Stop Pouting, Jonah!!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ. How many of you have heard the term schadenfreude? It’s German, as you probably have noticed, and it basically means taking pleasure or having joy at someone else’s suffering or difficulties. Being happy that someone, who otherwise seems to have everything together, is now having a difficult time. Then there is the opposite. On an episode of Malcolm in the Middle, Louis, the mother of the family joins a book club. At the first meeting, after reading through the book she thought they were going to discuss, she finds out that the book club really doesn’t discuss books. They are just a bunch of mothers who get together to gossip and solve the problems of the world. And one of the things that they really like to talk about are other mothers. And not just any mothers but the really good ones. The mothers who always seem to have their lives organized, their houses clean, their kids dressed perfectly and are involved in every program that the school has to offer. How can someone have that much time? How can someone be that perfect? I really wish that…… and you can fill in the blanks. This is the opposite of schedenfreude – which we might call jealousy but the Germans call it sour grapes. Today we will hear about someone who had a great deal of schedenfreude and then sour grapes. And his name is Jonah. And we will see that Jonah really did what many of us also do when we get jealous or when we don’t get our way. He pouted. Kids are good at doing that aren’t they but adults do it too. With adults it’s not so much an outward thing as it is an inward thing. But God knows doesn’t he. So, we say to Jonah and ourselves – Stop pouting.
When you approach the average person and ask them is they know the story about Jonah, they will probably say yes. They might say something like: “Yea! That was the story of a man who was swallowed by a big fish and then stayed alive for three days and then was spit back out.” They are right of course but there is much more to the account of Jonah that just that. You could say that these words which we just heard from Jonah are the main message and central focus of that book.
Jonah fled from God. He did not want to do the work that God had given him to do. God told him to go to Nineveh but Jonah got on a ship headed for Tarshish, the total opposite direction of Nineveh. He was reluctant to go to Nineveh for two reasons. First of all it was fear. Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria. It was also very large. We are told that is was a three days walk. But most of all it was very evil. The people there worshipped false gods. They were also a very violent city. The prophet Nahum later states that the sins of Nineveh included plotting evil against the Lord, cruelty and plundering in war, prostitution, witchcraft, and commercial exploitation. Since they were such a large city, they controlled most of the trade and commerce in Assyria. This wasn’t no hick town Jonah was supposed to go to. This was a huge city set in their evil ways. Jonah was scared. Now God wanted him to go tell this city that they were going to be destroyed? Not a very pleasant message by any means. He feared for his life. He feared that the people would simply kill him. However, there was another reason that Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh. And that is schadenfreude. He knew how evil this city was. He knew how long they had persisted in worshipping other gods and how cruel they were to others. He knew how they took advantage of other small cities in Assyria because of their size. So he wanted revenge. He wanted payback. He wanted Nineveh to get what it deserved. So instead of doing what God sent him to do, he fled because he was scared and because he was stubborn.
Were these excuses legitimate? Of course not!! Jonah had no right to flee from his responsibilities. But doesn’t it almost seems like Jonah had an inner battle going on inside him. On the one hand, he was scared that he would be killed and didn’t trust in God to protect him, but on the other hand, he knew that if the city repented, God would forgive them and not destroy them and he didn’t want that to happen.
We too sometimes have that inner struggle don’t we. Sometimes we trust in God very much, and other times we don’t want to trust him. You see, God is much more loving and forgiving than we are. That person who made fun of us at school or said bad things about you at work – God is going to forgive them if they confess their sin to him and ask for forgiveness. But we don’t want that do we? We want that person to suffer for what they did to us. However we also know and trust that our God is an awesome God who loves us and forgives us, even for the times that we don’t want him to forgive. Yet at the same time there is always that fear or reluctance to trust in God. Our world says that we have to do things ourselves. Looking to someone else is weak. It shows signs of insecurity. So, we try to fight our own battles without God’s help and we fail. Yes, as long as we live, the Devil will try to convince us that we don’t have to trust in God. The Devil will try to lead us away from God’s helping hand and into our own despair. It happened with Jonah, and it happens to us too.
