Loving God, you call to yourself many unlikely saints and continue to reveal your love for all people.  Nurture in us the ability to share that same love with others, and help us to be able to see as you see; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    It would be pretty easy to paint a picture of Jonah as the worst prophet ever.  God tells him to go to Nineveh with a message for them.  Not only does Jonah not go, but he heads in the opposite direction and hitches a ride on a ship going as far away from Nineveh as he can get.  Besides all this, Jonah seems to actually think that he can run away from God.  What kind of a prophet doesn’t know that God is everywhere?

    Of course, then the whole incident with the big fish happens, which is actually only a small part of the story as a whole.  The result, though, is that Jonah is given a second chance.  The word of the Lord comes to him once again, telling him to go to Nineveh and proclaim God’s message for them.  This time, he actually goes, and he cries out to them, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (Jon. 3:4).

    Now, when Jonah does this, an amazing thing happens.  The people of Nineveh actually believe his message!  They repent.  They cry out to God.  They put on sackcloth and sit in the ashes.  They even put sackcloth on the animals, so that the animals will cry out as well.  And seeing this, God has mercy on them and does not destroy their city.

    You would think that Jonah might be awestruck that God actually worked through him in order to bring a large number of people to repentance.  However, instead, Jonah is angry with God and sits down to pout.  The truth is that he wanted to see that evil city destroyed.  He wanted to see God’s vengeance poured out on the enemies of Israel.  And instead, God has mercy on them.  Jonah is so angry that he says to God, “Just kill me now.  I am better off dead than alive.”  Jonah has so much anger and hatred in his heart that he wants nothing to do with a God who wants all people to be saved.

    And so, if you were going to write a manual on how not to be a prophet, surely Jonah would have to be one of your primary illustrations.  However, it is also true that when we know the whole story, there is room there for at least a little bit of sympathy for Jonah.  The thing is that Nineveh was at the heart of the Assyrian empire.  Not only were these people Gentiles, but the Assyrians were known for their brutality in attacking both Israel and Judah.

    Listen for a moment to the prophet Nahum, who speaks against Nineveh:

A jealous and avenging God is the Lord, the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and rages against his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger but great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.... He will make a full end of his adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.... [Nineveh], “Your name shall be perpetuated no longer; from the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the cast image.  I will make your grave, for you are worthless” (Nahum 1:2-3, 8, 14).

    This is the attitude that many of the Israelites had, including Jonah, as they waited for the day when they would see God utterly destroy their enemies.  While certainly there are stories throughout the Old Testament about God saving the chosen people from their enemies, there are also stories like Jonah, where it becomes clear that God’s love and mercy are for all people.

    It is perhaps hard for us to grasp at times how deeply ingrained the hatred for the Gentiles was among the people of Israel.  When Jesus comes along, all he has to do is mention God’s love and mercy shown to Gentiles - like the widow at Zarephath that we heard about last week - and the people become so angry that they are ready to throw him off a cliff.

    It’s entirely likely that the gospel we heard today made the religious leaders just as angry, as Jesus points to the Queen of Sheba - a Gentile queen who knew the importance of listening to God’s wisdom - and the people of Nineveh - the Gentiles who actually listened to Jonah’s message and repented (Lk. 11).  It is almost as if Jesus is saying, look at these people who recognized the word of God and listened to it.  God’s living Word is right here in front of you, and you don’t know how to recognize it.

    Collectively, it is unlikely that there is any group where we might have the same level of hatred as the Israelites had for Nineveh.  However, can you think of any person or group of people where you really would not want God to save them?...  If you can, that’s what Jonah felt like.  Yet, the reality is that all people long to have a meaningful connection with the Creator of the Universe.

    I can’t help but think of the story that came out of World War I, where the soldiers at the western front stopped fighting on Christmas Eve as they heard each other in the trenches singing Christmas carols.  Whether English or German, many of them were Christian, and for that one night they celebrated their common faith and their common humanity.  For that one night, they were no longer enemies, but children of God.

    The truth is that our God continues to desire that all people would be saved.  Whether friends or enemies, God’s love is for every person, desiring that each one would become a participant in the communion of saints.  And, if nothing else, the story of Jonah reminds us that God is able to work through all kinds of different people – even unwilling prophets who pout.

    And so, as we remember many people today who are part of the communion of saints, there are always some who will seem more saintly than others.  Yet, God is able to work through all those who are baptized and believe in Jesus Christ, and ultimately it is only God who knows what is in each person’s heart.

    And so, let us give thanks today - for the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection to everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

All Saints’ Sunday (NL 3)                        Jonah 1:1-17; 3:1-10
November 6, 2016                            Luke 11:29-32
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison