Well, I guess the pastor feels he needs to take a break from Acts because he announced that this coming Sunday we are going to start on the Book of Jonah. Oh, boy.
Jonah is best known for his misadventure with a whale (actually a big fish), and I suspect very strongly that he (the pastor) is going to insist that we swallow this fish tale hook, line and sinker. It seems that God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell the people there that unless they clean up their act pronto God was going to destroy the place. Jonah, who hadn't yet learned that you don't mess with God when He tells you to do something, decides he's going to take a Mediterranean cruise instead. An unexpected (well, in those days before Doppler radar and satellites, any storm was unexpected) storm blows up, and the terrified sailors throw Jonah overboard when they find out that he's the one responsible. Now one thing I've noticed about this Bible business, whenever there are natural disasters, it is somewhat like a kid watching his or her parents argue and thinking that he or she is the one to blame for Mommy and Daddy not getting along. If something bad happens, it's because we made God angry. Now I know that the pastor said last week regarding the earthquake that sprung Paul and Silas out of jail in Phillippi that sometimes God uses natural phenomena for His purposes (and sometimes He doesn't). The problem is we don't know which it is (there's that uncertainty principle again!). And it seems a bit egotistical to say that an earthquake or a tornado or a derecho was sent for me and me alone when it affects many other people. Like the storm that Jonah experienced.
So Jonah sets out for Nineveh, which according to the Bible is so big that it takes three days to cross it. Now I don't really know a whole lot about Nineveh but I suspect that the Good Book exaggerates somewhat as I do know that Nineveh is an archaeological site and I don't think it takes three days to walk across what is left of it. But that doesn't matter. He starts out proclaiming his message of doom and gloom, just like our friend Harold Camping (what Jonah wouldn't have given for Camping's finances and ability to broadcast worldwide!). Then he goes outside and sits and waits. What happens? The same thing that happened on May 21. Nothing. I can just see Jonah and Harold in a bar commiserating. Of course there has to be an explanation. Well, what happened is that all of the Ninevites decided to clean up their act. Ok, then why hasn't anyone discovered any record of this mass conversion? I mean a town that size, that has got to be news. Especially if "repenting" means abandoning their former idolatrous religion and turning to Judaism. Seems it would be in the records somewhere. Oh, well, maybe Pastor will shed some light on this.
Meanwhile we have left Paul and Silas on the road to Athens where they will get into more trouble (to be continued). Spoiler alert: Acts ends with Paul having one run-in too many with the Roman authorities and ends up being sent to Rome to live under house arrest while awaiting the results of his appeal to the emperor. Why Luke chose to end his story there has mystified generations of readers ever since. Tradition says that things did not go well for Paul and he wound up being beheaded. Was there something about his martyrdom that Luke thought it best not to mention? "I am torn between living and dying," Paul wrote his Phillippian converts, "I want to be with you, but to die is to gain Christ." And on and on in similar vein. But that moment before the axe (or sword) fell, did Paul have a sudden change of heart, that the world he professed to despise in favor of heaven, did it suddenly not seem so bad after all? What were his last thoughts? Was he strengthened by a vision, by the thought that now he would be forever united in all ways with his beloved Christ, or was his last experience one of unspeakable pain followed by oblivion? We shall never know.
Jonah is best known for his misadventure with a whale (actually a big fish), and I suspect very strongly that he (the pastor) is going to insist that we swallow this fish tale hook, line and sinker. It seems that God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell the people there that unless they clean up their act pronto God was going to destroy the place. Jonah, who hadn't yet learned that you don't mess with God when He tells you to do something, decides he's going to take a Mediterranean cruise instead. An unexpected (well, in those days before Doppler radar and satellites, any storm was unexpected) storm blows up, and the terrified sailors throw Jonah overboard when they find out that he's the one responsible. Now one thing I've noticed about this Bible business, whenever there are natural disasters, it is somewhat like a kid watching his or her parents argue and thinking that he or she is the one to blame for Mommy and Daddy not getting along. If something bad happens, it's because we made God angry. Now I know that the pastor said last week regarding the earthquake that sprung Paul and Silas out of jail in Phillippi that sometimes God uses natural phenomena for His purposes (and sometimes He doesn't). The problem is we don't know which it is (there's that uncertainty principle again!). And it seems a bit egotistical to say that an earthquake or a tornado or a derecho was sent for me and me alone when it affects many other people. Like the storm that Jonah experienced.
So Jonah sets out for Nineveh, which according to the Bible is so big that it takes three days to cross it. Now I don't really know a whole lot about Nineveh but I suspect that the Good Book exaggerates somewhat as I do know that Nineveh is an archaeological site and I don't think it takes three days to walk across what is left of it. But that doesn't matter. He starts out proclaiming his message of doom and gloom, just like our friend Harold Camping (what Jonah wouldn't have given for Camping's finances and ability to broadcast worldwide!). Then he goes outside and sits and waits. What happens? The same thing that happened on May 21. Nothing. I can just see Jonah and Harold in a bar commiserating. Of course there has to be an explanation. Well, what happened is that all of the Ninevites decided to clean up their act. Ok, then why hasn't anyone discovered any record of this mass conversion? I mean a town that size, that has got to be news. Especially if "repenting" means abandoning their former idolatrous religion and turning to Judaism. Seems it would be in the records somewhere. Oh, well, maybe Pastor will shed some light on this.
Meanwhile we have left Paul and Silas on the road to Athens where they will get into more trouble (to be continued). Spoiler alert: Acts ends with Paul having one run-in too many with the Roman authorities and ends up being sent to Rome to live under house arrest while awaiting the results of his appeal to the emperor. Why Luke chose to end his story there has mystified generations of readers ever since. Tradition says that things did not go well for Paul and he wound up being beheaded. Was there something about his martyrdom that Luke thought it best not to mention? "I am torn between living and dying," Paul wrote his Phillippian converts, "I want to be with you, but to die is to gain Christ." And on and on in similar vein. But that moment before the axe (or sword) fell, did Paul have a sudden change of heart, that the world he professed to despise in favor of heaven, did it suddenly not seem so bad after all? What were his last thoughts? Was he strengthened by a vision, by the thought that now he would be forever united in all ways with his beloved Christ, or was his last experience one of unspeakable pain followed by oblivion? We shall never know.
