Scripture: Jonah Chpt 1 & 2

I would like to adopt an allegorical approach to the story of Jonah. By that I do not mean to discount the historical, social and religious significance of the Book of Jonah. The person, objects, actions in the narrative retains both a literal and symbolic meaning. Here Jonah is regarded as more than just an 8th C Israelite prophet. He is also representative of a ‘seeker’ who sets out unknowingly on the journey of life. It is a path which all of us take in one form or another in the effort of establishing our true identity, purpose and direction in life. I will not cover the historical-critical problems surrounding the interpretation or the literary genre of the Book of Jonah. (whether it is a prophetic legend, a didactic novel, a parable..)

It is interesting to note that the Bk. of Jonah is read during the annual Jewish observance of the Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).

[ This is the holiest and most solemn day of the Jewish year. It’s purpose is to purify the individual and the community through repentance of one’s sins against God and forgiveness of sins of others. ] Central to the bk. of Jonah, is the theme of Repentance. This incorporates the need to (a) confront one’s personal frailty; (b) to embrace one’s mortality; (c) to re-examine one’s self-definition and relationship to the rest of the community or the world.

As a rabbi puts it, “the challenge of the day (Yom Kippur) is to face the truth of who we are, what we’ve done and who we are called to become. Jonah’s journey traces our circuitous pathway away from and back to our true nature and calling” - Rabbi Shefa Gold.

These are the questions which will confront a true ‘seeker’ embarking on a spiritual journey of unknowing to awakening..

- Who am I ?
- What have I been doing (or not doing) ?
- Who am I called to be ?

WHO AM I ?

2 Kings 14:25 mentioned a Jonah from Gath Hepher (a place near Nazareth), who lived in the reign of King Jeroboam II (Northern Israel’s most powerful king). Jonah is mentioned as God’s servant who prophesied Israel’s expansion under King Jeroboam II. Jonah would probably be a contemporary of Hosea and Amos.

The story begins with Jonah, the son of Amittai receiving God’s Call. “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” (Jonah 1:2) Jonah’s response was to beat a hasty retreat. It is interesting to note that the word Amittai is derived from the word Emet (pronounced Ah-met) or ‘Truth’. So Amittai means, “the truthful one” or “the one who speaks truth”. It looks like Jonah, the son of Amittai (or rather, the son of ‘the truthful one’) was destined to embark on a journey of soul-searching… having to come to terms with the implications of God’s Call. For Jonah to heed the Call of God to a specific role/task (Go to Nineveh), he had first to heed the Inner Call of God ( a calling to his true self).
In short, Jonah had to face the truth of himself, before he could face the truth of the situation (namely, what he was called to do, which was to bring the message of repentance to the Ninevites)

‘Who am I really’? This is a question that has the potential to spiral deep within your innermost being, to awaken you to your true self. ‘Who am I really’? Am I defined by my activities, interests, hobbies? By my relationship with others? By others’ expectations or my own aspirations?

[ To digress a little.. ]

In the recent flurry of emails over Safehaven’s presentation, “Be Who You Want To Be” (held last night) .. I’d like to pick up an observation of Peter’s.. that for many of us who may be embarked on a journey of self-discovery..

“We find out more about ourselves as we reflect on our urges and expressions. We are a complex bunch or perhaps not so complex in God’s eyes. Only the individual can find the answer to his/her true self. (or what God wants him/her to be)”

I empathize with Peter’s ambivalence… but like to add that we are a unique bunch of people, meant to be God’s special gifts to each other, by the way we complement in our strengths and weakness. Our individual calling or identity is shaped in the context of concrete relationships. Our personal response to the question, “Who am I created to be?” “Who am I to become?” can only be sought out and realized within a community. I repeat.. within a community… Now this in itself, may be cause for angst to some, who may be tempted to put on different personas or to retreat to their respective shells.

