Turning Around - Jonah 2: 1-10

The prophet Jonah. The prophet who ran away. For the next two weeks we will be continuing our discussion on the meaning and message of Jonah in our own lives. Two weeks ago we talked about the first chapter in the book of Jonah, where the prophet attempts, unsuccessfully, to run away from God. God caused a great storm to arise when he was at open sea, and after trying every other possible solution, the crew carrying threw him overboard, where Jonah was promptly swallowed by a giant fish.

Our story resumes this morning from the belly of the great fish, where Jonah is fervently praying to God. He cries out to God as one who was buried in the heart of the sea, and felt that he had no hope, no reason, to return to the land of the living, apart from God’s mercy. There was nothing else Jonah could do, so he turned back to the One he ran away from in the first place. God. Jonah deeply believed that God would show mercy, so he tells God that he is calling out in distress.

The prayer Jonah prays seems odd at first. Going back and forth between the present and the past. But Jonah’s prayer is actually like a psalm of old. Crying out to the One he wants to be back in relationship with. Crying out in fear, distress, and shame. And throughout the prayer Jonah talks both to God and about God. He reminds God who He is. He reminds God, and reminds himself, that even in this place, the belly of a fish, God could hear him, because God created all and there is no place one can go from God’s presence.

What a reversal from the man who ran from God, believing that he could out run or out smart or hide from the Divine Creator of the land and the sea. Jonah originally felt that his actions were distancing himself from the unpleasant call he had received to go to a people who didn’t care for him and proclaim an unwelcome message. But now Jonah realized that it his disobedience that has separated him from God, not his cleverness. In fact, Jonah has now been driven from the sight of the One he loves because of his sinful attitude and actions.

How often have we felt the same way, brothers and sisters? Feeling that if we are cunning enough or persistent enough in our fleeing then God will just move on and give someone else our call, our task, our mission? But really, our very inaction and disobedience create a wall that we never meant to erect between us and the One our soul loves. We tarnish our relationship with God all because we don’t want to do something. Our plan backfires.

Thankfully, Jonah’s prayer doesn’t end there. But it does amp up in its desperation. Jonah tells God that he has no idea how he is going to get out of this. And he doesn’t know what’s worse - the thought that he will die without every seeing his home again, the place that gave him his deepest sense of meaning, the holy temple, or the fact that he doesn’t feel the same connection with God that he once had. He no longer feels close to the Divine.

Here Jonah has a profound lesson to teach us. Even though he feels that he is beyond hope, even though he cannot sense God’s presence, he still prays. He still claims that God can deliver him. And that is exactly what God does, for after Jonah finishes his prayer he is spit up on the dry land. 

Some would claim that Jonah’s prayer isn’t really a prayer of repentance because Jonah doesn’t come out right and say that he is sorry. He doesn’t apologize to God. But friends, this is a prayer of repentance. Jonah realized that he was foolish to try to escape God. He realized that God doesn’t have to save him. But he prays to God to have mercy on him and save him anyway. 

Jonah’s repentance went hand in hand with his reflection. Jonah had a lot of time to think while he was in the belly of the fish. What else was he going to do but replay his disobedience over in his head again and again? The more he dwelt on it, the more he realized that he was wrong. And his reflection helped lead to his repentance. He screwed up. He wondered away. But God is still the God who can deliver - even deliver the sinner. 

There are always two parts of any true repentance. The first is a confession of our rebelling. The second is asking God to change us - change our mind, attitude, actions, whatever it takes - to get us back on the right path. To put us back in right relationship with God. Jonah realizes that he has not only sunk to certain physical depths, but has sunk spiritually as well. But he also knows that this does not need to be the end. 

In Jonah’s specific prayer of repentance he also teaches us a thing or two about prayer. When Jonah didn’t know how to pray, when he couldn’t get the words himself, he turned to the scriptures he knew, the psalms, and he prayed the scriptures. They were so a part of who he was that even at his darkest moment, even when he sunk to spiritual depths he thought he would never see, he could pray.

Often I’ve heard people say that when they are the most distant from God they don’t know how or what to pray. They are so ashamed that the words won’t come out and they want to know how to rekindle that relationship with God. The scriptures are a good place to start. The scriptures, especially the Psalms, were meant to be prayed. They were meant to be learned. In our day in age, when we can easily read the words on a page and have an over-abundance of information coming at us from different sources, its hard to find the motivation to memorize scripture, and not just a verse or two here or there, but whole Psalms. Whole passages. Jonah reminds us of our motivation to learn the scriptures in our heart, because even when we are at a loss for our own words, we can turn to the words of our faith to re-teach us how to pray.

Jonah’s prayer is also passionate. A prayer that pleads with God. Not simply asks God for something half-heartedly or not knowing if God will come through. Sometimes I wonder where the passion has gone in our prayer lives. Do we have the same connection with God as our forebears who earnestly sought God in prayer and felt a spiritual darkness when they didn’t pray to the one they loved?

Brothers and sisters, maybe you aren’t running away from God right at this moment. Maybe you and God are on good terms, but this story in Jonah still has something to teach us. It reminds us of the importance of learning scripture and keeping it on our lips and in our hearts. It reminds us to pray with zeal and passion. It reminds us to know God personally in such a way that we can claim with all we are who we believe God to be, even when dark moments come.

Or maybe you are running from God today. Maybe you connect with Jonah feeling distanced from God. Maybe you connect with the words of author Francis Thompson who in his poem “Hound of Heaven” that you “fled him, down the nights and down the days, fled him down the aches of years.” Jonah reminds those running form God that now is the time to stop fleeing and hiding, for all you are truly doing is building a wall between you and the God who loves you. Its time to get down on your knees, reflect on your situation, truly repent and turn around. Run back to God. 

Where do you find yourself this day, brothers and sisters? What are you being called to learn from this part of the story of the prophet Jonah? Amen.