Sense and Sensibility…
Jane Denniston
September 20, 2022
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Jonah 2 (NRSVA)
1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,
‘I called to the Lord out of my distress,
and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
and you heard my voice.
3 You cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
passed over me.
4 Then I said, “I am driven away
from your sight;
how shall I look again
upon your holy temple?”
5 The waters closed in over me;
the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped around my head
6 at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
whose bars closed upon me for ever;
yet you brought up my life from the Pit,
O Lord my God.
7 As my life was ebbing away,
I remembered the Lord;
and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
8 Those who worship vain idols
forsake their true loyalty.
9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Deliverance belongs to the Lord!’10 Then the Lord spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.
Our passage this morning illustrates that most fundamental of truths, God is everywhere, on land, in sea, and even in the belly of a fish. Not only that, but God hears us, wherever we are. God hears us, and God listens to us, even when we have turned our back on him as Jonah tried to do. What an intense experience for Jonah — sound, touch, smell — senses heightened by the lack of seeing in the dark belly of the fish. His cry to the Lord a physical prayer involving his whole body.
We know that when we turn away from God, it causes him pain. But I wonder, as God inhabits the whole of his creation, if it ever occurs to us that he feels pain as the planet groans for release from our poisons and plunder? He has given us this rare and beautiful gift, and we are trampling it under our feet.
Perhaps we need to return to nature. Not as dramatically as Jonah did, but to pay more attention to the natural world. To see God in the incredible variety of wildlife and the miracle of birth, to hear him in the roar of waves or the whisper of leaves in the breeze, to smell him in the mist of the morning or the scent of a loved one, to touch him in the cool, damp, firmness of ripe fruit or the rough agelessness of granite. As we go about our day, let’s sense God in everything, worship him for all his generosity to us, pray for his wonderful creation, and resolve to do whatever we can to aid its healing.
PRAYER:
Creator God,
Forgive us for the damage we inflict
on your amazing gift of this world.
Teach us to care for it more tenderly
remembering that, as we care for the world
we care for you.
Give us opportunities
to be advocates for its healing.
As we appreciate this world
through our senses,
give us also greater sensibility
to its vulnerability.
Help us to make the sacrifices necessary
to change the future of this fragile planet. Amen
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