The Society of Saint John the Evangelist: The Daily Office
Journey into God’s Heart: the Path of Peace
Timothy Solverson, SSJE
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Jonah 3.10-4.11
Psalm 145.1-8
Philippians 1.21-30
Matthew 20.1-16
Why are you a Christian? When I begin retreats I open with this question—and this weekend is no different. We had the joy of offering our hospitality to six wonderful women from the Episcopal parish of Christ Church, Pensacola, FL. We have been pondering this and other questions as we searched for the heart of God through prayer. I ask this question of myself often because I know there are other ways to be in our world today. There are, in my view, easier ways of living; other ways of finding fulfillment. Yet, there is something in the message of Jesus Christ that compels me to seek my path toward fullness of life and it is understood best by love, mercy, and compassion. In Christ I have found a pathway to inner peace as I struggle to see God in myself and the world around me. I suspect that many of you have come to know this in your hearts as well. Or if you’re not quite there, you’re most likely intrigued. Some how God has your attention and you are seeking the path looking for the light.
Truly, the Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger and abounding in compassion.
The Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger and abounding in compassion.
The Lord is merciful.
God is love.
If I had to sum up what I think I understand about God in one sentence and it was all I could ever say on the subject, I would have to say with the psalmist, “ The Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger and abounding in compassion. And I would say this knowing that it took me my entire life to get to this point, that is to say it took me thirty years of wrestling with the spirit of God from the day of my baptism at 15 until now to begin to understand what this might look like in my life. For early on I was angry and frightened. Life, it seemed to me, was stacked up against me. My practice of Christianity was a way to get back at the world—that wicked, wicked place—which seemed intent on thwarting God’s good will in the world through sin, lawlessness, and all kinds of perversions. There was a devil around every corner and a sinner under every bush and my call, my duty as a Christian was to bring them to Christ; that is, to force them into a form of Christianity where one could measure one’s holiness by how well one conformed to a very prescriptive and to a very narrow understanding of God. God surely is love, but in my early worldview, this was not nearly as important as knowing I was saved because I said all the right words and believed the right things—“All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”—and all needed to come to Christ to be saved as I understood it—Baptism was “fire insurance.” The God’s mercy was only offered to those already in the fold. And I, along with my small group of friends, believed that we loved the sinners all the while hating their sin. The truth of the matter is we actual hated the sinner and their sin and we were using everything in our discipleship program to convince these people how wrong they were. If they would only open their eyes to the truth they too would know God as we did. I am glad to say—The Lord is merciful—because few if any joined me in my poisonous perversion of Christ’s message of freedom and love. Alienation and frustration were the fruits of those early years. I alienated myself from my family and I alienated myself from God because I had no understanding of God’s mercy and the true call of Christ into the freedom and life characterized by love. God is love and God will love and save whomever God wills. God will show mercy to who ever reaches out their hand for help. God will “save” and God will keep safe any who seek to love. It is true, at least for me, that God will use sinners to lead many of us into the kingdom of heaven—
This morning we hear of Jonah, the reluctant prophet, and sometime evangelist from the ancient Near East who grudgingly speaks God’s word of mercy to Nineveh, a great and wicked city. The people hear God’s word from Jonah and repent and turn toward God.
Now one would think that Jonah would be glad—overjoyed even, that all of these people respond positively 120,000 saved souls from one preaching mission—we could only hope to be so successful. But Jonah is not happy—he is not filled with holy glee. Rather, Jonah is filled with gall. He becomes the sour-puss of the Lord and sulks off into the desert to wait and see if the city will in fact be destroyed. And he waits, and he waits, and he begins to become parched by the desert sun. He prays for death rather than see these formerly sinful people thrive through God’s mercy and compassion. And here is the gem of this story—the true point—God sees Jonah in his misery and has compassion on him too. God causes a plant to grow up next to Jonah comforting him in his pain, but then takes it away again, exposing Jonah once again to the searing desert wind. Jonah is again angry and prays again for death. God says, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?”
The irony of the question speaks to the wisdom of this ancient book. The question comes in a section often referred to in commentaries as God’ conversion of Jonah. The story has less to do with the conversion of Nineveh and more to do with the conversion of Jonah. It turns out that the only people faithful to God in this story are the pagans and their pets. They show Jonah the true nature of God. And this is important to note. This is Holy Scripture, in both the Hebrew and Christian canon and its inclusion, therefore, is making a theological statement. Some have seen the Book of Jonah as a corrective to the xenophobia characterized by some of the historical writings particularly those of Ezra and Nehemiah, which oppose the pagan world with vehemence, casting them as the other, or that which can be ignored and demonized. The story of Jonah restores dignity to the religious piety of the other. That is to say according to the book of Jonah there is more than one way to catch a fish. God will be merciful, God will be sovereign, God uses all of God’s creation to reveal God’s self.
This is highly important for us to remember today for we are living in an increasingly pluralized global society that has many ideologies vying for our allegiance. In the field of religion, Christianity is being challenged by other religious traditions that are growing, while mainline Christianity, at least in the northern hemisphere, is in decline. The experience of the resident alien, the refugee, the immigrant from societies formed by the Koran, and not the Bible, intellectual and philosophical systems that claim religion is irrelevant are all apart of our world and how we respond to these people as Christians is vital. Because held in these belief systems is some revelation of God. We could like Jonah turn our backs on these people. We could run off the Tarshish. We could hole up in our safe worldviews and ignore the world around us all the while lamenting its sad sorry state. Or we can become who God has called us to be.
We are a holy priesthood of believers called to live in freedom in Christ. We who have come to Christ have understood something of God’s love and mercy and, I believe, we are compelled to share this with the world in a way that respects the dignity of all—ALL—people with honest humility and love. There is no place in Christian discipleship for arrogance. There is no place in Christian discipleship for violence. There is no place in Christian discipleship for coercion, or specialized marketing techniques. There is only the model of Jesus Christ, humble love, and deep, deep respect for the other.
One thing is clear from even a cursory read of the scriptures: the standard of righteousness for God’s people is justice motivated by mercy and love. St Paul writes in the Letter to the Philippians, “Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” And again from the Letter to the Colossians, As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, humility meekness and patience…Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts…and be thankful.
My friends, let us not be angry about the bush, but rather, be gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and full of compassion—this is the heart of God, this is the path of peace.
© 2008
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