Yesterday my pastor preached a banger of a sermon that left me thinking long after the sermon ended.
The sermon - one part of two or possibly three - dealt with the book of Jonah. It is a short book in the Old Testament and is likely one of Biblical stories that almost everyone has heard of, even if not a believer: A guy getting swallowed by a large sea animal (whale or fish, your mileage may vary) will stick in anyone's mind.
The first chapter of Jonah appears at first glance to be pretty clear cut: Jonah, a prophet of God in the Northern kingdom of Samaria in the mid-8th Century B.C., is commanded by God to go preach a message of judgement and repentance to the kingdom of Assyria. Jonah has no desire to do so (we will get to that in a minute) and so flees West in precisely the opposite direction. A storm comes up and, through a drawing of lots, the crew discovers that Jonah is the reason for the storm. He is thrown overboard and swallowed by aforementioned fish/whale, where is composes a song to God (more on that later too). At the end of Chapter 2, he is spit back up on land after three days to get back on track.
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My pastor, at the opening of his sermon, proposed two questions and asked "Which one bothers your more?:
1) Why do bad things happen to good people?
2) Why do good things happen to bad people?"
For him, he suggested - and for many - the second question is harder one. We as Christians can walk through the fact of God's sovereignty at difficult times of our lives ("All things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose" - Romans 8:28). What is far more difficult is when good things happen to bad people, to vile people, to the worst of sinners. "God makes the sun to shine the rain to fall on the just and the unjust" said Christ in Matthew 5 - but I wonder if I believe too often that God does so grudgingly.
Jonah's sin, my pastor suggested, was that he was so frightened of God's compassion that he fled God's mission. He disliked - indeed hated, as we find out later - the Assyrians, and would rather not preach to them lest they receive God's mercy.
To be fair, from a human standpoint the Assyrian Empire was cruel and treated all of its enemies cruelly (and would, in fact, eventually conquer the Kingdom of Samaria). So - humanly speaking - his reaction was understandable. Why risk offering such terrible people the mercy of God?
Because there was a risk they might get His mercy.
We are no different that Jonah, was the analysis. In Matthew 5:44 Christ commands His followers "Love your enemies and prayer for those who persecute you". Christ, he suggested, does not call us to hate or even to indifference towards them. He calls us to pray for them, to shape our hearts in mercy towards everyone.
Jonah, as the story goes, turns out to be a narcissist:
- He will not carry out God's commands to the Assyrians because he does not like them (in fact, hates them).
- He does not concern himself with the crew during the storm, in which they are working hard to keep the ship afloat and praying to their own gods while he is taking a nap and not praying at all.
- The crew, during the course of the story, come to realize that Yahweh, the covenantal name used by the Israelites, is the one true God (they offer a sacrifice to Him at the end of Chapter 1); Jonah haphazardly mentions he serves that God during his trip but that is about it.
- Even at the end of Chapter 1 when the casting of lots reveals Jonah is the cause of the storm, Jonah does not suggest returning to Joppa so he can continue his mission (it is interesting to theorize what would have happened if he did: would the storm also have ended immediately?), but would rather be thrown into the ocean and, for all he knew, die rather than run the risk of good things happening to his enemies.
Once he is swallowed, he composes a song to God (Chapter 2). In it, depending on your translation, Jonah uses the words "I, me, my" 16 times in 9 verses:
- He cries out to God because of affliction - which would not have occurred if Jonah had followed God's command.
- He says that God cast him into the deep - God did not; he got there in an interest to be sacrificed rather than follow God's command.
- In verses 8-9 he notes "Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice to You" - but in point of fact, the pagan sailors found God and sacrificed to Him.
- Jonah could not even be bothered to pray. "I will pay what I have vowed", says Jonah in the latter half of verse 9 - but he had vowed, if anything, to refuse the command of God to go to Nineveh.
Jonah ends up being spit out to start over again, but nowhere in his prayer to God does he talk about actually doing what God commanded.
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I have often lamented here what I have termed "The Age Of Rage", a sense that I have almost everyone is angry at everyone and everything all the time. It seems to me that too often, people assume the worst of others. It is not even that things can be discussed in reason; things cannot be discussed at all. Nothing can simply exist anymore: everything has to serve a cause, and woe be to those on the wrong side.
Understandable from a human perspective. As Christ says in Matthew 5:43 "You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." For many people - for me, too often - they would stop reading right there - after all, it makes complete sense. Like those who like you, hate those who hate you.
