Indexed by Date. Sermons for Epiphany Year B

January 5, 2003

Isaiah 60: 1-6
Psalm 72: 1-7, 10-14
Ephesians 3: 1-12
Matthew 2 1-12

By Another Route

I set out to go to a meeting of Truro Presbytery just after lunch one bright spring afternoon. The meeting was being held in a place I had never been and had no idea where it really was, or how far, so once I left familiar territory I relied on the directions given by the presbytery secretary. However, in my haste to arrive, I misread the directions and when I realized what I had done, I had to turn around and race back in the direction I had come. That mistake put me over an hour behind schedule. I knew that I should have asked for directions. In fact I had the opportunity at a gas station located at the very intersection where I should have turned off. There was supposed to be a sign, but it had been knocked down by a snowplow and the Nova Scotia Highways department had not replaced it. In addition, my travelling companion had difficulty reading the map; I'm not sure if it was her bifocals, or the condition of the road, or my speed, or a combination of all three which made it difficult for her to tell me where to turn. Then again, if you have ever tried to make time AND have someone wearing bifocals read a map, in the Rawdon Hills (an area of Nova Scotia) you will know what I mean. Needless to say when we left the meeting, we returned home by another route.

We have come to the end of our Christmas journey. For the services today, I have chosen the traditional Epiphany readings, as Epiphany is the last of the "12 days of Christmas". It is on this day that we hear the story of the visit of the strangers from the east, the "wise ones" who brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Tradition has it that there were three magi, but if you read the text again, you will notice that we are not told how many wise men there were, or what kind of animals they used for transportation, or from which country they had come, or even what their names were. They are referred to as "magi", who were not kings as some have assumed, but were of the Priestly class of Persia or Babylonian experts in the stars and the interpretation of dreams. They may well have been followers of the Zoroastrian religion. We must remember that Israel was a small weak nation, occupied by Rome but had been at the mercy of both Babylon and Persia in the past. They were, of course, Gentiles, non Jews! And we may wonder why these upper classes members of those great nations were interested in small and insignificant Israel and its new king? They remain a mystery. Henry Van Dyke, the American author and Presbyterian minister, in The Story of the Other Wise Man, speculated that there was another one who missed his companions at the rendevous point and spent the rest of his life looking for Jesus. It is as much a commentary on the life of Christian discipleship as it is a story of "a Wise Man" , but it does show that this short section of the scripture has the power to grip our imaginations and draw us into speculation about who they really were, what this star was and what happened after they returned to their own country.

In this story these mysterious visitors become ‘representative Gentiles', and in a sense they pave the way for the great commission which ends Matthew's gospel, which is to make ‘disciples of all nations'. One of the great dilemmas of the early church was whether or not one had to be or become Jewish before one could become Christian. These mysterious visitors were clearly NOT Jewish, yet they were the recipients of this great revelation, and entrusted with this great mission. In the visit of these Magi, barriers that divided races one from the other were being broken down. In the Magi the light of Christ was being taken to all the corners of the earth. In the Magi the "hopes and fears" of all the years, of all the nations, were being met by the grace and love of a God who knew no barriers and had no limits. This was not merely the God of Israel anymore; in Christ this God was the God of the world. In Christ this God's love was extended, with open arms, to all the nations of the world.

Like Christmas, the celebration of Epiphany comes at a time when the world is still in physical darkness. The days, while becoming longer, are still short, and the nights long and dark. The truth of God, as revealed in Jesus, is depicted in terms of light. It is light that is needed in a dark world. It this light of God in Christ that draws all of the nations to it. It is this light that offers hope and warmth and salvation.

Yet, in this story there is at least one who does not want the light to be seen, does not want the light to spread; there is one who loves the darkness. We can easily understand why Herod  would be very worried about a new ‘King of the Jews' when he was sitting on the Royal Throne. He needed to protect his power. He had already shown that he was quite capable of acts of vicious cruelty against his own people to curry the favour of Rome and keep his throne. His vested interests were at stake; he did not want any rivals, so he acted with all the means at his disposal to eradicate the country of this threat. We will remember that Matthew also tells us the "rest of the story". Herod ordered all of the boys under two to be slaughtered. We also know that Mary, Joseph and Jesus escaped to Egypt. So we are left with the question of relevance. What does this story have to do with Christian faith in 2003, in the dead of winter, when among our major concerns are, ‘will the roads be safe?', ‘will we have storm day?' and ‘how much furnace oil is in the tank?"