But thankfully.. there’s hope. To borrow Gary’s tagline, “True Transformation Comes From Within”. So rest assured.. if we choose to cooperate with God, our lives are and will be entirely the outward working or expression of an inward Grace.

[ End of digression… ]

Coming back to Jonah, the question.. “Who am I really?”
present itself as a ‘Wake-up call’. How was he, the son of the ‘truthful one’ (Amittai) to remain faithful to his calling as a prophet and yet carry our a task which was essentially contrary to his desire or interest. Why did Jonah object to going to Nineveh in the first place? Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, and the Assyrians were the sworn-enemies of the Israelites, having defeated 10 of the 12 tribes of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Jonah living up to his calibre (as son of ‘the truthful one’) took upon himself to condemn the Ninevites as evil and not deserving of God’s mercy.

But Jonah was in a quandary when God decided otherwise, and indicated that He would overlook the evil the Assyrians committed, provided the city of Nineveh repented. So this threw Jonah into a state of confusion and anguish. Jonah might have reasoned thus… This is 'not' the God in whom I want to believe.. A God who will extend mercy to the enemies of the Israelites. God has a way of shaking us out of our comfort zone.. making us feel uncomfortable, challenging our assumptions and mindset (as in the case of Jonah).

Each of us have a ‘Nineveh’ in our lives… It may be a place where God wants us to go and we have said ‘No’; It may be a truth that God wants to us to face… but we are not willing;
It may be an ‘inner’ blockage that God wants to free us from.. but we are not ready; And like Jonah, we run from ignorance of our ‘true’ selves, and for fear of the unknown.

Was Jonah taken to task for his disobedience, when he boarded a ship and went in the opposite direction to Tarshish (instead of Nineveh) ? I’m of the opinion that God, through divinely-conspired events, brought Jonah to confront the truth in himself… God is more concerned with our attitude, rather than our aptitude. Jonah didn’t feel inadequate to the task… but it was his attitude (judgmental, arrogance, resentment) which God took to task. Jonah was too self-centered and preoccupied with his own needs and interests to exercise any concern for others. Consequently he was indifferent to the plight of the Ninevites. He behaved selfishly when he was angry and dejected, when the Ninevites responded positively to the message and repented. Jonah’s blind spots (his prejudices, narrow-minded beliefs, false expectations) had to be corrected before be could be of use to God. From Jonah’s perspective, the Ninevites were ‘godless’ as they do not worship the TRUE GOD, the God of the Hebrews. Jonah had yet to realize that the God of Israel is also the God of Nineveh, of Assyria, of all nations.. Who reveals Himself as the God Who is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, full of lovingkindness and forgiving. (Jonah 4:2)

During the storm, the reality of the God of the Hebrews had become too threatening to ignore. He was a Presence who provokes, challenges and demands a ‘response’. Even the mariners, who related to a Universe of Law and Determinism, were compelled to take action by drawing lots. They sensed that order could be restored by getting down to the root of discord. In the ‘inner’ call, or the summons to our true self.. God uses all means and situations to get our attention, to draw us to issues close to His heart.

For Jonah, the storm was a wake-up call. We recall, Jonah was sleeping when a great storm broke out. He was oblivious to the pandemonium on the ship. Like Jonah, we may be spiritually inattentive to the conflicts within. We find ourselves caught in the turbulence of inner storms, oblivious to being thrown from one distraction to another, switching from one lifestyle to another. That’s when the wake-up call comes. (However we can choose to be indifferent and ignore the divine promptings). Another wake-up call comes in the questions posed by the captain and the crew on board the ship. As in Chpt 1:6 “Wake up! How can you be sleeping at a time like this? …” Or the more pointed questions directed to Jonah’s origins in Chpt 1:8 “Who are you? Where are you from? What’s the nature of your work?” All Jonah managed was a general response… “I am a Hebrew .. I revere the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and dry land” (Chpt 1:8) Why wasn’t Jonah ready to disclose his identity, ie. Jonah the son of Amittai? Wasn’t he proud of his lineage, his hometown, his background? Or was it something he’d rather forget. For Jonah to be honest, his response would have been.. I am Jonah the son of Amittai, who is fleeing from God.

