[AI translation] Dear brothers and sisters, we are about to start a new series, and with God's help, we are going to walk through the story of the prophet Jonah over a few Sundays. All most people know about the prophet Jonah - even, unfortunately, among Bible-reading people - is that he was the prophet who, when he was thrown overboard from the ship, was caught by a whale and survived three days of terrible misery in its belly, and then managed to escape again safely. Of course, the argument is then started as to whether there is a whale in the world that can eat a man. Is it even possible for a man to survive three days in such a situation and still be alive? Is it even possible for someone to escape from such a situation unharmed? This kind of argument usually comes down to the question of whether the whole story is true or whether it is just a fable? Well, my dear brothers and sisters, I am going to leave this debate entirely aside. Firstly, because I am convinced that the point of this story is not its historicity, that is to say, not its historical authenticity, but precisely what it has to say. What is God's message through it? Whether it is a fictional story or not is not important - God is still speaking through it. And it is what God says through it that is important. On the other hand, I have never pondered this question because, brothers and sisters, I keep discovering in the figure and behaviour of Jonah traits that specifically alert me to the fact that, my friend, that Jonah is sitting in your study! He's sitting right next to your desk, in your chair. And as I look around you now, I have to say that this Jonah is sitting here in the church this morning.It is such an authentic story that that Jonah is still alive today. Behold, the story begins, "and the word of the Lord came to Jonah". How? Perhaps in a dream, perhaps in a vision, perhaps in an angelic apparition, or perhaps by a voice speaking to him in a very clear voice - I don't know, but it is not important. For the way in which the word of God "came" and "came to be" and is and happens to us, the faithful people of today, is not at all significant, not at all important. I would dare to say, brethren, that he who has an ear for spiritual hearing hears the word of the Lord to him in everything and at all times and in all places. For the Lord speaks. God speaks in many forms: for example, in the existence of the universe. He speaks in the unfolding of the history of the world. God speaks in the twists and turns of our individual destinies, in the smallest and most insignificant events of our daily lives - if only we have an ear to hear. God speaks in the blade of grass, God speaks in the birdsong, and God speaks in the happy experiences and the bitter and painful misfortunes. And that if one listens to these things, one hears everywhere the word of God, the message of God to him. Of course, this speech of God to us, this speech of God to us, speaks most clearly to man in his redemptive action, that is, in the events of redemption. It is in these that God tells man of his deepest and most fervent feelings. And among these, too, in the death of Jesus on Calvary. Yes, brothers and sisters, God's message speaks most powerfully to man and to the world through the holy blood. In it God spoke his most important and his last word.
And in this He says that He loves. He says again and again that He loves. He loves with a deathly love. He loves you and he loves me. And all the other words of God are because he loves us and because he claims us, because he wants to embrace us, because he fears us, because he cares for us. So listen to God's word to you even if it is spoken through a happy experience. But so listen also when he wants to let you know how much he loves you through the language of a very painful affliction. And that's why God speaks to us in human language that we can understand, for example when you read your Bible, or when you listen to a sermon, or when you sing a psalm. And God also speaks to us in a way that we can understand when we each received a little slip of paper on New Year's morning with a verse on it. You take that as God's word to you. It can be said that God has spoken many times.
Can you tell me how many times God has spoken to you, for example? That is how the story of the prophet Judas begins, "the word of the Lord came to Jonah". And you know, I would like to cross out the name of Jonah here and put another name in its place: yours and mine. For example, like this: and the word of the Lord came - feel free to write your own name after it. Very specific, very definite. Because it's true. Yes, it's true.
Now, what was the word of the Lord to Jonah? He says, "Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me." God's word is always mobilising, always a mandate, always a task: get up! - so move out of the idle contemplation, the pious solitude into which you sometimes sink. It is not known where Jonah received this stirring address from God, but it is very likely that it was when he was in some great, silent, deep prayer with God in private. When he was occupied with the things of God, when lofty thoughts filled his soul with devotion. It is very often the case, you know, that the believer becomes so absorbed in his own piety that he is comfortable in the knowledge that he is one of the few who know God, who are on good terms with God. And then he may even look down a little on those who do not think and live like that. It is a great temptation for all of us, brothers and sisters, to begin to believe that this is the whole point of the Christian life. That is, that to be a Christian and to believe in God is just to feel something of God's nearness now and then. Every now and then we understand something of the mystery of God, and we dream about it, and we think, "Oh, how beautiful, how wonderful. That sometimes we breathe in a deep prayer into the holier and purer world of God. So much for the whole Christian life as a little spiritual enjoyment in the ugliness we live in. It's like a little devotional silence in the terrible noise that is constantly buzzing around us in this world. A little trip, a little spiritual refreshment in the purer spiritual atmosphere of that other world.
