Today's Scripture Reading (February 18, 2023): Jonah 1 & 2
I have to admit that I have a
love/hate relationship with the story of Jonah. I love it because it is filled
with truth that I can understand. After all, I have been there. Okay, I have
never been swallowed by a huge fish, but I have found myself in places I should
never have been because I disobeyed God. I have refused God from going to my
Nineveh. I have resisted the move of God and tried to set the agenda in my
relationship rather than letting God guide me in the way he wants to take me.
For me, it started early. The
first time I told God that I would never be a pastor, I was about fourteen and
angry with a pastor speaking at a youth camp. If this guy was an example of the
pastorate, then pastors were idiots, and I had no intention of being an idiot.
So, God, ask someone else. I don't want to go. And so, God seemed to take me on
a journey. I went from I won't be a pastor to I am willing to serve as a youth
pastor, but that is as far as I am prepared to go. After serving as a youth
pastor for many years, God called me to be the pastor of a church. I said okay,
but I am not into church planting and don't want to go there. And then I
planted a church. I have joked that now I am telling God that I absolutely will
not pastor a church in Hawaii.
My hate of the Jonah story is
really the big fish. And it is not that I don't believe that the fish is
possible. God could do whatever he wanted, and if that meant creating a fish
that could swallow Jonah, well, he created all the ones that couldn't consume
him, so making one that could swallow Jonah doesn't seem to be that hard a
task. My discomfort with the big fish story is that the fish becomes the story's
focus when that really isn't the main message of the tale. Whenever we bring up
the story of Jonah, the first thing we think of is the whale or big fish, and
not this incredibly childish prophet who wanted to get everything his own way. I
understand when my four-year-old grandson throws a tantrum because he isn't
getting his way, but I am a little more critical if it is an adult throwing a
tantrum, even if that adult is me. After the story of the big fish, the prophet
eventually goes to Nineveh to preach God's message, and God saves the city. But
then, Jonah pouts that God's eventual salvation of the city was precisely why
he didn't want to come to Nineveh in the first place; he knew that God would
save the Ninevites. And in the process, Jonah becomes a prophet with all my
failures.
But, part of the story is
that Jonah was swallowed by the whale, and in his fear, the prophet turns to
God. But there is no upside to this prayer. Yes, God saved him, and Jonah went
and preached in Nineveh, saving the city for at least a short time. But the
problem is that nothing changed inside Jonah. He was the same selfish child
after the whale that he was before. And that, too, sounds a lot like me.
We often seem to forget that
the purpose of prayer is not to change God but rather to change us. And that
change seems possible in the grip of a disaster, like being swallowed by a
whale. But often, like Jonah, when the whale disappears, we go back to the same
behavior we struggled through before the disaster. There is no change. The
problem is that if we want to change, we need to be willing to start the transition
before we find ourselves in the belly of the whale. That is a change that will
last, and when the whale comes, we can just continue the journey until we get
to the other side.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading:
Jonah 3 & 4
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