The story of the magi calls us to reflect on the nature of power. Herod had a great deal of power, but it is clear that his use of power was far from God's intention. The possibility that there would be ‘another' king of the Jews caused him to react with fear and in self preservation. It is not so different today. Many people in power around the world do terrible things in order to keep their power. The light of truth seems to make them react with even more violence as they try to hold onto what they have named as their own. However, even though we are not rulers of nations or kings or dictators we too can fall into this trap. This passage calls us to ask some serious questions about our own reaction to the truth of the gospel. We don't have to be people of power and influence and means to see the power of Christ as a challenge to our own. Perhaps it is not our ‘power' as much as it is our goals and our priorities. In accepting the Christian message we are called to worship God alone. This is a worship of our whole lives, not just parking our bodies in a church pew for an hour on a Sunday. We are called to live our worship with all that we say and do. Like the Magi, we are called to venture forth with all that we have and are and seek the ‘Christ Child' wherever that journey takes us.

Of course, for most of us, it is not a journey to a far country. It is not a journey to change vocations or to move to a foreign country, but to live the gospel as fully as we can where we are. All of us are called to place our trust in God and not in possessions or worldly power.

In my experience this is not usually a one- time giving over of things to God, or a one time stepping forward in faith, or a one time sacrifice, or a one time act of courage, but a life-long process of placing the things of faith ahead of personal ambitions and goals. It is a lifetime of consciously continuing the journey of seeking God's truth in Jesus. Just as the Magi's journey must have been a months or years long quest for truth, so our quest for the Christ child will take some time, some energy and some focus.

And, like the Magi we will receive the promise at the end of our journey. We will receive the promise of the presence of God. We will receive the promise that we have journeyed faithfully and well. We will receive the promise that by our lives we have touched others, the most of whom we will never know how.

Like the Magi we will receive grace and the opportunity to return home by another way, to go on other journeys and to spread the gospel to many people in many ways.

In this Epiphany season we are called to celebrate that God's light has come into a dark world. We are called to proclaim this Good News with all that we have and all that we are . This is a life long journey that will never end but one in which we will receive the sure promise of God's presence in the babe of Bethlehem, the Christ on the cross and the Spirit who will never leave us or forsake us.

We have a long journey ahead of us. Let us journey toward and with the light.

Amen.

January 12, 2003 Baptism of Jesus

Genesis 1: 1-5
Psalm 29
Acts 19: 1-7
Mark 1: 4-11

I was driving home from Moncton the other day and had my cruise control set at a hair or two above the speed limit as I didn't want to be stopped for speeding and be given a ticket. A car appeared behind me, almost out of nowhere and was obviously just itching to pass. When the opportunity came, it did just that. Obviously that driver was not worried enough about a ticket to slow down.

We live in a fast paced and instant culture. Today's state of the art in computers is destined to become obsolete almost overnight, not because they don't last, but because the new ones are faster and more powerful and all of the software and the web-sites are designed for the state of the art. I guess that we can't possibly be expected to wait a whole minute or even two when we can have it in 30 seconds! On the highway, speed limits are back up to where they were before the energy crisis of the 1970s, and fast-food restaurants are thriving. The variety of already prepared foods in the grocery stores is astounding. Not only can you buy a hot cooked chicken or rack of ribs but the lettuce for the salad is pre-washed, precut, and the properly measured amount of dressing and croutons is also included. Not only is this food purchased for a picnic, or other special event, but has become, for many, everyday fare. We don't have time, we need it yesterday!

In today's gospel lesson we find the prophet John the Baptizer, preaching to the people that they must repent and be baptized because a "great one" from God is coming soon. On this particular day though , something different happens. The story, as Mark tells it is simple and very straightforward. On this day John baptizes Jesus and his identity is affirmed as God's Son." You may be wondering if I have left out something from the story, but it is the gospel of Matthew which tells us that John, at first, objected, feeling unworthy to be baptizing the one whose coming he was proclaiming but, for some reason, Mark does not tell us this.

