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Epiphany 4 - 2001
TITLE: “The Re-creator of the Earth”
In the name of the Father and of the † Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our texts for this morning are Jonah in the fish and Jesus calming the storm from Matthew 8.
This is one of those Sundays when there are so many things in these texts to talk about that we could be here for hours unpacking God’s Word. But since I would be the only one left after a while, we’ll try to keep it to one or two things that bring it all together.
In the story of Jonah and the whale and Jesus calming the storm we see two different pictures of how God uses the earth, and even such mundane things as the weather, to create faith and hold us fast to the Rock of Christ and His Holy Church. Let’s start with Jonah.
Jonah was a prophet in Israel almost 3000 years ago. The word of the Lord came to Him saying that Jonah was to go and preach to the city of Nineveh. Now that’s just a name to you and I, but in Jonah’s day and age, Nineveh was the worst. It was the city of the enemy, Assyria. It was a city of greed and moral corruption. Las Vegas, New York, Atlantic City and Shanghai all wrapped into one. It was the capitol city of Israel’s greatest enemy, Assyria. I don’t think we have an enemy today that would compare. Maybe 20 years ago we would have said Moscow, or before that Hanoi, or before that Berlin.
But this was inconceivable to Jonah. How could God want me to go preach against that city, Jonah asked himself. You see, Jonah knew what the word of the Lord could do. He knew that if He went and preached against this city, that the whole city could be converted. He knew that the people of Israel would hate him for taking away their enemy. But Jonah wasn’t innocent. He didn’t want them saved! So he got in a ship and headed out for Tarshish, which we would call Spain.
Now don’t be too hard on Jonah. We do this all the time. How often in our lives do we secretly hold out a grudge against someone? Sure, you know all it would take is a kind word, perhaps even an apology on your part. But do we do it? Not a chance. I would rather revel in their enmity that bring peace. I would rather play the superior one, the righteous one that has done no wrong, but will do no right for the sake of the Gospel. It reminds me a bit of the movie Hook, with Robin Williams. Perhaps you remember it. There is a moment near the end of the movie when Hook is about to go down, and He pleads with Peter Pan to show mercy. His reason: “What would the world be like without Hook?”
What would your life be like if you repented, turned away from selfish gain and Christ forgave you for the sake of His blood? It sounds too good to be true, but that is exactly what we reject by nature. Like Jonah, and like the disciples, we adamantly refuse to trust that God forgives, and that He is the Lord of all creation. And we don’t want to forgive our brother or sister. We would rather hold a grudge, and hold back forgiveness than be a part of God’s creative work.
But Jonah learned. As Jonah was on his way to the hinterlands running from God, God sent a huge storm to overtake them. The sailors were terrified, and they believed that it was the result of some sin that this trouble had overtaken them. Jonah knows, though, and after much wrangling, they throw him overboard. But God sent the storm not to destroy Jonah, but to bring Him to repentance and faith in Him as the creator and Redeemer. God bought Jonah back from the dead after three days in the belly of the whale.
This, my friends, is how God words. Things happen in your life that make no sense. Tragedies, death, big problems and little problems. Now you can ignore these signs of creation and act as though God doesn’t exist. You may act as if there is nothing happening. Or you can see these things as God sees them. In our Epistle Paul writes that all of creation is on tiptoe, as it were waiting for the Glory of God to be revealed. All of creation is in labor pains waiting for the world to see the Son of God for who He really is. The earth can think of nothing else. Nothing else matters but Jesus Christ and His epiphany to the world.
But the world won’t see it. Like the disciples in our Gospel lesson, the world cannot see all around them that God is dying to bring peace. He is dying to show Himself to the world in the flesh of His Son Jesus Christ. You get the picture that creation is about to burst out with this message of joy. Can’t you see it? Can’t you see that He is the culmination of the world hunger and thirst for God? You can see the signs all around. But without Jesus Christ in faith, these signs only bring fear and confusion.
Jesus, like Jonah, is asleep in the boat. Jonah was asleep from fear and exhaustion. Jesus is asleep because He knows that God is the Lord of the wind and waves. When the tempest comes upon the boat, the disciples immediately believe that God has abandoned them. Lord, save us! We are perishing! How quickly we abandon God at the sign of trouble! Rather than look at Him as the Lord of heaven and earth, we would believe that He is weak and unable to help us in our time of need.
So Jesus first rebukes them for their lack of faith. Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? When there are troubles in our life, we run like Jonah. We run and hide from God, believing that He can’t help us or won’t help us. Like Adam and Eve, we are blinded into thinking that God hates us and won’t help us. This, I believe, is why many people abandon coming to church. They are afraid. They are afraid of God, perhaps out of guilt, or misunderstanding or Satan has simply blinded them into believing that God does not love them.
But Jesus will have none of this. So He rebukes the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. You see, my friends, God is the Lord of heaven and earth, and He has given that authority to His Son, Jesus Christ. Now remember, this same Jesus is the one who died the death of a criminal for you. Do you think he will abandon you now?
The men marveled at this and asked the question of the ages, Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him? Who indeed? That is the great Epiphany message. This is Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man. All of creation stands on tiptoe waiting for His glory to be revealed in the cross. The earth can think of nothing else. This is the point of all of heaven and earth: to bring you into faith through the flesh of the Son of God.
And He does. He used water to show Jonah that God would take care of Him even in the belly of the whale. He used the waters of the sea to give the disciples a glimpse of His great glory. He uses water even now to bring you into His holy family through the waters of Baptism. That is the Gospel. God uses the things of this earth, the common and familiar things, but turns them on their head and gives them a depth and richness that only the child of God can see. But see it you do through the eyes of faith. You can see that here you are in the boat, in the Ark we call the Christian Church. Outside the winds may billow, the storms of life are ever present. Sometimes even in the boat we fear. But God is here with us, giving us his Life and everlasting protection. This gift God gives you richly now, and you will see in all its fullness at the end of this pilgrimage of life, where God will snatch you up out of the jaws of death and bring you into His heavenly city to dwell with him forever.
The peace of God, which passes all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.
This page was created on 01/14/2007 and last edited on: 01/14/2007