God would have had every right to just let Jonah die. He had gone completely against his orders and didn’t even want his message to have any sort of effect on the people of Nineveh. Yet God was merciful to Jonah. Instead of letting him drown in his own mistrust and selfishness, God rescued him. God didn’t give Jonah what he deserved. God doesn’t give us what we deserve either. All because Jesus made that ultimate sacrifice on the cross for us and died so we could have eternal life in heaven. We didn’t get what our sins deserved, instead we got what we didn’t deserve. God’s love and forgiveness is ours.
Yes, Jonah didn’t get what he deserved. Instead he got God’s love and protection. The city of Nineveh didn’t get what it deserved either. And that made Jonah pout. We are told that the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. God wasn’t going to let his prophet just neglect his responsibilities after his traumatic incident with the fish. He had a message to proclaim whether he wanted to or not.
This time Jonah was a bit smarter. He did what the Lord told him to do. He walked through the streets of Nineveh with the message, “Forty days and Nineveh will be destroyed.” Although reluctant, he preached Gods’ message. And even though his message was spoken with reluctance and apathy towards the people of Nineveh it had an effect. The effect which Jonah was not hoping for. We are told that the people repented. They put on scratchy clothes and started not eating to show just how sorry they really were. You see, not only did they confess inwardly, but they showed it through their actions. This pleased God, and he relented and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened. Good news for Nineveh, bad news for Jonah.
We too just like the people of Nineveh can get caught in our evil ways. Maybe there is a particular sin that we are dealing with and its hard for us stop. There really is not too much different nowadays. Sure, there may be more things help us to avoid and fight sin, but it’s still there and it will always be there. The Devil works overtime, especially on Christians. Thank God that we have him fighting for us. Thank God that he gives us the strength to fight off temptation. Thank God that he gives us the knowledge to repent of our sins and ask for forgiveness
If you read further in the book of Jonah you will see that Jonah pouted when God spared Nineveh. He got so angry that he went out of the city to east side, set up a booth, and asked God to take his life. So God decided to teach the pouting Jonah a lesson. He didn’t take his life. Instead, the next morning, he caused a big, leafy gourd tree to grow and give Jonah some shelter from the hot, dry desert heat. And Jonah was thankful for the gourd tree. The next day God caused a worm to make the tree wither and then provided a hot wind so that Jonah was in misery. When Jonah complained to God about the dying of the gourd tree God taught him his lesson. God basically told him, “Jonah your priorities are all messed up. You are sad that I took away this gourd tree, which I made in the first place and which you had nothing to do with but you have no concern about the more than 6,000 children that live in Nineveh and their many animals. You need to stop pouting. You need to realize that I am a gracious and forgiving God. I forgave you, I can forgive them, I can forgive everyone who asks.”
Yes, we live in a sinful world. Yes we will experience schedenfreude and sour grapes. But thank God that we have a God who forgives us for these times and who assures us of his love and forgiveness everyday. The book of Jonah doesn’t tell us Jonah’s reaction to God’s little object lesson but we know our reaction don’t we. We stop pouting and we trust, we forgive, we confess, we believe and we love. Amen.
Welcome: The family of Zion welcomes you as we worship the Lord today. We encourage children to worship with us. However, if you need to leave with your child, there is a nursery room to the right as you exit the sanctuary. The rest rooms are located in the hallway between the sanctuary and the fellowship hall. Visitors, please sign our guest book to the right, just outside the sanctuary. We’re glad that you are here and pray that through our worship the Lord grants you peace.
W h a t T h i s S u n d a y i s A b o u t
A STORY OF PERPLEXING GENEROSITY
Give a single bag of M&Ms to two four-year-olds and tell them to share. You will witness counting done with accountant-like precision. Each child will get an equal amount of candy because that is fair. Human beings have an incredibly strong sense of fairness. That is why it can be so perplexing when we see how God dispenses blessing and grace. We see people who mock God who are more prosperous than believers. We see people who convert on their deathbed, and Scripture tells us they obtain the same salvation as someone who has been Christian all his life. How is that fair?