Yet, John was only verbalizing what generations of Christians have asked: "Why would Jesus need to receive a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, being God's perfect Son who was without sin?" Of what did he need to repent?

One of the first hymns I ever learned was "Away in A Manger". Like other so- called ‘Children's Hymns" it was supposed to not only teach the Christmas story, but also tell me about God's love in Jesus. The hymn was easy to learn and usually given to the nursery class to sing at the "White Gift" service. When we sang it as a group of four year olds everyone smiled.

Yet it, and the theology behind it, presents us with a picture of Jesus that is neither entirely believable nor accurate. Of course, I am speaking specifically about the verse,

"The cattle are lowing, 
the baby awakes, 
but little Lord Jesus, 
no crying he makes". 

It seemed somehow, that the picture of baby Jesus crying when startled was, for some reason, an inappropriate action for the Son of God. Coupled with this was the notion, not supported by the Bible ,that Jesus was ALWAYS good, was ALWAYS the extremely perfect child; after all, what would you expect of the Son of God? It seemed that the adults who wrote all of the children's Bible stories had to emphasize how much UNLIKE us Jesus was. It was supposed to make us better, more well behaved children. Of course this is followed by a picture of the adult Jesus being gentle, meek and mild and NEVER ever being angry or ruffling anyone's feathers. Such stories were designed to make us better adults.

Yet, it is much more compelling for me if Jesus was just like any normal human child; keeping his mother up because of teething, or nightmares, or spilling his goats milk on the floor when Mary made him eat his vegetables. It would seem to me that someone who had shared all of our growing up struggles and had still developed a close relationship with God, and a growing knowledge that he was indeed God's special child, would be much more convincing a leader and teacher than someone who had never gone through any of that. Similarly, the adult Jesus who struggled with even some of the things with which we struggle would inspire me to follow more easily than a perfect person untouched by sin or temptation. Indeed, we are forgetting large parts of the biblical story if we see Jesus in ONLY this perfect and non-human way. We all know that Jesus showed his human side when he wept at Lazarus' tomb and when he drove the money changers from the temple in anger. We know of his frustration with the disciples who could not even stay awake with him in his hour of need as the crucifixion drew ever nearer. When we pay more attention to these stories we see his very human side, his human struggles, and WE ALSO SEE the ways in which he relied on God and the power of God to give him the strength and the courage to fulfill his calling.

We know very little of Jesus before he showed up at the Jordan that day and was affirmed by the heavenly voice, but we do know a great deal about what happened afterward. Jesus' baptism was the starting point of his public ministry, a ministry which ended with the most public and painful of deaths, that of a criminal's execution by crucifixion.

It seems to me that his baptism was a very important part of his becoming a teacher and leader. It was an important part of the journey of realizing that he was not only the Son of God, but that he also had a ministry to fulfil. Immediately after the baptism he spent time in the wilderness struggling with what form his ministry would take. We know what he decided; that he would follow his call to preach the good news even if it brought him into conflict with the vested interests of the people in power, even if it meant that he risked the fate of many prophets before him, even if he lost face with friends or family.

Jesus' baptism was part of the way in which Jesus had chosen to answer God's call to him, identifying fully with the human condition into which he had been born. It also was one of the events into which the presence of God came to him in such a way that he was unmistakably affirmed by God as both loved and his son!

What then does this have to do with us? Baptism IS the means and sign of entry into the Christian church. When we have a baptism NOTE TO MY INTERNET READERS: Three of the churches I serve do not have a baptismal font, instead they each have a silver bowl used for baptism but kept wrapped up in a box when not in use , we gather around the baptismal font, or baptismal bowl, at the front of our church, emphasizing its central importance in this community of faith; in other church the font is situated near the entrance, emphasizing that it is the sign of entry into the community of faith. The candidates, or the parents of the babies and the whole community both make a profession of faith and the promises made by the candidate for baptism or the baby's parents centre on the life of faith. There are statements about putting the old ways behind and focussing on the way of Christ, but the direction of baptism is definitely one of ‘looking forward' to the life of faith. While baptism is, in our tradition, a one time occurrence, it is not the end of a journey. When we come to be baptized we have, in fact, arrived at the beginning of a journey. Baptism is not something that is ‘done' to a baby and then checked off of a list and never thought about again such as the three month inoculations. Baptism is not an instant meal or a quick and instant fix to the problem of sin, either in the world, or in our own lives, but baptism is a sign that we have signed up to FOLLOW Jesus of Nazareth and allow his life to guide ours.

