Listen God is calling, through the Word inviting, offering forgiveness, comfort and joy. God is calling. That's what we just sang. He is calling, offering forgiveness. But what is forgiveness without penitence? What is absolution of sins without confession of sins? What is a rescue, that is a life ring or a life preserver thrown out to a person in the water and in danger, who is unaware of what is happening and thinks he is having a pleasant swim?

This evening, God is calling. He is calling you through His Word to know forgiveness, comfort and joy, but He is first calling you to repentance. He is calling you tonight and throughout the Lenten season to see how desperately you need the rescue that comes through His death.

Sometimes-no, always-it will be painful. I guarantee it. Becoming aware of our weaknesses is never fun. We are not happy when it is being pointed out. It's only afterward, after we have seen the truth, and more importantly when we recognize the rescue that is in Christ Jesus that we can be grateful for it. Until then, our reaction is likely to be resentment, defensiveness, and on occasion, even striking back. When we know it is from God Himself, if we don't want to face it, then we will try to run.

That's what Jonah did. Jonah was being called to preach in Ninevah. This was the capital city of a world power that was unbelievably cruel and barbaric. Jonah didn't want to go.

The Lord knew it. That's why He wanted Jonah to go.

Was it so the Lord would get some kind of sick pleasure out of seeing Jonah's discomfort that He wanted Him to go? Did the Lord see into the heart of Jonah, and hear him talking with his friends and see that this was the last place in the world that Jonah wanted to go and decided this was where he would go? Was it so He could see Jonah squirm?

Or was it love? Yes, love for the Ninevites, the people of this god-forsaken capital city. The Lord wanted them to be spared in Christ. Yes, because of Christ's suffering and death, even if He had not done it yet, the Lord wanted to see these people spared. He wanted to see them restored. When Jesus was on the cross, He was dying for their sins as well as ours. So, yes, the Lord loved the Ninevites in Christ.

But it was not just love for them but also for Jonah. Love? Love for Jonah? How could it be love that would make the Lord put Jonah through such misery? It's the last place Jonah wanted to go. That is made very clear later in the account. Actually, it's very clear right here in the first verses. Jonah gets the call to go east to Nineveh, and he books a ship to the port the furthest west he could possibly go. It's like being told to go to New York and booking a flight to L.A.

Back in those days, though, people did not buy fares. Today, we buy tickets. It wasn't that way in those days. To be able to find a ship going to a certain destination, you had to make it go that way. In other words, Jonah didn't buy a fare, he bought a ship and a crew, or at least he rented it. Perhaps we could consider it like chartering a bus, but getting a ship and going this far, this was going to be long term and a lot of money.

Now, when we think about Jonah being a prophet or a pastor as we would know it today, we would think, "Well that's not going to happen. He could never afford it." But some pastors we know could easily afford something like this. Some of the TV Evangelists would have no trouble with an expense like this, and maybe Jonah had become like one of them. He could have made quite a name for himself. Maybe he was known for his fiery sermons against the Assyrian nation and the people of its capital city, Nineveh. People would come from all over to hear how the Assyrians, their hated and feared enemy, deserved to be judged and how God's judgment would come down on them. That would be really popular, especially when this is what people wanted to hear. They wanted to hear they didn't need to fear Assyria and the people of its capital city. They wanted to hear that God was not going to use those Assyrians against His people as some of the other prophets were saying, but rather how he was going to judge their enemy, and that they were safe. Let those other preachers sound like doom and gloom, they have a preacher who tells them everything is fine. Yes, it could be easy for a preacher to become popular with a message like this, popular and wealthy--wealthy enough to even charter his own boat.

But wait a minute, Jonah was not the only prophet around. Why couldn't the Lord call one of those guys to go and preach to the hated Ninevites? One of those doom and gloom preachers would seem to be much better suited to preach to them, because they see the Assyrians as the Lord's agents for Israel's judgment. They seem to have a thing for them. Maybe they would sell out their country, but not Jonah. No, Jonah loves his country and he hates her enemies. The Lord knows how Jonah hates them. So, why would He send Jonah? Perhaps because he loved Jonah and saw this is just what he needed.

Imagine how difficult it would have been for Jonah if all this was so. No wonder he left his preaching post to go start life in another country. Ahh, but maybe he had planned to to start a mission in Tarshish. Yes, if that's what he was doing, then he wasn't running from God he was just doing something different for Him.

But God knew better. He was running, and Jonah knew it too. Jonah was running just like Adam and Eve had done. They sinned and they hid. Adam, where are you? Didn't the Lord know? Of course He did, but he was giving Adam a chance to confess. Adam will you own up to your sin? Will you admit that you have failed or will you run? Adam ran. Jonah ran.

We run. We hate to admit our weaknesses. The instinct to survive runs deep. We try to protect ourselves. We try to make arrangements so we don't have to endure the discomfort of his demands.

And out of love, the Lord chases us down. He confronts us with our sin. We try to run from it, but He pursues.

What situation do you find yourselves, where you would rather run than do what you know is right? It's clear what is to be done, just as it was clear for Jonah, but we try to avoid it. So the Lord sticks it in our face. Ouch. It hurts.

What do we see about ourselves during these times? We find we can develop some pretty fancy excuses for our sin. We find we would rather die than admit that we have done wrong or that we are avoiding dong what is right, but the Lord continues to pursue. Even before we get into the next of the series, we know the Lord pursued Jonah. In the same way, the Lord pursues us.

But does He pursue, so He can torment us? So He can enjoy seeing us wriggle? No, rather He pursues so we can see we need what He has. He pursues so He can apply forgiveness and life.

Each of us have already been rescued, each of us have been claimed as God's own children and have had the benefits of Jesus' death applied to us, but each of us finds ourselves in a place where we don't want to admit we are wrong. We find we want to try to hide this, or hide from Him. As we do, we endanger our soul and say, "I want forgiveness for everything but this." The Lord has forgiveness for it all. We fear that we could not survive if we did not have this, or perhaps we are so far gone, He couldn't forgive us. But His mercy endures forever. His forgiveness covers all.

Right now, like the song says, He is calling. He is calling out to us to see we have absolutely nothing to say in our defense, but to simply cry out for mercy. Listen, God is calling.

AMEN