Reading 88 • December 11
Today's Scripture
Jonah 3:1–11
The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. 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; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.” When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it. (NRSV)
Reflection
I have an absolutely ginormous book on my shelf called What Does It Sound Like When You Change Your Mind? It’s a compilation of blog posts by Seth Godin accompanied by original artwork by Thomas Hawk. To get it, I had to make a small “investment” (I think it was $25) before it was actually published, and that earned me my name in the front cover.
You’re impressed, I know.
It was mostly the title that compelled me, an unapologetic celebration of mind-changing. Too often those of us who claim faith regard changing our mind as a fault, as a failure of faith even, when in truth the most faithful thing we can do sometimes is to allow our mind to be changed. Isn’t a change of mind at the heart of the experience of faith to begin with, the idea behind the concept of conversion? And that’s not a one-time occurrence, not for us as individuals and not for the church as a whole; the theologian of mission Darrell Guder has written about The Continuing Conversion of the Church.
God’s mind changes, after all. The story of Jonah we read today makes the shocking claim that God’s mind was changed with regard to Nineveh, a notoriously wicked city for this story’s first hearers. Yet the Ninevites heeded the reluctant prophet’s call to change their lives (which certainly included changing their minds about some things) and did exactly that. And in so doing, they changed God’s mind.
Maybe you won’t be surprised to discover that Jonah was much displeased at God’s new way of thinking about Nineveh, because Jonah certainly hadn’t changed his mind about the place. He still regarded it as a place undeserving of God’s grace and mercy and love, even after its monumental conversion. Jonah wants God to remain the enemy of Jonah’s enemies, and so he experiences God’s merciful change of mind not as good news but as disaster.
I’ll admit that on some days I don’t relish the thought that God’s mercy and grace would abound to certain people. The story of God’s changed relation to Nineveh challenges me to regard everyone — especially those I deem especially wicked — as never outside the reach of God’s grace, even if, like Jonah, I sometimes wish they were.
Prayer
Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Amen.
Written by Rocky Supinger, Senior Associate Pastor
Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church
Devotion index by date | I’d like to receive daily devotions by email
YouTube
Podcasts
/fourthchurch
#fourthchurch
@fourthchicago