DARING TO DREAM AGAIN #7/9
Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>
WHY DOESNT EVERYONE HAVE A JEWISH MOTHER?
April 6, 2003
Text: Jonah 1:1-3, 3:1-5, 3:10-4:3
Jewish mothers have a reputation. Many times, this reputation is
reflected in jokes. Here are some which answer the question: What if
their mothers were Jewish? MONA LISA'S MOTHER: "After all that money
your father and I spent on braces, that's the biggest smile you can give
us?" COLUMBUS' MOTHER: "I don't care what you've discovered, you still
could have written!" MICHELANGELO'S MOTHER: "Can't you paint on walls
like other children? Do you have any idea how hard it is to get that
stuff off the ceiling?" ALBERT EINSTEIN'S MOTHER: "But it's your senior
picture. Can't you do something about your hair? Styling gel, mousse,
something...?" GEORGE WASHINGTON'S MOTHER: "The next time I catch you
throwing money across the Potomac, you can kiss your allowance good-bye!"
JONAH'S MOTHER: "That's a nice story. Now tell me where you've really
been for the last forty years." THOMAS EDISON'S MOTHER: "Of course I'm
proud that you invented the electric light bulb. Now turn it off and get
to bed!" PAUL REVERE'S MOTHER: "I don't care where you think you have to
go, young man, midnight is past your curfew." (http://www.Zipple.com)
No doubt history would have been changed if everyone had a Jewish mother.
Maybe not quite in those ways, but it would have been changed. A result
of one of my research projects in seminary was to discover the extent to
which God called His people Israel, led His people out of bondage, gave
them the Promised land where they could live in order to testify and
witness to the world about God. In other words, God called His people to
evangelize through testimony and action. My research led me to ask myself
this question: If all of this is what God called and empowered His
chosen people to do, then why doesnt everyone have a Jewish mother?
Well, I found answers to my question in the Old Testament book of Jonah.
While this book of the Bible is best known because of its referral to the
whale, or big fish, which swallowed Jonah, the core insights of the
narrative have little to do with the whale. Beginning with verse one, we
read, The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying,
'Arise, go to Nineveh the great city, and cry against it, for their
wickedness has come up before Me.' But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish
from the presence of the Lord. Why did Jonah flee? What were his motives
for not wanting to go to Nineveh? Was Jonah unique in his attitudes
toward foreign nations, or was he just one of many Israelites who were
opposed to foreign missions?
As we study the book of Jonah, we recognize that Jonah was not a coward.
His reasons for wanting to shirk his mission to Nineveh did not stem from
a personal fear for his life. Jonah was a willing sacrifice for the
sailors when they were caught in the tempestuous sea: Pick me up and
throw me into the sea. There was a deeper reason for his flight. While
Jonah may not have been personally selfish with his life, he was
reflective of a national selfishness on the part of the nation of Israel.
It is in the last chapter of the book that Jonah's resistance is
revealed. After God revealed His compassion because of Nineveh's
repentance, Jonah said, O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still
at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you
are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in
love, a God who relents from sending calamity. And then stranger still,
Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to
live.
I am amazed - and I think you probably are, too - that, to Jonah, the act
of God's mercy was undesirable and repulsive. Jonah, in his capacity as a
prophet of God, was willing to preach doom and destruction to a city of
enemies and unwilling to share the truth of God's love and mercy. Since
God was not on his side, Jonah chose first to flee and then to pout.
Jonah's response to the salvation of Nineveh was shocking. There were no
praises to a merciful God, no feelings of a job well done, no altars
built or sacrifices offered. There was only childish pouting. The
salvation of Nineveh ...greatly displeased Jonah, and he became angry.
He even camped outside the city in order to verify, against his hope,
that it was really not going to be destroyed. Jonah was certainly a
stubborn and hard-hearted prophet.
