The Difference One Person Can Make
Mary Mape Dodge, in her 1865 work Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, immortalized the story of a young boy who one day found a leak in the dike and, through his own decisive action, saved the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands from the sea. The dramatic story goes like this. Some one hundred and fifty (150) years ago, on a beautiful autumn day, eight-year-old Hans Brinker took some cookies to a blind man who lived by the dike. While walking, he noticed that the rains had raised the water to dangerous levels. Without any advance warning, the weather turned very dark and windy. Suddenly, the boy heard the sound of dripping water. He looked and saw a very small hole in the dike.
Hans’ father always spoke about the evil sea water. So the little boy knew there was great danger that the small hole in the dike could get bigger and bigger and cause the dike to burst. This could result in the flooding of a large area and many people could die, as we saw with the flood in New Orleans last year. He immediately knew what to do. He climbed down the dike and put his finger in the hole. No more water came through. "I will rescue the city from the evil water", the little boy said bravely to himself. He cried for help but no one heard him. The little boy became colder and colder. His feet in his wooden clogs got very wet. Night fell and the boy was scared, cold, lonely and very tired, but he held on all through the night. The next morning, a local priest came walking along the dike and heard Hans Brinker crying. Help soon arrived and the city was saved. Today, there is a beautiful statue in the city of Haarlem that shows Hans with his finger in the dike.
Even though this event never really happened, it serves to illustrate a point… that one person can make a difference. There are countless stories of people who, against incredible odds, step out with courage to do something that others would not do… not for personal gain or glory, but to assist those who are less fortunate… those who are injured and unable to assist themselves… or those who are in harm’s way and are, perhaps, totally ignorant of the danger that surrounds them. These stories capture our hearts. The residents of the city of Nineveh were in the last category… in harm’s way, but mostly ignorant of the danger. They had no idea that their exploits were a lightning rod for God’s wrath… or that the consequence of their behavior would be the total destruction of their city. Someone had to warn them… and God chose Jonah.
Now, we all know what happened the first time that God told Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh to warn them of the danger. Research shows that even non-Christians know the story of this reluctant missionary who ran away and was thrown into the sea only to be swallowed by a large fish. What they might not know is that God called Jonah again… and again, told Jonah to go and warn the people of Nineveh. Jonah’s excuse, unlike that of Moses, Aaron, Amos, Jeremiah or the other prophets, was not that he was ill-equipped to do the job. He believed he was more than adequate for the task. His excuse was that he believed that the Ninevites deserved everything that God threatened to give them… rejection, the total destruction of their city, and death to all the inhabitants. Why should he intervene? If God wanted to kill them… so be it. They deserved it! And, if they did not know that it was coming… well, it was probably because they had not been going to the Temple, hearing the word of God from the priests, and doing all the things that Moses commanded in the books of the Law. Just as we believe today that ‘ignorance of the law is no excuse,’ so Jonah believed that their ignorance should not excuse them from the consequences of their actions.
Oh, and there is one more point that I may have overlooked: The Ninevites were not Israelites, so who cares? The people of Nineveh were not the children of God. Hello? In fact, it was much worse than that… they were the enemies of the children of God. Nineveh was one of the major cities of Assyria… so important that it even served as a second capitol city for the King of Assyria. And the Assyrians had made life miserable for the children of Israel for decades. They would, eventually, be the power that defeated the Kingdom of Israel and sent the children of Israel into captivity in Babylon. And, there was more. The Assyrians had not only been at war with the Israelites for many years, they also worshipped a totally different god… or maybe many other gods. So, you know, if God wanted to wipe them all out… that was just fine with Jonah. What the heck was his incentive for going to warn them? And they probably wouldn’t listen to him anyway.
Well, apparently, God did not see things in quite the same light. So, the word of God came to Jonah a second time and, this time, Jonah obeyed. Now, the text of the book of Jonah makes it very clear that, even though Jonah obeyed God and went to Nineveh, it was not because Jonah had changed his own mind about the task that God had set before him… or that Jonah had changed his mind about the unworthiness of the Ninevites… and the need for God to mete out justice to them in the form of the total destruction of their city. Oh, no. Even though Jonah got up and went to Nineveh… even through he preached to them about their sin and the promised destruction of their city… he was still convinced that they were evil and that God should wipe them off the face of the earth. It was what they deserved.
But, what happened instead? The Ninevites listened to Jonah and, our text tells us, they believed God. Now, it does not say that they believed in God. They may not have given up their other gods and believed in the One True God, the Holy One of Israel, but they certainly believed that the God of the children of Israel was capable of wiping them off the face of the earth. So, they all… even the animals… fasted and prayed to that God… the God of the children of Israel. Led by their king, they wore sackcloth and ashes and repented of their sin. And God saw what they did and changed his mind about destroying them… an act which just infuriated Jonah, the missionary who was sent to save them from their sins. I would challenge you today to go home and read chapter four of the book of Jonah and see how angry Jonah was at God when God changed his mind and did not destroy the city of Nineveh. No, Jonah was not happy.
But, you know, this is not a story about Jonah… even though I have labeled this sermon “The Difference One Person Can Make.” This is a story about God. In this story, Jonah could have been anyone. Jonah could have been me. Jonah could have been you. It would not have made any difference. The only one capable of making a difference in the life of the people of Nineveh was God. God was the only one capable of destroying their city… and the only one capable of saving them from destruction. The difference in the lives of those who lived in Nineveh was the result of God’s actions, not Jonah’s. You see, it was God who decided that the citizens of Nineveh deserved a chance to repent, not Jonah. It was God who called Jonah and told him to go to Nineveh to warn the Ninevites. Jonah would not have done it of his own accord. It was God who punished Jonah for running away the first time he was sent to prophesy to the Ninevites. It was God who called Jonah to go to Nineveh a second time… and God who told Jonah exactly what to say to touch the hearts of the Ninevites so that they would repent. Yes, Jonah was the agent that God chose, but the decision to warn the Ninevites… and the decision to grant mercy to the Ninevites… those decisions were God’s alone.
Why would God do that? Why would God decide to send someone to warn the Ninevites when these were a people who did not even worship God… not this God anyway… the God of the Israelites? Why would God give the Ninevites a chance to redeem themselves? Why would God show mercy to a people who were not God’s chosen people… indeed, to a people who were the sworn enemies of God’s chosen people?
Our God… the God of Israel, Isaac, and Jacob… is the Creator of the universe… the Creator of the world and all that is in it… including all the people of the earth. God created humankind in love… and, while God had chosen a special people to receive a special blessing from him, that did not mean that God was ready to abandon the rest of God’s creation. Our God is an awesome God… and God reigns in total sovereignty over all. God is not bound in any way by human limitations… or by human thought… or by what we, as humans, believe is just or right. God exists in total freedom to move and to act as God deems fit. God created all people in love… and it is God’s desire that all people come to a saving knowledge of him. The love and the grace that has been shown to us is available to every living creature… and, if we have a responsibility at all in this world, it is to share our knowledge of God’s love and God’s mercy with everyone… even our enemies. And we are not to do it as Jonah did… reluctantly and with the hope that God will utterly destroy them anyway… but with the hope that all will come before God’s throne of grace and receive mercy.
Yes, one person can make a difference. You can make a difference. I can make a difference. Laura can make a difference. God can use any one of us… just as God used Jonah. But never forget that it is God who calls us… and gives us the power to do what we are called to do in this world. And we do it in God’s name… and for God’s glory… not our own. For we are God’s people, called to make disciples and to reflect God’s love in service to others… even our enemies. Would that we learn to do it with a better attitude than Jonah did. Amen.
Jonah 3:1-10