Tuesday, May 22, 2007

We Want The Way Easy

"Arm-plug" by Philip Straub


We live in an "instant" culture where everything is expected to be easy, fast, and convenient. The more we have the more we expect. In a never ending cycle we are over-stimulated and over-whelmed with facts figures and fantasies. A teacher of mine, the late Rabbi Edwin Friedman, used to say that in the late 20th century, "Data was a form of substance abuse."


What does this have to do with Jonah? The part of the story that everyone remembers is that Jonah is swallowed by a fish/whale. Why? Why did God do this? Why three days? Someone has said that the smelly interior of the fish was Jonah's "timeout room". Time out -- a place to pull yourself together and prepare to take your act on the road. If you never knew that you had a problem (namely yourself) repentance and amendment of life couldn't take place. It is only when Jonah is up to his neck in seaweed and fish juice that he "gets it".


God created human beings radically free. He wants us to mature. Maturity comes by facing challenge not by plugging into some instant relief. So life is a laboratory and we do not have to get it right every time but we do have to keep trying. As the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous puts it, "it's about progress not perfection". We will not get it right every time but how quickly can we recover and continue on the way. Such leads to maturity if we are willing to learn from our experience. Such learning can lead to wisdom.





Nuke'em God

"Reckoning Day" Philip Straub

Jonah didn't want Nineveh to repent. In fact he wanted God to destroy the place and indeed the Assyrians had it coming. When he finally arrived on God's errand to preach destruction to the capital of the Assyrian Empire he went a day's journey into the city saying, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" I assume that he retreated in like fashion thus spending two days gleefully (I suspect) breaking the good news to the Assyrians. On every corner he memorized the buildings imagining their condition in just over a month. Just how God would accomplish this destruction had not been revealed but fire would be good. Imaging the palaces, temples and grand homes in flames with the very people responsible for the torching of countless homes and cities in the Ancient Near East fleeing in panic was delicious. But it all was not to be.

Those guilty as sin Assyrians repented, would you believe it? They escaped like cockroaches under a door. For the first time in record a prophet of YHWH was totally successful and Jonah was not pleased with with his sucess. He would have been much happier with Nineveh being Nuked. Fortunately, the God of Israel is not like Jonah.


Medieval Exegesis

Saint Thomas Aquinas

Scholars of the Middle Ages saw Scripture in a four layered interpretation. The four senses of scripture it is sometimes called. Saint Thomas developed this way of interpretation to a high art. Of late I find that I am going back to the Church Fathers to learn how they handled scripture. Why? Because I find the two extremes in the Church at present to be unsatisfying and frankly barren. Jonah is a good example. A good literalist would bog down in a discussion as to the type of whale that could have swallowed Jonah (the text clearly has it as a great fish) with speculation of how one could live in the innards of a sea creature and so forth. On the other end the historical critical method would simply say that the entire book had no historical basis and could safely be dismissed as irrelevant. A pox on both their schools.

Check the link above for an excellent short presentation on another way of looking at, learning from and taking nourishment thereof the Holy Scripture. JWS

Thursday, May 17, 2007

The Prophet Ynus

Mosque of the Prophet Jonah -- Al Mawsil, Iraq


Jonah is found not only in the Bible but also in the Koran. It is interesting to compare. Check this link to a Muslim education site that tells the story of the prophet Ynus (as Jonah is known in Arabic).

The three religions of the book who mark Abraham as their spiritual father and remember the same stories as instructional must now graple with what that means. This is not new territory for Christians and Jews. In America we have lived together for a very long time. The history of the two is not one to be proud. Christians have behaved badly. Now the third point makes a triangle. This is a new experience for Christians to relate to Muslims at least in Memphis. There is a lot of ignorance to go around. We do have some stories in common. That is a place to start. It does not mean that the faiths are interchangeable. They are not, anymore than Judaism is with Christianity.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Table Fellowship

Icon of Jonah Story


Jonah is one of the stories that Judaism, Christianity and Islam have in common. I found a fascinating conversation about Jonah in the three traditions. Check it out. It is a bit dense but is a good example of table conversation and study which is a great tradition common to all three religions of the book.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Saint Isaac of Nineveh

