Dear Friends,
Yesterday in church we concluded a five-week study of the Book of
Jonah, and following a time of prayer and worship we broke into small groups to
discuss how the book of Jonah had impacted our lives. It was a great discussion
as we wrestled with the meaning of this wonderful four-chapter book.
Jonah is more than just a “whale of a tale,” as some have been
prone to describe it. It’s a story that highlights the danger of the kind of
self-righteous behavior that all of us must seek to avoid.
God tells Jonah that He is to go to Assyria to visit the hated
Ninevites and share the story of His love for these pagan people. However,
Jonah, 'the runaway prophet,' knowing he possesses the option to
disobey God’s will, buys a sailing ticket that takes him in the opposite
direction from the people God called him to visit. Jonah thought he knew best.
Why would God call him to share His love with a pagan people so cruel and
vicious that they were known to skin their enemies alive? God must be
making a mistake in sending me, such a God-fearing man that I am, to
these hated people.
Jonah didn’t know that when we disobey God’s will for our will we
will always go down; sacrificing peace for the storm and calm for
calamity. Jonah thought he was too good to associate with these hated
people. He is like the elder son in the story of the Prodigal Son. He resents
the fact that his Father is rejoicing over the homecoming of his prodigal
brother who has been spending his time in the pig pen of sin, while he has
remained at home dutifully fulfilling the tasks his father has given him. How
can my father love him as much as he loves me, he thinks to himself? Why would
he throw a party for the him whose actions have so dishonored him and yet
not throw one for me who has remained at home to serve him. He didn’t
know, as one writer expressed it, that “Jesus seeks the wandering sheep
who strays from the fold as well as the proud self-righteous brother who
stays at home, thinking he was the good one.”
As Christians we need to be careful that we are not self-righteous
in our thoughts and actions, like Jonah or the elder brother. The Bible
declares that God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of
the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4). And God’s all means all!
Does that include those who are destroying Christian churches in
China, or burning them down in India, or taking the lives of believers in
Nigeria? The answer is yes. All over the world Christians face an onslaught of
persecution from those who hate us because they hate our faith. Are we supposed
to love them? Yes, Jonah, them to.
But let’s bring the story closer to home. Does that mean
that we should love the woman who threw rocks through our sanctuary windows
this summer, and did the same to two other neighboring churches, costing
thousands of dollars in damages? Yes , Jonah, she is included too. But what
about all those looters and the ones that set fire to buildings and cost our
nation billions of dollars as a result of the damage they inflicted on our nation’s
cities this summer, them to? Yes, Jonah. But what about that Republican or
Democratic neighbor we so despise for all the hateful things they have said
about the things we believe in? Yes, Jonah, they are included as well.
The Christian faith is a missionary faith, and it must be carried
with us and shared with our next-door neighbor as well as the neighbor who
lives on the farthest corner of our globe. Yes, Jesus reminds us that we don’t
choose our neighbors and that our neighbor is anyone who has a need. Our
mission is to reach our neighbor, whether next door or around the world.
He makes it clear when He says, “For the Son of man came to seek and to save
the lost,” and may I politely remind you that at one time you were one of
“them” that were lost! (Luke 19:10)...for “As the Father has sent me,
even so I am sending you.” (John 20:21). And the “You” that is being
sent is you and I and the millions of believers around the world who are called
to faithfully fulfill our calling.
In Herman Melville’s book Moby Dick, the author writes. “Lord have
mercy on us all for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head and
sadly in need of mending.” That includes us, pagans and Presbyterians and every
other variety of faith and practice. Handicapped as we are, my question
is, will we be a Jonah and run from our calling or a follower of Jesus who sets
his heart on doing His will wherever we are and wherever we go
Yours in faith and friendship,
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