From Ralph Milton: Scripture Story as Reader's Theatre –The tiny portion of Jonah which the lectionary prescribes makes no sense out of the context of the whole story. The book of Jonah is a short, comedic parable and the whole story needs to be told to get the point. It's a very short book but still a bit long for a church service. I've condensed it down to about 7 minutes. This wonderful little comedy needs three people to tell the story: Jonah, a narrator, and a third person who plays God and sundry other people. Jonah should be played as someone who is a little silly and self-righteous.

           My understanding of the book of Jonah as a comic parable comes from Conrad Hyers assorted books, particularly "And God Created Laughter." Which I heartily recommend.

Reader I: Do we really have to tell the story of Jonah and the whale?

Reader III: Yeah! I mean who believes all that stuff about a whale swallowing a man and then barfing him out onto the beach.

Reader II: Just hang on a minute. The story isn't about a guy being swallowed by a fish. This is a comedy. It's a send up. It's a really funny story – a work of fiction – a parable that one of the Hebrew scribes wrote. Just like Jesus made up parables to make a point. The person here is trying to make a point, and uses comedy to do it.

III: OK, So what is the point?

II: The Hebrew people often thought that God was just their God. "We are God's chosen people," they would say. But the writer of this little comedy was trying to tell them that God even loves the people of Ninevah.

I: Why Ninevah?

II: Because the armies of Ninevah kept coming and beating up on the Hebrews. And the writer of this book is trying to tell the Hebrews that God even loves the terrible, horrible people of Ninevah. And so the writer puts together a funny little story to make a big serious point.

I: So I guess we have to read it.

II: Why not? It's good fun, and maybe we need to hear what this story is saying to us today. You (Reader I) be Jonah. You (Reader III) be God. Well, actually God only has one line at the very beginning of the story, and then doesn't come into the story until later, so in the meantime you get to be the captain of the boat and the sailors.

III: What are you going to do?

II: I'll be the narrator. And you (indicating congregation) are encouraged to laugh. Remember, this is a comedy.

(slight pause)

II: Now the word of the God came to Jonah son of Amittai.

III: Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.

II: But Jonah ran away from God and headed for Tarshish – which was the most far-away place he could think of. He found a boat going in that direction. But God hurled a great wind onto the sea.  Then 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. And Jonah? Jonah was sound asleep in his room below. The captain of the boat came and yelled at him.

III: What are you doing sound asleep? Get up, call on your god! Maybe your god will help us so that we do not perish.

II: The sailors cast lots to see who was to blame for the storm. The lot fell on Jonah.

III: 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?

I: I am a Hebrew. I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.

III: So what is it that you did? Why is your god mad at us?

I: Because I am running away from God, that's why.

III: So what should we do to you, so that your God stops being mad at us? The storm is getting worse by the minute.

I: Pick me up. Throw me into the sea. Then the sea will quiet down for you. It's because of me that this great storm has come upon you.

II: Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land. But the sea grew more and more stormy against them.

III: Please, O Lord, we pray, do not let us perish on account of this man's life. We are innocent of whatever this guy has done.

II: So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea. Immediately the sea was calm. But God provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. And there, in the belly of the fish, Jonah prayed to God.

I: I called to you God, out of my distress. You answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.

II: The God spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land. Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.

III: Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.

II: So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh.

I: Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!

II: And the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. When God saw what the people and the king did, how they turned from their evil ways, God had a change of mind.

III: I have changed m mind about the calamity that I said I would bring upon the people of Nineveh. I will not do it.

II: This was very displeasing to Jonah. He became angry.

I: O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. So kill me. It is better for me to die than to live."

III: Do you really have a good reason for being angry?

II: Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the Nineveh, to see what would become of the city. God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. Jonah was very happy about the bush. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint.

I: It is better for me to die than to live.

III: Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?

I: Yes, angry enough to die!

III: You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. So should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons whom I created. And a lot of animals?

Here is where my sermon begins:

So, what is the point here?  Is it that God cares about all people and all of creation, for that matter?  Is it a wake-up call for Jonah as well as the audience for which this little parable was written?  I think, that for us, the point of this story is that we need to be sure that we don't get so caught up in our own "stuff" that we neglect the needs of others.  It is all too easy for us to focus on our own concerns while we sort of forget about anyone else.  We do this in small ways, and yet they can have big ramifications in our family life - a parent can become so preoccupied with his or her job that they forget to ask their child questions about their day, forget to show some interest in the people who sit around the dinner table with them, and sometimes, forget even the value of sharing dinner with their loved ones.

In a larger scale, we do this by focusing our attention on our own needs to the detriment of others.  It has been interesting in the months since the presidential election, to hear so many people speaking of returning to the core values of what it really means to be the United States of America.  In the past few days the conversation has intensified, with folks making heavy assumptions about what one man can do to turn things around for the whole world.  But at least a part of what Jonah's story tells us is that each person has a responsibility for setting out to help create that difference in their own unique way.  

It would have been easy for God to find someone else to go to Ninevah in Jonah's place in order to warn them that God was not happy with them.  But it almost seems as though Jonah had to go because he had to work through his own hesitancy, through his own prejudices.  It is all too easy for us to make assumptions about other people, especially when they are the people whom we consider to be our enemies.  We hear about "profiling" pretty frequently these days, both in the news as well as in our own personal experiences.  We make faulty assumptions about people who think and act differently from ourselves, and if we act on these assumptions, there can be negative consequences.  Sometimes the consequences are large - such as someone not getting a job because their name sounds a little suspicious, and sometimes they are smaller, but in any case we stand to lose as much as the person whom we have judged.

Jonah judged the Ninevites, and some would say he had judged them appropriately.  Their city as known for all kinds of scandalous behavior.  The people were known to have no respect for God in any way.  According to Jonah, the Ninevites should have been made to pay for their sins.  According to Jonah, they didn't deserve grace in any form.  But God had different ideas, and God thought that Jonah was just the one to carry them out.  Was it a joke on Jonah, to get him back for all of his haughty and prejudiced attitudes? - maybe.  The story, as Ralph Milton helps us to see it, is filled with humor, and offers Jonah as well as ourselves plenty of opportunity to see the error of our ways.

Are there ways in which we might be more open and less judgmental of others?  Are there ways in which we might give folks the benefit of the doubt a bit more generously?  Are there times when we might back off and take a "wait and see" attitude rather than rushing in with our negative opinions?  Are there times when we would do well to do what my Latin teacher in High School admonished us to do - "Put your brain in gear before engaging your mouth"?  How can we carry the word of God to people we don't like or trust?  And what does God want to say to them, anyway?  My sense is that God simply would like us to be more open to all of God's children, ready and willing to welcome them each in whatever ways they need to be welcomed.  At this point in history there are so many people who have been excluded throughout the years, that it won't be difficult to find folks who need including.  All we have to do is say, "here I am, Lord, send me."

God of Love, It can be so difficult for us to hear that you really do love everybody.  We have our favorite folks hand-picked, and we struggle when we have to open the door to even just one more.  But this is what you are asking us to do, and so, we ask for your help in doing so.  Show us how to be generous with the love you have given to us.  Guide us into relationships that stretch us in our understanding of your love.  Help us to grow in good ways in your name.  Amen.