After this week in Mexico , a shower is going to feel great and be necessary for each of the 38 people going on the Mexico Mission trip.  Perhaps two showers, with Irish Spring soap and Rose water?  Well, Jonah needs a shower.  Any of us would if we had just been vomited from a fish after being in its stomach for days.  Last Sunday we left Jonah literally gasping for breath on the beach – needing that shower in a big way.  How low can you get when even a great fish vomits you out? 

We began to look at Jonah God’s plan and our own story through Jonah.  Remember that Jonah was called by God to warn the wicked people of Nineveh that God’s judgment would fall on them because of their wicked and godless ways.  No one deserves God’s love and mercy less than the people of Nineveh .  But sometime during his stay in the fish, Jonah prays to the God he has been running from.   God hears.  God saves Jonah.  The great fish vomits Jonah onto dry land.

Today we see God’s plan of refuge, power and salvation.   Because Jonah is saved.  Indeed, he is saved for God’s purpose.  Jonah is saved by the God of second chances!  “The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time….” 

            Jonah is not alone.  Abraham, Moses, Jacob, and King David are in this same club. The Prodigal Son comes to mind, as well.  Jesus’ own disciple Peter also stands here, after having denied Jesus three times.  The Apostle Paul sits with them as well.  You and I complete this circle of people needing – and receiving - second chances from God.  This is because we have our own stories that include ignoring God, forgetting Him; plus our personal life regrets of divorce, lies, hurting others, having modern idols, and, yes, denying Jesus.   We are all in the same club.

At this point in that club’s membership, Jonah has to be ready for a break.  He has been in that dangerous storm, thrown overboard, sinks to the depths of hell and back.  All this would warrant a compassionate leave – or at least a pastoral visit.  But, Jonah has not done his job yet.  God still wants Jonah to preach His word of judgment and warning to the brutal, dreaded, and hated Assyrians.   Finally, Jonah says he will go on to Nineveh .   Jonah gets up from the beach, brushes off the sand and partially digested belly contents of fish bones, and other nastiness.  He trudges off to Nineveh with God’s message.  It is a simple message.  “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!  Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”  Awe, there is no “unless! ….”  Jonah is happy with this message.  Perhaps he quick-steps it to Nineveh .

 The great city of Nineveh was the equivalent of say our Ventura County .  The city proper with other cities included.  There is Ventura , but also Camarillo , Moorpark and Thousand Oaks , plus all the smaller cities.  Twenty seven miles was this exceedingly great city.  It would have taken at least three days to just walk across the great city.

But wait!  Scripture says that Jonah only goes one day into Nineveh with God’s message of warning and judgment.  God and His message reach the peoples’ hearts.   “…the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone,

great and small, put on sackcloth.”  That nasty, itchy, scratchy sackcloth was worn as an outward sign of repentance of the heart (No, we will not reinstate that practice.).  It does not take the given time allotment of 40 days for the people to hear.   The people figure this out fast.  Obviously the people and God work to spread the word throughout the area.  And the people take the right action.  They dwell on Jonah’s words, God’s word.  They do not need to wait and then finally decide at the eleventh hour – or the 40^th day - to turn to God.

Now, I’ve already spoken of some of the wickedness of the Assyrians.  Their brutality in and out of war has not been matched.   So, I believe I hear you say, “Wait a minute, this certainly is not part of my story.”  But you know, there are other reasons God brings judgment on all the Ninevites of this world, whoever and wherever they might be.  People then, and now, are called to turn away from sexual wrong doing, pornography, abuses of various substances, including drugs, alcohol, smoking, eating or not eating, idolatries of over the top living, work, sports, gossiping, and not working on our relationships.  This means reconciliation and healing relationships – with Jesus

and with each other.  So you see this is a lesson and message for each of us.  We must repent of brokenness and sorrows we have caused. 

We can claim and give forgiveness.  We can do exactly like the Ninevites.   The Ninevites hear.  They turn away from their past evil ways.  They claim for themselves the one true God.  They ask for and receive God’s forgiveness. 

Then this amazing news of salvation and God’s mercy reaches the king.  He repents and puts on sackcloth and sits in ashes – another outward sign of repentance.  The king also makes a proclamation for all of Nineveh .  All human beings, all animals are to fast and put on the sackcloth.   Bottom line – the entire city – all the inhabitants repent and claim God.  No other revival in all history has ever come close.  Not even all the Billy Graham crusades.

When God sees that all of Nineveh repents, God changes His mind about the calamitous judgment that He said He would bring upon them.  Now – point of fact - God did not change His mind in the way you and I change our minds.  There is no reason for God to change…His mind or anything else about Himself.   God is simply carrying out the program that He outlined at the very beginning.  And He follows through on it.  There is absolutely no expectation the people will repent.            But God gives them 40 days to do something.   So it seems that the implied message is to repent or receive God’s wrath.  They repent.  They pray to be spared. They are spared.  They are saved.       

So Jonah’s story shows us how God treats His children when we sin and come back to Him.  God did not reject Abraham, Jacob, Moses or David when they lied – more than once; or when a life was taken – more than once.  God did not send King David packing.  The Prodigal Son came home – not to a beating – but to a banquet in his honor.  Simon Peter stumbled and fell and got quite dirty in his denial of Christ.  But when he looked he saw love in the eyes of our Lord.  The Apostle Paul was brought from killing Christians to being one of Jesus’ most devout witnesses.  When they all looked, they all saw love, forgiveness and acceptance.  God uses each person and circumstance to further His plan and Kingdom, yes even today!  

            God takes Jonah back.  God takes each of us back.  If He desires the repentance of people like the Ninevites – why should He not desire our repentance?  This is good news for us!  God’s love, forgiveness and acceptance are extended to us.   And since god forgives us - wipes the slate clean – how wrong it is to not forgive others and ourselves.  When you and I look, we see love, acceptance and forgiveness in Jesus’ eyes for us. 

            On this Communion Sunday we want to prepare our hearts to come to our Lord’s table.  We confess our sins to God.  We plead to God that our hearts turn away from the wickedness and uncleanness that is there and in other areas of our life.  God hears us.  God forgives us.  God accepts us.  Salvation, forgiveness and acceptance are of the Lord.