Epiphany: Losing Our Way
Jonah 3:1-5,10
Free Community Church
21 January 2024
Often, in our minds, journeys are about getting from point A to point B, usually in the shortest way possible – shortest in terms of distance or time taken. That’s how most of our day-to-day journeys are like.
When we talk about journeys, we talk about where we are heading towards, why we are going there, and how we are getting there.
That’s how we plan right? We have an idea of our destination – where we want to go, we get a map, and we work out how we get there.
What we don’t often talk about is when we get lost or lose our way.
I’ll share with you one experience I had – during my time studying in seminary, I took a detour on the way back to Singapore one summer and I travelled to Moscow with one of my friends. I took pride that I memorised some letters of the Cyrillic alphabet so I could figure out what the name of some stations of their subway.
So while we were in the subway, my friend asked me “are you sure we are going the right way?” and my pride was hurt – and I growled “YES!” And what do you know, we were headed the wrong way. You see, we were on the circle line, and while the train will eventually reach the station we want to get to, we were on the wrong direction.
In the Singapore context, it is as though we were taking the train to Dhoby Ghuat from Harbourfront, but instead of the taking the Northeast line, we take the big loop on the circle line.
Well, after 2 stations, I realised my mistake, and sheepishly said “we are going the wrong way.
For those of us who drive, some of you may remember fondly the GPS navigators like Tomtom, or Garmin that goes – “recalculating” when we missed a turn, or went a different route than the one the navigator plotted, prompting us to check if we have lost our way and turn back if necessary. Nowadays most of us use the apps that doesn’t tell us “recalculating” anymore.
How do you know when you have lost your way, when you have made a wrong decision or made a mistake? What are the “navigators” in your life that tells you “recalculating?”
In this week’s lectionary readings is the passage from Jonah 3:1-5, 10
3:1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying,
3:2 “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.”
3:3 So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across.
3:4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
3:5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
3:10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
God sent Jonah to be that voice to tell Nineveh that they have lost their way.
So what are these voices in your life?
Many of you like me have travelling companions / friends who point out to us when we have gone the wrong way. Some of us start noticing that we are headed the wrong direction – just like the time when I hopped onto the wrong train on the MRT – the doors were closing and I made a dash for it, only to realise that it headed was the wrong direction.
And sometimes, God prompts us through the spirit. And to hear that prompting, we need to be still – just like the lake is most clear in the morning when there is little wind, so the surface of the lake is still and we can see deep into the lake.
When we are agitated, in a rush, anxious – then it is hard to see clearly, and hard to sense God’s prompting. That’s when the people around us who are more still and calm can see more clearly than us. (clearly my friend was a lot calmer than I was in Moscow)
So when you have gone the wrong way, or gotten lost, do you know why you went the wrong way or got lost?
(wordcloud)
I went the wrong way, or got lost because
It could very well be that I was the one overconfident, and you were the ones following me and we all got lost!
Which is why the work of pastoral leadership is a challenging one – I am grateful not to do this alone and have other leaders who would ask “are you sure we are heading the right way.”
So when we are lost, what do we do?
Sounds like a silly question right? Of course, you would say, we will turn around, and get back on track!
That may be so if we are on the wrong train, but there are times in life when we made the wrong decision, and we stick with the wrong decision.
Why do you think we stay lost / stay on the wrong path?
You know, in the book of Jonah, the one who is lost is actually Jonah. When Jonah first heard God telling him to “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me” he flees to the opposite direction to Tarshish. When God shows Nineveh mercy, he gets angry. Angry because Ninevites were the enemy – Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire.
But even after God sent a fish to swallow Jonah and brought Jonah back on track, even after Jonah proclaimed God’s message to Nineveh, Jonah became angry when Nineveh repented and God showed Nineveh mercy. Jonah remained lost – he was angry at God for showing mercy to his enemies.
Jonah’s hatred of the Ninevites was the reason he remained lost.
What about us? Why do we stay lost or stay on the wrong path?
So when we are lost, what do we do?
We find out way back. To do so, we need to
Realise that we are lost (that’s often an epiphany!)
Admit to God, to ourselves and others we are lost
Repent (Turn back!)
The song we sang – “Highlands” is subtitled Song of Ascent, referring to the Psalms in the Bible that are also known as the Pilgrim Songs.
