Sunday Sermon; The Whale Jonah Swallowed, Dr. Robert J. Arnott, 1966-08-15, #79

the pope saudi arabia has been they are the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable and dissect or lard our strength and our redeemer all men our subject today is the whale join us now

and in case you wonder you heard correctly the first time the text is this god repented of the evil which he said he would do to them and he did not do it but if displays job exceedingly and he was angry the bulk of jonah in the old testament is one of the most inspiring pieces of literature in the world ch cornell a great scholar one said that he could not read it or even speak of this book without tears coming to his art is that he hadn't read it at least a hundred times and twenty one approaching and for the first time he used

as a take off your shoes for the ground whereon thus dentist is holy ground to sign such an opinion may come as a surprise for during the last two or three generations this book has been the center of so much controversy that its brightness has been obscured liberals and conservatives than a science and men of religion have fought over the book and most of the controversy has had to do with why there are not a great fish swallow jong il it seems hard to realize now that this strange dispute reached the courts of our country but unfortunately the chief result is that the essential message of the book has been forgotten the book was written in the

third or fourth century before crimes in a time of fanatical nationalism in judea during that period legal reforms which were introduced by ezra made the jewish community into a tightly knit highly self conscious broke they regarded themselves as the chosen people well and good what also re enacted laws for bidding intermarriage with neighboring people and above all else they sought to translate racial purity and religious orthodoxy into an explosive form of nationalism well among the jews who lived in that will present climate where if you thought differently they could not believe that all foreigners were

outside the pale of god's justice and mercy they questioned those laws which commanded orthodox jews to divorce their foreign wives they doubted that god was committed to the jewish nation exclusively and in the spirit of protest sullivan wrote books sharp tracks which could be rather quickly in order to persuade the jewish people to force where their credentials and the greatest of these is a book of job that fundamental assumption of the book is it believed in god but the bar described here is not a narrowly nationalistic beardsley is the father and creator of all mankind whose justice calls all men to account before his throne and there was a mercy is

extended to all the reprints the author of the book thinks of god as moses do it as the martin merciful and forgiving slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love and faithfulness he's one of the few men of the old testament who would have read just to hear jesus' parable of the good samaritan in which he showed how love successfully bridges the chasm between samaritan and jew or over to my knowledge the author is the only personality in the old testament history who anticipated jesus' teaching love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despite full use you you say to the

people of the ancient world none of the capital of this area was the crowning symbol of tyranny and merciless how many thoughtful none of that in those days as we think of the kremlin are perhaps as we thought of the kremlin during the worst days of the styling regime no never had built an empire on naked force which never showed itself sensitive to the rights of others and when finally fell to the needs in six hundred and twelve bc whole nation shouted with delirious joy and the city itself was given a different name but none of that was never forgot even its memory was hated consider them how dramatic are the opening words

of the book of john now the word of the lord came to join her son of amortize saying iraq is going to monitor that great city and cry against it for their wickedness has come up before me in an instant drama took in the significance of that the man he knew god knew that his command originated not in his wrath but as a while he realized that god wished to save the people in the novel and the shark was too much for him his people have suffered so much at the hands of nineveh that he could not bear to go there as an instrument of salvation instead he fled to joplin and boarded the vessel bound for tours huge he wanted to get as far away as possible from none of the love your enemies take a message of repentance to a

nation that deserved only distraction so he paid the fare and carry his bags below the essential element in the story is that god loves the world not just special groups within the world our friends and our enemies those whom we admire and those from where restraint no man can worship god and hate his brother or refused a certain that's the sensuality jonah rejected this he believed that god ought to be identified only with the little select row known as the chosen people he believed that the right of

repentance and forgiveness should never be offered to others and least of all for the hated capital of terrorism joe's problem was prejudice that was not my own jaws while and he swallowed it hook line and sinker unfortunately john i was not the only one who has been taken in by bridges to a greater or lesser degree we're all victims of the idea that the entire world should be or an extension of our backyard in ancient times the map makers used to people the lands beyond their own frontiers with fearsome creatures of their own imaginations today our scientific cartographers do that no more but we still have the prejudices which created those strange maps

my boyhood for example is at once and park's carried signs which said know joe's allow the signs have come down but there are still scores of clubs and other places where those restrictions are still in force not many years ago of the house committee on military affairs block of the distribution of a pamphlet prepared for the armed forces by margaret mead on the races of mankind because an illustration pictured adam and eve with needles one cannot help but wonder whether such as sully reason was not cover for something deeper such as dr means teaching on the subject of rates