Why is it important not only to remember but to own our past?
Before we can proceed to the next stage of our spiritual journey.... we must have the honesty and courage to face up to our past.

What have I been doing (or not doing)?

To know why we do what we do; why we choose what we choose.. involves dealing with the aspects of our life, the parts of our past which we rather forget, and which have contributed to our internal blockages. The true seeker intent on his/her spiritual journey must be prepared to live with ambivalence, inner resistance and doubts.. And even to question his/her values, beliefs, assumptions where they prove inadequate or limited.

Honesty with one’s self and integrity in our relationship with others, are prerequisite to any serious search for God. Before we can ever hope to find ourselves in God, we must admit that we are far from Him. As the Trappist monk, Thomas Merton puts it, we must “become conscious… that the person we think we are, here and now, is at best a stranger. We must constantly question his motives and penetrate his disguises”. Otherwise any attempt at self-knowledge is bound to fail.

Once Jonah found the courage to be honest in confronting his past, identified himself as the one who fled from God, and claimed responsibility for his action, he was ready for the next phase of his journey… which was in the belly of a huge fish.

The Heb word is ‘dag gadol’ which means a great or huge fish. The term for fish ‘dag’ would not necessarily exclude the whale.. In Matthew 12:40, the Gk word ‘ketos’ is used in reference to Christ’s allusion to the great fish of Jonah. Here again, the term signifies a large sea creature. The ‘belly of the fish’ in Jewish tradition signified the underworld (‘Sheol’, which is the abode of the wicked prior to Judgment) or the equivalent for ‘Hell’)

St. John of the Cross (a 16th C Carmelite, mystic and poet) made an allusion to Jonah in the belly of the huge fish. He refers to this as a critical phase in a seeker’s spiritual journey, calling it the ‘Dark Night of the Soul’. It’s a period of pain and affliction when the soul is stripped of all that is familiar, which gives it comfort, security, pleasure…. in the form of desires and attachments. In the positive sense, it is an initiation of the soul into a new and more profound experience of God.

“…. The divine strikes in order to renew the soul, .. by stripping it of the habitual affections and properties of the old self to which the soul is strongly united, attached and conformed… absorbing it in a profound darkness – that the soul at the sight of its miseries, feels.. as if it were swallowed by a beast and digested in the dark belly, and it suffers an anguish comparable to Jonah’s in the belly of the whale….” - Bk 2, Chpt 6 (Dark Night of the Soul),
St.John of the Cross

[ It’s not within the scope of the sermon to deal with this extensively..

So I’ll just be making a brief reference to this experience of the Dark Night of the Soul]

The ‘Dark Night’ [La noche oscura, in Spanish], translated as ‘the obscure night’ refers to a process of deep transformation of the self, which is essentially hidden from our consciousness. According to St.John of the Cross, we are kept in the ‘dark’ as to the mysterious workings in our life.

“The night is dark for our protection. We cannot liberate ourselves; our defenses and resistances will not permit it, and we can hurt ourselves in the attempt. To guide us towards the love that we most desire, we must be taken where we could not and would not go on our
own. And lest we sabotage the journey, we must not know where we are going.” - Dr. Gerald May, ‘The Dark Night of the Soul’

Essentially that’s what happened with Jonah. He was taken to where he could not and would not go. In the belly of the great fish, Jonah’s intellect, will and memory went through a period of emptying. His reason and logic failed him; his will was generally unresponsive; his memory was in the dark. In the dark, deep, slimy, putrid-smelling belly of the great fish.. Jonah went through a ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ experience. A state of total sense-deprivation (no light, no sound); complete disorientation; a sense of abandonment, desolation, and profound emptiness. It was a time of inner fragmentation, when Jonah’s assumptions, values, beliefs and expectations could not withstand his honest, probing, searching questions. Jonah must be desperate enough to want to get out of that situation, that ‘hell’.. so much so that he was compelled to ‘let go and trust God with the outcome’. And yet in the midst of this ‘hell’, the presence of God remained real to Jonah. In retrospect, Jonah realized that the great fish was sent by God to save him from drowning. He was able to express his gratitude in a prayer of thanksgiving (Chpt 2)..