Icon of Saint Isaac of Nineveh



Words & Prayers of St. Isaac the Syrian, Bishop of Nineveh

Let yourself be persecuted, but do not persecute others. Be crucified, but do not crucify others. Be slandered, but do not slander others. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep: such is the sign of purity. Suffer with the sick. Be afflicted with sinners. Exult with those who repent. Be the friend of all, but in your spirit remain alone. Be a partaker of the sufferings of all, but keep your body distant from all. Rebuke no one, revile no one, not even those who live very wickedly. Spread your cloak over those who fall into sin, each and every one, and shield them. And if you cannot take the fault on yourself and accept punishment in their place, do not destroy their character.



What is a merciful heart? It is a heart on fire for the whole of creation, for humanity, for the birds, for the animals, for demons, and for all that exists. By the recollection of them the eyes of a merciful person pour forth tears in abundance. By the strong and vehement mercy that grips such a person’s heart, and by such great compassion, the heart is humbled and one cannot bear to hear or to see any injury or slight sorrow in any in creation. For this reason, such a person offers up tearful prayer continually even for irrational beasts, for the enemies of the truth, and for those who harm her or him, that they be protected and receive mercy. And in like manner such a person prays for the family of reptiles because of the great compassion that burns with without measure in a heart that is in the likeness of God.



The person who is genuinely charitable not only gives charity out of his own possessions, but gladly tolerates injustice from others and forgives them. Whoever lays down his soul for his brother acts generously, rather than the person who demonstrates his generosity by his gifts.

God is not One who requites evil, but who sets evil right. Paradise is the love of God, wherein is the enjoyment of all blessedness. The person who lives in love reaps the fruit of life from God, and while yet in this world, even now breathes the air of the resurrection.

In love did God bring the world into existence; in love is God going to bring it to that wondrous transformed state, and in love will the world be swallowed up in the great mystery of the One who has performed all these things; in love will the whole course of the governance of creation be finally comprised.
Saint Isaac was an Assyrian Christian who died around the year 700 AD. He is remembered best for his writing which is characterized by a sweetness of spirit and extravagant scope for the love required of a Christian. You will note in the text above that even the demons are not exempt from Isaac's concern. He seems to have caught the "mercy bug" from the encounter between YHWH and his bitter prophet Jonah a thousand years earlier near the city where he was bishop for five months. JWS

Friday, May 11, 2007

Jonah, Part 3

"Jonah Reclining beneath the Goard Vine" from the Jonah Marbles
Cleveland Museum of Art



By John Piper December 13, 1998


Hosea's father let the boy
Return to Jonah's place. The joy
The lad brought home was so much more
Than he had ever shown before,
His father felt he couldn't hold
Him back. It's good to be consoled,
He thought, by what the prophet speaks,
Since it had only been six weeks
Since Hoshee's mother left them for
Another man. The boy lay on the floor
Of their small house and wept for days,
And then would sit outside, and gaze
Across the Sea of Chinnereth
Into a sorrow worse than death.
That other man had traveled through
Gath-Hepher many times to do
His business on the coast, and then
Return to somewhere eastward, when
His work was done. And he would stay
The night just down the lane, and prey
On women with their water jars,
And leave behind him life-long scars.
And then one day his mom was gone.
A neighbor said, "To see the dawn
Of life and not the sunset of
A tanner's wife." Hosea's love
Was shattered into pieces now,
And Beeri hugged his son, somehow
If possible, to prove that he
Was loved with bonds of loyalty
Beyond his mother's wanderings.
For weeks, there were no common things
That held his interest. But then
He found his way, with older men,
To Jonah's garden on the hill.
And there he heard the stories fill
The prophet's mouth, and tasted grace
Again, and learned that on its face,
It may not be a lovely thing,
Or light, but may oblige the sting
Of death, but in the end is good,
And turns the tendrils into wood.
And if it must, will scorch with fire
The hateful part of our desire.

