What's Fair Got to Do With It?

Rev. Debbie Cato

Jonah 4 & Matthew 20:1-16

Peace Presbyterian Church

Preaching Series on Jonah – Week 3

June 21, 2015

What’s Fair Got to Do With It?

This is our third and final week in the Book of Jonah.

     A prophetic book of only four chapters;  48 verses.

God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh to speak judgment against an evil city.

        Jonah does not want to go – Nineveh is a wicked enemy of Israel.

              Jonah gets the great idea to run away from God,

                        so he boards a ship headed in the opposite direction.

Not to have His plans thwarted, God causes a violent storm on the sea that threatens to rip the ship to shreds.  After praying to Jonah's god, the sailors toss him overboard and immediately the sea becomes calm. But that is not the end of Jonah's call!

God commands a great fish to swallow Jonah whole… saving Jonah’s life.

Jonah lives inside the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, until -

until God commands the fish to spew Jonah onto dry land.

God doesn’t waste any time.

He again commands Jonah to go to Nineveh.

He again commands Jonah to preach judgment to the Ninevites.

This time, Jonah reluctantly complies. He travels to Nineveh and gives them the message from God.

“Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed,” Jonah proclaims.

The wicked people of Nineveh hear the proclamation and immediately repent.

     They fast and wear sack cloth.

           The king proclaims that all beasts and all humans will urgently pray to the God of Israel and repent.

                  They shall not eat or drink.

                         They shall change their ways.

                                  And maybe… just maybe, the king says,

The God of Israel will change his mind and save them. And sure enough!

“When God saw what they did and how they turned from their
evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.”

God had compassion and did not destroy them. Jonah is not happy with God. Jonah is not happy that God shows compassion to the Ninevites. Scripture tells us that “Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry.”

In fact, in his anger, Jonah admits why he didn’t want to go to Nineveh to begin with. He admits why he tried to run away from God.

           Why he boarded the ship bound for Tarshish.

                 It was n0t because of the wickedness of Nineveh.

                            It was not because he was afraid to go there.

Jonah says, “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.”

Now we know. (pause) Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh because he knew that God would not destroy these wicked enemies of Israel. He knew that God was gracious and compassionate and that God would forgive them. He knew that in the end God would not destroy them.

Now, in Jonah’s defense, I think it’s important for us to remember that the Ninevites were evil people; enemies of Israel. They were bad people. They deserved to be destroyed. At least in our way of thinking.

See, I like Jonah because we are just like him!

We have all tried to run away from God – probably more than once!

                    We have all been disobedient, not wanting to do as He asks.

                            We have all at one time or another reluctantly followed him,

                                     hoping to prove him wrong as Jonah did.

We have all gotten indignant…

     Angry when God is compassionate

            Or forgiving

                  Or generous

                            Or acts in a way that we don’t think He should.

And God’s response to Jonah is probably God’s response to us:

“Do you have any right to be angry?”

We see evil all around us. Wednesday night, a group of people gathered at their church for Bible study and prayer. A young man walked in and those present welcomed him in. They included them in their study. They were kind to him. After about an hour, Dylann Roof opened fire, killing 3 men and 6 women. Nine people dead.

Police learned that after staying there for an hour, Dylann Roof began losing his resolve. His hate began slipping away. But Roof grabbed a hold of his hate and he didn’t let go. He pulled out the Glock .45 automatic that he purchased with birthday money from his father and he began shooting.

Nine people killed while studying Scripture and praying. Killed because of the color of their skin.

The Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41

Cynthia Hurd, 54

The Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45

Tywanza Sanders, 26

Ethel Lance, 70

Susie Jackson, 87

Depayne Middleton Doctor, 49

The Rev. Daniel Simmons, 74

Myra Thompson, 59

These are the names of the people who died Wednesday evening. These are the lives that ended. People with stories; productive lives; hopes and dreams; families. They were people of faith. They were beloved children of God, created by Him and worshiping Him when they died. It’s hard to fathom.

I’m angry. I’m heartbroken. My heart is crying out to God for answers that I know I’ll never get. Yet I know that my feelings are only a very small fraction of what the families, the church community, and the Black community are feeling.

I know – just a little bit, how Jonah felt when God forgave his enemies, the Ninevites. It isn’t fair, God! Don’t forgive them. What about you? Can you understand the unfairness of God’s forgiveness?

Jesus knew it was hard to see God save those we deem unworthy; to forgive; those we think don’t deserve forgiveness. So, He tells the parable of the workers in the vineyard.

It's a parable that reverses normal values. It shocks us as much as God’s mercy shocked Jonah. It makes clear the principles on which God receives people into his kingdom. It has to do with salvation.

At the end of the day, the landowner begins to pay the laborers for their work. He begins with the last workers that he hired. He gives them each a full day’s pay, even though they only worked an hour! Such amazing generosity from the landowner.

A spokesman for the other workers complains: ‘This isn’t fair. Why should those who only worked one hour, get the same as me and the others who worked all day in the boiling sun?’ (I knew you wouldn’t destroy them, Jonah complained.)

The point of the story is plain. Length of service and long hours of toil don't matter with God. Length of service and long hours of toil provide no reason why God should not be generous to those who have done less. God will be generous with whom God wants to be generous.

Appearing in court on Thursday, family members addressed the killer – who is also a beloved child of God. They gave testimonials of forgiveness that are stunning. They reflect the power of their faith.

“I forgive you,” Nadine Collier said through tears to the accused killer of her mother, Ethel Lance. “You took something very precious away from me. I will never get to talk to her ever again. I will never be able to hold her again, but I

forgive you, and have mercy on your soul.” She managed to keep on, “You hurt me. You hurt a lot of people. But God forgives you and I forgive you.”

Next came Anthony Thompson, husband of Myra Thompson. He began by addressing the court rather than his wife’s accused killer. “I would just like him to know that, to say the same thing that was just said: I forgive him and my family forgives him. But we would like him to take this opportunity to repent.”

Not finished yet, Mr. Thompson spoke directly to Dylann Roof, who was watching and listening via a video connection from jail. “Repent. Confess.  Give your life to the one who matters most—Christ. So that He can change him and change your ways. So no matter what happens to you, you’ll be okay.”

So no matter what happens to you, you will be O.K.   Thompson’s wife was not yet buried and he was offering Roof a way to salvation.

The statements of forgiveness continued until all nine families had spoken. “Hate will not win,” they said. “Love will.” What incredible grace these heartbroken families displayed.

These three stories have a similar theme. Jonah and the Ninevites; the landowner and the laborers, and the families from Emanuel AME Church in Charleston teach us the same thing. Grace. God’s amazing grace is the burden of all these stories.

You see, we are all like Jonah. We all think we have a right to decide who does and doesn’t deserve God’s forgiveness. Who does and doesn’t deserve God’s grace.

But to each and every one of us, this story about Jonah; this parable of the laborers; and this horrific life example, say otherwise. Our standing in the kingdom of God does not depend on human merit in any way. It depends on

the sheer unmerited favor of the only One who is ultimately good. He is the only One who accepts those who can never be good. We are all sinful men and women faced with a holy, gracious God. We cannot hide. We all depend on God’s amazing grace. We all depend on God's saving grace. Without it, we would not have a chance.