We may see and hear in time

Who am I to NOT witness to idol worshippers whom I have befriended by offering myself as their protection? If I do not, I am a coward. Who am I to chastise the work of others in the name of Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit, or the Father of us all? If I do, I judge myself. 

Looking at just the face of these scriptures (Jonah and the Samaritan), I may not grasp that God weaves opportunity into my belligerence.

We may yet recognize our cliques and conclaves of idol worshipping buddies, and see it while we are there. We may grasp our opportunity for sacrifice. So too may we each recognize our sneer at another for his or her works of mercy because we do not see God’s influence in them. We may hear ourselves in time. We may be uplifted by their example after all.

We pray for courage and humility


http://usccb.org/bible/readings/100719.cfm
Jonah 1:1-2, 2:1-2, 11
Luke 10:25-37


The readings today from Jonah and Luke do not seem similar at first blush. Beneath, or inside rather, we see two stubborn men. Perhaps stubbornness affected the alignment for aligning the classic tale of Jonah and the whale (large fish) with the scholar hearing the parable of the Good Samaritan. Both men in these scriptures — Jonah and the Scholar — exhibit snarky, arms-crossed hostility. These two belligerent Jews jut their chins, and with provocation they proclaim, “God isn’t the boss of me.” Then, they both get their comeuppance. 

Amid the belligerence of two righteous Jews, however, God reveals the lengths he goes to save the pagan and consider also the heretic as worthy of his love. He loves the belligerent, the pagan, and the heretic, not for who they are classified, but for whom he desires. 

Jonah runs from God, escaping by ship. He is ultimately spewed back upon the shore by a fish with indigestion (literally, he can’t digest the ornery man) to fulfill what has been asked of Jonah — preach to an infidel city. The city is one that Jonah despised. God wants the inhabitants to be saved. Jonah does not. That's the face of the story.

Next, in the New Testament, Luke relays the encounter of a brash scholar who asks Jesus to encapsulate access to God. Jesus asks him to recite the Shema, the Jewish summary of loving the Lord, your God. The scholar, cowed only for a moment, looks for a chink in Jesus’ authority. He fires back at Jesus, regarding “love your neighbor as yourself.” Questioning Jesus' authority, he asks, “And, who is my neighbor?” Jesus then supplies an example of mercy through someone the smarmy fellow did not imagine was worthy of neighborly love — a kind and merciful Samaritan. The Samaritan is an apostate in Jewish circles, but the scholar concedes that this heretic properly loves his neighbor, because he fulfills the Jewish Shema of love. That also is the face of this story. 

A full body of teaching lies behind the face.

The Samaritan is a heretic for the Jew because he does not follow the adapted life and teachings of the Hebrew people, yet lays claim to the Hebrew God. The Samaritans consider only their scriptures, a separately fixed set of Torah texts. They also claim the holy land of the Samaritans, Mount Gerizim, as the true location of the temple. Their Gerizim temple was founded directly at the transition of Moses’ tabernacle to a land-based temple in the Northern part of Israel where Moses died.

Jonah not only despised Nineveh, an Assyrian pinnacle, but he did not want to be part of the redemption of that city. Nineveh was akin to Sodom, a place of sin, and worthy of destruction. Jonah eventually relented to preach repentance to the Ninevites, due to the incredible lengths that God went to “encourage” him on the Mediterranean sea. Jonah figured the Assyrian Ninevites would not repent. They did, and Jonah sulked, eventually to be spanked about by God for his obstinacy.

Jesus uses the thematic sense of belligerency by two righteous Jews to point out a common problem of all believers in the living God — to shush and silence God. In both these examples of belligerence the men personally speak with God. Jonah had a conversation with God. The scholar also had a conversation with God. Their parlay from God tells us what we need to know. How often do we parlay with God? More than we can count ....