"You said, sir, that if I came back
Tonight, you'd take me from the shack
Near Joppa by the sea, and show
Me what God did to make you know
And love his ways. And so I'm back,
And I would love to trace the track
You followed from the fish's mouth
Near Joppa on the beach down south,
To Nineveh, and how you came
Back here a diff'rent man."

"The fame
That I will have, young man, in years
To come, will not be for my tears
Of sorrow over how much pain
It took to purge the ugly stain
Of hate out of my callous soul.
I am a different man. The bowl
Of wrath I would have poured on that
Great city, God did make a vat
Of boiling mercy for my sin,
And cast me into it. And in
That fierce and cleansing clemency,
At last, did make me feel and see
His ways, which are as high above
My own as is the flying dove
Above the crawling snake. But I,
Perhaps like Moses on Mount Nebo high,
Will be remembered for a slow
And stubborn heart, and I will go
Down into history still hard
And murmuring at grace, and marred
With bitterness, in spite of all
God's sweet affliction of my gall."

"What more affliction, Jonah, than
The belly of a fish? No man
Can live after he dies, can he,
And not be purified and free?
God saved you from the death of your
Defiance. Was it not the cure
Of your hostility?" "I said
Last night that, though I once was dead,
And then I lived again, one death
Was not enough. And though my breath,
And everything, was grace, my heart
Was like a stone in that one part
Where should have been a love for the
Assyrians. God had to be,
Therefore, my enemy again,
And war against my evil when
I got to Nineveh." "But why,
If you were bad, did you comply
When God said go? Was that not good?"
"Hosea, doing what you should
Is more than outward form. God sent
Me there to preach, and so I went,
Afraid, this time to run away.
But every time I said, 'The Day
Of God is near, repent,' I thought,
'Almighty God knows why he brought
Me here, and so do I. The Lord
Is slow to anger now. The sword
Will not be drawn. And he is full
Of steadfast love, and makes like wool
The scarlet sin of all he smites
With mercy, even of the Ninevites.'
And that is what he did." "You mean
That they repented, Jonah?" "Clean
From top to bottom: from the slave
Up to the king. They even gave
Their beasts no food, and everyone
Obeyed the king who said, 'Be done
With violence, and cry to God;
He may relent and spare his rod
Of wrath that we might live.'

"You know,
My son, he did just that. And so
The bowl of wrath that I held in
My heart, and ready to begin
The judgment, simmered there, unspent,
With rage that my God should repent,
And even turn on me." "How did
He turn on you?" "I left, and rid
Myself of every residue
Of dust, and waited there to view
From eastern hills what would befall
The city. There God made a tall
And leafy plant grow over me
To give me shade." "And you could see
It grow up in a day?" "It grew
Up in a single night." "Did you
Feel safe?" "About as safe as in
A ship upon a sea of sin,
And bound from Joppa to the west.
It was a poor and fleeting rest.
There are no giant fish outside
Of Nineveh to eat the pride
Of prophets in their ease, but there
Are worms and wind, and when and where
He please, God orders them and makes
Them do his bidding. If he takes
No pleasure in my callous mind
And heart, then there will be assigned
A worm, and so there was, to slay
The leafy plant and take away
My shade. And then he blasted me
With sultry wind until with three
Small words I cursed the brazen sky:
And spoke to heaven, 'Let me die!'
"And God said, 'Jonah, are you mad
About the plant? Do you feel bad
That it is dead? It came up in
A single night, in spite of sin.
You did not labor here, or make
It grow, nor was it for your sake.
But this great city that you hate,
This Nineveh, I did create,
And I have made it grow along
The Tigris River here, and strong,
To do what it was meant to do,
Before there ever was a Jew.
And should I not take pity now
On twelve ten thousands with a vow
To leave their sin, and trust in me?
And if you have no sympathy
For these, perhaps your feeling yields
To all the cattle in the fields.'"