Understandable from a human perspective. But we miss that second part too often in verse 44: "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
If all we ever do is live in hatred of others, it cannot but impact our own hearts.
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As always, I write this to convict myself.
One of the best (although accidental) decisions I made during the last election cycle was to set the rule that if anyone posted anything political in nature, I would simply hide them from my feed. That extended to "both sides" as it were. Over time, my feed has become mostly politically and "modern issues" free, for which I am grateful.
But I am still in this climate. I still hear the words that people launch at one another, the emotion that comes to dominate every aspect of their lives until everything is a life or death moment. We are all involved in a great war - not the Spiritual War the Bible speaks of so often (yes, I know, we are involved in that of course), but a great social and political war which is always on and in which we must always choose a side.
I look at that. I am tempted to love some and hate others. And then I look at the commands of Christ.
Does Paul command the Thessalonians to avoid even the appearance of evil? Yes. Does Christ command his followers to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves? Also yes. But I struggle to find the command that I must think poorly of, let alone be at war, with everyone with whom I may disagree about anything.
Marinate a piece of meat in a marinade long enough and it will come to take on the flavour of the marinade. Marinate your heart in anger and hate long enough and no matter how often or much you proclaim your Christian beliefs, the anger and hate will come through.
Forgive them, said Jesus as they nailed Him to the Cross, for they know not what they do. Earlier he had told his disciples that the servant was not above the master, that if they hated Him they would hate His followers.
In an Age Of Rage, I as a Christian should - indeed, must - be different. As my Master was.
Make no peace with evil.
ReplyDeleteWV - We are never called to. But the command to love my enemies and pray for those who persecute me (not to date that has ever happened) is not the antithesis of that. It strikes me that I can make no peace with evil - Paul recommends multiple times the avoidance of evil and the appearance of evil - while still praying and loving.
DeleteA great force of modernity is how our lives have become bifurcated, refracted even, into the false eternity of our empire of electrons - and our old, fallen, physical confines of the flesh.
ReplyDeleteI argue the tension of these two worlds - neither of which are the one True world, is one of the most important conditions of our time to which we are regularly tested, and fail in spectacular ways that seem to aggregate our individual failings (often enough cloaked in great material success) into the growing false foundation of lies upon which we build an increasingly disproportionate amount of our physical reality.
Anyhow, it seems this condition amplifies both the fallen of the flesh and the fantastical escapism, petty journey of extreme self-interest, and narcissism to which you call out of Jonah.
The hubris of having been born into this world after Jonah et al where we are so much smarter than those before only serves to justify this course and sanctify our indulgent preferences into virtues.
I deeply struggle, in this duality of entangled fallen conditions, with both how to engage with this bifurcated life and also so many who are taken by this descent of this double helix of existence that has acquired necessity and inevitability in spite of the readily observable real-time destruction in our wake.
I feel the hate swell up. The suspicion. The cynicism. All matters of coping mechanisms that for all intents are rational responses to the constant onslaught of the foundation of lies animating my Brothers toward deceit and treachery that extends into ever minor aspect of daily life.
The plumber, roofer, mechanic, salesman, broker, painter, lawyer - all in effect on a stage in which they are all actors, stars even, in their own show. Building their brand. Talking their book. A hand on my shoulder as a little-c Christian while their other in my wallet.
The serpent-dove, as an applied praxis escapes me.
I know it is all vanity - nothingness, but I also know I have a duty to stand in opposition to evil but also to not become a fool.
I have spent years trying not to serve the evil systems that offer both great material reward (to your second question above) but in the end feel deeply foolish for in doing so I have only (seemingly) impaired my ability to care for my family and future.
I pray over my struggle. But alas, I am my own worst enemy! Proof that none of us can escape the eternal Truth or vanquish evil until our own heart is anchored in Christ. Yours is a timely post. Sorry for the length.
Anon - What a well thought out and thoughtful response. Thank you.
DeleteI am in the process of re-reading Francis Schaeffer's "How Should We Then Live?". He deals a great deal with the bifurcation of modern society and how we got to this point philosophically, theologically, and scientifically. I am not quite yet to the point where he talks about how we should truly live in light of this (Again, some years since I have revisited this volume), but it be Schaeffer, I suspect it will have a lot to do with living a credible gospel.
