Jonah 3:1-4:11

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Jonah 3:1-4:11

Jonah 3

1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2 "Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you." 3 So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to
The Word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days' walk across. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's walk. And he cried out, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. 6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: "By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. 8 Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. 9 Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish." 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 4

1 But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. 2 He 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. 3 And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." 4 And the LORD said, "Is it right for you to be angry?" 5 Then 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. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. 8 When 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." 10 Then the LORD said, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?"

Think

Oh Jonah. How much I love you! How much I feel like you on many days when I feel like I have been called to do something that I don't want to do.  How much do I recognize my own anger in your anger.  How much do I want Nineveh to be saved, but in my own time and my own way not in the time of God or by the Grace of God.  Jonah wasn't even a student of self-reliance and he had this issue, what hope to do I have?   I am a lesser person than Jonah, who felt that he could run away from his calling,when he literally and ran to Tarshish.  I said I will go where ever the Lord sends me, but now that I am back in the world and out of the seminary bubble, I have caveats.  I'll go anywhere but God please don't send me to Nineveh, let me go some where that I am comfortable, but not too comfortable, not too familiar.  I'll go anywhere, but not there.  How ridiculous it sounds to only answer God's call half way.  How ridiculous does Jonah seem storming out of the city expecting God to kill thousands because that's what Jonah wants him to do.  A temper tantrum always does the trick when talking to God, right?  How often my prayers are like those of Jonah- What are you doing God?  This isn't what we had agreed on.  This isn't where I thought you were taking me with this path, I'm going to sit and pout for a while. 

Today is Ash Wednesday- Its my first Ash Wednesday in ordained ministry and I find myself very happy with how things have worked out, but I know (being the realist that I am) that my deaconal ministry will not be all comfort and shade and smiling happiness.  Not that I am wishing this to be a period of great suffering for me, but I pray that when things do go off course, off my course, awry that I will remember Jonah.  And recognize that I am appointed, as well as the tree and the worm not to do my will, but the will of God, and I like the people of Nineveh need only seek repentence and it will be granted, because God is not like me, God is not like Jonah, God is God and he will give grace according to his will, undeserved and undeniably.  Today I remember that I am dust and to dust I will return. 

Pray

God, help me to remember that I am not you.  Remind me when I skulk out of the city to complain that things aren't going my way that you will shelter me for a time, but you will also send me back into the world to act as your servant.  I recognize that I am appointed, as all baptized members  of your body to do your will in the world, to follow your path and that sometimes I won't like it.  Give me strength to follow the path even when the heat of day and scorching wind feel oppressive.  Give me strength to get up from my ash pile and witness your love for the world.  Through Jesus Christ your Son and the Holy Spirit your Worldly presence.  AMEN

Contemplate

Continuing the coloring I started yesterday- Mantra- Here I am God do with me as you will.   15 minutes