“I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction.. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard me. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas.. and the waves passed over me. Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight… The waters surrounded me, even to my soul.. Weeds were wrapped around my head…

Yet You have brought up my life from the pit; When my soul fainted within me, I remembered he LORD; And my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple… With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD” - Jonah Chpt 2: 1 - 9

The ‘Dark Night’ is a painful experience… of the removal of one’s illusions; self-limiting habits; of comfortable, reassuring though unrealistic notions of God; and the loss of any palpable feeling of God. I like Dr.Gerald May’s definition of the ‘Dark Night’ experience…“It is an ongoing spiritual process in which we are liberated from attachments, compulsions and empowered to live and love more freely. Sometimes this letting go of old ways is painful, occasionally even evastating. But this is not why the night is called ‘dark’…. but only that the liberation takes place in hidden ways, beneath our knowledge and understanding. It happens mysteriously, and beyond our conscious control. For that reason it can be disturbing.. but in the end it always works to our benefit.” - Dr. Gerald May, ‘The Dark Night of the Soul’

Any serious seeker of God, will encounter such ‘Dark Night’ experiences to one extent or another. But we should be cautious before labeling any distressful psychological condition, any protracted period of pain and affliction, the trials and tribulations of ordinary human existence – as a ‘Dark Night’ experience. Events such as a failed relationship, the onset of a debilitating illness, the sudden death of a loved one or any major crisis do not count as ‘Dark Night’ experiences. Although, such major upheavals in life, can be a gateway to ‘Dark Night’ experiences, in the sense that they have the potential to transform our lives positively. When our equilibrium is shaken, we become motivated to do serious soul-searching.

There’s a shift from the outward journey that no longer satisfies ( ie. living for self-gratification), to the inward journey of discovering our true self in God.

In 1962, an ‘idealistic, ardent’ teenager by the name of Karen joined the convent as a Nun, enamored by the ideal of being a saint. She saw herself as embarking on an epic adventure which would take her to the ultimately satisfying mystery, known as ‘GOD’. 7 yrs. later, Karen suffered a mild breakdown which forced her to leave the convent. She had to come to terms with her inability to live up to the demands of a life that required “the entire subjugation of the Ego”. The rituals and practices round which her life was ordered, became meaningless, as God seemed ever remote and distant. Having failed to find God, Karen set out to discover her identity in a world that was largely alien to her. Her transition to secular living brought its own harsh challenges. Her yrs. in the convent left her emotionally frigid. Physically she was prone to fainting fits/blackouts; a career in the academia did not materialize; she even contemplated suicide. The culture shock of leaving a sheltered environment plunged Karen into several episodes of ‘Dark Night’ experience. In her memoir, “The Spiral Staircase”, Karen Armstrong borrowed an image from T.S. Eliot’s poem “Ash Wednesday” to describe her spiritual struggle as mounting a spiral staircase.

“When you’re going up a spiral staircase, you often seem to be making no headway, and yet you are in fact pushing forward. My own life has so often seemed repetitive… I kept failing, making mistakes.. I kept circling round the same issues, and yet it wasn’t just going round in circles. I was actually pushing forward.” Karen Armstrong - “The Spiral Staircase”

Karen Armstrong found herself embarked unknowingly on a spiritual quest..

“I had set off by myself on my own path. I had at last been able to acknowledge my own path and feel it fully. I was gradually and imperceptibly being transformed” Karen Armstrong - “The Spiral Staircase”

Karen was able with the help of friends, to “climb out of her darkness”. She was able to integrate her painful experiences and to engage with life again.

