God, I just don't agree with you!

Jonah 1:1-17

January 16, 2005

¹Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, ²“Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.” ³But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.

⁴But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up. ⁵Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down, and was fast asleep. ⁶The captain came and said to him, “What are you doing sound asleep? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so that we do not perish.”

⁷The sailors^£ said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, so that we may know on whose account this calamity has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. ⁸Then they said to him, “Tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” ⁹“I am a Hebrew,” he replied. “I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” ¹⁰Then the men were even more afraid, and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them so.

¹¹Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous. ¹²He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you.” ¹³Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them. ¹⁴Then they cried out to the LORD, “Please, O LORD, we pray, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood; for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.” ¹⁵So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging. ¹⁶Then the men feared the LORD even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.

^17£But the LORD provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Two People were arguing.  One was a preacher quoting from scripture and the other was a man who disagreed with what the preacher was saying.  The words the Preacher was quoting just didn’t mean what he claimed they meant.

At one point in their argument, the Preacher stood up and pounded the table separating the two and yelled, “Who are you to disagree with God Almighty, the Creator of the universe?"

Did you ever feel like you just needed to disagree with God?  Maybe you read something in scripture and it just didn’t sound right to you.

Maybe you lost a loved one and couldn’t understand why God would cause you such suffering.  Maybe you look at the newspaper and get passionate with the opinion that God has forsaken this world.  Maybe you simply prayed for a long time for something and you just never felt your prayer was answered. 

Did you ever get out there as a result and just start railing at God and arguing?  Or did you feel like arguing, but were afraid?  Have you ever been afraid to disagree with God?  Have you ever wondered why God would do something that you thought was unbelievable and difficult to accept, but were afraid to disagree with God?  Have you ever stayed away from God, from church or reading the bible, praying or church friends because you were in an argument with God and didn’t think God would want you around?

One person described such an experience this way, in a letter to a pastor:

Recently I have experienced a death in my life. Five days ago actually. This may sound stupid, but back in April I got a little basset hound pup, that pup became my life, my only friend. He got sick June the fifth and died june the twelfth. Night and day I prayed and prayed believing and knowing that Christ could have saved him, but he didn't.  I tried to put the death in perspective, but as the hours pass I grow more and more angry. I feel horrible saying this, but I am angry, at God. I realize that I have nothing, nothing I can say or do will ever change his mind. I used to believe we were free but now I'm not so sure. In a sense, we're prisioners. If you believe, you are saved; if you don't, to hell with you. What kind of choice do I have? Believe me, it hurts me to say what I am saying, but this is how I feel, I have no one to tell this to. Perhaps you can help me.[1]

If you ever felt this way or in a similar way separated and alienated from God, you’re in good company.

“Who are you to disagree with God Almighty, the Creator of the universe?” screams the preacher.  The man who thought he was in a friendly argument with the Preacher, replied, "it would never occur to me to disagree with God Almighty, if I was sure that I was hearing the voice of God Himself. But all that I am hearing at this table, Reverend, is your voice. And as we both know, there is no shortage of individuals who totally disagree with you, and claim that they, not you, are preaching God's eternal truths."[2]

The person Angry with God over the dead animal and probably other things, couldn’t hear the voice of God and so he was angry at God and didn’t know what to think.  The person accused by a man of God to be in disagreement with God Almighty, the Creator of the universe, was pretty sure he wasn’t hearing the voice of God. 

But Jonah is different.  The voice he heard was definitely the voice of God.  He had no doubt about the identity of the one with whom he was contending.  It was God calling him to go to Nineveh and be merciful in His name.  But it didn’t matter, he hated the Ninevites and he wanted to play no part in their salvation.  He probably went so far as to believe God Almighty, the Creator of the universe, was misguided and wrong for having a plan of redemption for the Ninevites. 

If you have ever felt like disagreeing with God, like arguing or contending with God, you are not alone.  Jonah did it.  As did others.  Did you know what the name that Jacob was given by God as he reconciled with his brother, whom he had cheated out of his inheritance, the name of his entire people, Israel, means?  "Israel," literally means "Struggle with God."  On the night of his encounter with his brother, Jacob, who would soon be called “Israel,” actually had a physical fight with an angel, an emissary of God, at a place called Peniel, the face of God.  Jacob struggled and fought with God

And Jonah and Jacob are not the only ones…

King David and all the Psalmists also had issues with God, pleading with him, like in Psalm 143, challenging him, like in Psalm 42 and 43, 10 and 22, the one Jesus quotes from the Cross which says “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?”

Moses and Job also argue with God.

When Pharaoh increases the Israelites' crushing workload, an outraged Moses challenges God: "Why have you done evil to this people?" When the blameless Job is afflicted with horrific suffering, he repeatedly demands to know why it is happening. "I speak out in the bitterness of my soul," he cries to God. "Tell me why you contend with me. . . . Does it befit you to plunder?"[3]

The bible isn’t the only place we see faithful people of God arguing and contending with God.

The Jewish Theologian Elie Wiesel tells the story of three rabbis in Auschwitz who convened a court of law and put God on trial for allowing his children to be killed. At the end of the trial, which stretched over several days, they pronounced him guilty of crimes against humanity. Then one of the rabbis glanced at the darkening sky. Now, he said, it is time for our evening prayers. [4]

You see as another theologian says “To wrestle with God is not to abandon him.”[5]

And as we see from the example of Jacob, God wants his people to stand ground and argue, as Jacob did and as a reward, God changed his name to “Israel,” or “struggle with God.”

