Heading On A Boat In The Wrong Direction In A Storm Of Our Own Making - October 24, 2010

Daily Lectionary Readings for October 24, 2010
Psalm 122
Jonah 1:1-17a
1 Corinthians 10:15-24
Matthew 18:15-20

Jonah 1:1-17a
Beginning at full speed, the first two verses of Jonah tell of God commanding Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell them that they are wicked and they need to stop it.  The rest of chapter one is the story of the mess that unfolds because Jonah chooses to do something other than what God asks.  In fact, it's not just that he chose something other than what God asked, it's that he chose something in opposition to what God asked.  He ends up on a ship going to NOT NINEVEH, God blows up a storm and everyone on Jonah's ship is praying to whatever gods they may have to do something about the stiuation.  Jonah knows, of course, what the problem is - when his shipmates get to him and ask him about his deity of choice Jonah says, "I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land."(v.9)  Stopping for a moment to assess, we have Jonah stating clearly that he worships the God of heaven, the God who made everything AND we find him acting in direct opposition to what his God has asked of him.  This sounds ludicrous when it's stated like that, but it's not just a Jonah problem.  It's a me problem.  It's a lots of people of faith problem.  We gather on Sunday mornings and worship - worship the same God who Jonah worshipped and we would make the same professions of faith about God that Jonah made.  And after worship we would, like Jonah act in ways that are at odds with what we know - not guess, but know - to be God's will.  Some of it may be a little fuzzy or uncertain to us, but there are plenty of things that we know in our hearts that God desires for us and of us which we act in opposition to with regularity.  Like Jonah it leaves us on a boat heading in the wrong direction facing a storm of our own making.  Why is obedience so hard?

Luke 18:15-20
"For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them."(v.20)
Great verse for the gathering I am participating in for the next couple of days.  Meeting with just a few more than two or three folks from The Company of New Pastors.  CNP is a program of the Presbyterian Church (USA) which brings together groups of pastors at the beginning of their time in ordained ministry.  The oversimplified version of the goal of the group is to keep new pastors thinking about their call to ministry and providing a group to support and encourage that call.  There are a multitude of ways to experience the fading and flagging of one's passion for following God's call.  This is an attempt to be proactive in meetings those challenges.  I am fortunate to be a co-mentor for a group.  Fortunate in many ways, not the least of which is that being with folks who are in the earlier stages of their ministry is renewing and invigorating and makes me grateful for my own call and for the faith community at Hebron that I serve.  And it's just one more bonus that we meet at the Procter Center in central Ohio within an hour or so of my hometown of Xenia.  The area where we are meeting is farm country, flat as all get out and beautiful in a way that only Ohio knows how to be.  Sweet to be here.