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The One Who Is Greater Than Jonah Is Still Here
The readings for today are as complex as they are timely. Some days we may feel like we are living in Nineveh. As I think of the reluctant prophet Jonah’s resistance to God’s call to action, I recall the many times in my life when I knew that God was calling me to do something that I really didn’t want to do. Sometimes that reluctance was out of dread or fear or simply my own innate stubbornness. Although thankfully spared a time in the belly of a great fish…. I have spent many dark times working though the whys and hows of my reluctant answers to God’s calls to me. Often the reasons for those whys were not to be revealed for many years.
My prayers and actions in answering those calls from God may never have changed a community, but they truly brought about changes in my life and often the lives of those I love. Knowing that Jesus was with me throughout those dark times was not only comforting but also empowering me. The one who is always with us who is indeed greater than Jonah made all the difference in my life.
In the verses of Luke Chapter 11 which precede today’s Lenten Gospel reading, the apostles ask Jesus to teach them to pray. His gift to them and to each of us in the form we call The Lord’s Prayer is both a blessing and a command. As we offer that well known prayer, one of our asks is that God forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us – sometimes a difficult call to answer. Although the people of Nineveh must have felt they were living in dystopic times in which forgiveness was not possible, when Jonah told them God’s call to them, they answered and they were forgiven.
Jesus, the one who is greater than Jonah is here and freely gives his love and forgiveness. As we walk with him to Jerusalem, to the garden, to the cross, and to the resurrection, his unfailing love and gift of forgiveness should calm our fears and help us to know that amid the whys and hows of our lives, he is always with us.
Over the past few days several women of the parish gathered for reflection and sharing in retreat.
One focus of that time in community was pondering the work of the contemporary Irish theologian and poet, Padraig O’Tuama. As together we continue our individual and collective observance of the forty days, I hope O’Tuama’s prayer which follows may be helpful. During these sometimes seemingly dystopic times it is of comfort to hold fast to God’s love and forgiveness as together we seek community in strange and surprising places.
Jesus, water of life
You are our well and our welcome
And in conversation
-us with you and you with us-
we find the poetry of our lives.
May we search for this same conversation
Between divided peoples.
May we bring our
stories and our sadness
our laments and our lives
to each other
in this shared place.
And so find community
In strange and surprising places.
Amen.
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