“GO TELL
NINEVEH” – A SERMON FOR WORLD CHURCH SUNDAY
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A Sermon Readings: |
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Jonah 3:2 “Go to Nineveh”
In 1891
James Batley was allegedly swallowed whole by a huge fish.
Next day some fishermen caught the fish, slit open its stomach
- and out walked - James Batley, smelling a little fishy
but otherwise apparently no worse for wear.
I have my
doubts about that story
- but certainly a host of Victorian clergy
took it up with enthusiasm as evidence for the historical nature
of the story of Jonah and the whale.
I wonder
what you think?
Some of
you will believe that a whale actually swallowed Jonah
Others of
us (like the whale)
may find the whole Jonah thing a bit hard to swallow.
I’m not
sure it matters that that much.
The Bible
is full of parables about Good Samaritans and the Prodigal Sons
which are only stories - and yet so much more than stories
because of the profound spiritual truths which they display.
And just so with Jonah - a wonderful rollicking story of seafaring life –
whether it is history or parable, it has much to tell us.
The Book
of Jonah was written maybe around 400BC
at a time of great Israelite nationalist fervour
- the Israelites had just returned from exile
they’d
recolonized Jerusalem
and
rebuilt the great Temple destroyed by the Babylonians
There was
a mood of national euphoria abroad –
If they’d just won the World Cup and beaten Australia at Cricket
they couldn’t have felt better –
they
were top nation, chosen people –
God was alive and living in Jerusalem
and very very Jewish thank you very much - .
And everyone else could basically go and boil their heads
as far as the Israelites were concerned.
And at
this point of jingoistic self-congratulation,
the saga of Jonah is written
Its set
several hundred years before in the days of the Assyrian empire
Jonah is
a sort of representative figure a bit like John Bull or Uncle Sam.
He stands for the whole of the people of Israel
And Jonah
is told by God “Go and prophecy to Nineveh”!!
What you
have to realize is that Nineveh is the enemy –
in fact the capital of a great empire centred on what is now Iraq.
And Jonah
– who I suspect
would have rubbed along with Donald Rumsfeld pretty
well –
says to God, You must be joking
if you think I’m gong anywhere near the Assyrians!
As far as Jonah was concerned the only good Iraqi was a dead Iraqi,
and he wouldn’t even go to preach judgement to them.
You know
the following story well.
Jonah
runs away, but God is ahead of him.
Because
Jonah runs against God’s Spirit - ship begins to break apart.
Jonah
finds himself ignominiously in the belly of the whale
And then smelling of fish vomited ashore.
So a
bedraggled and discredited Jonah is shown
that he cant escape from God’s commands.
He is
shown something of his own sin and arrogance
And then
God says again – Go to Nineveh -
-
“My
message is for all people”.
By
implication – God says
Yes, of course Israel is a chosen people
but
we are chosen not against other peoples but for them:
We are
chosen to bring the Word of God
to the whole world indiscriminately.
And so it
is that Jonah does indeed go to Nineveh,
and prophecies doom if they do not mend their godless ways.
The Ninevites repent, and God says he will save Nineveh.,
A happy
ending to story - or is it?
Shades of
the Prodigal Son and the elder brother –
For Jonah is furious -
What sort
of prophetic street cred is there for a prophet
who announces fire and brimstone only to be overruled
by the God who sent him, who decides at the last moment to show mercy??
These
people, says Jonah have been a wicked people
and they deserve to be smitten by God.
But God
says “Yes, they do deserve to be smitten –
just like you Jonah –
you all deserve to have your cities destroyed,
you all deserve to be eaten by the whale –
But my
love covers every nation and every sin,
so I will have mercy!!!
Today is World Church Sunday –
Today God
speaks to us as he spoke to Jonah of old.
1. He reminds us that God’s love and salvation
is not just
for our country (whichever it may be),
not just for us and people like us (whatever we may be like) -
God’s love and mercy are for all people, all nations –
even those we have traditional mistrusted, disliked or battled with.
Thank you
again to everyone who has contributed to our service today.
All those 13 languages involved in our Scripture reading –
languages carrying with the memories of so many conflicts and enmities –
how many battles and wars have been fought between
those speaking the languages we have heard?? -
Yet each language offered to God in that moment as a means
through which the one same Universal Gospel can be heard by all!
2. On World Church Sunday God reminds us -
as he made clear to Jonah and the old Israel -
that we are all called – as the Church – the new Israel -
to proclaim the Gospel to all nations.
And we
are called to do this work,
not because we are virtuous but because we are called -
not because of our goodness but in spite of our sins.
Like
Jonah we are only fit for the whale’s belly
in the depths of sin and death
But we -
and this is the ultimate message of the Book of Jonah -
we dare
preach salvation
not because we are righteous or better than Nineveh -
but because we too are just like Nineveh -
we too are sinners of the deepest die -
and precisely because we are sinners,
and precisely because we know what it means to be in the fish’s belly
and to be vomited out on to dry land,
precisely because we know what it is to be saved,
and brought to new life in Christ,
that is how and why we can proclaim God’s mercy.
In
Richard Baxter’s famous words,
“I
preached as never sure to preach again,
As a dying man to dying men!”
A final footnote to the story of
Jonah
Of course
all earthly empires finally fall
and that was true of Nineveh.
The Power
of Assyria did finally crumble, and the day did come -
long after the days in which the Book of Jonah are set
-
when the great City of Nineveh was in its turn destroyed.
