Jonah

I'm reading the Book of the Prophet Jonah. We named our first born son after this guy.  To say that I identify is an understatement. Here is the abbreviated version:
The LORD God calls and Commissions the prophet to be the voice of God.
The Prophet despises the people to whom God sends him and, therefore, rejects call.
Prophet attempts to flee/hide from the presence of God.
God finds and chastises prophet by making life uncomfortable for the prophet and those who unknowingly participate in the prophet's flight.
Prophet brings peace to his co-conspirators by choosing to go out alone.  He literally enters the abyss, (point of death), believing that he has achieved absence from God.
God rescues the prophet from the abyss.
Prophet spends 3 days in limbo.  Solitude. Neither fully alive, nor dead.
Prophet prayerfully gives thanks to God for gift of salvation and promises to sacrificially "pay what he owes" in allegiance for the gift.
God releases prophet from limbo, restoring prophet to life.
God re-issues call and commission to prophet.
Prophet obeys call.
Prophet enters city and publicly announces God's Word; a word of judgment and potential condemnation/punishment against them.  (The city is a 3-day journey for the prophet.)
Sinful people immediately and surprisingly accept God's judgment, repent, issue a kingdom-wide period of fasting, and faithfully wait for God to act.
God changes God's mind (repents) and does not punish the people.
Prophet becomes angry with God for sparing the people he despises, believing them worthy of divine judgment, anger, wrath, condemnation, and destruction.
Prophet begs God to end his life, so that he does not have to see the mercy and abundant love of God offered to an undeserving people.
God asks, "Is it right for you to be angry?"
Prophet sulks and waits for God to act.
God produces a bush to shade the prophet from the sun.
Prophet is pleased.
God sends a worm to kill the bush.
Prophet grows faint in the hot sun and begs to die.
God says, "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.  And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?"
The End.

The Lesson:  Jews and, by adoption, Christians are called and commissioned by God to go to the people who do not know God; God's ways, God's laws, God's intentions.  
We may not like them, agree with them, or trust them.  We may despise them, fear them, or misunderstand them. We may be prejudiced against them.  We may neglect or ignore them, create walls and borders between them and us.
We may resist, decline, or outright reject our calling and commission.  We may hide in the boat (read church building and our friends).  We may surround ourselves with people who don't rock the boat, who prefer maintenance of status quo.
We may think the city is a scary place that we dare not enter.
We may rather drown than speak in public.  
We may feel justified in our disobedience, because we think we're right about them.  And we have evidence to support that.
But, we have no right to be angry.  Because we are no different from them. Our disobedience, our hiding, our prejudices, our reluctance means that we are just as broken as they are.  Maybe more so. Because we know.  We know God.  We know what is right.  We know better.  

God, on the other hand, is committed to restorative justice---setting things right between God and us and them.
God is committed to a process of healing that requires something akin to death and resurrection.  For all of us. The broken human condition affects all of us; Jews, Christians, Muslims, atheists...and everyone else.
We can't set it right.  Not personally.Not systemically.  Not globally.
But God can.  God does.  God will.
God has changed God's mind about you and me.
God chooses merciful restoration, not punishment.
God chooses reluctant, stubborn, disobedient people to do God's restoring work.
There is a pattern, a way, a transformation process.
The 3 days.
Day 1= death (end of former self, grief, loss);
Day 2= limbo.  Start of healing process. Reconnection with God is established;
Day 3. A resurrection. A new way of life, a new pattern, a new relationship emerges.
This pattern is repeated in the story of Jesus, a prophet mighty in word and deed who declared forgiveness to all the people.  (See the gospels)
Jesus announced and enacted the restorative, healing justice of God.
Jesus was crucified for it. He died and was buried.
On the 3rd day he was raised from the dead.
That we might also live a new life.
This is what God has done.
For you.  For me.  For them.
Even for the animals.
The end.

widowslivesmatter. the power of hope

Based on two bible stories.  1 Kings 17:8-16; Gospel of Mark 12:38-44.

There is a power at work in these stories we hear today.   We can see the connection between the first reading and the gospel today.  The plight of widows.  It might be more difficult, with retirements and social security, to appreciate their plight.  In the developing world, conditions for women are still very challenging.  Women and children are more vulnerable and have less economic opportunity.  In recent times, microloans have provided women with opportunity to start cottage industries and small businesses out of which they might sustain their households; especially in the wake of the AIDS crisis and civil wars in Africa.  But widows with children are particularly vulnerable to the predatory behavior of men.  A widow’s life is harder. 

