Jonah was a different kind of prophet. Most prophets that we read about in either the Old or New Testaments heard God's call and tried very hard to obey God's command. Jonah, on the other hand, heard God's call and immediately tried to disobey. Many prophets suffered because of the message they brought. Often, people didn't believe them, and so they ridiculed the prophets, or at times physically abused them with beatings, and in some cases even death. Jonah, on the other hand, was afraid not of ridicule or physical persecution, rather, he was afraid that he would be successful and that the people would believe him and repent.

When God first called Jonah to go to Nineveh and speak out against the wickedness of the people, Jonah immediately set out in the opposite direction, trying to get away from God. He climbed on a ship that was heading west towards Spain, but God sent a storm that was so violent that the ship was in danger of sinking. After everyone on the ship drew lots to see who was causing God to punish them in this way, Jonah confessed that he was the source of their problem. He told them to throw him into the sea, which they reluctantly did. The storm stopped and the ship was safe. Jonah however was swallowed by a big fish, or a whale as the popular legend goes. Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights, and then he prayed to God, acknowledging all that had happened, and agreeing to go to Nineveh, and to follow God's command.

So Jonah goes to the great city of Nineveh, one of the largest and most spectacular cities of it's day. Jonah starts walking through the city and proclaiming that this great city will be destroyed, and the people listen and believe. They repent. They decide to fast and to put on sackcloth. Now, sackcloth and ashes were traditional signs of grief. They might be worn at the death of a loved one as an expression of a person's grief and sadness, but they also might be worn at times like this, were people grieved over their sinful ways. Even the king of Nineveh put on sackcloth and ashes and proclaimed a fast. God saw the change in behavior of the people of Nineveh. God knew that their repentance was real and honest, and God forgave them and decided not to destroy the city.

Most stories would end right there. The word has been preached. The people have responded. God's good news has been heard and believed. God forgives the people who have turned from being enemies into friends. It's a happy ending, except that it isn't the ending.

Jonah wasn't happy about any of this. He became angry and began to sulk. He told God, "Lord, didn't I say before I left home that this is just what you would do?" Jonah was angry because the people of Nineveh has been spared. He didn't think they should have gotten off that easily. They had been very wicked before their repentance, and Jonah felt that they ought to suffer the consequences of their wickedness.

You know there are times when we're not all that different than Jonah. Forgiveness can be tough. It can be very tough. On the one hand, we do want people to recognize when they've done something wrong. We want them to change. But, when they change and then are forgiven, it can seem like they got off too easily. There are times when we fell like someone should have suffered more to make up for the suffering that he or she caused others. There may even be a question in our minds - is their repentance genuine? Or is it just a convenient way of getting out of the mess that they made?

I think Jonah had many of these questions and doubts about the people of Nineveh. He thought that they were getting off too easily, that God shouldn't be so ready to forgive, and so he sulked.

We're told that Jonah went outside the city, made a shelter for himself and sat there waiting to see what would happen to Nineveh. While he was sitting there, God made a plant grow up and give Jonah shade. Jonah was very pleased with the plant, but the next day God commanded a worm to attack the plant and it died. Then God sent a hot east wind that beat down on Jonah, so that he began to wish that he was dead.

Then God talks with Jonah about his anger over the plant, reminding him that the plant grew up in one night and died the next. Jonah didn't do anything for it and had nothing to do with making it grow, but he still felt sorry for it. God then says, "How much more, then, should I have pity on Nineveh, that great city."

That seems to be the very nature of God. God loves us. God loves each and every one of us. Now there are times when our actions hurt God, just as did the actions of the people of Nineveh. There are times when God is sad or angry over the way we act. There are certainly many times when God doesn't like what we're doing, but God still loves us.

In many ways I think that I've come to understand God's love better through the experience of being a parent. Those of you who are parents may know what I mean. As a parent you love your children. There are certainly times along the way when you don't like what they do, when they make you angry or sad by their actions, but you still love them. Their actions might even bring you great pain and anguish, but you still love them. You want what is best for them, and you hope that they will turn around and see and do what is right.

That's how God loves us. God is waiting, hoping that we will turn around, that we will come to our senses, see what is right, and change, so that once again we begin to do what is right.

That's exactly how God felt about Nineveh. God wasn't suspicious of the people's repentance (of course God has the advantage of being able to see to the very depths of our hearts, so God knew that their repentance was real), but God wasn't reluctant to forgive them. Rather, God forgave them joyfully, for a people who had been lost, who had turned away from God and had become very evil, had now repented, turned back to God, and were trying to live faithfully. In this turn around, God found great reason to rejoice.

Our theme today is "Trust in God's mercy!" I think that there are two parts to that. The first is to trust that God loves us and is ready to forgive us when we truly recognize the wrong that we've done, when we truly repent and turn back to God. Jonah didn't have any trouble with trusting in God's mercy in that sense. Right from the very beginning he expected that that is what would happen, for he had seen many signs of this same kind of behavior on God's part. We too are called to see those signs of God's behavior, and to trust that God really does love us, that God really does want what is best for us, and that God really is ready to forgive us when we truly repent and turn back to God.

The second part of trusting in God's mercy, is to trust that that mercy is appropriate, that God is right in forgiving. That of course is the kind of trust that Jonah didn't have. While he knew what God would do, Jonah thought that God was absolutely wrong.

For Jonah it took a storm and 3 days in the belly of a giant fish to remind him that there is nowhere we can go to escape from God. God knows us and reaches out to us wherever we may be. For Jonah it took God forgiving the whole city of Nineveh for him to really face up to God and declare his anger, an anger that threatened to consume him, an anger that made him want to die. For Jonah it took the example of a plant that grew up one night and died the next, to remind him that God loves each of us. Each and every single one of us is important in God's sight and God doesn't want even one of us to be lost to the powers of evil. Rather God rejoices when we come to our senses and do what is right.

Trusting in God's mercy isn't always easy to do, but it is the right thing to do.

For God is trustworthy.
God loves us.
God knows us through and through and forgives us when we truly repent.
God wants the very best for each of us.

Amen.