Jonah, Mosul, & Vineyards

Sermon 2023.09.24

Wesley Menke

Jonah was angry at God. Jonah was angry enough to die. Why? He was angry for two reasons. The first was that he wanted the city of Nineveh to be completely destroyed, but God did not destroy the city, because the people repented. Jonah hated the city and the people in it so much because he considered them to be his enemy. It was the capital of the Assyrian empire, and like all empires they expanded by killing and pillaging. They did this in Palestine and Israel. For a time Nineveh was the largest city in the whole Earth! God sent Jonah there to preach repentance. And even though his heart wasn’t in it, Jonah did it, and it worked! The whole city repented, and God forgave them.

As a matter of fact Nineveh still exists to this day. But it goes by a different name. Today it is called Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, after Baghdad. It is in the north at the foothills of the Kurdish mountains. This fact makes Jonah a very relevant figure to our own recent history. 

Events that happened at least 20 years ago are considered history. So what happened 20 years ago in Mosul also known as Nineveh? The United States went to war against Iraq. Jonah would have approved. But for Jonah it happened about 3,000 years too late. God didn’t destroy the city like Johnah wanted. For this reason Jonah was angry at God. So angry that he wanted to die.

The other reason Jonah wanted to die was because he was so hot! I was talking to a member of our church, Jens, who served in the military and went to Iraq. He said they put a thermometer on their backpack and it would frequently be 150 degrees. Many nights it would never get cooler than 100 degrees. Jens experienced that culturally in Iraq the people are very matter of fact, and black and white in their thinking. Something is either right or wrong, without much gray area. So imagining Jonah walking through an Iraqi city calling people to repent and then having them do so, was at the same time a little comical and somewhat probable. If the message was received with sincerity it fit the culture to take decisive action based on what was believed to be true. There isn’t much waffling.

So Jonah was angry that his preaching was effective. Jonah sat under a little shade structure and God made a bush grow up and cool Jonah. After Jonah got used to the bush God destroyed it with a worm. Jonah got so hot from the son, and so angry, that he wanted to die. God asked him why he wanted to die, and he said because the bush was a living beautiful thing and its death is a huge loss. So God said, if you are sad about a bush, which you did not create, think how I would feel about a whole city of Nineveh also known as Mosul perishing which God did create. All life is sacred. 

Philippians 1:21-30

Believe it or not the apostle Paul had a lot in common with Jonah. Paul traveled extensively, preached repentance, and dramatically pontificated on his own death. Paul said that to remain in the flesh seems like a chore, and maybe not such a good idea. He looks forward to his life after death, and to being with Jesus. Paul stays alive in this life he says, for the sake of others. This gets to the heart of what we think about death and life. Jonah who we talk about today wants to die, because he is so angry, he feels he has no reason to be alive. 

One of the things we know for sure is that we will be judged after we die. Even to a totally secular scientist there is agreement about judgment after death. Our lives, our secrets, all of it comes to light after we die and we are judged not only by God, but by people. We will be judged as to how we left this world to our descendents. Some preachers say, “People cried when you were born, but will they be crying when you die?”

Psalm 145:1 says, “I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.” Is it good to believe in God as a King? Or does such a belief get in the way of being a responsible person? Kings have subjects and those subjects aren’t expected to have much agency or personhood. Or is it possible by believing in God as King we undermine the Earthly power of tyrants in general? A lot depends on how you conceive of God.

Jesus tells us a parable in Matthew 20:1-16 to illustrate what is the nature of God and God’s kingdom. In this parable people who work a couple of hours get paid the same as people who work all day.

One of the most interesting components of an industrialized society or even an agricultural society where some own land and others do not, is the concept of a wage. We take for granted the idea that one is paid for their time and work. It is worth remembering, especially during times of inflation, that currency is a man made invention. 

This is the issue with Jesus in this parable of the vineyard workers. If we look at the world through the eyes of works-righteousness then we feel that the owner is unjust because those who work so little got just as much as those who worked all day. This shows just how indoctrinated our minds are. We have been led to believe that people deserve what they earn.

Jesus, however, invites us to look at the world totally differently. Rather than focusing on what a person has earned, we ought to focus on what a person, and the community needs. The owner of this vineyard, God, is not concerned with maximizing profit, but maximizing social good. The owner gets more satisfaction knowing that as many people as possible have what they need to eat and be well. This is a voluntary form of universal basic income for social solidarity. 

But there is more to this story than economics, this is also a spiritual parable about salvation. None of our survival depends on how long or hard we work, but on the bounty that grows naturally from the earth, that is, God’s generosity. God loves you unconditionally and it is never too late to join God in the vineyard!