Thursday, Feb. 27
Texts: Psalm 51; Jonah 3:1-10; Romans 1:1-7
Scripture Thought (Jonah 3:7-10): 7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles:Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
Reflection: Perhaps the hardest part of treating the season of Lent as the church initially intended is connecting a message of repentance to people who don’t see anything wrong with themselves. It’s not that people do not believe that evil exists; it’s just that evil always seems to be something that has been externalized. It owes to some force, some “ism” to which other people have fallen prey or with which they have become complicit. Socialism, racism, white supremacism, consumerism, sexism, elitism, etc., etc. They have nothing in common except that they all provide an opportunity for us to externalize the (moral) problem, locating it in the “other” and by implication exonerating oneself.
In the Jonah text for today, this same tendency exhibited itself in the unwilling attitude of Jonah toward the task he had been assigned. Preach repentance to the Ninevites? You’re not serious, right? Right? They’re the ones who do terrible, cruel things to the powerless people the conquer; they're the ones who show no mercy to man, woman, or child. They’re awful. They personify evil itself. They’re the worst. They’re the ones who ripped us from our homes. Innocent us, just minding our own business, never bothering them in any way. It has been repeated innumerable times in human experience--we know who the evil ones are, and, furthermore, we want them punished severely. We don’t want to hear of forgiveness; we want them to appreciate the full force of the evil they have perpetrated. And we’d prefer to do it ourselves when we’re able.
Isn’t it interesting to note that the difference between the Ninevites and the Israelites could not have been more stark? The Israelites had been called to repentance under threat of severe penalty and declined. The Ninevites--the foreigners, the “Gentiles.”--heard that call and repented immediately, in hopes that God would be gracious. And it didn’t sit well with Jonah, as the succeeding chapter of the biblical story records for us. How far from God’s heart! How far from His ways! How far from repentance; for blindness to one's own sin prevents anyone from seeing who God truly is. He’s seen most clearly in His mercy. Where there is no awareness of sin, of one’s complicity in evil, there can be no experience of such mercy.
Prayer: Gracious Father, Self-giving Son, Merciful Holy Spirit, hear our prayer. Too little have we weighed our own sin; too much have we magnified the sins of others. Grant us the knowledge of our own failures and the weakened souls out of which they come. Let us then seek Your mercy and commend it to those whom we have deemed unworthy. Through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns in union with the Father and the Son, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
Texts: Psalm 51; Jonah 3:1-10; Romans 1:1-7
Scripture Thought (Jonah 3:7-10): 7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles:Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
Reflection: Perhaps the hardest part of treating the season of Lent as the church initially intended is connecting a message of repentance to people who don’t see anything wrong with themselves. It’s not that people do not believe that evil exists; it’s just that evil always seems to be something that has been externalized. It owes to some force, some “ism” to which other people have fallen prey or with which they have become complicit. Socialism, racism, white supremacism, consumerism, sexism, elitism, etc., etc. They have nothing in common except that they all provide an opportunity for us to externalize the (moral) problem, locating it in the “other” and by implication exonerating oneself.
In the Jonah text for today, this same tendency exhibited itself in the unwilling attitude of Jonah toward the task he had been assigned. Preach repentance to the Ninevites? You’re not serious, right? Right? They’re the ones who do terrible, cruel things to the powerless people the conquer; they're the ones who show no mercy to man, woman, or child. They’re awful. They personify evil itself. They’re the worst. They’re the ones who ripped us from our homes. Innocent us, just minding our own business, never bothering them in any way. It has been repeated innumerable times in human experience--we know who the evil ones are, and, furthermore, we want them punished severely. We don’t want to hear of forgiveness; we want them to appreciate the full force of the evil they have perpetrated. And we’d prefer to do it ourselves when we’re able.
Isn’t it interesting to note that the difference between the Ninevites and the Israelites could not have been more stark? The Israelites had been called to repentance under threat of severe penalty and declined. The Ninevites--the foreigners, the “Gentiles.”--heard that call and repented immediately, in hopes that God would be gracious. And it didn’t sit well with Jonah, as the succeeding chapter of the biblical story records for us. How far from God’s heart! How far from His ways! How far from repentance; for blindness to one's own sin prevents anyone from seeing who God truly is. He’s seen most clearly in His mercy. Where there is no awareness of sin, of one’s complicity in evil, there can be no experience of such mercy.
Prayer: Gracious Father, Self-giving Son, Merciful Holy Spirit, hear our prayer. Too little have we weighed our own sin; too much have we magnified the sins of others. Grant us the knowledge of our own failures and the weakened souls out of which they come. Let us then seek Your mercy and commend it to those whom we have deemed unworthy. Through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns in union with the Father and the Son, to whom be glory forever. Amen.