“Inside the Fish” (Jonah 2:1-10)

What Can We Do?

Speaking about 1930s Germany, Pastor Martin Niemöller who is best known for his opposition to the Nazi regime said:[1]

First they came for the Jews; but I did nothing because I am not a Jew. Then they came for the socialists, but I did nothing because I am not a socialist. Then they came for the Catholics, but I did nothing because I am not a Catholic. Finally, they came for me, but by then there was no-one left to help me.

First coronavirus hit the Chinese. Then it hit Iran. Then it struck Italy. And all of sudden it arrived in the US. Covid-19 has gone from something that seemed far away to something that is directly impacting every aspect of our lives. And now we are forced to ask questions: “Why is this happening? Is God trying to tell us something? What are we supposed to do about it? What can we do?”

Inside the Fish

The situation we are in today is quite similar to Jonah’s. To Jonah, Nineveh was something far away. But then, all of sudden it became something that changed his entire life. His initial response was denial. He denied the situation and ran away. But God sent a great wind and a great fish. And now in the belly of the fish Jonah is forced to face reality and to ask questions: “Why is this happening to me? Is God trying to tell me something? What am I supposed to do about it? What can I do?”

It has been quite a journey to the belly of the fish. The text describes Jonah as “descending” – going down to Joppa, down into a ship, down into the depths of the ship—and now, finally, he goes even further down into the very depths of the ocean. Then he hits the bottom. Like Jonah, we feel like we are going down, down, down. This Covid-19 pandemic has impacted everyone one way or the other. Many jobs have been lost. Schools have closed down. Family reunions and social gathering have been discouraged. More than 134,000 people in the US have died from it. It’s like we are sitting in the dark because of a major power outage, waiting for power to come back and hoping to get back to normal. But we don’t know how long. We are still in the dark, isolated, uncertain, and even at risk of death. But there is good news! At the bottom, inside the fish, while Jonah was still suffering the difficulties and discomforts of an uncertain life, he became a new person. What happened to Jonah is a source of hope for all of us. So then, what happened to Jonah inside the fish?

Prayer

The first thing we discover from today’s scripture is this: Jonah prayed in the belly of the fish. Jonah 2:1 says, “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish…” Jonah’s first action was prayer. A Nobel Prize author Isaac Bshevis Singer said, “Whenever I am in trouble, I pray. And since I’m always in trouble, I pray a lot. Even when you see me eat and drink, while I do this, I pray.” For Jonah, it was a kind of forced, involuntary time out for three days. Probably there were not many things he could do in the dark, in constant motion, in the stinky belly of the fish. But he chose to pray. It is not simply being inside the fish that begins to change Jonah but prayer inside the fish.

The pandemic crisis created an environment much like the belly of the fish, which is a place of confinement – boring, lonely, isolated, restricted place. But when we pray, this very same place, “a place of death,” becomes “a place of re-birth” – a place of transformation, joy, thanksgiving and new life. Although there’s no easy answer to those questions, “Why is this happening? What can we do?” one thing we can be sure of is that here and now we are called to pray, to spend more time alone with God, really talking and really listening to God with brutal honesty.

Praying with the Psalms

So Jonah prayed. Inside the fish he prayed three days and three nights. In fact, the entire second chapter of the Book of Jonah is his prayer. There is one thing very remarkable about the way Jonah prayed. Eugene Peterson calls Jonah’s prayer a “set” prayer. Yes, Jonah probably had a lot of honest, spontaneous talk with God for three days. But the essence of his prayer written in the Scriptures is all from the Psalms. Not a single word in the prayer is Jonah’s original self-expression. He got every word, every form, every rhythm out of the Book of the Psalms. Learning how to pray is like learning how to speak new languages. We begin with inarticulate cries and coos, but after years of learning we are then able to articulate the complexity of our lives. Eugene Peterson describes the Psalms as the school of prayer in this way[2]:

Are infant sounds more honest than Shakespeare’s sonnets? They are both honest, but the sonnets have far more experience in them. Honesty is essential in prayer, but we are after more. We are after as much of life as possible — all of life if possible — brought to expression in answering God. That means learning a form of prayer adequate to the complexity of our lives.

The Psalms are our text. Without the Psalms our prayer is mainly about me and my people. But with the Psalms the Holy Spirit leads us to get away from ourselves, moving beyond ourselves into other lives, other worlds. With the Psalms we can find the way to talk and listen to God, whether our heart is full or empty. Inside the fish Jonah prayed “psalm-prayer.” Jonah had been to school to learn to pray. Now he is inside the fish. Circumstances tell him to lament. But instead, he does choose to pray a prayer of praise and thanksgiving:

“But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!” (Jonah 2:9, ESV)

A Journey from Self to Thou

Every Thursday Hodgdon small group meets. Each day we individually mediate on the same psalm. When we are gathered, we share our reflections and prayers. Normally, we begin with me, my story, my world. But as we listen to each other and pray psalm-prayer, we begin to see that our life is moved from self-pity, self-concern, self-preoccupation to God, God’s story, God’s world.

The Christian life is not about us; it is about God. The Christin life is a journey from self to Thou. This is slow work and a long process. Recently, I read about glaciers. A glacier is the most powerful force the world has ever seen. Nothing can stop a glacier. A glacier is formed by the falling of snow that accumulates over a period of time — an inch today, a quarter of an inch yesterday, a mere skiff of powder last week. As the snow deepens, the weight compresses. Ice is formed, and then more snow, which becomes more ice, year after year after year. Nothing happens for a long time, but when the glacier is sixty-four feet thick it starts to move, and once it starts nothing can stop it.[3]

This metaphor tells us that little things matter. Today somehow, we are in the belly of the fish. We are watching and waiting. There are little things that we can do. But there is one thing that we are called to do in this pandemic. It is to pray, pray continually, pray psalm-prayer in the school of prayer like Jonah. We may feel like nothing happens for a long time. But the day will come, must come, the ice will begin to slide. So, sisters and brothers in Christ, let us keep it up for a lifetime, and one day we will see ourselves steadfast, immovable, unstoppable, whether we are inside or outside the fish. Whether the pandemic is over or not, we will rejoice and sing a psalm of praise and thanksgiving to the God of our salvation. Amen.

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[1] N. T. Wright, God and the Pandemic (p. 1). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

[2] Eugene H. Peterson, Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness (p. 101-102). Eerdmans Publishing Co - A. Kindle Edition.

[3] Eugene H. Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places (p. 330). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.