So…
Have you ever felt like Jonah?
Peeved that the way you wanted events
turn out, didn’t happen. Where you felt aggrieved because you felt like
punishment was mandatory, that someone should have been voted out, that the
team that won it all should have lost it all!
I don’t watch much football for that
reason!
Because inevitably the team I want to
win with all my heart finds a way to lose, almost as if they know it’s me
wishing them to win, so they drop the ball, throw an interception, step out of bounds, or
get a ridiculous and flagrant penalty literally on purpose.
And there are teams I despise, because
although other people loved them I call those folks lunatics) want them to win.
Take for example the New England
Patriots fans, please.
I have forgiven the New York Giants for
that Superbowl fiasco where the Buffalo Bills punter forgot which way the ball
was supposed to go, and I will, before I get to heaven I hope, forgive the
punter.
But sometimes its much, much harder than
that, and not just a game.
This week talking with the father of
Kristopher Hicks, the young man killed in the Chillis restaurant in the
Syracuse area was a stark reminder.
He is aware that sometimes innocent
young men are wrongly convicted of crimes they didn’t commit, which is why in
New York State the death penalty is no longer in force. But he would rather it
be, and that it be applied to the man who took Kristopher’s life, and I can
certainly understand why.
In some ways I think, he feels like
Jonah did. That it is too unfair.
The Assyrians, you see, with their capital
city of Nineveh, had destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel. They had killed
many in war, displaced thousnads, had created hundreds of thousands of
refugees, which they settled in other lands they had captured.
The northern kingdom of Israel, as
opposed to the southern Kingdom of Judah, where the city of Jerusalem was, became
Samaria with it’s despised Samaritans, named after its capital city. Samaria
was with its mix of imported peoples and races and religions never again
properly part of the Jewish nation.
And Jonah, like everyone he knew, wanted
God to feel as he did about Nineveh. He wanted it destroyed!
Which is why Jonah was so peeved at God
for saving the people of Nineveh. The Assyrians were the sworn enemies of the
Israelites. What Jonah wanted was their destruction, their punishment for all
their many and grievous sins!
Instead, God offered them a chance to
repent, and damn it, they did, and then God went and did what Jonah wanted God
to never do, he saved them.
Giving credit where credit is due, Jonah
at least was honest. He didn’t pull any punches with God. He didn’t try to hide
his feelings. He was in conversation with the Lord, as a prophet he listened
and he spoke to God, even though he was deeply troubled by God’s mercy.
I have often said in the past when
people come and talk to me about their deep-seated anger with God over what
they see as a grievous harm done that God seems to have not noticed or even
forgiven, is for them to have it out with God.
My suggestion is to go out into one of
the fields at the Miedema Farm or the Pierson Farm or the Ketcham Farm and tell
God exactly what you think of how God is handling the world. Let me assure you,
you would not be alone in any of those fields because there are a lot of people
mad at God right now, especially after this year in politics.
I suggested you tell God what you think,
how you think things should have gone, and how you think the world should be
run. And one of two things will happen, a lightning strike will take you out!
Or you will be out standing in an empty
field with a whole lot of pain and hurt now off your chest.
Just be aware of what may happen next.
One possibility is that you will be
asked to get busy fixing the wrong you see!
Because now that your eyes are finally
open, it is not God who needs to get to work, but you! God has been calling to
serve, to go, to make a difference. You have just finally got the message!
The other possibility is similar to what
happened to Jonah: a reminder of who you are and who God is.
I love this plant story. Oh my. A bean
plant that grow in a day and shades Jonah!
Jonah is angry, hot, and tired, so God
in his mercy grows Jonah some shade. I mean is that cool or what, double
entendre intended!
Jonah’s immediate response should have
been thanksgiving, offering a sacrifice of praise to God who saw his servant in
need and blessed him.
But not Jonah! And so often, not us!
Jonah doesn’t see the blessing. He
doesn’t see God’s love and provision. He doesn’t understand that he is unworthy
of God’s moving of heaven and earth on his behalf, even perhaps challenging the
laws of nature.
All Jonah understands, is his own
overwhelming anger and disappointment, caught up in how he wants God to be, not
how and who God is.
And when the plant dies at God’s
command, Jonah doesn’t give thanks for the gift of temporary respite. Rather he
chooses to be angry about his circumstances, missing the mercy, the grace, the
love of God that has been extended to him.
“Jonah, the plant is mine, the
Ninevites, and the Assyrians are mine, and you are too.”
I confess there are those I find really
hard to love, some I simply choose not to associate with, and even those who I
am sure God should dislike, though I suspect in reality God loves even Patriot
fans. Sigh!
But I am also reminded of that little
Sunday School song, imperfect as it is, “Jesus loves the little children, all
the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, Jesus loves the
little children of the world.”
And I remember that those children have turned
into adults and that God still loves them!
And that as a follower of Christ I am
called to love them too, even if I don’t understand them, even if I am mad at
them, even if I think that justice should prevail in their lives on behalf of
those hurt by them, because in order to follow Christ, I am to take a cross and
follow him, and in doing so am still called to love them…
because…
He first loved me, imperfect, arrogant,
selfish, silly, and totally unrepentant about the Patriots…
Amen.
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