Get up, says God, you are not a Christian just for yourself! God always gives communion with Him for profit, not for pleasure. A believer who withdraws, who closes himself in his own piety, and enjoys his communion with God alone and alone is not a true Christian man. Go to Nineveh, says God. You cannot usurp God for yourself alone. We must acknowledge that God is the merciful Father of others and of unbelievers, so go to Nineveh. Nineveh was about the centre of paganism in the old world at that time. Recent excavations have revealed that it was a world city 60 kilometres in diameter. It had 20 kilometres of avenues and alleys running through it, and was surrounded by a 30-metre-wide rampart. Its inhabitants are now estimated by scholars at more than 7 million. Everything that the ancient world produced in splendour, wealth and art was there. It was a great city, but it was not only a great city in size, but like all great cities, it was also great in its sins. So everything that could be conceived of in human pride, selfishness, indecency, unchastity, sensual desires, wickedness, wickedness, was accumulated there, as in a general metropolis. Go to Nineveh, the great city, and speak against it, cry out against it, for its wickedness and its sin have come up to me, says God. In essence, dear brothers and sisters, this is in fact how God sends those He speaks to today - into the world. One believer among two million. Today, God does not call believers in Him to go somewhere far away, to Central Africa or India, and do missions there. It is not even to go home and vomit the sins of the world in their faces. Nor is it about organising great evangelistic campaigns and trying to convert people to the Lord, but God's call to this world today is the Christian life of those who believe in him.
Wherever you live, let the figure of Jesus be portrayed in you: his goodness, his love, his patience, his sacrifice, his passion. That is what he calls us to today. The most powerful mission to the world today is that we who hear the word of God, to whom God speaks, should live according to it, obey it. Wake up! Take note that you must live as a messenger of God where you live, among millions of people, and cry out, says the Scripture. So shout out, proclaim loudly in every action that it is possible to relate to people in a different way, not only in a selfish way, in an exploitative way, in a rude, abusive and impossible, false way, as people are usually wont to do, but also in a righteous way, and also in a loving and patient way, in a Christlike way. And it is not only possible to approach work in an apparent way, i.e. to see it only as a way of earning a living, but also to serve in a humble way. Let every action proclaim that it is possible to relate to the other sex not only as it is customary in the world: flirtatiously, provocatively, unashamedly, but with purity, seeing in him the wife of the other, the husband of the other, seeing in him the human being, the soul. Such a Christian attitude is in itself a cry! A crying contrast to the morality of the world. Listen, says God. Listen always to the word that you receive week after week here in church, or day after day at home in your quiet solitude reading the Bible. Or listen to the word God warns you in your dreams. Or the word that events, the events of your own life, teach you, and live by it. Try to carry that through your actions into your daily life.