Water is a symbol of both life and of death. In baptism we DIE to our old self and RISE to new life in Christ. Our ‘going under' the water, if even only symbolically, shows that we will live this new life in Christ from the moment of our baptism on. When I preside at the font of baptism I ask you, the congregation, to make promises of support and nurture. More than one culture has the saying, ‘it takes a community to raise a child' and that is certainly true in the Christian church. Raising Christians is not something done behind the closed doors of either the church or the home, and kept there but done so that the gospel may be proclaimed by word and deed within the wider community.

That's the catch! Baptism is not just about personal salvation. Baptism is not just about personal and private beliefs. Baptism is about life and how the life of faith is lived every day.

Jesus lived a life of great risk as he went forward proclaiming the good news of God's love and God's call. While we are not called to walk in his footsteps so that we can do exactly what he did, we are called to walk in his footsteps so that we can live our lives in his way, so that we can live the lives to which God has called us, no matter what specific path that may be for us.

For as brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all affirmed as God's beloved children, we are all called to follow in the way of Jesus. No matter whether the way is hard or easy we are assured that God will be with us to strengthen, guide and show love to us.

For this we can say, "Thanks be to God."

Amen.

January 19, 2003

1 Samuel 3: 1-10
Psalm 139
1 Corinthians 6: 12-20
John 1: 43-51

Learning to Listen

I wonder! I wonder why it is that one person's noise is another's music? Why does my sister hate, no, loathe would be a better word, the CBC while I have a strong dislike for most of the so called "popular' radio stations?

I wonder why some can go to the symphony or the opera and be totally transfixed while others are clearly bored to tears and beyond?

Why is it that in a room full of babies, a mother knows her own baby's cry and all the father knows is that "someone's baby is crying!"?

Why is it that one person can see reports of starving children and immediately feel compelled to DO something while another person sees and hears the same newscast and feels little, if any, real compulsion to respond?

In addition, I wonder why each of you will take away something different from this sermon and perhaps not one of you will take away what I originally intended to give you?

I wonder?

Many parents believe that their teen and pre- teen children must have selective hearing. When the parent calls out, "Time to set the table," the child cannot hear, yet when the parent calls "anyone want to go out for Chinese food?", that same child is at the door, with boots and coat on, in a flash!

Today's passage from the book of Samuel challenges us to reflect on the act of listening: both what it is that helps us to listen, and what we hear when we do listen.

First, a little background would be helpful. The boy, Samuel was the "miracle baby" of Hannah and her husband Elkanah. They had been married for many years but remained childless. Each year when they went to the place of worship, then at Shiloh, she prayed fervently for a child. One year she made a vow that the life of her child, if she was so blessed, would be dedicated to God's service. She was observed at prayer by the aged priest Eli and, to make a long story short, he promised her that God would bless her with a child. In due time a child was born and they named him Samuel. When he was about 2 she took him and left him at the temple, with the ageing Eli. We are told that she visited him once a year and brought him a new robe.

It wasn't like Eli had no one to help him; he had 2 sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who were, of course, priests. They were certainly not any credit to their profession, however. They took by coercion the best of the sacrifices for themselves and forced themselves on the women who served at the entrance to the temple. Clearly, they were abusing the power and privilege of their call, causing hardship among the people and discrediting the worship of the Holy God. Eli had made only weak efforts to stop them. In the arrival of Samuel, the stage has been set for a change. The holy God will not tolerate this kind of behaviour, especially when it is done in his name and by his servants.

With a few opening phrases and images the passage read today tells us that the situation was grave: that "visions were not widespread". A people whose leaders were once open to the ways of this dynamic God were deprived of this leadership, this guidance. The spiritual leaders had ceased hearing and seeing how the call of God impacted upon their daily lives and the lives of the people. Day led into day and the people did not see or hear any message from the Holy One.