Her ‘dark night’ experiences brought her to a deeper inner freedom, by putting her in touch with her true desires (which was to be a writer). Through her pain, she was able to connect with others with deep empathy and compassion. And she had a radical openness to God in all situations of life.

Karen’s ascent out of darkness was a testament to God’s Grace as well as her intellectual honesty. An honesty that comes from knowing ‘who she is’, ‘what she had been doing’, and ‘who she is to become’. A nun who rejected her faith is now celebrated for her books on religion. Quoting another T.S.Eliot’s line, “In the end is my beginning”, she remarked… “In a sense my life has come full circle.. I live alone, spend my day writing, talking, thinking about God, about spirituality and religion…. So in a way, I’m still kind of a nun”. Though of course, her views on organized religion have changed radically..

Jonah found himself on dry land when the great fish spewed him out.. and when the Call from God came a second time, Jonah went immediately to Nineveh (Chpt 3:1) Jonah said ‘Yes’ this time round.. (having learnt a painful lesson) and through God’s mercy, he was able to confront the truth about himself. He had to stop running in order to establish who he really was, what he had doing (or not doing) and who he was called to be.

This brings us to the 3rd and final stage of the spiritual journey from unknowing to awakening..

Who am I called to be?

The process of ‘Dark Night’ is neither accomplished on our own, nor worked within us by God alone. Our ‘Yes’ to God is necessary. St. John of the Cross maintained that is in the soul’s “free and true yes to God, that God freely gives the ‘Yes’ of divine grace”. It is your ‘yes’ that makes the difference between your ability to hear what God is calling you to or your continuing to live in the confusion of your own self will. God enables us by His Grace to embrace our Past and to say ‘yes’ to those painful experiences.

When we invite God into the situation, He liberates us from our compulsions, pretenses, false attachments.. leaving us freer than we were before, and empowered to live and love more freely.

In 1943, a theologian and pastor was imprisoned for his involvement in a failed assassination attempt against Hitler. During his yrs. in prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer went through episodes of ‘Dark Night’ experiences. His faith was severely tested as he had to come to grips with the apparent powerlessness and silence of God, in the face of the inscrutability of the Holocaust; He was also distressed over his improbable release from prison.

In a letter to a dear friend, he wrote,

“My gruesome experiences often follow me into the darkness of the night, and I can only combat them by repeating innumerable hymns…I ask myself often who I really am. Am I the man who squirms under these ghastly conditions and cries out with complaints or am I the man who disciplines himself to appear outwardly, unaffected by these things? And perhaps persuades himself that he is at peace, content and in control of himself…? - (8th July 1944) Letters & Papers From Prison.

In his effort not to succumb to unbelief, Bonhoeffer came up with the concept of a ‘this-worldly’ Christianity, an essential ‘coming of age’ in a world that has become more godless. He wrote..

“It’s a faith that demands ‘ultimate honesty’.. that God helps us, not by virtue of his omnipotence, but by virtue of his weakness and suffering” - (16th July 1944) Letters & Papers From Prison

By acknowledging his own vulnerability, Bonhoeffer sensed that he is sharing in the ‘powerlessness of God’.. For it is God who suffers alongside us. Bonhoeffer’s honesty with the truth of himself and the situation he was facing, compelled him to live his faith on the edge;

We too, as a community are challenged to live our faith on the edge. This may involve a constant evaluation and redefinition of our values, beliefs, roles in the context of the wider community. It is a “this-worldliness faith” (as Bonhoeffer called it) that demands intellectual and moral honesty. For Bonhoeffer, it was a faith lived with intensity, embracing the here-and-now, characterized by a constant knowledge of death and resurrection. It is a radical faith that remained resolute and hopeful even in the face of imminent death.

It is a ‘this-worldliness’ faith characterized by the constant knowledge of death and resurrection. An intense faith that remained resolute and hopeful in the face of imminent death.

