Thursday, October 16, 2014

Thursday, October 16 2014 

Jonah 3.1 to 4. 11

How often do we unconsciously make a judgement about others and their behaviour without stopping to think about the cultural situation or environment that they have grown up with, which may have shaped their outlook, and that if new circumstances were presented to them, that they might respond differently? What would our response be then: would we change our attitude or would we still hold to it?  

This story of Jonah could really be about the story of many of us! Jonah, initially reluctant to even go into Nineveh and convey a message from God to the people there  that they could turn from their present course and sense a God who loved them, and then when they did, Jonah the messenger had a problem in accepting that this turnabout of the people was for real and so he sulked, seeking shelter  under a rapidly growing bush (usually identified as the castor oil plant) . But then this bush from God withers and Jonah comes to see that the bush refers  to the people of Ninevah who had existed  for a while without God, but then with the withering of the bush,  (the condition of their  isolation from God), they find themselves in a new reality as part of the family of God. This story is also of Jonah's struggle to accept this action and truth of God.  Perhaps  we too need at times to stop and think about whether we are part of the problem and really need to change  and get onboard as part of the solution, in God's hope for us all.

Archdeacon Ken Cardwell