The site
was quickly overrun by the wilderness,
so that it became known by the name it still has today
Tell Ku-yun-jik,
the Mound of Many Sheep
a
rugged ruined grazing place
for nomadic flocks and their shepherds.
And
maybe, as we take leave of Nineveh,
there is a final parable unseen by the Biblical writer.
For even
here in the midst of crumbling earthly empire,
Still
there remains the Good Shepherd of the Sheep,
combing
the ruins of earth’s failed hopes and destroyed arrogance,
looking for what? for the lost sheep -
for can he rest when only 99 are safe and but one remains?
And that
is the Gospel we proclaim -
¨
that
when we were in the depths of sin and despair
in the whales belly, he raised us back
to life
¨
and
when 90 and 9 sheep were safely gathered in
and only we remained lost and alone,
he searched and searched until he found us
and on his shoulders carried us home
And
knowing that, how can we do other than give our lives now
to
preach and proclaim, as dying men to dying men
the
Good News of Christ who died to save us all?
ORDER OF SERVICE
Sunday 29th
April World Church Sunday
10.30 a.m. Morning worship led by Rev Andrew Sails
with international members of the Mint
Congregation
Zimbabwean Song
Jesu, tawa pano; Jesu, tawa pano;
Jesu, tawa pano; tawa pano
mu zita renyu.
Jesus,
we are here; Jesus, we are here;
Jesus, we are here; we are here for you.
Jesu, tawa pano; Jesu, tawa pano;
Jesu, tawa pano; tawa pano
mu zita renyu.
Jesus,
we are here; Jesus, we are here;
Jesus, we are here; we are here for you.
Hymn 239 “Jesus shall reign where’er
the sun”
Prayers led by Rev Hwang
Gwang Myung, Korean Pastor
All Age Ministry
Hymn 668 “Blessed Assurance”
(you
are invited to sing the chorus in the language of your choice)
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English |
This
is my story, this is my song, |
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Mandarin |
这是我信息, 或讲或唱, 赞美我救主, 心里欢畅 |
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German |
Dies ist mein ew’ger
Jubelgesang, |
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Spanish |
Los cuentos santos son mi
canción |
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French |
C’est mon histoire, c’est là
mon chant: |
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Japanese |
日もすがらあかしせん よもすがら主をほめん |
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Korean |
이것이 나의 간증이요 이것이 나의 찬송일세 나사는 동안 끊임없이 구주를 찬송하리로다 |
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Yoruba |
Ngo
so itan na, ngo korin na, |
The Peace
Leader: Let
us share the peace
Adults: The
peace of the Lord be with you
Children: And
also with you
Leader: Go in peace
[Young
people leave for their own sessions]
The Korean Church –
a conversation with Park Keun Ha (Kenny)
Song – “Jesus loves me” –
Hwang Gwang Myung and Lee Jung Sook (Anna)
Readings:
Our
Scripture readings this morning will be read by members of our congregation in
a variety of languages –
the English translation is here to follow if you need it
Old Testament Reading: Jonah
2:1 - 3:2
vv.1-2 by read
by Wilson Wong from Malaysia in Malay or Cantonese
1 From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.
2 He said: In my distress I called to the Lord, and he
answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened
to my cry.
vv.3-4 read by
Annika Hullin in German
3 You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the
seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over
me.
4 I said, 'I
have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again towards your holy
temple.'
v.5-6 read by Bert Johnson from South Africa
in Afrikaans
5
The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped
around my head.
6 To the roots
of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in for ever. But you
brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God.
v.7 read by
Abigail Mureva from Zimbabwe in Shona
7 When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and
my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.
vv. 8-9 read by Lili Gao from China in Mandarin
8 Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that
could be theirs.
9 But I, with a
song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the Lord.
v.10 & ch
3 v.1-2 read by Adekunle Adegboye
from Nigeria in Yoruba
10 And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah
onto dry land.
3:1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second
time:
2 Go to the great city of Nineveh and
proclaim to it the message I give you.
New Testament Reading: Revelation 7:9-17
v.9 read by
Lazlo Flores from the Philippines in Tagalok
9 After this I looked and there before me was a great
multitude that no-one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and
language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were
wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.
v.10 read by Naeko Murata in Japanese
10 And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to
our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.
vv.11-12 read by
Philip Bhebhe from Zimbabwe in Ndebele
11 All the angels were standing round the throne and around
the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before
the throne and worshipped God,
12 saying:
Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honour and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!
vv.13-14 read by
Jessie A. Dhas from India in Tamil
13 Then one of the elders asked me, These in white robes— who
are they, and where did they come from?
14 I answered,
Sir, you know. And he said, These are they who have
come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb.
v.15 read in by
Shin Sang Joon in Korean
15
Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his
temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.
v.16 read by Ami
Lai from Hong Kong in Cantonese
16
Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not
beat upon them, nor any scorching heat.
v.17 read by
Danielle Buckley from the USA in English
17
For the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead
them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their
eyes.
Hymn 429 “Out of the depths”
Sermon “Go tell Nineveh”
Hymn 758 “In Christ there is no East or West”
[the
collection will be taken & brought forward
during the singing of this hymn]
Prayers of Intercession
Lord’s Prayer:
[Responsive version by Leslie Griffiths, from “Worship and our Diverse
World” © Stainer and Bell]
Hymn “We shall go out” (Tune HAP 238 Londonderry Air)
[June Boyce-Tilman]
Korean Blessing
English Blessing