prejudice has a thousand faces you can find white supremacy and christian family issue warrants the ku klux klan and little baptist and methodist church without looking too large you can find pre scientific teaching in sunday schools and rigid authoritarianism in democratic institutions even in this unlike major there are few who escape prejudices such as those expressed in phrases like bright lines like schlumberger us or the chosen people or my country right or wrong throughout our cities these days you can find men who are thinking only in terms of white power or black power and one of the lead articles in today's sunday

times raises the disturbing question is the american theater for whites only some years ago in los angeles i preached a sermon on this subject and called it america on trial the first woman who came through the door after the service announced really i am your white one hundred percent american and not guilty of the wrongs you have described the rioting in watts last year drove home the point no one can claim to be not guilty prejudice is the most presidential of all the forms of pride it's a mistake in an uncritical loyalty to a group which looks down on other man as if they were lesser greets if only it were

less harmful it would be funny all of us have enjoyed dr mccracken is now famous story of the kurds whose he and monk who was asked what his order was noted for replied well we don't have the intellectual prowess of the jesuits know are the liturgical skills of the benedictines were not for good works as a the franciscans but when it comes to hiv or they wear tie ups when prejudice were as roguish and harmless is that unfortunately some of a style remember benjamin lady's address before the world council of churches in evanston in nineteen fifty two the gravel dark skinned sanctions will hurt in

hushed silence but not even the memory of a tumultuous ovation that lasted for ten minutes can erase from the mine that terrible closing sentence i have your phd your bible and your garden but there is no why i can below friend is there anything more hostile to faith and true love them the whale jonas well the poisonous and reasoning emotional prejudice that dehumanizing men and nations and leads them to deny the very foundations on which they stand john i cannot have involve why us if

god be gracious and merciful slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love them is sergeant must go to nobody if he will not go then he must recognize that at the roots of his narrow better attitude is a rejection of the god of his father's the author of this little book demonstrate vividly that they even sometimes understand god's way is better than his profits john now believe that eventually got by leaving gm the informal sailors who manned his shop recognize that god's arm reached far beyond that country's borders they felt that the starlets wrecking their ship and their lives was caused by john as disobedience do has got yet these soldiers

shown a compassion for doma which he felt for no foreigner they believed that only by flinging him from the ship got they quiet and the raging say yet they tried every alternative first and luckily he was setting and when it's people heard the message the profit they replanted every soul that lasted begins to become clear that it is the prophet himself who need salvation still his stubborn pride refuses to bend still refusing to accept the testimony of his ancestral fight that god will forgive the penalty he sits down on a little rise of ground outside the city

he cannot believe that god will spare the animal can you picture him in his smug complacency and fire is going to fall down from heaven and console my great city a job now wants a good state where he can see the fireworks event and ma is about to swoop bauman slaughter its inhabitants john now wants to relish every minute while he waited god caused a plant to grow up beside him its large leaves shade on his head from the blazing sun john and enjoy the show a what could be more sober it's fun to relax comfortably in the show a happily and dissipating the destruction of those in the day but the next

day alarm attacked the plan and it weathered without the shade the sultry east wind and the burning sun maid john a miserable he could've left the hill when it was first rolled balcony for the tragedy he hoped to watch it was greatly upset over the loss of the plan and god chided him you getting the plant for which you did not labor which came into being in a night and perished in a night and should not i pity none of that great city in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand children and also much cattle with those words the audience some think the ending

abrupt but when all that can be said has been said what more remains it's no longer never whom god is trying to save but jonah for his lack of compassion jonah is paying a high price the loss of his own sale there it is the message of john you and i live in a world where if we would save ourselves we must save others and if we will not save others ourselves we cannot say the prejudices which might doesn't deny the all encompassing love of god are able to destroy us the christian faith takes this profile message of the book of jonah and

intensifies it's light is brought into and you can doesn't focus foreign christ all the barriers go down not one is left standing the entire family of mankind is embraced in the love freddie's broncos to us today as he didn't enjoy the oval he was first to each of us go to nevada for each of us for you and me there isn't another person race social group whom we do not understand

and whom we wish to avoid an garda commissions us each want to lay aside our prejudices and to take his love compassion to all men god so loves the world and he wants you and me to do this a lettuce pray oh god we confess our sins before they because we know that in our hearts their lurks strange things that we know by the name of

prejudice forgive us we'd pray how poised to rise above them to learn to love those who seem strange and different when and even our enemies in war we made our hearts even for the world in which women in the name of grayson fb