However, the passage gives us a glimmer of hope, if we are able to see it! We are told that "the lamp of God had not yet gone out!" On one level, this likely referred to an actual lamp which burned at night in the place which housed the sacred Ark of the Covenant. Yet, on another level, the reader is given the assurance that someone, somewhere, is still able to see and to hear the word of God. That someone turns out to be the boy Samuel. In the middle of the night Samuel heard God calling to him. "Samuel, Samuel"

Now Samuel was all wrong for the job. In the days when tribe and family governed vocation, he did not belong to the right family. In a day when age was revered, he was a mere child. Yet, here we have it, the Holy God, came to Samuel and gave him a message of great importance for the people.

I am not sure if it is the truth, or the Kent County equivalent of an ‘urban legend', but one day a message was sitting on the kitchen table in a local home. The message was that "Omar Deware" had called! When the accompanying number was dialled, the voice on the other end of the line answered, "Home Hardware, may I help you". Sometimes, those unfamiliar with the Acadian accent need help to discern what is really being said! In order to even begin to hear the voice of God Samuel needed help. To be fair, the doors were locked and Samuel and Eli were alone in the building. When Samuel heard his name being called, of course, he responded, "Yes Eli, what do you want?"

I suppose that at first Eli just assumed the boy had heard the wind whistling through the drafty building, and the second time, it may have been a small animal, but the third time he realized that it was the voice of God and he told Samuel how to respond.

Imagine what was going through Eli's mind as he realized that God was calling Samuel and not him. You see, God was supposed to talk to ELI, the priest. Samuel was just a boy. Samuel was just a boy, but he was given a message that was not good news for Eli nor his sons! Imagine his anxiety as Samuel struggled with the answer to Eli's inevitable question, "What did God say, Samuel"?

So what does this say to us, here in the deep freeze of a Canadian winter, when the only sound we want to hear in the middle of the night is the sound of the furnace keeping the cold at bay?

The FIRST thing I see in this passage is that we must avoid the notion that God speaks to some people and not to others. If Eli had assumed that Samuel could not possibly be hearing the voce of God then Samuel may have missed the message. If Samuel had assumed that he was too young, or not from the right family, and thus could not be hearing the word of God, he may not have trusted Eli's instruction and gone back to sleep.

All through the scriptures we find stories of God's call being extended to the most unlikely people. Moses was a sheepherder, a fugitive from justice. The twelve disciples were all most unlikely candidates for a position as ‘follower of the Messiah'. Saul was a persecutor of the church before he was knocked off his horse and became Paul, the apostle. The history of the church is full of the stories of these unlikely people. Who is the last person you think God would be calling? Think again, God just may be doing so! To stand in the way of the call of God is to stand in the way of the will of God.

Yet the SECOND thing I see in this passage is that this God is a persistent God. Despite what I have already said about teh danger of Samuel missing the opportunity to hear God's call, we also read that God kept at it until Samuel figured it out. It is the same today. God seeks us out, time and time again. God tries different ways to ‘get to us', to express love to us, to show us care and compassion and never ending presence. I know someone who is now an ordained minister. He told me that he had felt the call at a much younger age but that his parents had told him that this was not a suitable occupation. His responsibility was to provide a good living for his wife and children and the Christian ministry was not the kind of occupation which would provide this living. Eventually though, with the full support of his wife, he began the discernment process, enrolled in theological college, and was duly ordained. And as the icing on the cake, his parents once very opposed to this career change, became very supportive of him and his call. He feels very fulfilled in his ministry and doesn't worry about the money he is not making.

Of course, not everyone is called to be a professional minister. All are called to be the best we can be, to be open to the holy, to do what we do as servants of Jesus, the Christ, whether that be in talking to friends or teaching a Sunday school class, in taking part in committee work in church and community. All of these and more are areas of work to which we can feel called.

THIRD, in this passage we also notice that the one hearing needs to be guided by those who have heard in the past, the one hearing needs to be guided by the wider community of faith. The wisdom and spiritual strength of the community of faith needs to be shared if it is to be both passed on to others and to grow.

The ones who have not heard need the help of those who know what to listen for; the ones who have heard, need the help of others to clarify the call and its response. Just as the experienced mechanic teaches the apprentice what certain sounds coming from an engine mean, so those attuned to the voice of God need to guide others. Lest we assume that it is a case of the older guiding the younger, it is not a factor of age, but a sharing of wisdom, experience and an openness to the holy. One day a young mother heard her four year old talking to the new baby. The four year old was bending down over the basinet and whispering, "Remind me Baby, what God is like, I am starting to forget".

