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     When last we saw Jonah, he had tried to escape from God and discovered this was not possible.  He endured a storm and a dunking in the ocean and the insides of a fish before he realized that God was not going to let him get away.  So, he goes and preaches God's threat to Nineveh!  This is where Jonah's expectations and God's expectations take different paths.  Jonah clearly expected that Nineveh would ignore the warning and be destroyed.  God's expectation was that Nineveh would hear the message and change its ways.  Guess whose expectations are fulfilled?

     We who have the advantage of the "big picture" in reading this story can appreciate the irony.  Jonah alone among the prophets in the Bible is successful.  The usual outcome of prophetic preaching was not conversion but disaster: both for the prophet and for the people.  In Jonah's case, Nineveh turned away from evil and God decided not to destroy the city.  Jonah is angry because God showed a change of heart!

     Ultimately in this story, one lesson that clearly makes its way is that Jonah is really focused on one subject:  JONAH!  He doesn't want to be a prophet and when he has to do the job, he is upset that after promising disaster, it doesn't happen.  Oh how embarrassing!  Again and again I am reminded that my job (and the job of all the baptized) is to proclaim the message and leave the rest to God.  The Book of Jonah is not just an ancient story, it is a present challenge.   AMEN