Where Are You In This Story?

 Last week's Old Testament Reading was Jonah 3:10 - 4:11.  I have been playing around with this section of Jonah all week.  

Here is what went through my mind:

If you have never read the book of Jonah, you have missed an extraordinary snapshot of human life.

This is one tiny book, in the Old Testament, tells one vital truth about God’s unwavering dealings with the human psyche.

A story that mosts everyone can in one way or another identify with.

In a nutshell, Jonah gets mad — furious — at God for changing His mind about His  threat to destroy the City, and people, of Nineveh.  

Jonah finally did as God had asked.  He announced that the city would be  overthrown by God because of their evil ways.  

But, just as Jonah had predicted, the people — all the people — repented.  So God forgave them and let them live.

10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it. (Jonah 3)

That really pissed Jonah off. 

So he ran far out of the city to pout.

But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. ²He prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. ³And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.’ ⁴And the Lord said, ‘Is it right for you to be angry?’ ⁵Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city. 

6 The Lord God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. ⁷But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. ⁸When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, ‘It is better for me to die than to live.’

9 But God said to Jonah, ‘Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?’ And he said, ‘Yes, angry enough to die.’ ¹⁰Then the Lord said, ‘You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labour and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?’ (Jonah 4)

I love God’s response:  Is it right for you to be angry?

What we don’t have in this section of the story is what happened at the beginning when Jonah ran away from God’s request and ended up in the belly of a BIG fish.  And Jonah prayed and prayed that God would save him.

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, ²saying,

‘I called to the Lord out of my distress,

   and he answered me;

out of the belly of Sheol I cried,….

¹⁰Then the Lord spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land. (Jonah 2)

Biblical stories most always have two major points.

1. The story includes something familiar to the      

           culture.

2. They are also meant to expose something about 

           the human mind-set.

Things that all-to-often skew our ability to see past our own imagination of: fair, right and good.

These pointed stories challenge our set of values and expectations.  Our well defined thinking, our inability to see past life as we have experienced it.  To how things ‘should’ be — could be.

What is it that crabbed your imagination -- or tugs at your heart -- in Jonah's story?

More on Jonah next time.  It might be a few days, I am leaving on a train trip tomorrow.

Right At This Moment

 I read these line (from Ted Loder’s ‘Grerrillas of Grace)  with my first sip of coffee this morning :

“Eternal Friend,

grant me an ease,

to breathe deeply of this moment, 

this light,

   this miracle of now.

Beneath the din and fury

of great movements

and harsh news

and urgent crises,

make me attentive still

to good new,

to small occasions,

and the grace of what is possible….”

And I put my head back, closed my eye, and let the silence speak what was in my thoughts.

Right here in this moment I am cozy in my chair with a warm cup of coffee and my fury friend lying close to me.

In this moment I am safe.

I have my daughter and family right next door. 

I am warm in my tiny home from the chill of fall. 

A new little great-grandson just across town,

Four wonders living their young live in their own ways.

I have a precious friend to share with and care for.

Right in this moment I have no worries, no needs, no fears.

In this moment I have people to love and who love me.

In this moment I am blessed with a faith that sustains me through whatever I must face as this day moves into darkness.

Right this moment I can watch the wind of the Spirit move about doing God’s bidding;

            enjoy the white fluffy clouds in the blue sky,

                               the sun lighting up the whole world.

Right at this moment I have food in the freezer, cupboards and refrigerator to feed me for weeks.

Right this moment I have money enough for what ever I truly need.  And am mobile enough to get it.

25 ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? ²⁸And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” ³²For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

34 ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.(Mt. 6)

Back to the Joseph story

Through the years I have learned that God can be painfully slow, and subtle, as He works.

You see, it takes time to heal brokenness and trust.  

But slow is good.

                            In my humble opinion of course.

So God uses time to make sure the healing will truly take hold of all the damage.

It is like the difference between doing a poor job quickly; and an excellent job slowly and carefully.  

The carefully and thoughtfully worked job is long lasting. And stands the tests of time.

In my experience God doesn’t deal in the quick-fix-method.

If you read the entire story of what Joseph went through; before and after his brothers decided to act on their petty jealously.  You would see that the outcome of Joseph’s journey did not come without painfulness, nor ease.

God was making sure that Joseph learned the lessons he needed to learn.

And God made sure that Joseph’s brothers learned what they needed to learn as well.

God does the same with you and me.

The constant theme, the constant truth, throughout our long history as God’s people is the gracious mercy of God to a sinful humanity.

And as we read Psalm 103, and Joseph’s story, we are eloquently reminded of that precious truth.

Saying that, I am reminded of a young man who long ago asked: “So What?”  

He was preparing to give the sermon that next Sunday; and I asked him how he had come up with such a powerful message.  He said I kept asking myself "so what?" when I read something that caught my attention.

“So what” does that truth have to do with you and me?

Does it really, honestly, matter that God is a God who does-not deal with us according to our sins — our unfortunate words and actions?

Does it really matter that He does-not repay us for our wickedness or evil little ways?  

Does it really matter at all?

Truly, does it impact you and me in any way?

Does it change how we interact with each other as you worship and work with each other?

Good questions to reflect on when we read about the gracious and forgiving God we claim to believe in.