Jonah's Lesson

In today’s first reading, Jonah 1: 1-2: 2, 11, we read about Jonah running away from the Lord, who had commissioned him to go to Nineveh,  to “preach against it” because “their wickedness has come up before me.”  Jonah connects with a ship going to Tarshish in an effort to escape the Lord’s will.  A violent storm erupts and the ship is about to sink.  The crew is frantic. Jonah is sound asleep in “the hold of the ship.”  He knows why the storm has erupted and admits to running from the Lord.  To save everyone, the crew tosses Jonah off the ship. Everything calms down. Jonah is swallowed up by a whale for three days and three night.  At God’s commands, the whale coughs him up on the shore of Nineveh!  God’s will prevails! We really do not escape carrying out God’s commands, though we may certainly attempt to do so. 

The United States of America, our elected government officials,   our family members, our law enforcement, our judges, our public servants,  those who commit violent crimes, those who follow corrupt policies, those attempting to obliterate God from public venues, from family  or personal lives, those who serve other gods or no-gods will not succeed in running away from God anymore than Jonah did. 

Like Jonah, who knew why the sea had become so turbulent, so, too, we know the source of turbulence in our lives. Like Jonah, we know when we are turning against our God or running away from what God is asking of us.  And just as the crew on that ship sensed that someone on that ship was the cause of the tempest that arose on the sea, so, too, do people around us know when we are off course and not in sync with our God.  Do we have the courage of Jonah and of the ship’s crew to admit the truth and get back on course?