ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
May 19, 2023
Yesterday, in my Thursday study based on the book entitled “Bible Stories for Grown-ups,” we focused on the Book of Jonah. In Jonah 4:1-3, we read:
But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.’
Jonah is very angry that God showed mercy and kindness to the people of Nineveh, for Jonah’s worldview excluded ‘those people’ from God’s love and mercy. No matter what, Jonah believed they were beyond redemption. Even after he described God as gracious, merciful, and abounding in steadfast love, he still didn’t want God to show mercy in response to the Ninevites repenting (saying they were sorry). There is such a disconnect for Jonah—a disconnect that I see a lot these days. Especially when our starting point is Jesus, the notion of love is not conditional or only relentless if you fit a certain category or recite a certain prayer or wear a certain outfit. If God’s love can be limited by some of the choices we make, then is it really love—the perfect love associated with God/Jesus/Holy Spirit? The moment we start placing conditions on God’s love is the moment we move closer to ‘conditioning’ ourselves outside of God’s love. Each time we draw the circle of divine welcome smaller, we find ourselves closer and closer to the edge—a place where peace is not found, only anxiousness and fear. As I read the Jesus story, he continued to erase the lines religion and political systems were always drawing to exclude and marginalize. The unconditional and limitless love of God provides a joyous peace that is very freeing but often leads a person to want others to experience such love as well.
Fear draws a smaller circle, while your love, O Liberating Lord, is always stretching the circles in such a way that everyone is in. What joyous news for my soul, for in spite of my shortcomings and major mistakes, your love welcomes me fully. Thank you! Amen.