I don’t want to dismiss the challenges vulnerable people, like widows and children face in the US.  They do face them.  But they are more likely to have access to necessary resources here.  Widows need not die from starvation here.  Bu we know some widows who depend on compassionate family to care for them as they age.  Arlene’s son and daughter-in-law care for her and Carol Royer is caring for her mother. 

But in the ancient neat east?  Life was hard. Survival was a daily challenge.  The Jews had laws that instructed them to care for widows and orphans and foreigners.  The Book of Ruth is a parable about the Jewish community’s treatment of widows and foreigners.  Boaz acts righteously and obeys the law by providing access to food for Ruth and Naomi.  He goes further by establishing a relationship with the widowed Ruth that provides economic shelter from poverty, for her and Naomi.   It’s a beautiful story about the law of compassionate economics that lifts up the poor and vulnerable.   

In the first story, Elijah the prophet is running from King Ahab, because he has publicly denounced the throne as cursed by God.  God is withholding rain as judgment against Ahab’s unfaithful leadership.  Elijah is in a vulnerable situation, hunted by the King.  The clarity with which God speaks to Elijah is amazing, isn’t it?  Direct.  Provisional.  God is personally going to meet Elijah’s needs.

Go to Zarapheth.  I have already directed a widow to feed you there.  Thing is, she’s poor.  Desperate.  Facing her last meal.  There has been a famine in the land.  She has little hope to survive another day. She has a child.  Imagine the anguish, not being able to feed your own little boy.  And now a man comes commanding you to give water and bread.  And to give all that she has left to him first.  To a stranger who promises that the LORD will provide for her and her son until the drought ends.  Do you trust him with your life? She does.  And her faith is credited to her with sustained provisions, miraculous and effective.  God is concerned for the prophet; God is concerned for the widow. God provides for them. 

Mark 12 is a chapter in which Jesus has challenged the temple leadership, priests and scribes.  He has asserted that the Messiah’s authority exceeds that of King David’s.  Messiah is not only a descendent of David, but His Lord. Jesus elevates the status of Messiah above that of the King.  He will also rule the temple.  Jesus has denounced the economics of temple, the way that the poor are neglected and the wealthy honored.  The religious elite devour widows’ houses, he says.  Religious ritual practiced by a royal priesthood cannot replace compassionate justice for the poor.  Temple worship must be balanced by greater justice in the land.  And then he teaches by the example of a widow.

I’ve never thought of her actions in this way before but, I believe the widow’s act is an act of intentional public defiance.  Civil disobedience.  No one would have blamed her if she withheld her tithe to live. She goes up to the treasury with the wealthy men.  The contrast is visible and noticeable.   She drops in her two cents.  And walks away.   And her message is clear.  What they give is nothing in comparison to what she gives.  She gives 100% of her poverty, they give 10% of their wealth.  She is shaming the system and the men who benefit from it.  She is shaming the wealthy, who give for appearances and to ameliorate their own guilt.  She is giving as an act of courage, an act of power. She is not weak.  Her vulnerability becomes her strength.  I like to think she knew the story of the widow of Zarepheth. She dares to trust God and the law of Moses to protect her.  She dares to announce her dependence before the people of Israel in the temple.  She dares to say aloud, care about me, show compassion to me and women like me.  While you give to the temple treasury, women and children starve. 

We give out of abundance.  Maybe this text makes some of us uncomfortable. But that’s not the point.  Everyone can give.  Everyone ought to give.  Generosity is human. It starts with the parent/child relationship. We need to give, in order to see our dependence and descendent thrive.   

Giving is also a reflection of gratitude.  If one is thankful, one is giving.  It’s not the amount that matters, it’s the percent.  What percent of what you have is to you a gift you have received, for which you are thankful?  What percent of that is worth giving to others?  We give out of our abundance.  What would it be like to give out of gratitude?  What would it be like to give from faith, trusting that God provides?  What sort of giving might we do that is an act of justice, of civil disobedience, that raises the awareness of the plight of a particularly vulnerable people?  Is Peter’s Porch like that? Could it be? 

The power at work in these stories is the power of hope brought about by faith in God.  A God who rasies the dead and creates a new future of provision and peace.  May we experience the generous provision of God and be compassion toward those who are most vulnerable among us.  May we see in them the power of hope to give as an act of justice and faith. Amen.