Brothers and sisters, this is the missionary command Jonah receives today from God to Nineveh, to the world. Only Jonah is a coward and Jonah is afraid. Perhaps he thinks to himself, what good am I to him, so they laugh at me, mock me, and think me a fool for it. Maybe they'll throw me out if I don't do as they do. As a young girl of 18 complained to me the other day, in the quiet of the chaplain's office, that she could not get away from the mockery of her classmates, because she had never "had anything to do with boys", as she said. They think him a fool for it. They mock him, or say he is not healthy. So why should Jonah subject himself to such embarrassment? Is he not right to hide from such an assignment and not take it? Or is Jonah thinking to himself, "What good am I to this world if I lay the testimony of my Christian life before it? For I am alone, and millions live differently from me. It is the same as a drop of water on the top of a sparrow's helmet, which evaporates at that moment, vaporizes and leaves no trace. What good am I doing with it, what good am I doing in the world, if I live in a truly Christian way? - it is a hopeless undertaking! It would indeed be a hopeless undertaking, dear brethren, if God did not send me. If it were not God standing there, behind the one behind the two million. Jonah was so happy as long as he could quietly enjoy the beauty of being with God, and as long as he could contemplate the sublime thoughts that filled his soul, and as long as he could bathe his soul in devotion, he was so happy... But to go to Nineveh? He would no longer do that. And the Jonah of today is something of the same form, as we read of it, "Jonah arose to flee from the Lord to Tarshish". He does not want to separate himself entirely from God, but he just does not take up the life of a witness. But there, in the quiet solitude of the ship, he continues to pray. In the nave of the temple, where no one sees him, he continues to worship God. He does not want to become totally faithless, but he does not want to obey God. And do you know, brethren, that this is the greatest sin of most believers today? It is to disobey. That he does not do what God tells him to do, even though "the word of the Lord came to him", because the believer no longer takes it seriously. That is the sin of most believers. So it is not the sin of most believers today to steal, cheat, lie, or commit adultery, fornication, or immorality, no. It is simply that they are not doing what God says. Otherwise, he is honest, decent, like Jonah. We read that he paid the ship's wages. He acted very perfectly, he was very honourable, very decent, very fair, nobody could have any objection to him. He didn't hurt anybody on that boat. He travelled like the other passengers. So he was outwardly correct. Only God can see that it's all a lie, because it's all a flight from the face of God. Brethren, we have become so accustomed to ordering our lives and directing our actions in obedience to God's word that we no longer feel it is sin if we don't do it. We only feel sinful when we do something vile. If we commit some gross sin, but not seeking and not following God's word, and arranging our lives in our own way, dividing and spending our money and making our plans, we no longer feel it is sin at all. Who is there today who really seriously goes before God in the morning and asks, "What do you want me to do, Lord? - "What do you ask me, Lord, what do you want me to do?
Do you feel, brethren, that Adam is still hiding from God, and Jonah is still fleeing from God? This has become the basic attitude of all of us. Jonah went down to the seashore, there he went down into a boat, later we know that he went down to the bottom of that boat too. You know, there's something symbolic in this, that Jonah always goes down, because a man who is separated from God, or a man who disobeys God, a man who refuses to obey God, always goes down. He goes down and down, his spiritual life becomes more and more barren, his prayer becomes more and more feeble, his conscience becomes more and more lax, he loses more and more his sensitivity to subtle sins. Perhaps even his nights will become more and more restless, his relations with people more and more deteriorated - he will go lower and lower. He may be going up according to the world, he may be rising, he may be doing better financially, but his own conscience before God is going down more and more. And we read that he has paid the ship's wages. He paid a huge wage. Jonah does not yet really know what a price he has paid for this escape: the peace of his soul and the tranquility of his mind. With his money, he gave his soul for this price.
For, brothers and sisters, there is always an unheard of price to pay when you flee from God. One always pays the price of disobedience to God in some way. The one perhaps with the loss of his honour, the other with his decaying health and nervous system. A third may be the unremitting pain of an old memory, a fourth may be an unquiet conscience, or family unrest and unhappiness, but disobedience always has a terrible price to pay, and everyone pays it one day.
"From the presence of the Lord" - we read this twice in the Bible, in this short little extract. As if a man could escape from the presence of the Lord! For even if Jonah no longer sees the face of the Lord, the Lord still sees Jonah's face. And even if Jonah has already set out to flee from the presence of the Lord, the Lord has already set out to meet Jonah, the fleeing Jonah. Take heed, brethren, for the tide is terrible. The cost of flight is terrible. Jonah, return to the Lord! Is there no price for this return? Is not the price great? Yes, it is. Terribly high. So great that none of us could afford it. But we don't have to, because someone else has already paid it for us. Jesus paid for the way back to God with his blood on Calvary. Fleeing Jonahites! So let us all start on this journey together, back to the Lord, led by Jesus, and pray:
As I am - under many sins,
But hearing your calling voice,
Who sacrificed thyself for me -,
Receive me, Jesus!
As I am - to be your holy
Let me know what your love means
Here already, and one day up there -,
Take me, Jesus!
(Canto 460, verses 1 and 6)
Amen.
Date: 15 January 1967.