July 20,2008 "The Runaway" - Rev. Vicky Ney, posted on N-0400
"Dare to Be a Daniel" July 27, 2008- The Rev. Vicky Ney, posted on N-0400
July 13, 2008 - "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" - Rev. Vicky Ney, posted on N-0400
April 13 2008 "There's a Tiger in My Boat!" -The Rev. VickyNey, posted on N-0400
March 9, 2008 - "Running in Reverse" - The Rev. Vicky Ney, posted on N-0400
March 2, 2008 - "Meet Mrs. Zebedee" - The Rev. Vicky Ney, posted on N-0500
February 10 2008 - "Who, Me?" - The Rev. Vicky Ney, posted on N-0500
"That Sinking Feeling" - January 27 2008 - Rev. Ney, posted on N-0500
January 13, 2008 - "Who Are You Wearing?" - Rev. Ney, posted on N-0500
"Wise People" - January 6, 2008 - The Rev. Vicky Ney, posted on N-0500
Christmas 2007 Homily - The Rev. Vicky Ney, posted on N-0500
How Can I Be Sure? - Rev. Ney - December 02 2007, posted on N-0500
"Skipping Christmas" - Rev. Ney - November 25 2007, posted on N-0500
"Thanks and Living" November 18, 2008 - Rev. Ney, posted on N-0500
"Your Money or Your Life!, posted on N-0500
"Taking Goliath Down" October 7, 2007 - The Rev. Vicky Ney, posted on N-0400
"When the Ark Got Parked - Oct. 21, 2007 The Rev. Vicky Ney , posted on N-0400
"Looking for Godzilla" -Rev. Vicky Ney Sept. 30 2007, posted on N-0400
"Parked In Dopey" Sept 23 2007 The Rev. Vicky Ney, posted on N-0400
The Rock, The Roll, The Resurrection. Text: John 20:1-18, posted on N-0400
"Does God Go On Vacation?" - The Rev. Vicky Ney, posted on N-0400
"Perfect Freedom" - The Rev. Vicky Ney, posted on N-0400
"Talk Like a Pirate" -The Rev. Vicky Ney, posted on N-0400
"A Visit With Martha" - The Rev. Vicky Ney, posted on N-0400
"It All Depends on What You're Listening For", posted on N-0400
Sheep and the Shepherd , posted on N-0400
Following Jesus in a “Hokie” World, posted on N-0400
“A Bout with Doubt” , posted on N-0400
Carpe Diem , posted on N-0400
The Physics of Falling Toast, posted on N-0400

