January 25, 2009

There are many Bible stories that parade as one thing - usually reinforcements of our dearly held beliefs and ideals - but that are actually about something else. Usually, that "something else" is much more complicated and challenging to the reader than the interpretation that is widely known and accepted. Let me give you some examples.

Genesis 19 is a famous passage that is used to show how sinful homosexuality is. When you look closely at the story, however, you see that it is a story of some violent thugs who lived in Sodom; these thugs wanted to break the strict laws of hospitality by going to Lot's house one night and demanding that Lot send out his male visitors so they could do violence against them. Lot refuses and upholds the ancient hospitality code.
The story of Noah in the book of Genesis is often interpreted as a story of a man who built a big ship for animals to march into two by two. It's not. It is about the response of God to human wickedness and about starting over.
The story of Revelation is not about the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse who are coming to get us if we don't believe in a certain notion of God; it's about a community of people who are desperately seeking God and hope during a time of great suffering and oppression.
The Christmas story is not about the birth of a pudgy, `cute little baby boy. It is about the miracle of our God coming to us in the form of a human to lead us into a new reality.

Why do we replace the hard story for the easy one? Because it feels so much easier to think that homosexuality is a sin, animals march two by two, fearing God will lead us to faith, and babies will make it all better.

These interpretations don't ask us to think as deeply as we are called to, and don't threaten our safe and set views of the world. But, the Bible and our faith, asks more from us, I believe. The Bible and our faith, asks us to look at these texts with fresh eyes and apply them to our lives. Our Bible is not designed to simply comfort us; it is supposed to challenge us to live outside of our comfort zone. It is also a source-book for those in our world who are deeply scarred by life and who are looking for a God who has not forgotten them.

Today we heard a portion of the story of Jonah, a tiny four chapter prophetic book in the Bible. It is not a cute story about a whale who housed a man named Jonah for three famous days, but a story about a reluctant prophet who does not want to take a message of hope to the Assyrians to the north so that they will repent of their evil ways. It is a story of how God is slow to anger and who is interested in a world beyond mere tribalism. It is about God's extravagant mercy and forgiveness to those we would not forgive. Yet, we like the story of the whale. We find it quaint and romantic. We root for the man to be released from the belly and we forget the context of why he was in the whale in the first place. But this is a powerful story whose message we miss if we just imagine him in the belly of a whale waiting to be spit out!!!

The book of Jonah is a story of embracing the other. It is a confrontation of our own narrow self interest and of expanding our understanding of who lies within the deep embrace of God's grace. We don't get that view if we are charmed by a man lighting a fire and roasting fish inside a whale's belly.

After living for many centuries focused on our own tribe or culture or country, we have been invited during the past few centuries to expand our awareness and appreciation of other cultures and beliefs. More and more we realize that God is not just focused on our country or our religion and that many cultures and people contribute to the richness of our lives here on earth. The book of Jonah is a very old book that addressed this in the 8^th century before Christ. There are many examples around us that invite us to continue to see the entire world as sacred and worthy of our attention. One of the challenges we face in our country is to care about people who are different than us - whether those differences are economic, physical, religious, ethnic or other - the book of Jonah and other parts of our holy scripture ask us to widen our circle of compassion and care.

I have read a few articles recently about the killings across the border in Juarez, Mexico. Just across the border from El Paso, Texas, (which is one of the safest cities in the U.S.) Juarez has had 1550 people killed in the past year. The Mexican government has tried to crack down on the drug cartels and as a consequence the drug turf wars have become increasingly intense in Juarez. They don't have enough police to stop the violence and people feel as if they are living in a war zone. El Paso is safe. Juarez is a bastion of violence. What do we care? We don't live there. But doesn't God call us to care?

Throughout New England you can drive through many dying mill towns that are long past their heydays. In Lewiston, Maine the population had been shrinking for the past thirty years. The city center was called "the combat zone." In 2001 a Somalian refugee family settled there. The town wasn't prepared for the influx of Muslim newcomers that were to follow. Locals feared that the few jobs would be taken by outsiders and that local social services would be burdened. In 2002 the mayor wrote an open letter to the Somali community "begging them to stop encouraging friends and family to follow them to Maine." (Newsweek, Jan. 26, 2009, p. 69) Almost 4000 Africans have come to this area and with them have come economic activity and new energy. Maine has the lowest percentage of residents under the age of 18, but slowly these immigrants are bringing in young people and raising the student population at the local university. For some, the infusion of youth and diversity has been a blessing to this area.

Stories like these ask us to think about what our response to the other is. Are we okay that violence is not at our door and accept that it threatens other communities and children? Are we open to new people moving into our neighborhood and having their children at our schools? Do we care about people living amidst great poverty and violence if it is not at our doorstep?

You can find tribalism throughout the Bible. It is most deeply felt in the Hebrew Scriptures where a fledging tribe was trying to survive and one's lineage was carefully preserved; foreign wives were viewed with great suspicion. Yet, the entire Bible continues to open itself to those who are foreigners, those who are different. A great deal of the New Testament letters address the expansion of God's gracious love from a chosen group of people to a broader group of folks, and the assimilation of new ideas into our lives. Nowhere does it ask us to shut down and circle the wagons in fear. The seeds of this were felt way back in the story of Jonah - which makes that books openness that much more surprising for its time.

One of the powerful aspects of the book of Jonah is how vocal Jonah's reluctance is to go and help the Ninevites. He articulates his complaint that God will care and do something about the evil people to the north. He grumbles and ignores God's call to go and help. We can relate to his reluctance. We have our own reluctance to reach out. What ways does God ask us to open ourselves to newness? Is it the new person at work, the new neighbor who has different culture practices, the new ethnic group that is growing in your town, is it the new person in the pew who wants something different in worship? We do not worship a God who invites us to be narrow. We worship a God who pursues us just like God pursued Jonah - continually asking Jonah to care about these people and take God's care to them. We too are called to open our hearts like Jonah was.

The story of Jonah is not a story about a whale. It is a story about a man who learned the hard way that God calls us to reach out to others and extend God's extravagant mercy to those we would choose to ignore. Thanks be to God for asking us to care. Amen