"What happened then?" the boy inquired.
"I sat till forty days expired,
My testing in the wilderness.
And day by day I watched God bless
A pagan people by his grace.
And every day I touched my face,
And ran my finger on this scar
And felt with shameful fire: how far
I'd fallen from the mercy that
It meant.

And when the days were at
An end, I heard a mighty shout
From in the city gates, and out
They came, ten thousand with the blast
Of trumpets, dancing like a vast
And rolling sea, with branches in
Their hands, and singing how they'd been
Delivered from the wrath to come.
They sang with harp and lyre and drum,
'In darkness for a thousand years,
And slaves to violence and fears,
No hope beyond this world of tears,
And then a man of hope appears,
A prophet with a scar-drawn face
A sign of life, and proof of grace.'
They put me on a pallet high
And made procession with a cry:
'The God of Jonah is our God;
The God of Jonah spared the rod;
The God of Jonah rules the sky;
The God of Jonah heard our cry.'
They carried me before the king,
Who bowed to me and said, 'One thing
I wish to say before you leave.'
He lifted up his royal sleeve,
And with his hand he touched my face,
And said, 'I know the price of grace,
And what it cost for you to bring
Salvation to a foreign king.
And even though you may not yet
Love me, I ask that you would let
Me now give thanks for what you are.'
And then he stood, and kissed my scar.
That was the moment, son, when I
Became a different man."

The sky
Above Gath-Hepher now was spread
With stars, the boy had put his head
In Jonah's lap from weariness.
The prophet lay his hand to bless
The boy. "I'm not asleep," he said.
And when he lifted up his head,
The tears ran down his face. "Someday,"
He said, "I want to be the way
You are."

"I pray, Hosea, when
The day arrives, and you are then
Put to the test, it will not be
As hard and long for you to see
The truth, as it was once for me.
A prophet loves his enemy
Or dies. His life is not his own;
By us the ways of God are known:
With fish and worms and wind and wives
God writes his ways across our lives.
Good night, young man, go home and dwell,
And watch your faithful father well."

Now feel the heat of candle three,
And let the brightness help you see
The purifying flame of grace.
And learn again that on its face,
It may not be a lovely thing,
And may oblige the loss and sting
Of death, but in the end is good,
And turns the tendrils into wood,
And if it must, will cut with fire
The hateful part of our desire,
Then put away the white hot blade,
And kiss the wound that it has made.


© Desiring God

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way, you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and you do not make more than 1,000 physical copies. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be explicitly approved by Desiring God.

Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: www.desiringGod.org. Email: mail@desiringGod.org. Toll Free: 1.888.346.4700.

Jonah, Part 2

"Jonah" from the Pennyroyal Bible by Barry Moser


By John Piper December 6, 1998


The first to gather, as the sun
Went down next afternoon, was one
Brave lad who hadn't learned the tales
Of Jonah's life. For him, like scales
Fresh falling from his eyes, were all
The words of Jonah's mouth. So small,
He thought, was his young mind that he
Might miss the truth and lose the key
To life. And so, as others sat
In Jonah's fruitful garden at
The prophet's feet, and waited for
His word to fall, this lad was more
Aggressive than them all. "May I
Please ask, sir, that you clarify.
I didn't understand last night
Quite what you said. I think I might
Have heard you wrong." "How so, young man?"
The prophet asked. "Because, I can
Imagine being swallowed by
A giant fish, and thus to die,
But you said that the mouth of death
Was your escape. And here, with breath
And life, you sit before us now,
And I don't understand yet, how
It came to be that you could live.
So I would love to hear you give
The story how you got from in
The giant fish's mouth, to win
The men of Nineveh for God."
The prophet smiled, "It does seem odd
That one grave's open mouth should save
Me from another's dread. A wave
To drown would seem a better wish,
Than being eaten by a fish.
And yet the path to life is strange,
And none can know the kind, or range
Of deaths that one must die along
The way that leads to life. The song
That satisfies the human soul,
When nothing tender can console,
Is learned beside the grave, or from
Within. And knowing both, I've come
To see how little difference
There is between the two, and whence
Bewilderment upon your face,
Which has not wept in either place,
Because you are so young. But I
Will try to tell you how the cry
Of my engulfed and dying soul
Was taken, like a burning coal
From off the altar at the seat
Of God, and made into a sweet
Aroma there before his face,
And how it then unleashed a grace
More mighty and more strange
Than you could ever dream: to change
A great man-eating fish, some three
And forty cubits long, to be
A saving sepulchre to me."