July 20,2008 "The Runaway" - Rev. Vicky Ney

July 20, 2008 “The Runaway” The Rev. Vicky Ney Text: Jonah 3:1-5, 10 Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, more successful than Billy Graham or Joel Osteen could ever imagine or be, (well, the first two are wrong, but the last one is correct) we meet the prophet Jonah in today’s scripture passage. Jonah’s story seems to be one of “Why me, Lord?” None of the other prophets of Israel ever had to step foot out of Palestine. And here was God sending him to Timbuktu to preach to people he didn’t even like. Jonah’s disobedience took him on quite an adventure. I’m sure that within a few minutes of swallowing Jonah, the whale suffered a severe attack of acid indigestion, because Jonah had a disposition that was enough to curdle milk. Listen again to the story of Jonah. Listen for God’s word to you this morning. I do believe that the book of Jonah has to be one of the funniest—if not THE funniest—book in the Bible. One of the things that makes Jonah so amusing is that it is almost paints a caricature of a classical Biblical prophet—Jonah, son of Amittai. Anyone who doubts that Jonah is intended to be funny should refer to chapter 3 verses 7-8 where the repentant king of Assyria commands that even the animals in the kingdom fast and wear sackcloth and ashes right along with the humans as a sign of repentance. The visual I get of cows and sheep and goats wearing sackcloth is quite hilarious—and maybe that’s because I have a close relative who used to put her dog in Halloween costumes! It’s just funny. The humor in the book of Jonah, however, is balanced alongside definite historical realities. There actually was a Jonah, son of Amittai, who served as Israel’s prophet in the days of Jeroboam II of the Northern Kingdom (2 Kings 14:25). Also, in those days the great enemy of Israel was the Assyrian Empire headquartered in Nineveh—which, by the way, stood where the city of Mosul, Iraq is today. Assyria was the largest empire of its time. It stretched from Iran to Egypt and as far north as the Caucasus Mountains—which is north of the Black Sea on the border of today’s Russia. Assyria was quite a power in its day. Nineveh and its king were the most powerful political and military force in the known world of the time. Some historians tell us that they were able to accomplish this because they had a state-of-the-art military machine—chariots with iron wheels. To show everyone how powerful and ruthless they were, they had mounds of enemy bones piled up outside the gates of their capital city of Nineveh. Beyond their fierceness as fighters, they also had a great civilization with one of the outstanding law codes of its time and a huge library (and just for information purposes, the library contained books written on stone, some of which are preserved to this day.) Unfortunately, the Assyrians were one of the great enemies of Israel. Eventually they would completely devastate the northern kingdom of Israel, decimate the people, and level the capital Samaria. Is it any wonder, then, that Jonah was not happy about going to this evil empire in Nineveh? Now that we’ve looked at some background material about the time of Jonah, let’s go back to the story. It’s pretty clear that this book is not an ordinary Bible book of heavy duty prophet oracles. In fact, this book does not paint a very good picture of Jonah’s faith—let alone his prophetic preaching ability. Almost everyone in the book has more faith in God than Jonah does. The bible tells us that the word of God comes to Jonah and tells him to travel to the easternmost edge of the known world of that time. In response, Jonah said, “I don’t want to” and quickly books passage on a ship headed to the westernmost edge of the known world, Tarshish (which is the biblical name for Spain.) Sun, senioritas, and sangria sound a whole lot better to him than going to a city where his bones might get piled up with the others at the gate! We see clearly his direct disobedience to God. But what is even more astonishing for a prophet of God, he seems not the least bit troubled by his behavior and that it might upset God. We’re told he boards his cruise ship and promptly gets caught up on his rest! The Bible says he falls into a deep sleep. God, however, lets Jonah know he is upset and definitely gets Jonah’s attention by means of a huge storm that threatens the lives of everyone on board the ship. Jonah urges the sailors to throw him overboard, telling them that he is to blame—God is chasing him down. The sailors, though, are humane men—they do not want to hurt anyone. Even though they are not Israelites, they start praying to God to intervene. Everyone on the boat starts praying—except Jonah. They ask God to forgive them for having to throw Jonah into the sea, but there’s no record of Jonah ever praying to be forgiven for what he’s done. Certainly doesn’t look like the behavior of a prophet of God. In chapter 2, the humor in the writing returns. We see Jonah, swallowed by a huge fish, sloshing around in the gastric juices of the whale for three days, composing a psalm of praise to God, whereupon the fish gets a wild case of indigestion and vomits Jonah up on shore. I picture this scene on the beach. There’s Jonah, clawing his way onto the beach, pulling seaweed and kelp out of his beard, his skin raw from the acid in the whale’s stomach, sticky and smelling to high heaven with whale vomit, feeling a tap on his shoulder. “Uh, Jonah, this is God again.” “You don’t still want me to go to Nineveh, do you?” “Yes, I do—get going!” So off Jonah goes, walking ever so slowly to Nineveh. I think his reluctance to being there is shown with the message he gives. It’s only five words in Hebrew—a few more in the English translation. “In forty days Nineveh will be overthrown.” It’s like he thinks if he just says it like that, the people won’t understand it, so they’ll never repent. Then Jonah can watch God “nuke” the whole evil city. Well, we know that’s not what happens. The king and the entire population—including the animals—repent and God forgives them. It’s only in chapter 4 that we find out why Jonah was so reluctant to go to Nineveh. He knows that he has been commanded to preach destruction. But he also knows that God is a God of mercy who forgives those who repent. So under the rules of classical prophecy, if Jonah fails and no one repents, Nineveh will be destroyed. But under these same rules, any prophet whose words do not come true is a considered a false prophet (Deuteronomy 18:20-22). So even if Jonah succeeds as a preacher, he fails by becoming a false prophet. He’s in a lose-lose situation. In the end, it seems he cares more about his own reputation as a prophet than he cares about presenting the true, merciful nature of God to a sinful nation. His career is over no matter how you look at it. One of my favorite professors at Princeton Seminary was Phyllis Trible. She once said that the story of Jonah is just one story among hundreds in the Bible about the Divine and us humans. The beginning of Jonah is elusive (it’s hard to figure out why God wanted an enemy of Israel to hear his words, or why Jonah suddenly became so disobedient) and the ending remains unwritten (the book of Jonah ends with a question that is not answered). This means the story is about us. And that we have to help write the ending. We write another chapter in this story whenever we respond to God’s call with the gift of our lives. Every time we choose people over whatever else we’re pursuing, we respond to God with obedience. When we honor the Lord through efforts that are honest and constructive and just and life-affirming, we are responding to God with obedience. When we give of our time, talents, and treasure for the advancement of Christ’s work in the world, we are responding to God with obedience. Be warned here—obedience can be dangerous! It can be dangerous because we might be laughed at. It can be dangerous because we might be misunderstood. It can be dangerous because it could send us into territory we have never been to before. It can be dangerous because we can’t be sure what God might ask of us. It can be dangerous because being obedient doesn’t come naturally to us. It can be dangerous because we’ll be asked to turn the other cheek and love our enemies. It can be dangerous because we might be asked to be peacemakers. It can be dangerous because we might even be asked to pray for someone who is mean—or as the Bible puts it, someone who “despitefully uses” us. Responding to God with obedience can also lead to a new job title for us in all of this—the job of “Disciple” of Jesus—which just may be the toughest job in the whole world, because it may mean rethinking what it is to be a success in life. You see, Jonah had success all mixed up in his head. That’s because the world tells us that a success is one thing and being a disciple tells us that a success is entirely something else. The world says success means accepting yourself for who you are; Jesus says success means celebrating who you are, but celebrating the person God has made you to be. The world says success means knowing all the ways in which you are already a winner; Jesus says success means that sometimes an illness, a cancer, a rejection, can put you in touch with gifts and graces you didn’t know were yours. The world says success is being able to lose your career without losing yourself; Jesus says success is actually being willing to lose yourself to find yourself. The world says success is taking good care of you (you’re number one!); Jesus says success is giving yourself away to other, to your community, and especially the lonely, sick, homeless, poor, and hungry. The world says success is putting balance in your life; Jesus says success is putting God in first place in your life. The world says success is controlling your own finances, piling it up (you know, “the one who dies with the most toys wins” syndrome); Jesus says success is remembering that it is more blessed to give than to receive. The world says success is trusting the process; Jesus says success is trusting the Spirit. The world says success means knowing that everything has a price and knowing how much you would pay for it; Jesus says success is taking up your cross each day and doing whatever is necessary to serve in humble love. Before you act like Jonah, and book your ticket for Tarshish, remember that while being in God’s service can be difficult or dangerous, it may even seem silly to the rest of the world, but it is the only place that offers blessing and some peace. _________________________________________________ 1 Frederick Buechner, Particular Treasures, Harper Collins Publishers 2 Wesley Taylor, United Methodist Church, Tualatin, Oregon

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