Turning Around

Months and months ago, way back in February and again in March, I promised you that one day we would return to the story of Jonah. We have arrived at that day, my friends. For the next three weeks we are going to be exploring together chapters 2-4 of the book of Jonah. Why not chapter 1? Well, we discussed it in depth back in February one Sunday, but also because we so often talk about that part of the story. The story of Jonah hearing a call from God and running away. The story of Jonah being swallowed up into the belly of a giant fish. 

This sermon series is about what happens next. 

From inside of the belly of the fish, what does Jonah do? He prays. Chapter 2 is a prayer, Church, that Jonah lifts up. Lifts up out of a place of yes, desperation, but also acknowledging that it is his own actions that brought him to this place, and even here, he is not so far from God that he cannot pray. 

But here is what I don’t want us to miss. This is also the first prayer that Jonah prays to God since he left Israel on that boat to Tarish. Jonah has not prayed since fleeing God, probably because he is afraid about what God is going to say. 

Have you ever been there friends? Been in that place where you find yourself not praying to God? There are often two paths to cutting off communication with our Lord. The first is what I like to call the slow, but slippery slop. You are too tired or too busy to pray one day. And then one day bleeds into the next until you look back and realize its been a really long time since you prayed to God.

This is not that. 

This is path number two. The path where we intentionally do not pray to God. We don’t pray to God because we are ashamed of something that we have done. Or we are afraid of what God is going to say. This is the path where we try to hide from God, my friends. But as Jonah found out, that doesn’t really work.

Because our God will go so far just to get our attention. Just to get us to this place of repentance. 

For that is the prayer Jonah is praying, is it not? Saying, O God, “As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the Lord”. In other words, I tried to live a life without listening to God. I tried to run away. And guess what? It didn’t work. Now O, God. I have to turn back to you. There is something in my very spirit, that is connecting me back to you. 

The greek word for repentance, literally means to turn around. To make a 180 degree change. But in order to repent, my friends, you have to be willing to acknowledge that you missed the mark. You. Not God. You. You have sinned. You have fallen short. You have left God. 

Repentance is not just about changing our heart, but about changing our behavior as well. Jonah, in his prayer says that originally he wondered, how shall I look again upon your holy temple? And by the the end of his prayer he says, “I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you” This is just one way that Jonah changed both his heart and his behavior. From not being able to be in the presence of God to being prepare to make a sacrifice. From not being able to face God in prayer to offering this prayer. From acknowledging that he ran away to being willing to go where God wants him to go and say what God wants him to say. Jonah is ready for a change. 

One of the most powerful worship moments that I had in seminary didn’t take place in a local church. Or in a seminary worship service. It took place cleaning up. Cleaning up after a worship service in the chapel and setting up for what was going to come next. There was a song that was in my heart that I just couldn’t let go of by Mark Miller. “Lord, I’m ready for a change.Only you can make me change.” It just couldn’t be contained in my spirit, so I just started to sing. I didn’t even notice someone else across the chapel who had been apparently humming the same song and it broke forth from his spirit as well. We just got louder and louder, singing this song as a cry unto God. 

I don’t know what lead that person to that song that day. I honestly can’t even remember why it was so urgently pressing on my heart. But I do remember the tears of the person who neither of us noticed at the back of the chapel silently crying as we sang, harmonizing over these words that became a prayer. We had church that day, my friends. And no sermon was even needed. 

Those words that we sang were a cry to repentance. And friends, when we are in that place, that place where Jonah was, deep in the darkness of running from God, we, too, need a new start. Where we hand our heart back to God and say, Lord, I tried to do this on my own and its just not working. 

When we repent, God is waiting with open arms. 

What I find interesting in the book of Jonah, is that the prophet, this man of God, had so hardened his heart against God that he was the last to recognize his need to repent. Back in chapter 1 a large storm comes up out of no where, and its the sailors on the boat, the sailors who didn’t really recognize this God of Israel up to this point, who are the first folks who repent and cry out to God for forgiveness. For Jonah that cry comes much later in chapter two. After being swallowed alive. After having time to think. After.

Friends, what leads us each to repentance is going to be something different. For some of us, it may come easier than others. But we all stand in need of the a savior. 

We all are in need of an opportunity to repent.

To that end, we are going to take the next few moments to be in prayerful reflection. In your bulletin you should have found a black piece of paper. I would encourage you to write on that paper the places in your life where you need to repent. Where you are ready for a change. This is just for you. No one else will see it. So let us spend time in prayer, calling out to God. Amen.