I confess that I am just as prone to reaction and rage as anyone else. I try to manage it as I can, but arguably managing it is not enough: management is, in a sense, just moving the deck chairs around on the Titanic. I need renewal, not management.
The serpent-dove as a practice has always seemed to me to mean that I should be aware of how the world can work without partaking in that work. A very simple example - relevant now here in the U.S. - are taxes. I understand what the legitimate deductions are. I also understand people take advantage of deductions a great deal. I can understand how it happens (and maybe why) -- serpent; I can not participate in it - dove. But like many of my analogies, perhaps that does not hit the mark either.
I hope that what comes across in this post is how challenging this sermon was to myself as well. The thing that stuck me most personally was this idea of being indifferent about people: not hating them, but not doing anything more than that. I am incredibly guilty of being spiritually indifferent about any number of people that for one reason or another I perceive or understand to be on the other sides of fences from me, or simply difficult people to love. That, though, is not an excuse.
I sincerely appreciate your response. Thank you.
Always thought it was "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" TB. Forgiving is much easier said than done and that means a struggle, a life long one in my case. Forgiving those that wish to do me harm/ill......well, that's a mighty tough ask. Hard to forgive those that make hate a central core of their belief structure.
ReplyDeleteEh, right you are Nylon12. Fixed and thanks. Good heavens. That was not a verse to get wrong.
DeleteI do not know how much I can write on forgiveness, as I have not met the trials and tribulations and hateful deeds. But there are people that have suffered far more than I ever will, and have forgiven (Corrie ten Boom comes to mind).
It is undoubtedly hard to forgive those who have made hate a central core of their belief structure. At the same time, there is a part of me that feels sorrow for them. To be so consumed by hate and rage that this is all that you are....I am reminded of character in C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce which had so become a caricature of themselves that there was nothing left of "them".
It makes me think that in the end - unless there is a miracle - they already find themselves in a sort of Hell. Just of their own making.
Jonah was focused on self. He had good reason due to how Israel was treated by the Assyrians for a long history of time, brutal! Our comments seem to say we have guilt for justifying the same types of actions. I have to say that when I read Jonah each year, I hardly notice him now, except his sulky end. What I see is the glory God brings to Himself through the new belief in Him, the real and only God, name above all names, Jehovah! The pagans on the ship and in Ninevah, even the king, all readily turn to Him and cast their false gods away! All of this in spite of Jonah! What a praise I feel knowing the Lord can do the same through me and you all!
ReplyDeleteAs for politics, some may want to communicate or gently debate in a place they trust and believe they will be safe. Here they may feel they are among kindred spirits. If we don't talk, we give up our voice to the loudest and most intimidating. If we could talk and share ideas without insults it could be healing and educational.
Anon - What a very good look at the other side of the story.
DeleteIt really is a story about both, the failures of Jonah as a prophet and the fact that God can work through anyone and anything.
Everything you say about talking is very true. The reality is that we seldom seem to talk anymore; it is much more "yelling" and posting online memes and statements and demonizing the opposition. This happens on both "sides". The intent may be to communicate a message, but how something is communicated matters as much as the message itself.
I agree about talking verses yelling. I would hope we can do some civilized talking as you read Francis Schaeffer and how that applies to today.
DeleteAnon - One of my goals this year is to re-read as much of Shaeffer as I have. I have nine of his books, which I think covers at least his major works on his theology and his philosophy about living in the modern world.
DeleteGood words, TB. Thank you, as always. For me, I have some thoughts and opinions on the current state of political affairs, thoughts and opinions that differ from those of many of the folks with whom I associate. Unfortunately, I don't discuss it with them, and I think that is both their and my loss. How do we learn if we don't listen to each other? But on these issues, we seem to either argue and fight, or simply not discuss the hard things. That bothers me.
ReplyDeleteBob, I confess I am just as often one of those that can react poorly to opinions that I disagree with, much more than I care to admit. To your point, we do not learn if we do not listen to one another. Perhaps some of the problem is simply we have lost the ability to listen without judgement - as the thought goes, we are already constructing a response to someone even as they are speaking instead of just listening, truly listening, to them. I suffer from this as well. I wonder if that, in turn, is tied to the fact that too often we feel life is really all focused on us and thus we need to have our next response ready instead of listening to someone else fully.
DeleteI agree Bob, us quiet ones are giving in to the insanity and now no one has critical thinking skills, especially the youth.
ReplyDeleteAnon, the loss of critical thinking skills seems to be a key thing.
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