Word to the Wise
Wednesday, March 4, 2020 - 1st Week of Lent - Wed
[Jonah 3:1-10 and Luke 11:29-32]"This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation...….At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah, they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here." [Luke]
It might be a good Lenten question to ask, "What do I consider 'success' to be?" Jonah thought success would be to see Nineveh wiped out! When God had a change of mind because of their repentance, Jonah sulked!
We might recall that Jonah is known as a reluctant prophet. He tried to run away from God's call, only to be thwarted by being thrown overboard by sailors who blamed him for a storm and then being swallowed by a "whale" for three days (a "sign?") before deciding he'd better do what God wanted. To his amazement, his preaching in Nineveh was immediately successful and the whole city repented!!! That amazement turned to disappointment because he didn't expect to be taken seriously.
In the gospel passage today from the Gospel According to Luke, Jesus points to the success of Jonah's preaching, and contrasts it with the unbelieving generation that he (Jesus) was preaching to (possibly the generation that Luke's audience knew). However, the job of the missionary disciple is to do the preaching and leave the results to God. At least that has been my experience from many years of itinerant preaching. There are moments when a person will tell me during a parish mission that they actually went right away to be reconciled with someone from whom they were estranged, but those moments are rare. Success has to be measured in terms of the opportunities that God gives us to bear witness. If we don't see the kind of impact we would like to see, we may need to look at our own expectations, and not at God or the audience!
Are we reluctant prophets? If we do bear witness, are we disappointed if we don't see immediate results? Jesus and Jonah are waiting for our response. AMEN