I haven't been on my computer for several days because of the heat wave. My house has no air conditioning, so I spent most of my evenings underneath my remaining shade tree with a glass of cold ice tea and Ken Follett's new book, "Fall of Giants", about Europe during the First World War. I wish my grandmother was still around so we could talk about what it was like to live during that period. I know that it made as much of an impact on her as Vietnam did to me. She was a pacifist through and through and nothing would disgust her more than to hear war talk. "When I was young, they said that they were fighting the war to end all wars," she would say. I feel that now I understand where she got those views and why. She was a Christian, though some would probably think otherwise; she never talked much about salvation or all those other things Pastor talks about each Sunday, but what she did talk about a lot was love, Christ's love, and the Sermon on the Mount. If you have ever read Anna Sewell's "Black Beauty", then you know what my grandma was like, because she had that same spirit as Ms. Sewell.
Anyway, as promised, we launched into the Book of Jonah, using last week's storm as a reference. I must say it certainly brought the text to life! It wasn't hard to imagine the boat being tossed in the waves and wind. And here is an example of what the Roberts were talking about in "When They Severed Earth and Sky." When the storm strikes, immediately the response of everyone on board is, "Who caused it? Who willed it?" Because they didn't have Doppler radar and forecasts like we do today. The Great Lakes where I live has a long, long tradition of storm-caused shipwrecks and I have heard that ocean-going mariners do not like to be on the Lakes during a storm because you cannot outrun it like you can on the open ocean. I imagine that the Mediterranean is much like that. It is a testament to improved forecasting that the Edmund Fitzgerald was the last major ship to go down in the Lakes back in 1975 and there are still many questions as to why she went down, because no other ship went down in that storm.
So the sailors are all screaming and hollering out to their gods when someone remembers that odd passenger they took aboard. They haven't seen him for awhile, so the captain goes down and finds him asleep in the hold. Go figure. They haul him up on deck and command him to pray to his god, because obviously someone upstairs is pissed at them and they don't know who or why. And Jonah, once he realizes the situation, is just as worried as the rest of them, even more so, because he knows he's the cause of all this. Now the pastor is going on and on about a storm that he experienced once on a cruise ship and it was a real-hair raising one, too, with waves as high as a house (they'd be hauling me off to the funny farm if I even survived such a voyage!), without the slightest bit of irony. Apparently it never dawned on anyone on that particular ship that they ought to take a page from Jonah and find out who was causing this storm, but again, as I've said before, we've progressed from that stage.
But if you believe, as they obviously did back then, that sh*t happens because supernatural beings are pulling the strings for their own purposes, then the other side of the equation is that if these beings (or being, as the case may be) are upset with us, then what of the person or persons whose actions triggered this divine wrath? They threw Jonah overboard (though I must add, at his own request). I didn't hear the pastor say that they threw anyone overboard on his ship.
You can see The Jonah Principle over and over again in history. Something bad happens, find the poor slob responsible, and throw him or her overboard. Henry VIII couldn't have a son. His wife, Catherine of Aragon, kept miscarrying. Nowadays, the unhappy couple would just go to a fertility clinic and take care of things. But Henry, having the mindset that everything happens for a reason, decided based on his interpretation of an obscure verse in the Torah, that God was punishing him for marrying Catherine when she had been previously married to his brother. Poor Catherine was put through the mill and her private life put on view for all to see (hey, sounds like our times!). And England went through several decades of religious hell. A radio station once asked who was the most influential woman in the world. Well, that is a hard question, but I would say that Queen Catherine of Aragon would head the top of my list, not because of what she did, but because of what she was unable to do. If she and Henry had had a son together, you probably would not hear much about either one. But she didn't, and so she became another Vashti. But she didn't go quietly, she stood her ground. Yes, they finally succeeded in throwing her out, but in this case, it didn't stop the storm, it only caused a bigger one as more and more Jonahs needed to be found.
And so we've left poor Jonah floundering in the sea. But take heart--rescue is on its way.
Anyway, as promised, we launched into the Book of Jonah, using last week's storm as a reference. I must say it certainly brought the text to life! It wasn't hard to imagine the boat being tossed in the waves and wind. And here is an example of what the Roberts were talking about in "When They Severed Earth and Sky." When the storm strikes, immediately the response of everyone on board is, "Who caused it? Who willed it?" Because they didn't have Doppler radar and forecasts like we do today. The Great Lakes where I live has a long, long tradition of storm-caused shipwrecks and I have heard that ocean-going mariners do not like to be on the Lakes during a storm because you cannot outrun it like you can on the open ocean. I imagine that the Mediterranean is much like that. It is a testament to improved forecasting that the Edmund Fitzgerald was the last major ship to go down in the Lakes back in 1975 and there are still many questions as to why she went down, because no other ship went down in that storm.
So the sailors are all screaming and hollering out to their gods when someone remembers that odd passenger they took aboard. They haven't seen him for awhile, so the captain goes down and finds him asleep in the hold. Go figure. They haul him up on deck and command him to pray to his god, because obviously someone upstairs is pissed at them and they don't know who or why. And Jonah, once he realizes the situation, is just as worried as the rest of them, even more so, because he knows he's the cause of all this. Now the pastor is going on and on about a storm that he experienced once on a cruise ship and it was a real-hair raising one, too, with waves as high as a house (they'd be hauling me off to the funny farm if I even survived such a voyage!), without the slightest bit of irony. Apparently it never dawned on anyone on that particular ship that they ought to take a page from Jonah and find out who was causing this storm, but again, as I've said before, we've progressed from that stage.
But if you believe, as they obviously did back then, that sh*t happens because supernatural beings are pulling the strings for their own purposes, then the other side of the equation is that if these beings (or being, as the case may be) are upset with us, then what of the person or persons whose actions triggered this divine wrath? They threw Jonah overboard (though I must add, at his own request). I didn't hear the pastor say that they threw anyone overboard on his ship.
You can see The Jonah Principle over and over again in history. Something bad happens, find the poor slob responsible, and throw him or her overboard. Henry VIII couldn't have a son. His wife, Catherine of Aragon, kept miscarrying. Nowadays, the unhappy couple would just go to a fertility clinic and take care of things. But Henry, having the mindset that everything happens for a reason, decided based on his interpretation of an obscure verse in the Torah, that God was punishing him for marrying Catherine when she had been previously married to his brother. Poor Catherine was put through the mill and her private life put on view for all to see (hey, sounds like our times!). And England went through several decades of religious hell. A radio station once asked who was the most influential woman in the world. Well, that is a hard question, but I would say that Queen Catherine of Aragon would head the top of my list, not because of what she did, but because of what she was unable to do. If she and Henry had had a son together, you probably would not hear much about either one. But she didn't, and so she became another Vashti. But she didn't go quietly, she stood her ground. Yes, they finally succeeded in throwing her out, but in this case, it didn't stop the storm, it only caused a bigger one as more and more Jonahs needed to be found.
And so we've left poor Jonah floundering in the sea. But take heart--rescue is on its way.