First, running from God puts us in physical jeopardy, yet has the interesting side effect of converting pagans and idol worshippers. The men on the boat who were forced to toss Jonah into the sea became ardent men of God. They recognized the power of Jonah’s deity over their own set of idols. God continues his conversations with us even as we hide. He exhibits himself in astounding ways, not only to draw us back to him but to use our disobedience for an opportunity. An opportunity for us to draw others to him also!

Perhaps this has happened to us. In our various escapes from God have we witnessed the power of God? In that off-path journey, have we reversed the path of our pagan compatriots? Has our running from God been pointed out by faithful pagans to some other god as both cowardly and pointless? The worship of drugs, work, sports, and even artistry and celebrity has certainly trapped a rather large set of folks into idolatry. I should note that each of these idols has its place, but none should supplant God. They become idols when we go to them to answer our questions and alleviate our pain. Hiding from God will take us to the places where idols are worshipped. 

In Jonah's story, he sacrificed himself to save his friends. By his selfless act, they came to know the true God. It’s a struggle for me to come up with an example. I’ve never consciously considered my hiding as God's opportunity for witness. Oh my. I can think of several times, though, where I didn’t sacrifice myself and the ship sunk, taking everyone down. Did my escape ever translate to sacrifice? I'm ashamed of the answer to that one.

That’s an amazing bit of opportunity — mostly missed opportunities.

The second story also has a body of teaching behind the face of the tale. If we test God, we will be humbled. Testing God reveals a boldness of hubris very similar to Jonah's belligerence. The Shema, properly quoted by the scholar, lists how we should love God. 

"You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your being,
with all your strength,
and with all your mind ...
and your neighbor as yourself."

The Shema ’s system of order in the universe ends with a non-exclusionary category — neighbor. By questioning God, the scholar questions God's designs, his plans, and his implementations. The scholar's question is as common as hiding from God. The scholar questions God's logic. There must be some limitations on who our neighbors are, correct? Jonah insisted there must be some limitations on who God would save.

I’ve run from God. I've questioned God's logic. I have been caught by God, too. And I've been humbled by the outpouring of sacrifice and service from others. In every segment of the Church’s octopus of institutional divisiveness — orthodox schisms, theological heresies, and institutional divorces — there are faithful Christians who speak our creed, and mouth the very same Shema we've just heard. 

We have all cynically questioned the bureaucracies of missions, education, ordination, and all the myriad of “ions” in the Church. How did God reveal a mercy to humble us? How many people ardent in their holiness have shown us that God has moved them? My chagrin with seeming inefficiency from a faith expression lacking in this or that, or some other church's righteousness that looks more like pomposity, blinds me. I exhibit instead my pomposity and inefficiency and lack of mercy. 

Who am I to NOT witness to idol worshippers whom I have befriended by offering myself as their protection? If I do not, I am a coward. Who am I to chastise the work of others in the name of Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit, or the Father of us all? If I do, I judge myself. 

Looking at just the face of these scriptures, I may not grasp that God weaves opportunity into my belligerence, my cowardness, and my judgment.

We may yet recognize our cliques and conclaves of idol worshipping buddies, and see it while we are there. We may grasp our opportunity for sacrifice. So too may we each recognize our sneer at another for his or her works of mercy because we do not see God’s influence in them. We may hear ourselves in time. We may be uplifted by their example after all.

In both instances — hiding or sneering — we’re certain to be forgiven our transgressions of cowardice and chagrin, as much as the converted ones and the unrecognized holy ones receive God's grace. We’re all following some idols we do not realize. We’re all engaged in some heresy we don’t understand. God’s graces fall on everyone. Including us.

The prayer here is to know when in our escape from God that we can be the sacrificial lamb that saves others. The other prayer here is to know when in our chastising we see the mercy valiantly offered by those we despise.

We’re likely not to head directly into Nineveh and preach, but to escape instead. We’re likely also to complain at the conversion of cities, states, and nations when they did not get punished. We’re likely to scoff at holiness from heretics, too. So, we must pray that God will miraculously awaken us in time to properly sacrifice, and turn our eyes to see what holiness is revealed, and quickly humble us. 

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