Yet, he was not that different from the attitude of his nation. James
Smart writes, in The Interpreter's Bible, that: The nation, insofar as
it rejects its commission to be a light to the Gentiles, is identical
with Jonah. The nation is being warned, therefore, that at the root of
its narrow and bitter attitude there is a rejection of the God of their
fathers. (James Smart, Jonah, The Interpreter's Bible, vol. 6,
Nashville: Abingdon, 1956, p. 873)
This is the purpose of this book of the prophets, then. It's not that
Jonah the prophet had a message for Nineveh. He did, of course, but God
directed Jonah's actions and attitudes as a message to all of His people.
The nation Israel had a peculiar history. It began as a response to the
call from God. The nation developed and grew in response to the continued
calls of God. God's relationship with His people was through covenant -
an interactive relationship. As a covenant people, the Israelites bore a
special witness to God. There were no other people in this Old Testament
period who occupied the relationship that they had with God. The Hebrew
people were bound by a common faith which was based upon the fulfillment
of the promises of God. They were called to be blessed and made a great
nation and to be made a nation of priests. God chose them, sanctified
them, and made them the keeper of His faith and laws.
Israel kept forgetting this. During their development, they began looking
away from God and toward their own monarchies. They became zealously
nationalistic. They entered into alliances with other nations - for
mutual protection - yet maintained arrogant attitudes of religious,
economic, and military superiority toward them. All the while, they
maintained a perpetual assumption that everything they did, even when
sinful, was done with God's blessing.
These were hardly the attitudes that God intended them to have toward
other people. Instead of inviting other nations into the presence of God,
Jewish attitudes of superiority repelled other nations. It repels me,
too. There's no one harder to get along with than the person who is
"always right"; "always superior."
God, however, did not allow His people to become static. Since the people
of Israel refused to become willing missionaries, God imposed His mission
program upon an unwilling people. In addition to punishment and
instruction, God used the invasions, exiles, and dispersions as mass
mission movements. Virtually the entire nation participated, however
reluctantly. In fact, the later Rabbis have referred to the dispersion as
a divine means for the increase of witnessing. Ben Zion Bokser wrote
about one Rabbi's views in this manner: Rabbi Elazar allowed himself to
say that the dispersal of the Jews among the nations was providential
since it brought them into greater contact with the non-Jewish world,
enabling them to win proselytes for their faith.
Of course, it wasn't until the advent of Christ that God's covenant was
seen with such impact. We are blessed to be able to look back upon the
history of God's people through the faith of Christ. And it became
clearer and clearer during the life of Christ and during the first years
of the Christian church that proclaiming the Good News to all the nations
- mission - is a vital part of Christianity. As great as the atoning
death and resurrection of Christ are, they are meaningless unless shared.
We must be ready to carry His message to all nations, including our own,
and to rejoice with God over the repentance of others. This is why we
express a mission concern for others in our communities, region, nation,
and world. We are Christians, and we have the Good News of Jesus Christ
to share!
Another prophet in another time busily proclaimed the word of the Lord to
his people. Turn to Isaiah 40:28. Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He
will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He
gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even
youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those
who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings
like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not
grow faint.
When we identify with Gods heart for the world, we think that we are
helping other people. And, in covenant with God, we are. But the real
truth of missions is this: we are helping ourselves. Again, in covenant
with God. But through support, we are blessed. We who give, receive. We
who give hope in the Lord and renew our strength!
To hope in the Lord means that we are living with and for Him. It means
that we are involved in mission. Not grudgingly like Jonah, but freely
because it is the call of God. Mission is often the tie that binds
Christians around the world.
This could have been Jonahs heritage. It could have been, and should
have been, the heritage of Gods chosen people. Everyone, or at least a
lot more, should have a Jewish mother simply because the Word of God
should have been shared with the world all along. Instead of hoarding the
blessings, Gods people should have tried to give away Gods blessings.
Imagine how the world would be changed if not only Ninevah, but also
Damascus and Babylon and other sinful cities had received the Word of God
and repented. Think how many of us would have a Jewish mother!
As we are reminded in this weeks Spiritual Adventure, practice becoming
a world-class Christian, because when we do, we will renew our strength,
we will soar on wings like eagles, we will run and not grow faint, we
will walk and not grow weary.
Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill
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