THE SIGN OF JONAH

We all know (at least it's assumed... but then again assumption is the mother of all f***-ups) the story of Jonah. God tells Jonah to preach to Nineveh. Jonah refuses and goes the other way (goes west instead of east). God sends out a storm with his name on it. Jonah gets thrown out of the boat and gets swallowed up by a fish. Resides there for three days, prays and gets on God's good graces again. Take 2: Jonah goes to Nineveh. Jonah preaches to Nineveh. Nineveh accepts. God is happy with this and there was much rejoicing. Jonah is pissed off and God tells him (basically) "I'm just as compassionate with Nineveh as I was and still am with you."

Christ talks about the "sign of Jonah" as the only sign the people will have during His tenure on earth. It is viewed most commonly that he is referring to His burial in the tomb for three days and then arises again from the dead. However there is more to Jonah than just to Christ.

Jonah was conditioned on a very narrow perception of God. He was part of the Chosen People and they have always seen Him as "their" God for God gave to them blessings, a homeland, people to look up to (and not to look up to) and the Law. Anyone outside of the box is considered an outcast and under the wrath of God. However God instructed Jonah to do a very unusual thing... preach God to a foreign land. The time was nigh that God had to spread out to the whole world. The known world has become a little bit smaller due to the Hellenistic culture and the emerging of vast expanding empires. Communications between different lands was easier now. The Chosen People became a Diaspora, wandering around the Meditteranean Basin with their culture and tradition and the Gentiles are starting to join in. And God wants to show that the same "plotline" or progression from corrupted human to a child of God is the same for the non-Jews as it is for the Jews.

Jonah is similar to us as Christians who has resided in this artifically constructed boundary for far too long. Now I'm not saying we should downgrade the role of Christ because that is part of the Message and that has to be maintained. But we should make an effort to reach out to those whom we might consider our enemies. A modern day equivalent would probably be an American Jonah going to an Afghani Nineveh. We have to know that God wants all to abide in His graces and mercies and not just to the ones who call "Lord, Lord" (after all, even those may not inherit the kingdom of God). For if Christ has truly manifested and transformed our hearts like God did for Jonah, then Christ has truly manifested and transformed the hearts of the foreigners like God did for the Assyrians.

Think outside the box. God hates to be placed in a box. Christianity doesn't exist. Only through Christ it does.

+

A SNEAK PREVIEW

23-MARCH-2002

The week concludes itself and I sigh with a bit of relief. I see what the Christ meant by saving of man being impossible for man. Because right now, I am tired and exhausted in nearly every state of being.

I'm tired by the constant three-front war that insues on me now. The one camp says "I've gone too far." The other says "I haven't gone far enough." And another one is asks me "Where are you going?" Of course some days are better than others and it isn't always like that. However one can't help but notice a virtual persecution occuring with a tri-partisan Senate and a vicious Emperor with full regila hunting down one man and citizen.

But I guess that's how it always is. God be with me always.

+ t-c-m

What is the prime failing of today's church? Poor leadership? Sinful priests and hypocritical laity? These things have always plagued the church and probably always will. The Apostle Paul and the Apostle John both wrote that false teachers and prophets had to come before the end. But these things are not the main failing of the church. The failure of the modern church is its reluctance to preach the gospel.

What is the church of Jesus Christ without the cross? What is the church of Jesus Christ without the empty tomb? What is the church of Jesus Christ without Christ himself? Nothing but a meaningless delusion that man can save himself.

The church today is no longer the church of Jesus Christ. Is is the Church of Man. It is the church of those who don't believe they need salvation. Maybe they've prayed a prayer. Maybe they've been baptized. Maybe they've gone to church as long as they can remember. For any of these reasons, they have forgotten that salvation comes through sanctification(2 Thessalonians).

We are all dead in sin. And no matter how we try we can never earn forgiveness of sin. We can never sanctify ourselves. But Christ died on the cross so that we could give the battle over to him. If we ask for his grace, he gives us the power to be sanctified. And that is the form of our salvation. It is a constant battle for sanctity. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, but we know that the ultimate victory is the Lord's.

The Church today has forgotten about santification. The church today has forgotten about sin.

Now, not all the churches have fallen away from the gospel of Jesus Christ. In most Catholic churches, the gospel has been preserved in the mass. In many evangelical churches, the gospel is still sounded from the pulpit.

But, by and large, modern Christians go to church to hear moral lessons rather than to be washed in the blood of the crucified lamb. We've forgotten that we're saved by grace through faith and not by works. We pretend we don't need God's Love, that we can save ourselves. We don't say that, of course, but then we hardly ever TALK about sin or about salvation if we can avoid it.

But even if we've forgotten judgement day, God hasn't.
He is coming.
Soon.