Make Nineveh Great Again

Introduction

In 1865 a legislation entitled the emancipation proclamation put an end to the enslavement of Africans that had labored in this country for over 400 years. Even out of the monstrosity that slavery is many Black people found a number of ways to be innovative post civil war, during reconstruction and the industrial revolution. Many of the items we use today were the product of innovation out of survival. You would not have made it to this building today had it not been for Garrett Morgan inventing the three position traffic light. Many of you may have even set alarms this morning you can thank Marie Van Brittan Brown for patenting the first home security system. If you woke up and ironed closed, a sister by the name of Sarah Boone created the ironing board. When we go downstairs for our justice network meeting today, when we sit down we can say thanking to Nathaniel Alexander for inventing the folding chair. Some of you might go out to eat today and ask for the desert menu, if there’s ice on there we can thank Brother Alfred L. Cralle for his invention of the ice cream scoop. Finally for many of us who live in Ohio we can say thank you to Alice Parker for her invention of the heating furnace. Aside from these inventions it was the ancestors who built this country. Nonetheless at the expense of hate and evil we are still fighting for rights, equality, and access to this very day. I also find it odd when I see or hear that phrase Make America Great Again, the confusion I have is nestled in the fact that how can you make something great that you didn’t build.

As we work backwards today in Jonah 4, it’s imperative that we pay close attention to what God expressed to Jonah, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. and should I not pity Nineveh.

This mindset overflows even within the confines of slavery in which supporters of slavery debated over if the enslaved should be able to be baptized and even went as far as making the enslaved take a vow that they would not use their liberation in Christ as a inspiration to fight for freedom. Understand that no matter what a legislator says, no matter what my past looks like, Jesus died so that I might be free from sin regardless of my color, gender, or age.

We Have No Right To Be Angry

Jonah 4:1–4 “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. So he prayed to the Lord, and said, “Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!” Then the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?””

It’s evident that Jonah is upset for God showing grace on Nineveh which makes us question why he went in the first place. Was his message inspired by the possibility to watch the demise of a wicked people? You have to ask yourself why take the assignment if reconciliation and restoration isn’t the goal. To push further, why are you here today? Is it an attempt to pursue this identity of arrogance in the face of those in bondage to sin? Our witness has to be rooted in the fact that Jesus has the power to save lives.

We do not get to choose who God shows grace and mercy to. Jonah knew that God was slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness. I find it quite interesting that Jonah would rather die that see Nineveh delivered. Beloved you have no right to be angry! You don’t get to choose who God delivers.

Lest we forget Brother Jonah, that just a little while ago you were on the run from God due to your own disobedience. If that was not enough, God could have allowed you to die in your sin but God saved you from drowning.

We have to be careful that we don’t our interaction with grace to be used as a means of anger when we feel like someone’s experience is not the same as ours.

This is the challenge we face in this country today, it’s too many people who are okay with God’s love themselves, but not anyone else.

Jonah would rather die that see God’s lovingkindness save an entire city.

You Did Nothing for the Relief You Experience in Life

Jonah 4:6 “And the Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant.”

Grace suggests in this text that God will even provide comfort in the face of ungratefulness.

What happens when we are obedient because of the consequence not because we desire to use our experience as a testimony to save someone else.

Sometimes we are obedient because we didn’t like the consequence. Walking through Nineveh is a lot easier than an all inclusive stay in the belly of the fish.

Jonah did nothing for that plant, it was all God. Just like the relief we experience in life, we did nothing for that relief it’s all God. So when we see someone else experience the grace and mercy that the relief of God brings we have no right to conditionalize it or get upset about the outcome. Jonah was grateful for the plant but missed the God that provided the plant. What value does it have for God to remove our misery just for us not pray and have hope that other people experience the same relief that God has provided for us.

God did not just prepare a plant, God prepared a castor-oil plant. The castor oil plant is actually toxic in nature but it has the ability to grow very fast up to 12 meters in tropic hot climates. It’s interesting that even in spaces of discomfort God can cause something to grow to give us instant relief.

Matthew 18:28–30 ““But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt.”

How Dare You Get Mad Over a Plant You Did Not Cultivate

It’s one thing to preach to the people but it’s another thing to live in solidarity with the people.

Jonah 4:5 “So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city.”

Jonah is hood adjacent. He had no problem preaching to the people but didn’t want to live in solidarity with the people. We can’t conditionalize a salvation that we have no authority over, nor did we die for.

Do you want to see me delivered or are you just watching to see my demise. It’s similar to the oppressor, flesh says we want them to perish, but Jesus says, He doesn’t wish that any man should perish. Truth be told it’s my hope that they see God and allow their heart to be changed. See when we applaud at the demise of the enemy we become like the oppressor being shackled by resentment. Jonah’s fear wasn’t the people, his fear was being equal with the people due to God’s restoration.

Some folks want you to stay unholy cause it makes them feel better about their perceived holiness. Some of us are weaponizing our morality because we haven’t had the same struggle as someone else. Regardless of how morally righteous you believe you are, none of us are worthy of the grace and mercy of God. Some people aren’t warning you because they want to see you change sometimes people are want a front row seat at your demise.

1 Kings 19:4 “But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!””

Similar to Elijah, thinking that God didn’t have a remnant and he was the only one going through what he was going through. 1st of all it’s not about you, secondly, regardless of who you think you are there is never a time when you are all alone.

Illustration:

Place a chair on the edge of the stage.

“Jonah sat east of the city. Close enough to watch… but far enough to not feel.”

Sit in the chair.

Some of us are chair Christians. We attend. We observe. We critique. We spectate deliverance. (At this point go sit beside someone, possibly someone that doesn’t get a lot credit in the congregation)

“But if you didn’t build it, you don’t get to gate keep it. If God saved you, you don’t get to supervise who else He saves.”

Here’s our call to action

Move from critique to compassion.

Move from watching to witnessing.

Move from anger to advocacy.

Move from ‘I hope they fall’ to ‘I hope they’re free.’

We talk about stirring up good works, but in order to stir up good works you gotta sit with some folks!

Hebrews 10:24–26 “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,”

Stop sitting east of the city. Move your chair.

“You didn’t build grace. You didn’t manufacture mercy. You didn’t hang on the cross. So you don’t get to ration redemption.

“Strengthen your witness by remembering you were Nineveh.”

That lands.