How
many chances do you think you deserve? How many chances do you get to make
things right? The answer is, of course, that it depends on the topic. If you
are playing a video game, you can usually restart from wherever you died – of course
that’s after you’ve already expended numerous lives.
If
you are standing before a judge, it may depend on your prior record, or the
judge’s temperament, or how severely you broke the law. In some cases, there
are clear racial biases in sentencing. Still, I have to believe that most judges
are fair.
In
fact, one of my most memorable experiences actually happened in a courtroom.
This particular judge dispensed wisdom and compassion along with appropriate
sentencing. In one case, he told an enlisted man that – while he respected the
man’s desire to serve – driving his sport bike 120mph on the shoulder of the
highway to avoid traffic was not a choice that will help him advance in a military
career.
With
another man, he reflected on the difficulty of parenting. As he reflected on
this man’s choice to turn a complaint over his son’s behavior into his physical
assault on the principle, the Judge said, “Sometimes we have to realize that
our children’s problems are a reflection of our own limitations.” There is some
true wisdom in that, even though we are all responsible for our own actions.
The
sins of the parents do roll down, but that doesn’t mean that we’re simply stuck
in a loop of gloom and doom, at least it doesn’t have to. Some say that Jonah
was written to deal with just this kind of thing. For those Israelites in
captivity in Assyria, they wanted to know how long they would be punished. And
not only that, they were seeing much worse behavior from their captors than
they ever thought of. How could God be punishing them and not the Assyrians?
So,
in walks Jonah. Now, most scholars believe that Jonah may have been a real
person, but this story is actually a brilliant piece of satire. All the other prophets
are talking about Israel and Judah, and here comes God, sending Jonah to
Nineveh – the capitol of Assyria. This would be like stomping into the
stronghold of the Islamic State and saying, “You are so gonna’ get it from
God!” and them saying, “Wait. You’re totally right. Maybe if we repent God will
change God’s mind.”
For
those that first heard or read these words, they would’ve gotten the point that
it is not God’s character to act out of malice, even though it is ours. It is
God’s character to act out of compassion. That’s actually why Jonah did not
want to go. These were people that had caused untold suffering. He did not want
to go because he knew it was God’s ultimate desire to forgive even those who
didn’t know “their right hand from their left” when it comes to loving God.
I
wonder if another part of this grand satirical display of grace is not only to
say, “My character is to forgive all who turn from sin.” but also, “What if you
would try to love them the way that I do.” That’s the reality twisting gut
check that I’m struggling with from this passage.
God
is using the enemy of the state – the ones who threaten all identity and meaning
– to demonstrate a new reality that is defined by the opportunity to love and
forgive. Now, the opportunity to forgive means that the opportunity to hurt is
still part of the puzzle, just like the opportunity to love means that the
opportunity to disregard is still on the table. You see hate is not the
opposite of love. The opposite of love is apathy. It’s the dehumanizing
distance that allows us to feel ok about another’s pain.
The
thing is, this new reality is the one that God has been hinting about since the
first brother killed the first brother, and it’s the same one that Jesus
announced when he said, “Repent! The Kingdom has come near!” And it’s the same
one that Paul was expecting when he told the believers in Corinth that they
shouldn’t worry about marriage or loss or possessions. “For the present form of
this world is passing away.”
Truly,
the present form of this world is always passing away. We often act like what
we have or what we do is all that will ever be – or should ever be – but what
is common now was unheard of 10 years ago and will be laughable in another 10
years. And while Paul was expecting a literal return of Jesus – which we may
yet see – what we find consistently witnessed in scripture is that God wants us
to treat each other the way God treats us.
Certainly,
we are called to repent from our sins in order to do this. Certainly, we are
called to challenge the systems that keep us from seeing the humanity in one
another (You may even notice that Jonah’s words include the animals and all of
creation in that). Certainly, we have to begin by following the one who calls
us to fish for people that might need to know that they are not alone; that
they, too, are valued and valuable; that there is someone worth following even
though it is a path that leads to the cross.
The revelation – the epiphany – that we are
offered this day is that Jesus calls all of us into discipleship. He calls all
of us to repent and to invite others to be a part of this dance that still goes
on. For we are the body of Christ and individually members of it. We are the
representation of Christ and of the Kingdom he proclaimed. In all of our
perfect imperfections we are yet called as fishers of people to – in the words
of the Book of Order (F-1.0404) – a new openness to God’s mission in the world.
“The
mission of God pertains not only to the Church but also to people everywhere
and to all creation. As it participates in God’s mission, the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A) seeks:
a new openness to the sovereign activity of God in the
Church and in the world, to a more radical obedience to Christ, and to a more joyous celebration in worship and work;
a new openness in its own membership, becoming in fact as
well as in faith a community of women and men of all
ages, races, ethnicities,
and worldly conditions,
made one in Christ by the power of the Spirit, as a visible sign of the new humanity.”
Well, I’ll say this about that. We do a pretty good job,
but there is always room for more. That’s why we are continuing to grapple with God’s calling
to us through a Biblical understanding of hospitality. It’s not that we are bad
at it. It’s because that’s what makes our hearts sing. In fact, one of our newer members mentioned to
me that she was referred to
our congregation because we are welcoming of
strangers and willing to ask questions as often as we
are willing to give answers. I think that’s a pretty
good witness.
My hope is that we will continue to be a people who are
always seeking, even as we are demonstrating what it
means to love and forgive; even as we seek to follow the one who calls us to
drop our nets, reorient our priorities, and invite
others into love and sacrifice and redemption that can be seen in this place and in the lives we
live outside of it!
Put simply, in the words of a cartoon posted in the group, Happy to be a
Presbyterian, “As if Sunday isn’t enough, he now wants
us to introduce religion into our everyday life.”
Yes! Jesus wants us to repent
from whatever keeps God out of our everyday lives. He wants us to let go of
whatever keeps us so occupied that we can’t see that God is active and present
in the world. Jesus wants us to join him in ministry
and that means calling others to take part.
Kenda Creasy Dean said it best in her book, The God Bearing
Life. “Ministry is
the grateful response of God’s people, whose activity in the world
and with one another suggest a new way of being alive. Ministry is not
something we “do” to someone else. It is a holy way
of living toward God and one another.”
Thanks be to God, and to God be the glory, that we have
been invited into a new way of being alive! May God continue to mold us, move
us, and shape us – even as we seek to demonstrate
what Jesus came to proclaim. Amen.
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