this amazing contradiction of natural forces. Peter steps out on the water, not by faith, but under doubt. Peter tests Jesus. “If it is you, Lord, call me to you on the water.”
Jesus invites him to do so. But Peter doubts. Storms of doubt unravel as readily as any other storm to the calm of Christ. As long as Peter looks to Jesus, he can participate in this miracle; but when he looks at the material world, represented by the waves, the power to walk on water deserts him.
This lesson about absolute faith is for us, the church. We are all in the same boat. Some of us bail, or try to work our way to the other side -- or try to hold the boat together. Some whistle and sing to scare away fear and doubt. Some give pep talks. But none of these options will “get us to shore.” Only an absolute trust in God will accomplish that. Only God can walk on the waves. There is nothing scary over which God is not superior. Not even the meanest sea storm can separate us from God’s loving profound, saving presence. We, who cannot make it alone, have the real thing here.
As the psalmist says, “It is God who makes a path on the sea.”
As Peter puts Jesus to the test, Peter begins to sink. We need this God, and it is a thing of faith. Most of us have shouted into the wind at Jesus, when we couldn’t quite make out who Jesus is.
Peter is an impetuous, outspoken man who both loves Jesus and lets him down; who deserves Jesus’ judgment but who also receives his grace. Even if we have never tried to walk on water, we know how he felt. Deep down we sense we do. The truth about us is that we obey and fear, we walk and sink, we believe and doubt. But it is not like we do only one. We do both . . . they both exist in us at the same time, buoying us up and bearing us down, giving us courage and feeding our fears.
To walk on water by ourselves is not to need a Savior, and that is impossible for us. When we sink, an “Other” is catching us with grace and judgment, but never with rejection. Jesus returns us to the boat, which is the state of salvation we are all in. We are all in the boat, where we worship Christ who intercedes for us.
This story is about the triumph of God over evil’s chaos in the world. It helps us to know we are celebrating the work of God here, and the human response is one of worship, gratitude, and Eucharist. Christ keeps coming to us, bringing us to worship.
Christ Jesus, of course, comes to us in our need. But our doubt and our fear and our need for rational anchors cloud our faith. We wonder, sometimes, if God is but a ghost, a make-believe fantasy. The real test comes when we, like Peter, begin to sense that maybe we are able to confront the storm. Maybe we can walk right out into the midst of the storm. The real test comes when we feel the urge to climb up out of these chairs and go out there into the winds of the world—keeping our eyes on Jesus and attempting to be God’s partner in taming the storm. As long as we keep our eyes on the holy, we can be agents of God’s grace in the storm. But as soon as we concentrate on the storm and sense our own vulnerability, we will almost certainly sink. Like Peter, we are sometimes people of little faith
But let’s not forget how
this particular story ends. Rather than punishing Peter for his fear,
Jesus saves him, pulling him out of the waves, leading him back to the
safety of the boat and giving him back into the keeping of his friends.
It is then that fear turns to awe, complaints turn to praise, that fear
is transformed once more into faith—and the disciples worship the one
who has saved them.
What we learn is that a disciple is not a person who never falls. Rather
a disciple is a person who falls, who sinks, again and again, but also
one who, relying on the powerful hand of God, rises each time to try
again, praising God in the process. And so, for all of us, as Christian
disciples, although fear is real in our lives, and will inevitably
return, faith has the final word.