A Reflection for our Sheltered Housing Service but it really struck a chord with me as I wrote it. Edited slightly for this space. Reading was part of Jonah 3.
I love the story of Jonah! I’m sure you have heard it many times at least the bit about the whale. But today I don’t want to focus on the whale, ok, the big fish. This is the season of Lent which is a corporate time of repentance. It is a time when the church family or community is called to penitence and preparation. For sure there is space within that for individual preparation and penitence. After all, no matter how hard we try none of us are perfect. Not even the minister! Therefore, logically if we are in the season of Lent as individuals it will affect us as individuals. However, to have such a season as this in the calendar of the Church year, it strikes me that it is also corporate.
Lent is something we experience together. We are reminded that we are not the only sinner. For example, I remember taking my children to toddler groups and being reassured that I am not the only parent with a temperamental child, or one who likes to eat play dough or whatever. Sometimes we think we are the only ones that get it wrong, that lose our temper, that lose sight of God in our daily lives. Lent reminds us that actually we are all sinners. And the story of Jonah reminds us that we are in this together.
Jonah takes a message of repentance to a nation - a nation that appeared to be beyond redemption. And for Jonah it was the last place on earth he wanted to go. But the God is determined and Jonah has to be the one to take the message. And despite the fact that Jonah doesn’t cover himself in glory through this episode, he does indeed pass on the message and Jesus even mentions him when speaking about his death and resurrection. So we dare not dismiss the many wonderful lessons within this tale of woe and reluctance, repentance and restitution.
From the King of Nineveh, the people, and indeed animals, repent in full, in such an expressive way as to make clear to God that they are sorry and seek his forgiveness. They want God to turn away from his wrath. And he does, much to Jonah’s disappointment. In fact we are never too sure if Jonah ever comes to terms with God’s decision not to destroy Nineveh.
We can all have expectations of Lent. We see people expressing Lent in so many different ways. Give something up, take something up, put out one item from your house every day, do a random act of kindness every day, read more, pray more...some do it for health benefits, some focus on their bad habits and how they might turn them around. Lent, like so many other seasons and festivals has become about the ‘one’ and not about the ‘community’. What do we need to repent of as a community?
Are there things we need to repent of as a community? Are we guilty of ostracising someone because they are different somehow? Are we gathering together to constantly criticise rather than encouraging and building up? Are we caring for our staff, our medical support, our families, our friends or have we become demanding and selfish? We can sometimes lose sight of our less than loving behaviour because it becomes our norm. And just like the people of Nineveh needed to hear the message of God through Jonah, sometimes we need someone to call us out, not just as individuals but as a community.
And it goes not just for our homes, but our church, our schools, our local council, our town, our government, our nation...indeed our world. Whether the call to repentance is for how we treat our poor, our marginalised, our climate, our refugees or our family, it is a corporate call. Lent is not just how I am behaving in my Christian life, it is about how we are behaving, and how that impacts on our relationship with God. Lent resets us corporately that we might we reunited together in community, centred around and with God and in God. Like Jonah found it might be far more challenging and life changing that you could possibly imagine.
So yes, how will you live Lent this year? Will you take time to focus on God, through reading his word, through prayer, through silence, through meditation? Perhaps by stepping back from seeking affirmation from social media, or escaping into television? Can you turn from extravagance to fasting, giving up coffee or alcohol or takeaway or meat? Can you introduce the wilderness into your life through ten minutes or more where you are disassociated from the wider world. It is just for 40 days. Remember Sundays are festival days so you can relax on those days..
But even more so, how can we embrace Lent as a community not just as individuals? Where is our corporate Lent? I’m not sure I have the answer to that but I am wondering...maybe the Ninevites had it right?
God bless you
Love Sarah
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