Parish of St. Edward the Confessor Daily Lenten/Easter Reflections


lent
February 13, 2008

By

Tom Threlkeld


lent

Reading 1
Psalm
Gospel

Text of Reflection:  
February 13, 2008

Jonah, Jonah, Jonah 

My bible introduces the Book of Jonah as a didactic story; I’ll have to look that up:

A:  fitted or intended to teach

B: intended to convey instruction and information as well as pleasure and entertainment

As a children’s story the emphasis typically rests on the fish; there is the entertainment.  For adults Chapter 2 reveals a life journey of spiritually becoming lost and then found, unfortunately this cycle happens many times for some of us, me. 

Jonah’s background is unimportant, in response to the mariners questioning about his business, location and people Jonah leaps over the typical answers and jumps right to the heart of his offense to God, failure to “worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and dry land.” God’s plan is to use Jonah, me; God will not give up, my dismissal or NO!, or running and hiding thankfully have little effect on God’s continuing invitation to respond. 

I ask myself, after all of Jonah’s evasions, what is the condition of Jonah’s heart on the day he enters Nineveh?  Psalm 51:19 gave me the answer, “ My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.”  Since I have the dictionary out let’s just look up that word contrite: grieving and penitent for sin or shortcoming. 

What do the people of Nineveh see in the person of Jonah as he enters the city, I think a person who:

    • Believes in God
    • Worship’s God
    • Knows that God is in charge
    • Knows that God is focused right on him, an individual
    • Has been down the wrong path and now has turned back
    • Is unconcerned with the everyday storms of life
    • Presents eyes and manors of a humble person that convey grieving
    • Presents eyes and manors that speak with the power of God
    • Walks with a strong backbone, the confidence of a believer.

The words of Jonah, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed” seem to convey a hopeless outcome, but the citizens somehow go beyond the words to what they see in the person delivering the message.  We all know the story; God turns away from his plan. 

In Chapter 4 Jonah leaves Nineveh a changed man. Unfortunately Jonah appears to be the opposite person who entered the city.  Jonah seems to be on another cycle of dismissal.

In Luke 11:29 Jesus tells us that in the present age “no sign will be given it except for the sign of Jonah”.  For me that means I, need to pray for the grace to become and continue as a person described in Psalm 51:19 so that the present age will see a person just like person who entered Nineveh. 

This Lenten season is another invitation from God to live life as a person who recognizes there is a big picture when the everyday storms of life come.