The city of Jerusalem is situated on a high hill. Jews traveling to Jerusalem for one of the three main annual Jewish festivals traditionally sang these songs on the “ascent” or the uphill road to the city. According to some traditions, the Jewish priests also sang some of these Songs of Ascent as they walked up the steps to the temple in Jerusalem.
I really love the chorus –
I will praise You on the mountain
And I will praise You when the mountain’s in my way
But I think the things that prevent us from praising God are not the mountains that are in our way.
From my experience, what keeps people away from God are pride and shame.
Pride that prevents us from admitting our mistakes,
And shame that make us think that no way God will love us anymore after what we have done. That’s why many people feel that they cannot come to church, they cannot pray any more – because of shame – they do not believe they are worthy of God’s love.
Which is why “No less God within the shadows
No less faithful when the night leads me astray” resonates so much with me.
God is with us, even when we make mistakes. God continues to pursue us, and run after us – because nothing can make God stop loving us. It is our pride (ego) and / or shame that keeps us from believing that God still loves us.
No, God will not turn away from us. Jesus describes God as the shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep to search for the one lost one, as the woman who searches for the lost coin even at great expense lighting the oil lamp, as the parent who runs out when the lost child returns, who loves also the child who was always by their side, but yet lost.
We are God’s. Forever. Nothing can separate us from God’s love.
And that’s when I realised why King David, someone who broke 3 of the ten commandments is described as “a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam 13:14; Acts 13:22)?”
He did break the tenth commandment by coveting another man’s wife, the seventh commandment by committing adultery and the sixth commandment by arranging the death of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah.
I realised that I was like Jonah here, angry at God’s mercy on King David.
But King David understood God’s heart and God’s mercy. That Psalm 51 is the prayer / song of praise after one’s realisation of wrongdoing. There is admission of wrongdoing, and repentance.
Realisation that we are lost
Admission
Repentance (Turn back!)
As I read Psalm 51, I would like to invite you to meditate on the words.
Psalm 51
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
so that sinners will turn back to you.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
you who are God my Savior,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 Open my lips, Lord,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 My sacrifice, O God, is[b] a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
18 May it please you to prosper Zion,
to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,
in burnt offerings offered whole;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
May this Psalm be be your song / prayer too when you are lost, and you want to find your way back to God.
God is the summit where your feet are – so wherever you are, in the highlands and the heartaches, God is with you.
I want to end today with a reflection on Pauline’s sermon last week. Sometimes we get lost, not as individuals, but as communities, even as nations.
Last week – Pauline talked about the background during the time of Judges – trigger warning I will be talking about sexual violence / abuse – so if it affects you, please feel free to disconnect – walk out of the sanctuary for a while, turn off the livestream for 2 minutes
Every time I lead Bible study on Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19, I ask people to read Judges 19. And most people have never read Judges 19 before.
In Judges 19, the men from the tribe of Benjamin wanted to sexually assault the Levite who was staying with the old man from Ephraim, and the Levite put his concubine out and the men raped and abused the concubine all through the night.
The Levite cut her into 12 pieces and sent her throughout the territory of Israel, that leads to civil war that nearly wipes out the whole tribe of Benjamin.
Then, to preserve the tribe of Benjamin, they abduct and rape two communities of women, six hundred in all (Judges 21).
Because of one atrocity, they commit even more atrocities.
I wonder why these atrocities are preserved in the Bible. I wonder what God is trying to tell us here. I believe that these acts of atrocities are recorded in the holy text as warnings to us, to tell us when we are going the wrong way.
When someone does something wrong to us, it does not mean we are allowed to do wrong in retaliation. When Pauline talked about Judges chapter 19-21, I cannot but think about the current situation in Gaza.
Pauline talked about the book of Judges and said “The nation of Israel was falling apart. The system of judgeships had failed miserably. With all of the chaos, how could the community possibly continue? Would it cease to exist before it began? Would the promise God made to Abraham go unfulfilled? Who would God send to deal with this mess?”
That same question is before us today.
We must join in the voices that cry “Ceasefire Now!”
Will you pray with me?
God, when we go down the wrong path, when we make mistakes
Help us set aside our pride, our egos, our self-centeredness, our shame
So that we can come to realise
That we are wrong
And have done evil in your sight
Yet we are anchored in your love that is unconditional
So we can say
we know our transgressions,
and our sin is always before us
So we can repent
Create in us a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within us.
Let our sacrifice to you God be our broken spirit;
our broken and contrite hearts
So we may turn from our evil ways
And find our way back to you.