One Princeton Theology professor, Dan Migliore, says it like this:

"God wants honesty rather than pretense in our prayer," he said. "God invites us as covenant partners to stand before God with all that we are, experience and hope for, so that it is truly we ourselves who are there, in all of our distress and hope, and not a camouflaged or make-believe self."

If in Christian life we cannot express our doubts, our faith will be half-hearted. If we cannot shed tears over loss and waste, our laughter will be hollow. If we cannot express our outrage against injustice, our commitment to God's reign will be lukewarm.

"If we cannot argue with God, we cannot be brought to deeper understanding."[6]

But lets go back a step, back to Jonah.  Jonah disagreed with God but didn’t stand his ground and argue or contend with God, like the other folks I’ve mentioned, like Jacob, or Moses or Job.

Jonah, disagreed with God, didn’t want to do what God called him to do, so he turned tail and ran.  He escaped, thinking that he would be able to outrun him.  While he rewards Jacob for standing up to him, don’t you think that he’d be pretty angry with Jonah for running away and showing no backbone at all. 

Remember that passage from the Book of Revelation, where Jesus comes to John in a dream and offers up judgments and challenges against seven early churches?  To the the church in Laodicea, Jesus warned, “So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”  God respects those who stand up against him and argue with Him.  He rewards those who contend with him and struggle with  all that He tells them.

But don’t you think he might grow angry and punish Jonah?  Well, the seamen onboard the boat Jonah’s escaping on certainly think so and throw him overboard to escape God’s wrath.  But as soon as they do, they run into another of God’s great mysteries.  God’s grace. 

As soon as Jonah hits the water, he encounters the first century equivalent of a Coast Guard Cutter, a giant fish to swallow him up and keep him whole until they reach the shore and true safety.

Not only does God respect and reward the believer and servant who fights him with a passion, who disagrees but stands his ground to struggle with God.  But God stands by and provides his grace for that person who is struggling to the extent that they run for the hills as well. 

That person that has a difficult time going to church because of what they feel is an injustice perpetrated because of how their mother passed or because of how he or she disagrees with something they feel is happening within the church, is not outside God’s grace.  That person has not been forgotten or forsaken by God, just because they have forsaken or tried hard to forget God. 

Just because a person is running away from God because they feel abandoned by God, doesn’t mean God has or will abandon them.

I’m sure by now most of you have heard or read the poem, “Footsteps in the Sand.”  It’s a popular parable of faith that has been around at least for the last twenty years or so, maybe more.  Its author is anonymous and the date it was first published is also unknown.  If you haven’t heard of it before it goes like this:

One night a man had a dream.
He dreamed he was walking along
the beach with the Lord.

Across the dark sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene, he noticed
two sets of footprints in the sand,
one beloning to him and the other to the Lord.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
he looked back at the footprints in the sand.
He noticed that many times along the path of his life
there was only one set of footprints.
He also noticed that it happened at the
very lowest and saddest times in his life.
This bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it.

"Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,
you'd walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life there is
only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why when I needed you most
you would leave me."

The Lord replied "My precious, precious child,
I love you and would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffereing,
when you see only one set of footprints in the sand,
it was then that I carried you."

This parable puts into poetic bars the truth that at those moments that it seems that God is the farthest away, God is actually the closest.  At those moments, the pain of life is so great that it seems that somehow God is not there.

Hear again Princeton Theological School’s Professor Migliore:

"Injustice, violence and death contradict the character and purpose of God. When evil, injustice and death prevail in the world created and ruled by God, it is not only humanity that suffers, but also the glory of God that suffers," he says.

In other words, when those awful things happen, it not only feels like we’re under attack, but that the goodness of God’ is under question, we feel like God is not there, that God no longer exists, and that God is hiding.

And not only has this been experienced by the prophets and faithful people through all the years, but by Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Professor Migliore says he interprets Jesus' dying wail from the cross - "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" - as inseparable from a larger question: Why has God abandoned the reign that was initiated in Jesus' ministry of justice, mercy and reconciliation?

He argued that crying out in the midst of distress is not evidence of a loss of faith, "but the expression of faith in a wounded form."

Yet when such faith, faith that sheds tears of blood when it struggles, has been wounded, God is all the closer to the one wounded, holding close the one who has been attacked and who feels so far from God.

Like the person in the poem, and Jonah in the belly of the fish, the more alone and hurt and attacked we might feel because of what has happened to us  or because of what we have experienced in our relationship with God, the closer God pulls up alongside and supports and nurtures and cares for us.

I hope you can remember a time that you have been arguing with God, where you have stood your ground and felt like you really needed to give God a piece of your mind.  Because this is a sign of a deep, sincere, yet wounded relationship with God.  I also hope that when you have had such feelings, you have been able to go to God in prayer, even angry prayer, and say your piece, and let out your pain.  God can handle it, and always has and always will. 

But if you cannot, as Jonah could not and he escaped, hoping to run away from God’s wrath, you may escape for a time, but never fear, God’s grace is still near, and when you need God, and when you are ready to turn to God and face what has happened, God will hear and embrace, will forgive and love and nurture as always.

I hope and pray that as you enter into your difficult times with God, you will always remember that God’s love cannot be escaped, that ultimately God’s grace cannot be refused and God’s mercy cannot be denied.

Amen.