“By ‘this-worldliness’, I mean living unreservedly in life’s duties, problems, successes, failures, experiences and perplexities. In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously, not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world – watching with Christ in Gethsemane…. That, I think, is faith... I’m glad to have been able to do so only along the road that I’ve traveled .. So I’m grateful for the past and the present.”- (21st July, 1944) Letters & Papers from Prison

Dietrich Bonhoeffer died 9 months after having written these words.

In his journey, Bonhoeffer knew who he was, what he had been doing (with his life), and what was to become of him. Sometime during his ‘Dark Night’ experience, Bonhoeffer had learned to say ‘Yes’. Bonhoeffer’s ‘Yes’ is more than an intellectual assent (a theological response to his situation); nor was it a resigned ‘Yes’ of coming to acceptance of his fate. Instead, it was a ‘Yes’ that affirmed life in the here and now; and which remained hopeful in the face of imminent death. It was a ‘Yes’ expressive of a radical trust and obedience, similar to that of Jesus when he embraced his destiny, in the Garden of Gethsemane with the words… “Not my will, but Yours be done”. Out of the ‘Dark Night’ proceeds Dawn. An awakening to a deeper realization of who we truly are, in God and in the world.

Those who exclude ‘God’ from their horizon, from their experiences.. are left only with pain, emptiness, futility and despair, and never with meaning. Jonah did not exclude ‘God’ from his experiences. In the depths of his existential hell, Jonah clung on to memory and hope. Remembering is the root of trust; Hope is the center of faith.

God was there in the belly of the great fish with Jonah; God was in the respective ‘dark nights’ of Karen Armstrong, of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, sharing in their respective hells.. Giving them the hidden grace, which is the gift of Radical faith and Trust… enabling them to sit, to watch, to wait patiently in the Dark.. And to learn to respect the ‘Dark Night’, which is essentially a period of growth, of maturation.. where the true self is formed in the inner depths. In the belly of the great fish, Jonah learned to trust radically.

True faith is ‘radical’ because it calls for an ‘unconditonal response’. It must be deep enough to persist, even when our sense of peace, of assurance, of internal equilibrium, of self-respect is gone.. To accept it without reservation calls for ‘humility’.

Jonah’s prayer ( in Chpt 2), reflected a deepening confidence in the Presence and Promises of the One he cannot see. He is a God worthy of Radical Trust, even if there is no promise of relief; or when there is no light to one’s darkness; or when God chooses to remain unresponsive. Jonah having found his true self .. was able to say ‘Yes’ with a renewed confidence. A ‘Yes’ which embraced his past, affirmed his present. A ‘Yes’ to who he is.. “I am Jonah, Son of Amittai.. (and one could add) who survived being swallowed by the great fish”. It’s a ‘Yes’ that is an authentic response, willing and not coerced. A ‘Yes’ which resonates with the Divine Yes.

May each of us find the Grace to say ‘Yes’ to whatever God has called us to. May that ‘Yes’ be expressive of a radical faith and trust in a God who knows us intimately, who care and loves us.. and is there even in our darkest moments.

PRAYER:
Listen to these words written by Dag Hammarsjold (a former United Nations Secretary-General), 5 months before he was killed in a plane crash… in Sept 1961, “I don’t know Who – or what – put the question, I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer “YES” to Someone – or Something – and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful, and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal”


GOD, You have called each of us by name, and placed within us a yearning to know ‘who we are’, and ‘who we are called to be’. Help us to realize that our ‘seeking’ will always fall short, unless it is Your Grace that initiates the search; and it’s Your calling that draws us to Yourself.

Help us to know – that we cannot seek You, without first being sought out by You. We start out searching, but we end up being discovered.

Grant that in all we do, who we are, and who we aspire to be, we will draw inspiration from Jesus Christ, Who is the “YES” to all Your promises.

Enable us this day to say “YES” to Your call, that our words and actions may be invested with a devotion lived out in response to Your summons.