We are all called to be part of a community which receives and helps interpret the call of God and to respond in loving word and action. WE are ALL called. Let us respond in faith.

Amen.

January 26, 2003

Jonah 3: 1-5, 10
Psalm 62: 5-12
1 Corinthians 7: 29-31
Mark 1: 14-20

Remember Maud? It was that crazy 1970's tv show in which the lead character "Maud", played by Bea Arthur, was always shaking her finger at her husband "Stanley", and admonishing him, "God will get you for that Stanley!" The audience was always left wondering, "Does she really mean it?"

As biblical books go, the book of Jonah is a strange one indeed! It includes very little prophecy and a whole lot of story, but none of the story is particularly complimentary of Jonah. Jonah was not a nice person. In fact, most of the time he acted more like a spoiled child than a grown up prophet.

Since you have heard only a small portion of the story read this morning (today), I will give you a quick overview of the entire book. The book begins by introducing Jonah and telling us who his father was. We are then informed that Jonah had been called by God to preach a message of impending destruction to the Assyrian city of Nineveh. Without going a into long involved historical and political explanation of the complex relationships between Israel and Nineveh, it is enough to know that by the time of Jonah they had been enemies for many years.

Jonah refused to go to Nineveh. Why? You might think that he would have loved to tell them that "God was going to get them for that". You might think that he would have loved to sit on a far away hilltop and revel in the destruction of the enemy. But, Jonah knew something about the power of God's word. He knew that if preached a message of impending doom, the people of Nineveh would probably repent and he also knew that when they had repented, God would change his mind and call off the planned destruction. Deep in his heart he knew that this was what God wanted in the first place, the repentance of the people of Nineveh!

So, like a child trying to avoid doing his or her chores, Jonah ran the other way. He booked passage on a ship and then went to sleep. Running from God was hard work! God was persistent, however, and pursued Jonah. A storm came up and the sailors, who were from various places, did what is natural during a storm at sea; each one prayed to his own God, "Save us". Yet, nothing worked. If anything, the storm became worse. When, they discovered that Jonah was asleep and not praying, they became angry, and demanded that he awaken and pray to his God. They soon began to suspect that Jonah's God might be the god responsible for the storm. Then, when they discovered that Jonah's disobedience was indeed responsible for the storm, he himself suggested that they could save their own necks by throwing him overboard.

These pagan foreigners show great reluctance to kill Jonah for their own gods also had punishments for murder. They tried even harder to bring the boat to land. Finally, in sheer desperation, they did throw him overboard, all the while praying to Jonah's God not to be angry with them. Almost immediately, the storm stopped and the sailors worship the God of Israel. Ironically, without event trying, this reluctant prophet had made his first converts.

Jonah, meanwhile, sank below the surface of the waters. Instead of drowning, however, he was ‘saved' not by a whale, as most people think, but by a large fish, and he stayed there for three days and three nights, thinking. He was then spewed out upon dry land.

The call to go to Nineveh and preach the message of destruction came to Jonah a second time. This time Jonah went. We are not certain, but it seems that since it took him three days to preach his message, he was still not very enthusiastic. There is no other way it could have taken him as long to walk through across that city. His sermon is probably the shortest sermon ever preached. In its English translation at least, it is only eight words long: "Forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown". There was no hope. There was no ‘because'. There was no ‘thus says the Lord, the God of Israel'. There were no illustrations. There was no humour. There was no structure. Indeed, I am sure that I would have received an "F" for this sermon in any preaching course. There was nothing other than the prophecy of certain doom.

Yet, it may also be one of the most effective sermons ever preached. Instead of seeing this as ‘a fait de complit', however, the people of Nineveh, led by their king, took it as the prophecy it is meant to be, and showed signs of sincere repentance. We are told that even the animals fasted and covered themselves with sackcloth! That would be quite a sight! Of course it is simply a hyperbole to show how complete was the repentance of the people.

Then, the Bible records, "When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity. that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it."

