What! No Ash Heap!?! - October 26, 2010

Daily Lectionary Readings for October 26, 2010
Psalm 86
Jonah 3:1-4:11
Revelation 11:14-19
Luke 11:27-36

Jonah 3:1-4:11
Jonah does, grudgingly, as he has been instructed by God and proclaims God's judgment on Nineveh.  Nineveh repents and God spares Nineveh.  A happy ending.  Except, Jonah reveals, not for Jonah.  He tells God this is why he headed off in the wrong direction from the outset.  God, with his mercy this and his compassion that and his slow to anger nature, Jonah was sure would pass up the opportunity for some seriously well deserved divine wrath.  Jonah wanted Nineveh to pay for their actions.  Mercy and compassion would just get in the way of justice.  God, fortunately, saw it differently, and I think and believe continues to see it differently.  I can work up a good fervor and be maybe as nearly as upset with some things as Jonah was with Nineveh while forgetting that my actions, my choices and my decisions have almost certainly harmed others along the way and definitely been, at times, an affront to God.  God chose not to follow Jonah's advice on the Nineveh issue and the same mercy that God showed Nineveh has been and continues to be a hallmark of the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ, the God that I experience in the moments where I should really expect punishment and instead find grace.  Thanks be to God.

Revelation 11:14-19
"Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of the covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail."(v.19)
This verse concludes todays passage from Revelation and has me wondering if maybe someone is having a peak at the ark of the covenant this afternoon.  We've not had the earthquake - not even sure we've had the lightning or thunder much, but the weather has been a bit tempestuous.  Wind, wind and more wind.  Warm wind and cold wind.  And then rain.  Light rain.  Hard rain.  And wind.  Being a child of the Xenia tornado of 1974 wind is the one bit of potentially heavy weather with the capacity to make me really nervous.  The winds seem to have given way a bit to a steady and somewhat predictable rain.  Turning from windy weather of which I am not so fond to a gray, chilly, rainy day that is probably if I had to pick, my weather of preference.  Giving thanks for our Company of New Pastors (I'm a co-mentor - who is enjoying listening to wonderfully diverse and creative Advent sermons from our group) gathering in London, Ohio. We began Sunday evening and continue through tomorrow morning,  Also thankful for the gift of a couple of spare hours in the afternoon to run in and then read and look out the window at a gloriously drab and dreary afternoon.