"But, Jonah, how did you get free?
You said last night, the mouth of death
Was your escape. But what of breath?
How did you breathe? And you said it
Was three days in the acid pit
Of that great fish, with no light, I
Assume, from sun or moon or by
A manmade lamp. Then how did you
Discern the passing of those few
Dark days, to know that it was three?
How could you live or count or see?
And even know the fish's length?"

"Young man, you have a certain strength
Of mind, I think is rare. What is
Your name?" "I'm sorry if I quiz
You disrespectfully. By all
That lies within me, sir, I call
To witness heaven here, that I
Count you, beneath the great blue sky,
The greatest man on earth." "Well, there
Is something greater, son, beware,
Than Jonah in this world. Now what's
Your name?" "My name's Hosea. Lots
Of people call me Hoshee." "What
Do you prefer?" "The one I got
When I was born." "Me too. Some day
You're going to fill that name the way
I filled the belly of a fish.
And, O, Hosea, I could wish
That I were there to see the weight
Of love you'll carry in that great
And awful mission you will get."
The old man wasn't smiling. Yet
The boy felt very loved. And then
The prophet said, "Hosea, when
You hear my story now, don't miss
The truth for you in all of this:
A prophet's life is not his own;
Not one thing comes to pass alone
For its own sake, but for the sheep
Of Israel, and all who keep
The covenant. With fish and wives
God writes his ways across our lives.

"You ask me how I got free from
The fish, and how I knew the sum
Of my three dark and senseless days,
And how I breathed, and did appraise
The length of that great beast. Well, there's
A story here. And many prayers
Did make it marvelous.

I do
Not know how I could breathe the few
Days I was in the fish, except
That once, when I awoke and wept
My prayer of thanks, there was a space
Around my head with air. Just grace,
That's all I know. And then I woke
Again, and all was still. The stroke
Of every slowing pulse-beat gave
The signs that this, my living grave,
Was almost dead. A spasm in
Its throat brought air. And then a thin
Bright line appeared. And everything
Within me lunged. The sudden sting,
As layers of skin peeled off my back
And legs, was hardly felt. The crack
Of light was like a trumpet, or
A bell, or like an unlocked door
From death. And when I lunged, the beast,
In one last dying act, released
His pois'ning prey, and threw me out
On sand. I lay there just about
In reach of its gigantic head,
The largest living thing, now dead,
That I had ever seen. My cheek
Was torn, my skin looked like a freak:
Bleached, peeling, wrinkled, open sores,
And stained with reeking bile, and scores
Of tiny leeches covered me.
"And then a raging thirst, now three
Days deepening, reminded me
That here on land I might yet be
A victim of the sea. The bright
And blazing sun was too much light,
And burned my eyes. But on
The beach, before my mind was gone,
I saw a company of men
And women watching me. And then
With little strength, and in the tongue
Of my dear fatherland, I clung
To life and cried, 'Help me.' But they
Were all afraid. The monster may
Be sleeping, and awake to seize
Them all. But then, as if with ease
And confidence, a single man
Came forth, knelt down, and then began
To give me water from his sack.
He put his arm around my back
To hold me up, so I could drink.
He looked at me, and then, I think,
He smiled, and tears came to his eyes.
He put his arm beneath my thighs,
And picked me up. Without a sound,
He gently carried me around
The crowd, and took me to his place.
And cared for me. He cleaned my face,
And used a kind of meal to take
The leeches off my skin, and make
The blisters heal. And finally,
When days of my insanity
Were passed, the gentle stranger said,
'You have been raised up from the dead.'
"'How do you speak my language?' I
Inquired. 'Because your God Most High
Appointed me for this.' 'Do you
Believe in Yahweh?' 'Yes, I do.
And may his name be praised in all
The world.' 'How did you come to call
Him Lord? You are a Gentile.' 'You,
A prophet, ask me this? A true
And faithful prophet surely would
Perceive such simple things. And should
Not three days in the bowels of death
Illumine grace, with every breath
A gift? Is this more strange or more
Impossible than that a door
Of faith should be thrown open by
The Lord for Gentiles? Jonah, I
For one, believe God would delight
In setting free a Ninevite.'