Jonah's preaching had worked. With any other prophet, we would expect a celebration, but we have already learned that Jonah was not like any other prophet. The next scene of this great drama found him sulking in the hot sun and wishing for a rapid death. He might have been thinking, thoughts such as, "If God spared even the enemy what use was living. If the God of Israel loved even the people of Nineveh what good was there in being one of the ‘chosen ones'?" At God's command a bush grew to protect him from the sun's rays and Jonah liked the bush. At dawn though, a worm came and ate the roots, and the bush died. The death of the bush caused Jonah to be angry once again and the hot winds also caused him to once again wish for death.

God then expressed his amazement. Why was it, God wondered, that Jonah seemed more concerned about the bush, something he neither planted nor tended, something that was ONLY a plant, than he was for the lives of the over 120,000 human inhabitants and many animals living in Nineveh. It made no sense. Jonah had completely missed the point of the prophetic task. Jonah missed the point of the message itself. So, we leave a sunburned Jonah sulking under the withered bush and we are unsure whether he will ever repent or not.

As I have already said, this is a very perplexing book. To be perfectly honest, it is a ridiculous story: the tale of a reluctant prophet who sulks at his success, with a great big fish story thrown in to complicate things. In fact the story means exactly the same thing without the fish or the worm or the tree. They just add emphasis and drama. God was really determined to have the prophetic message proclaimed!

It is very hard to ‘ get inside Jonah's head'. WHY would a prophet sulk at the salvation of an entire city, especially when the repentance that allowed for the salvation, came as a result of his own preaching? WHY? Well, the people of Israel would not have had to have any of this explained. The book of Jonah is in the Bible because the people of Israel were, from time to time, guilty of Jonah's reluctance and Jonah's mind-set. In this book, the reluctant prophet Jonah functioned as a metaphor for the entire nation. At many times in their history, like Jonah, they wanted to see God punish their enemies. Like this Jonah, they wanted them to get what was coming to them, EVEN IF these enemies had come to worship Israel's God. Like Jonah, they wanted to prosper and see the others suffer. At many points in their conflicted history, like Jonah, they could not believe that their God could possibly love their enemies. Like Jonah, they wanted to be the chosen people but they did not want to accept the other part of that promise: that they were chosen to be a ‘light to the nations'. Like Jonah, many in the nation felt that nothing good could possibly come from any place other than Israel, especially Assyria!

The book of Jonah would be calling them to a different mind-set. The book of Jonah sought to challenge the idea that the God of Israel was "on their side" and not on the side of anyone else!

We too can be a lot like Jonah. We too can get our noses out of joint when we see good things happening to others, especially when we think that they don't deserve it! We too can become upset when we see that someone else doesn't get what is ‘coming to them'. We may think that others deserve to be punished while we look at ourselves and defend ourselves saying that "our" sins, if we have any, are not nearly as bad as "theirs". The book of Jonah is a call to us to a new mind set, a new point of view. This point of view allows for a God who wishes good for all people. This God wishes that all people will embrace life and truth. This God is more concerned with grace than with making sure people ‘get what is coming to them.'. If that puts our nose out of joint, then that's our problem, God's not going to stop loving and forgiving just because we can't handle it!

It is very poignant, given the current international political situation, that the ancient city of Nineveh is within the modern day country of Iraq. We know that at least one nation in the world is bound and determined that their leader, Saddam Hussein, should get ‘what is coming to him', with our without UN backing. Yet many commentators have suggested that this political stance has more to do with oil with the failure of the administration of George W's father, George Bush Sr., to truly win the "Gulf War" 12 years ago, than it does with any stated goals of fighting terrorism or of freeing Iraq of a truly cruel leader! Like Jonah, George W seems to think that God is on his side, but like Jonah, he may be in for a surprise.

Many Canadian and world churches have gone on record as opposing the current push for war. They seek to have the war mongers take seriously the many innocent lives which will be lost and the long tern devastation that will be caused by even the swiftest of victories. It is hard to talk about repentance when the people of Iraq are as much a victim of Saddam as they will become victims of any war that occurs.

Jonah had to find a new way to think about sin and grace and punishment. The people of ancient Israel had to find a new way to relate to God as the people chosen to be a light to the nations. It's not about who wins, its about God's will being done. God's will is life and liberty and true justice and fulness of life and the health and well being of all creation.

The book of Jonah challenges the attitude that "God is on OUR side" and instead asks us the question,. "Are we on God's side?"

Amen!