Through a simple story, Jesus teaches us a profound truth. We need to stop expecting God to be fair. God is not fair. He does not give us what we deserve, and that’s called mercy. In fact, he gives us what we don’t deserve, and that’s called grace. No, God is not fair. He is breathtakingly generous.
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ORDER OF WORSHIP……………………………………………………….……………p. 172
HYMNS: 581 – 906 – 669 – 607
PRAYER – Lord God, you call us to work in your kingdom and promise to reward us according to your grace. Help us rid our minds of worldly expectations and rejoice that you freely pour out the blessings of salvation to all people; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
FIRST LESSON – Jonah 3:1-5,10 (pew Bible p. 655) – The Lord calls Jonah to preach the message of repentance to the people of Nineveh. Jonah’s message touches their hearts and moves them to repentance.
PSALM FOR THE DAY……………………………………………………………………115
SECOND LESSON – Romans 9:6-16 (pew Bible p. 801) – God is perplexingly generous. He shows mercy and grace to those he chooses, regardless of any merit or worth.
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION – Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia / Your words are my joy – and my heart’s delight / Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.
GOSPEL LESSON – Matthew 20:1-16 (pew Bible p. 697) – This parable carries both warning and promise for us—a warning that all comparisons based on merit or work do not belong in God’s kingdom; a promise that our relationship with God is based solely on grace which he lavishes in abundance.
SERMON……………………………………………………………………….Jonah 3:1-5,10
“STOP POUTING JONAH!!”
Lessons for Proper 20
FIRST LESSON – Jonah 3:1-5,10
Jonah Goes to Nineveh
3 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.”
3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
. . .
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
SECOND LESSON – Romans 9:6-16
God’s Sovereign Choice
6 It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7 Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 8 In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. 9 For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”
10 Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. 11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: 12 not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses,
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.
GOSPEL LESSON – Matthew 20:1-16
The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard
20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.
“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
ANNOUNCEMENTS
COMMUNION – This morning we have the privilege of receiving the Lord Jesus’ very body and blood together with the bread and wine, for the assurance of the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our faith in him as our Savior. We ask that only those who are communicant members of a church in fellowship with the WELS or ELS come to the Lord’s altar. Please be sure to sign up on the sheet in the entryway of church.
FELLOWSHIP – Please stick around for fellowship after the service today.
SPA TIME – Every third Sunday of the month after the service will be SPA time. This stands for Sunday Pastor Availability. Pastor will be available until 10:40 when he leaves for Marshfield. If anyone needs to talk about things or church business outside of meetings need to be discussed, this would be the time. People can, of course, discuss things with Pastor before or after the service anytime but the third Sunday would be a specific time set apart each month to do that. There will be no Bible Class then on the 3rd Sunday.
NEXT SUNDAY – Next Sunday we will celebrate Proper 21 at 9:00 with fellowship at 10:15. The readings will be: Ezekiel 18:1-4,25-32 / Philippians 2:1-11 / Matthew 21:23-32.
CHURCH DIRECTORY AND PHOTOS – Angela and Dee Bruck will be taking photos to update our member photo board on September 20 (today) and 27, and October 18 & 25. They will also be updating our church directory, so please check the copy we have provided in the narthex and make corrections if necessary. Please check the box next to your name after reviewing your information.
FALL PASTOR’S CONFERENCE – Pastor Krueger will be attending the Minnesota District’s Southern Fall Pastor’s Conference on September 28th and 29th in St. Louis.
PLANNING COMMITTEE – will have a meeting October 14 at 6:00 PM.
THE WEEK IN REVIEW– Last Week’s Worship Attendance: Members-28; Guests-7 / Communion-27 / Fellowship-Bible Class – 27 / Sunday’s Offerings-$2,122.00
THOSE WE REMEMBER IN OUR PRAYERS – Barbara & Larry Long; Liz & Roger Lisenby; Greg Miller; Russ Perry, Deb Hunt’s father, in hospice care at home; Patsy Mickelson (Jane’s mother); Khendra Murdock; Norine Richardson.