"I trembled at the words he spoke,
Could there have been a deeper stroke
Against my conscience, raw with guilt?
He may as well have struck and spilt
My blood. 'How do you know my name?
And how do you discern my shame?
And whence your knowledge that I spent
Three days in that great fish?' 'You went
From Joppa on a ship which I
Have sailed for many years. And my
Great fortune, this time, was to be
There when they threw you in the sea.
I saw you give your life, and then,
I watched your God do what none can,
But the Creator God alone:
The moment you sank like a stone,
The wind and waves were calm. I knelt
Beside the rail and prayed, and felt
The God of heaven lift the guilt
Of all my sin. And there we built
An altar, made a sacrifice,
And I do thank you for the price
You paid that I might come to know
Your great and gracious God, although
It was not your design, but His.'"

"Wow," said the lad, "I think that is
The greatest thing I ever heard.
So, Jonah, even when you erred,
And had no plan for good at all,
God had a gracious plan to call
A Ninevite and make him free,
Who lived near Joppa by the sea!"

"That's right, Hosea, and I wish
That one death in a giant fish
Were all it took to make me see
And savor what God meant to be.
But sin is deep and I was not
So quick to get what you have got
At once. God make your love to burn
The way I was so slow to learn.
Tomorrow night, if you come back,
I'll take you from that little shack
Near Joppa by the sea, and show
You what God did to make me know
And love his ways. Till then, good night."

And now let candle two give light
To this: the path to life is strange,
And none can know the kind, or range
Of deaths that one must die, along
The way that leads to life. The song
That satisfies the human soul,
When nothing tender can console,
Is learned beside the grave, or from
Within. And knowing both, we've come
To see how little difference
There is between the two, and whence
Bewilderment upon the face,
Which has not wept in either place.
But for the rest, the years make plain:
To lose is life, to die is gain.


© Desiring God

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way, you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and you do not make more than 1,000 physical copies. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be explicitly approved by Desiring God.

Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: www.desiringGod.org. Email: mail@desiringGod.org. Toll Free: 1.888.346.4700.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

The Persistence of a Fish Tale

Kaspen Prague Anagram


Abbot and Costello have a great piece on Jonah and the whale. It is another example of the persistence of the story of the reluctant prophet in popular culture.

Yvonne Sherwood has written a fascinating monograph, A Biblical Text and its Afterlives: The Survival of Jonah in Western Culture. With a clear relish for her subject she begins with an introduction entitled -- "Marvellous excess and monstrous mutations on dishing up and spinning (out) biblical words." She goes on from there. She traces Jonah's journey not from Joppa to Tarshish, as he intended, but rather a stranger passage from Jewish scripture to Christian sarcophagus via the words of Jesus in the Gospels. Later he enters the backwater of popular myth until he, as Dr. Sherwood put it is, "Jonah on the oncology ward and the beached-up whale carcass; or the strange secular afterlives of biblical texts."
This text with it's counter intuitive message and anti-prophet continues it's life even after the religion it formed and the civilization it informed are forgotten in a post-modern amnesia. But it is to be hoped that perhaps the amnesiac may yet regain memory and faith. I do not lose hope. JWS


Nineveh That Great City

"The Dying Lion" A stone panel from the North Palace of Ashurbanipal, Nineveh 645 BC

The Iraq War has made household names of cities in the fertile crescent. The ruins ancient Nineveh is near the modern city of Mosul. Nineveh plays a large role in the Book of Jonah. She is "that great city" whose sin has "come up" to God like a bad smell. Since the livestock windup in the fast someone has called Nineveh the town that was so bad even the cows needed to repent.

