Sailors on the Middle Earth Sea

Jonah 1

Acts 17: 16-25

Every so often I would be alone after dark in the Shelby church.  Now, I knew the building like the back of my hand, but . . .well, let me get all scientific for a moment and tell you why I always cast a look over my shoulder as I walked the empty halls.  It wasn’t like I was afraid or anything . . .

The evolutionary primacy of the brain’s fear circuitry makes it more powerful than the brain’s reasoning faculties.  A region of the brain called the amygdala sends the messages of fright and flight to and sprouts a profusion of connections to higher brain regions — these neurons carry one-way traffic from the amygdala to the cortex.  But there is no true interaction between the two.  Very few connections run from the cortex to the amygdala. That allows the fearful amygdala to override the logical, thoughtful cortex, but not vice versa.  So although it is sometimes possible to think yourself out of fear (“I know that dark shape in the room is just a trash can.”), it takes great effort and persistence.  Instead, fear tends to overrule reason, as the amygdala hobbles our logic and reasoning circuits.  That makes fear “far, far more powerful than reason,” says neurobiologist Michael Fanselow of the University of California, Los Angeles. “It evolved as a mechanism to protect us from life-threatening situations, and from an evolutionary standpoint there’s nothing more important than that.”  I guess.

Sailing the Middle Earth Sea - the Mediterranean Sea - in the time of Jonah was not an occupation for the fearful.  It took a lot of fortitude, greed - something more than just desire - to be part of a company of sailors on that great expanse of ocean.  You were at risk from pirates, hostile ports of call, wind - or none, and storms.  Brave and daring men were needed to man the oh so tiny ships which put out to the Middle Earth Sea. 

This takes us to the first chapter of Jonah and makes us wonder at the terror the storm caused.  Sailors of the Middle Earth Sea were used to storms.  They came up - still do - in an instant. 

Ever been on the Chesapeake in a Bayliner when a dark cloud appeared on the horizon?  I was fishing with my brother and some of his friends when that happened.  The captain - one of Russ’s friends - told us to stow everything and get ready for a blow.  It was raining and blowing moderately when we reached the shore from mid bay.  Storms happen fast in open water.

But this storm must have been near perfect since it caused so much distress.  Now, the sailors couldn’t have been running around - tying things down - too much, cause the ship was small.  The Nina - the smallest of Columbus’s ships - was a mere 10x96 feet.  You can bet the ship Jonah was on was a good deal smaller than that. 

Running?  No.  Wailing against the wind?  Yep.  Falling on their knees?  Yep.  Looking for a supernatural way out?  You betcha!  The sailors call out to their gods - Nothing! 

So the captain goes to the passenger and rouses him from sleep.  Sleep?  He’s sleeping through all this? Anyway, he demands that Jonah pray to his God - cause none of the sailor’s gods seemed to be able to hear anything over the crashing of the wind and waves.

As they look for a supernatural way of calming the Sea, the men cast lots to see who is to blame.  Go figure - it’s Jonah.  The crew demands to know - “Who the heck are you anyway?”

“I am a Hebrew.” Jonah says, and uses much the same language to describe God as Paul does centuries later - “I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land." 

The sailors immediately accept the fact that Jonah’s God - YHWH - is the God of the sea - at least - and ask Jonah how to placate this new God.  Jonah goes overboard - pardon the pun - by saying - throw me overboard.  Now this is a bit much since we all know God detests human sacrifice, but it calms down the sailors. 

Their wish is to save Jonah, however, and they redouble their meager efforts to row out of the storm.  Nothing! 

Finally they take his advice and toss him over, pleading to God not to hold them responsible for His requirement that Jonah sleep with the fishes instead of in the hold of the ship.  The Middle Earth Sea is at once calm.

Good end to the chapter, but - not so fast.  The crew now  fears and reveres YHWH.  In Hebrew fear and revere are rooted in the same verb.  Also from Hebrew - the words for offer and sacrifice suggest a burnt offering - not happening on board ship so we’ll guess it happened later - on dry land.  As they sacrifice they make promises to YHWH - not just idle vows, but promises of certain things they will do.  This previously unknown God has saved their mortal lives and is certainly a new participant in their spiritual lives.

This first part of the book of Jonah is a great story of conversion from paganism  - and it’s beliefs in many gods - to YHWHism - the belief in the one God who made heaven and earth.  It is also looks very much like the specifically gentile to Christian conversion which Paul calls for in Athens.

Gentiles - pagans - come into the story of salvation history late in the game.  The tale begins with Israel being the blessing to the nations and then roils to a climax in the divine act of deliverance in which a suffering servant of the Hebrew nation is sacrificed by his fellow men only to be saved from his doom by YHWH.

As they are swept up in this new drama, the new believers learn to call on a new God in a new way.  They cease to call on their old gods, but call on YHWH - the God who made Heaven and Earth.

Maybe. . . . but change is a scary thing - especially when you change Gods.  It is more likely that YHWH - while perhaps raised to the position of senior god in the sailors eyes - is still one god among many they will worship.         

Historian Henry Chadwick wrote about the radical transformation that occurred in the fourth century when the great mass of people, who previously had worshiped pagan gods, filled the churches.  The bishops of the church tried to get the people to give up their pagan cults which promised, "success in love and fertility, in commerce and in health."  But the bishops, "quickly found their people determined to have such things and ready to say that,  'the Church's God was good for salvation in the next world, but one had better keep in with the old gods for success in this one.'”

Hopefully the sailors who had been to the brink of the drink with Jonah didn’t simply add YHWH to their list.  He did, after all, save them in this world.

Jonah and Paul had a message which was new to pagans - one God made heaven and earth.  One God put the sea in the middle.  No pagan god ever claimed to be the maker of heaven and earth.