Jonah, Justice, & Mercy
Sermon preached by Reverend Carolyn Patierno
September 27, 2009

Sermon

You may remember the story of the prophet, Jonah, from your Sunday School, CCD, Hebrew School ... or for some of you, your UU religious education classes. Or, you may have seen a cute cartoon one Saturday morning. Or, you may have read a cute story book about Jonah, a storm, a whale, and happily ever after.

But Jonah’s story isn’t cute in the same way that Noah’s story isn’t cute. It’s a confounding and complicated story that is not without irony and humor. It is a story read in the Yom Kippur liturgy, typically late in the afternoon service, yesterday as we gather this morning. Today’s sermon will focus on Jonah’s story and the tension that often exists between the desire for justice and the offering of mercy or forgiveness. Like any good story, in many ways, Jonah’s story is our own.

Hear now the story of Jonah, justice, & mercy.

Jonah is a prophet. He is asked by his god to go to Nineveh to “cry out against it” was the translation in my Bible. Nineveh was a city located where Iraq now stands. Apparently, the residents of that city were as hostile to Israel then as they have been in modernity. Jonah does not want to go. In fact, he so does not want to go that he flees in the opposite direction where he boards a ship to Tarshish – “far from the presence of the Lord.” Hopping a ship to flee from the Lord is one example of humor that may be detected in the story.

Soon, God hurls a great wind at the sea. The ship is so tossed that it seems that it will break apart. The mariners are very afraid. They each pray to their gods for safety. Nothing. They throw cargo overboard hoping to still the ship. Nothing. The captain realizes that through the tumult and the strife, Jonah is sleeping soundly below deck. He asks Jonah, “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.”Jonah is exposed this first time and then again after lots are cast and he comes up short. His shipmates are alarmed and ask of this stranger, “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?” Jonah answers these questions and adds that he’s “fleeing the presence of the Lord.” This news is not good. Panicked, the mariners try to figure out what to do next. Jonah reasons that there’s a good chance that all will be well if they throw him overboard. To their credit, the mariners hesitate and instead row hard trying to steer the boat straight, to no avail. They appeal to their gods once again until finally, they relent and throw Jonah overboard.

But that god from whom Jonah could not flee was there to save him from the stormy sea and certain death. God sends a large fish (that in our lore has become a whale) and the fish swallows Jonah. He is trapped for three days and three nights, presumably ample time to consider his actions. Jonah offers up a prayer of thanksgiving, one that scholars believe was added to the story by a later editor. In any case, it reads as a pretty lame attempt to appease God.

But apparently, it’s good enough because the fish spits Jonah up onto land. Guess where? A mere three-day walk to Nineveh. And God appeals to Jonah once again. “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” This time, Jonah does what he’s asked to do but not without some resistance on his part. When he arrives in Nineveh, he blurts out his prophesy, “Forty days more, and the people of Nineveh shall be overthrown!!” In Hebrew, this prophesy is merely five words – far less than the chapters and chapters dedicated to the other prophets of the Hebrew Bible.

But what do you know? The people believe Jonah! The king springs right into action ordering his subjects to fast, put on sack cloth and pour ashes over themselves. He said, “All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knows? God may relent and change his mind: he may turn from his fierce anger so that we do not perish.”
Whaat? Jonah is stunned! Like many of us, he apparently didn’t know his own power and underestimated that of other people. But he did have a gut feeling about what was to come. He pleads with his god, “I know how this is going to go down. You are a merciful sort and that just won’t cut it for me. I want justice! Shouldn’t justice be served?? Truth be told, that’s why I fled in the first place: I knew how this was going to turn out. You do this every time! You, all about mercy, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love – bla, bla, bla. Come to think of it, why don’t you just take my life? It’s better that I should die rather than live to see these low lives be spared.” Jonah then storms off and builds a booth on the outskirts of the city where he sits, waiting to see what will become of its inhabitants.

The compassionate god sweetens Jonah’s day and grows up a beautiful bush that provides shade where Jonah has been stifling in the desert heat and his anger. Jonah is comforted. Day turns to night. When Jonah awakes the next morning, he sees that a great worm has destroyed the beloved bush. Again Jonah is hot and bothered and says to God, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

You sense that God has had it. God says, “Really? You’re that concerned about ...the bush?? You didn’t do a thing to bring that bush to life. It was there and gone in a matter of a day – it meant that much to you? You’re that angry?” Jonah responds – and we know he’s pouting, “Yes. Angry enough to die.” Jonah’s merciful and forgiving god concludes the story saying, “You are so concerned about a bush. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left?” God also mentions all the animals thus showing concern for all of creation.

So ends the story. Without so much as a “happily ever after.” I’m not sure how this story has become such an artificially sweetened story for the ages. It may have something to do with the whale. It’s a tough question, the question this story asks of us. When we ponder the balance between justice and mercy we are faced with a difficult, human question. Like Jonah, have you ever been so angry that you felt that nothing short of a swift and cruel justice would satisfy your rage? It is impossible to see past that level of anger. I recently learned that in fact, when one is in such a state, the part of our brain that controls emotion shuts down. We shut down. We bring down the veil that separates us from others.

Yom Kippur is a holiday that asks that the coverings we use to keep our best selves – our true selves – hidden, be removed. That we unveil ourselves, take a risk and be who we are meant to be. It is human to want evil to suffer. It is understandable. But do we want to be so understood? Better that we lift that veil.

Uriel Simon is the founder of Oz v’Shalom, the Israeli religious peace movement and a professor of Biblical Studies. He beautifully sums up the central message of Jonah’s story. He writes,

“[Jonah] must learn that the world can exist only through the unfathomable amalgam of justice and mercy, that fear of sin is produced not only by fear of punishment, but also by awe at the sublimity of salvation and by fascination with grace and absolution.”

What if that unfathomable amalgam of justice and mercy was utterly incomprehensible for any of us? What if nobody forgave? We may smile at the story of the people of Grudgeville but if we look closely and honestly, there is something in each of our hearts that takes up citizenship in that place just as sure as there is a bag of rocks on our back. Let’s put those down. Somehow. Let’s find a way to put those down.

Micah is the prophet who follows Jonah in the Hebrew Bible. The most widely known chapter and verse of that book is the one that lays out what is required of us which is simply to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8. This biblical verse is referred to as “a perfect summary of the prophetic teaching on true religion” HarperCollins Study Bible New Revised Standard Version. Perhaps true religion is that which professes a balance between justice and mercy. Justice and kindness. Justice that somehow wends its way to forgiveness. Or at the very least, “That in the course of justice, none should see salvation.” so said Shakespeare – ironically in what is arguably an anti-Semitic play.

The balance of justice and mercy is one that we must vigilantly strive to strike. At this time of year – the holiest of times for our Jewish brothers and sisters – we are reminded of the ancient stories that drive the themes of the day. May they inspire us, as they have inspired generations of the faithful, to rise to our best selves.

Shalom. Amen.

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