The Assyrians were skilled at the use of terror as a tool of government. They also displaced peoples from their lands swapping with them with people from other places. This kept things off balance and made control easier. They were famous for their inventive creative cruelty. It is not difficult to understand why Jonah left town on the next ship when the word came. He had a sinking feeling that God might forgive the monsters at Mosul. And God did when the monsters repented. Jonah's worst fears were realized.

We must guard against succumbing to the temptation of trying to use God as a weapon.


Economy of Heaven III -- Above Price And Free

"His Salvation" Cornelis Monsma

The kingdom of heaven is a strange upside down sort of place where the values we have held are found to be wanting. It reminds of a story, "There once was a rich man who was near death. He was very grieved because he had worked so hard for his money and he wanted to be able to take it with him to heaven. So he began to pray that he might be able to take some of his wealth with him.

An Angel hears his plea and appears to him. "Sorry but you can't take your wealth with you." The man implores the angel to speak to God to see if He might bend the rules.

The man continues to pray that his wealth could follow him. The angel reappears and informs the man that God has decided to allow him to take one suitcase with him. Overjoyed, the man gathers his largest suitcase and fills it with pure gold bars and places it beside his bed. Soon afterward the man dies and shows up at the Gates of Heaven to greet St. Peter. St. Peter seeing the suitcase says, "Hold on, you can't bring that in here!"

But the man explains to St. Peter that he has permission and asks him to verify his story with the Lord.

Sure enough, St. Peter checks and comes back saying, "You're right. You are allowed one carry-on bag, but I'm supposed to check its contents before letting it through.

St. Peter opens the suitcase to inspect the worldly items that the man found too precious to leave behind and exclaims, "You brought pavement!"

St. Gregory the Great, "The Kingdom of heaven has not price tag on it: It is worth as much as you have. For Zacchaeus it was worth half of what he owned, because the other half that he had unjustly pocketed he promised to restore fourfold. [Luke 19:8] For Peter and Andrew it was worth the nets and vessel they had left behind; for the widow it was worth two copper coins; [Mark12:42] for another it was worth a cup of cold water [Matthew 10:42] So as we have said, the kingdom of heaven is worth as much as you have." Forty Gospel Homilies 5:2

So it is. We are wise to give up those things we cannot keep in order to gain that which we cannot lose. JWS

Friday, May 4, 2007

How Much More -- Economy of Heaven II

"Burst Into Jubilant Song" Cornelis Monsma 2002


The economy of the earth bis based on scarcity. The less there is of something the greater its value. As some wit has put it the world also has a golden rule, "Those who have the gold make the rules!" We learn early to sing the litany of scarcity, "There's not enough! There's not enough, There's not enugh!" The game, deadly serious, but a game nevertheless is to get ahead -- to accumulate in order to be somebody -- a player even. We must or we will finsh our course with nothing and therefore be nothing.

Not so with the economy of God. The economy of God is based, not on scarcity, but rather on abundance, even super abundance, as it is written, “give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back." (Luke 6.38)


There is a persistent theme in the Gospels where Jesus says to his listeners that if you being evil (imperfect - fallible) know how to give good things to your children how much more will your heavenly father give you the Holy Spirit if you ask Him?"

How much more is the too good to be true words of the Kingdom. You are this and that. And if you can manage to pull yourself together and do this how much more will God do because He is God -- The Hesed (loving kindness) of God is made new every morning. This is the God that called Jonah. This is the God who Jonah had a sinking feeling that given the slightest opportunity would forgive the folks at Nineveh.

"Just as the Assyrians had a reputation for outrageous cruelty, causing Yonah to want to see them destroyed, the author presents YHVH as having a reputation for outlandish mercy, which w0uld result in grace being shown even to Nineveh: "...for I know that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing." (4:2) Introduction to Hebrew Bible: A Guided Tour of Israel's Sacred Library -- James E. Bowley

No wonder Jonah ran away. He didn't want to be a party to such reckless forgiveness.