Theologian Bruce Epperly sympathizes with Jonah’s reluctance to become a prophet to the Assyrians.
What would you do if God asked you to challenge everything you thought was true? What if God told you to turn your back on the religious values you learned in church and in the Bible?…. Worse yet, what if God changed God’s mind to expand the circle of grace to include our nation’s worst enemies…?
Moreover, what if the God you believed in … changed the rules of the faith, threw out the spiritual guidebook that shaped your life, and commanded you to adopt a different, and unprecedented, approach to life? Would you follow God’s new directions, stay put, or run away from this rule-changing God?…
In the past few decades, committed Christians have struggled with theologically radical ways of reconceiving marriage and divorce, equal rights, war and peace, the insights of other religions, homosexuality and marriage equality, and the nature of mission in light of changing understandings of God’s vision for our world. If God is still speaking, then God can surprise us with new insights for changing times. Like Jonah, we must decide how we will respond to a god whose ways are different than we imagined.
Epperly invites us to consider how God is calling us to move beyond fear of the other:
In a world in which politicians fan the flames of fear and anger, Jonah presents a provocative possibility: What if God loves our enemies as much as God loves our friends? What if God’s revelation comes to outsiders as well as persons from our own faith tradition?…
We are all tempted to create a God of our own making, who will uphold the status quo and baptize our values as God’s definitive word. When God challenges our way of life and the religious and cultural values we hold dear, we are tempted to run away in search of a new god—a god of our own making—who will support our privileges and prejudices and lead us into battle against our foes. In contrast to nationalist and parochial images of God, the Book of Jonah portrays a different vision of God: God, the iconoclast; God, the lover of our enemies; and God, who cares for non-humans with the same devotion as God cares for humankind. Constantly doing a new thing, God calls us to be innovative and iconoclastic as we embrace new understandings of God’s vision for humankind and the world….
[Jonah] believes that God changed God’s mind, and he doesn’t know which way to go. His running away is a running from a new, more universal and loving, vision of God….
Jonah asks us what it means to follow God’s way in a world of terrorism, xenophobia (fear of strangers), and fear-based politics. God calls us toward world-changing discipleship in our time. Will we run away from God’s vision or follow God’s call to embrace otherness, with all our ambivalence and anxiety, or will we baptize our prejudice and hatred in the waters of religious faith?
Reference:
Bruce G. Epperly, Jonah: When God Changes (Energion Publications, 2016), 1, 2–3, 4.
Image credit and inspiration: Jong Marshes, untitled (detail), 2017, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. Beneath the surface we flail, bewildered. Has our heart grown too hard to sense the gentle sun of God’s mercy drawing us up and out?
Story from Our Community:
During these divisive and painful political years, I noticed my contempt toward certain [people]. One day as I planted zinnia seeds, I imagined the colorful flowers I knew would bloom months later. It struck me that I was 100% certain of the potential and growth of a tiny seed, but not of a human being. I also knew I would faithfully tend these seedlings, regularly watering them, and ensuring they were close to light. In that moment, I was flooded with the reminder that “every thing is sacred”—that God’s love for each human being is certainly as great as it is for these seeds. God is always gently tending us humans with forgiving waters and compassionate light. The work of CAC grounds me in this truth, even and especially when I struggle to feel hope.
—Tara D.
