Presumption

Wednesday, February 25, 2009 -- Week of Last Epiphany, Year One
Ash Wednesday

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 948)
Psalms 32, 143 (morning) 102, 130 (evening)
Jonah 3:1 - 4:11
Hebrews 12:1-14
Luke 18:9-14

The readings for Ash Wednesday warn us against presumption. Beware of unearned privilege. Standing and status account for nothing. God expects us to be people of humility, discipline and compassion.

What a treat it is to read the heart of that wonderful short story "Jonah." We remember the part about his trying to escape God's call by going in the opposite direction and getting caught by the whale. Great fun. But now that God has Jonah's attention, a second time God calls him to his mission: "Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you."

Niniveh is the enemy. These are the bad guys. Get up Jonah, go to the Taliban, and proclaim to them what I tell you. Get the message to Al Qaeda.

"You've got to be kidding," Jonah says. (Maybe we do too.) These people are only worth killing. No wonder Jonah fled. But now he's trapped. The reluctant prophet.

But maybe he's not that worried, after all, Israel and Judah almost never respond to God's prophets. They are always shutting their ears to the prophets' message. What could you expect from the Taliban?

So Jonah goes into the city, a day's walk: "Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" I'll bet his heart wasn't really in it. Unless he spoke with the relish of one who couldn't wait for the SOB's to get their just deserts.

Surprise! Nineveh repents. The king declares a fast, and includes the animals in it. "All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knows? God may relent and change his mind." And God does. God lets Al Qaeda and the Taliban off the hook.

Jonah is ticked. This is what he was afraid of, why he fled. He wanted hellfire and brimstone to fall on the wicked, not forgiveness. He fumes and wants to die. And we get the funny story of the bush. It grows and shades him, and then it dies and he is miserable. He feels more for the bush than he does for the alien and once-lost city of Ninevah. He can't imagine the extent of God's compassion. He's so far from God's heart.

A bit like the Pharisee in the temple. He prays thankfully. I am glad I am not like those others.

But the tax collector -- a traitor and cheat -- has no standing. He knows he is compromised and stained. He is empty handed. "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!"

Jesus tells them that the tax collector went to his home justified before God. The Pharisee goes home out of favor. But the text doesn't tell us whether either of them were aware of it. The Pharisee may have left the temple as proud and self-satisfied as he arrived. The tax collector may have left feeling as lost and desolate as he arrived. It doesn't say they knew that God had connected with the tax collector and accepted him. It doesn't say they knew that the presumptive religious person was still seriously lacking.

We enter the forty days of Lent. It is a time to shed our presumptions and be humble before God. We are terminally ill -- "You are dust, and to dust you shall return." God's compassion is abundant and beyond our knowing. Our need is deep and subtle.

It is time to surrender. Let God be God. If God sees the tax collectors and Ninevehites as worthy of God's best attention, somehow we've got to find a way to be humble enough to rejoice in that. After all, we follow a capital criminal. There's a lot of humility and compassion that is necessary here.

Lowell

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About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life

We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas