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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

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It is a privilege to preach for the commemoration of the prophet Jonah in part because our oldest son is named Jonah and that was not by accident.

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For us, Jonah is personal.

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Our son Jonah was born when my wife Lisa and I were serving as missionaries among the Garri people in West Africa and the Gary people take names very seriously.

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So shortly after we announced Jonah's name, one of the church leaders took me aside and said,

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Reverend Mudge, why did you name your son Jonah? It seems like Jonah did not behave the way God wanted him to. And I said true. And at the same time, the Lord worked through Jonah to lead some 120,000 people to repentance.

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I thought, but did not say, that the Lord did this even though Jonah didn't want to go and didn't seem to be trying very hard. And I thought, but did not say, that the name Jonah means dove.

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And it's beautiful. What is most important for us is that it is easy for us to be critical of the prophet Jonah until we realize how very much we are like him.

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Have you ever refused to do something God wanted you to do? Maybe you don't want to go out into the community. Maybe you don't want to invite people into church.

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Maybe you are unwilling to work with small children or teenagers. Maybe you refuse to do calls, shut in calls, delinquent calls, hospital calls.

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Maybe you are unwilling to visit that man who hardly ever bathes or that woman with all the cats. You better watch out. You might find yourself in the belly of a great fish.

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Have you ever refused to go where God wanted you to go? Maybe you refuse to go too far from your extended family or too close to them. Maybe there is a part of the United States or a part of the world that is off limits. You will not go there.

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Maybe you are unwilling to go into the city or into the suburbs or into the rural areas. You better watch out. You might find yourself in the belly of a great fish.

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Is there anyone you refuse to go to? Maybe it's someone within the LCMS. You are a part of one faction. They are a part of another faction and you think of them as enemies.

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Or maybe it's someone from the broader culture. Maybe it's racists. Maybe it's anti-racists. Maybe it's people who support same-sex marriage or transgender transition.

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Maybe it's Trump supporters. Maybe it's Biden supporters. Maybe it's cultural Marxists or people who have been accused of being woke. And you think, Lord, don't send me to them. Lord, don't have mercy on them. Lord, give them the punishment that they deserve.

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You better watch out. You might find yourself in the belly of a great fish. And I hope you do. I hope you do find yourself in whatever version of the belly of a great fish that the Lord has planned for you.

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Keeping in mind that the Lord used the great fish to save Jonah. When Jonah was thrown overboard into the sea, that was judgment. That was punishment. And the Lord does discipline his children.

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When the Lord sent the great fish, that was to save Jonah. And it shows us to what great lengths the Lord will go to save his children. But what the Lord did to save Jonah is nothing compared to what he did to save you.

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He sent his only son Jesus to suffer and to die. To receive the punishment that your sins deserved. And he did that to save you. And he's done it. Your sins are forgiven. You are saved.

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And you are still a sinner. So you may be interested to know how God reacts when he saves one of his children and that child continues to be stubborn and rebellious.

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It is good news. Jonah refused to go to Nineveh. And the Lord in his glorious, memorable way said, but I insist.

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And he had the great fish vomit Jonah out in the right place. And the prophet Jonah, with the odor of fish insides still fresh in his nostrils, marched into Nineveh with the attitude, I'll do it, but I won't like it.

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And he delivered his simple message and he went out of the city and sat down, apparently waiting and hoping that the Lord would still destroy Nineveh.

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He even said this about God's mercy. Oh Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster.

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He talks about the mercy of God as if it were a vice, as if it were a failing. Jonah does not want God to have mercy on the Ninevites.

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Jonah wants God's mercy, but he doesn't want it for the Ninevites. And sometimes we do that too. We even try to co-opt the grace of God. We think that we are the good people who deserve God's grace, and they are the bad people who deserve God's punishment.

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That is absolutely wrong. There are only bad people. We are the bad people who deserve God's punishment.

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And yet, he has mercy on us. And he works to drive home a point to Jonah. That the grace of God is always, only, totally, utterly, absolutely free gift.

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And it is for everyone. And that's good news for you, because you don't have to deserve it and mess it up. God gives it to you as a gift, and so you can be sure of it.

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And it's good news for you, because there may be days like Jonah, where you don't bring your A-game. You have a conversation, you preach a sermon, and it's not that good.

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The Lord works through his word. It is the Lord's word. It is the Lord's grace, and he uses it to save. As the text says, the people of Nineveh believed God.

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And that's the same phrasing, the same Hebrew vocabulary as Abraham believed God. They trusted in him. God accomplished what he wanted to accomplish in them.

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And God just keeps being merciful toward Jonah. He just keeps forgiving him and working on him, and in his way, he guides nature to teach Jonah.

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And so he appoints a plant and a worm and an east wind to give Jonah an object lesson. And here, I want to tweak the ESV. It says that God is acting to save Jonah from his discomfort.

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The Hebrew word there is ra'ah, evil. And he is acting to save Jonah from his evil, from his bad, sinful attitude. And Jonah really appreciates the shade of that plant.

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And he is really disappointed when the plant dies and he no longer has that shade. He even is at the point of saying that he wants to die.

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And this is a reminder that God really is our Father, and we really are his children, right down to the tantrums. Have you done it? I have done it.

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Lord, I'm so upset. I want to die. And the Lord forgives us and has patience with us and keeps teaching us as he did Jonah.

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The Lord said, You pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night.

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And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120,000 people? And that's it. That's the end of the book of Jonah end cap.

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The book of Jonah is full of surprises. The sailors and the people of Nineveh are quick to believe in the Lord. The prophet Jonah is stubborn and rebellious and stubborn and rebellious again.

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The prophet Jonah wants judgment for the people of Nineveh and gets a taste of judgment for himself. The prophet Jonah is angry at God for being merciful, not realizing that God's mercy is his, Jonah's, only hope.

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And the Lord is patient and merciful and forgiving, teaching the lesson that his grace is free and it's for everyone.

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The book of Jonah does not tell us how Jonah reacted. I hope he learned the lesson. What's most important is how you react. I hope you have learned the lesson.

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The grace of God is free and it is for everyone. And know this, the Lord loves you so much that if necessary he will send a great fish. And he loves you so much that if necessary he will send a plant and a worm and an east wind.

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And He loves you so much that He sent his Son to suffer and die in your place, to take your sins away and save you. And you are saved.

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Our God is a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. That is why your sins are forgiven. That is why you are saved. Amen.

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And now may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.