Paralysis

How long, O LORD, must I call for help,

but you do not listen?

Or cry out to you, “Violence!”

but you do not save?

Why do you make me look at injustice?

Why do you tolerate wrong?

Destruction and violence are before me;

There is strife, and conflict abounds.

Therefore the law is paralyzed,

and justice never prevails.

Habakkuk 1:2-4

While walking through the weeping willow grove that winds through the heart of my neighborhood today, I was startled by a dove. It was sitting in the middle of the dirt path and when I approached, it fluttered its wings and gave a screech like tires skidding on the road. This has happened before, and the dove usually flies away, but today after flapping the dove remained on the ground. Its left wing, facing me, was disjointed, jutting up out of its body like a small mountain; a pink wound flashed beneath grey-brown feathers.

This morning I read an article in the newspaper about police officers in Chicago who shot and killed a teenager and a woman on the day after Christmas. The young man had been arguing with his father, threatening him with an aluminum bat, and the father called the police and asked the woman, their neighbor, to open the door when the police arrived.

"Bless the Lord, my soul" (song)

"Bless the Lord, my soul" is a powerful Taize chant.

Bless the Lord, my soul
And bless God's holy name
Bless the Lord, my soul
Who leads me into life. 

I recently discovered the passage on which it is based, Psalm 103:1-5:

Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits--
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases, 
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. 

"Don't be afraid" (song)

Last week, the church I attend, Southeast Church of the Nazarene, hosted its first Skills Camp. Usually towards the end of summer they have a basketball camp in which adults teach children basketball skills and a lesson about God and share Christ's love through all of the activities, but this year they decided to widen the skills taught. This year the skills were creative writing, art, soccer, and the subject which I taught, music.

Each day, we would worship God through music and then the leader, Miko, would teach a lesson about a bible character who persevered through struggles. On the third night, we studied Priscilla. In my lesson for that evening, I tried to teach the children how to sing harmony, so I talked about how Priscilla and Aquila were different people yet worked together in unison, just like harmonies. (Teaching young children to sing harmony is very difficult!) I also talked about how Priscilla and Aquila, along with the apostle Paul, traveled and strengthened the church; similarly, songs can strengthen us.

I taught the children one song that has strengthened me. Last Easter, during the Sunday evening service at the Iona Abbey, the theme was not being afraid, and singer and song leader Alison Adam taught everyone the song "Don't be afraid," a short song written by John Bell.

Don't be afraid, my love is stronger
My love is stronger than your fear
Don't be afraid, my love is stronger
And I have promised, promised to be always near.

Click here to hear a sound clip of this song.

Short song: "The whole earth is filled with God's glory"

Do you ever experience moments when it seems as though the world is worshiping God through its beauty? A couple of days ago I was walking and felt that way, watching the sun bend its rays around a cloud. I wrote this song, borrowing words to express how I was feeling.

Click here to hear a MIDI version of this song.

Short song: "Wake up, O sleeper"

A couple weeks ago I came across the following passage in Ephesians 5:14:

Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.

The message continues to stir me. Apparently these could have been the lyrics to a hymn sung by early Christians. I've written a short song based on the words.

Click here to hear a MIDI version of the song.

Jonah 3-4: "A Garden in the Wilderness"

In the summer of 2013, I went on a class trip to the UK to study worship and Christianity there. As part of my class project, I wrote two sermons based on the book of Jonah. You can read the first sermon here. Below you will find the second sermon, "A Garden in the Wilderness."

Partnering resources:

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 

Acts 10:34-43

"Song of the Vine"

Jonah 3-4

A second chance is a gift, but it does not always make everyone happy.

God's word comes to Jonah a second time:  “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.”  

The first time God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, Jonah ran away. He bought a ticket to sail in the opposite direction. God sent a violent storm, and Jonah told the sailors to throw him overboard because he knew that this storm was from God, and that the only way to stop the storm was for Jonah to stop running from God. God sent a great fish to swallow Jonah, and after being in the belly of the fish for three days and nights, the fish vomited Jonah back on land.  

Now, when God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh, Jonah obeys.  His message to Nineveh is short:  “Forty more days, and Nineveh will be overturned!”  Everyone in Nineveh, from the greatest to the least, turns to God.  And as a result, God turns to the Ninevites.  God changes God's mind and does not bring destruction on the city.

But this makes Jonah very angry.  Jonah wants to die because he has had a hunch that all along, God would forgive the Ninevites, who are the enemies of Jonah's people.  God asks Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry?”

Jonah does not reply to God with words, but by going away.  He sits down east of Nineveh and makes a booth to shelter himself, and watches what will happen to the city.

Then, God plants what is called, in Hebrew, a qiqayon—often translated as “vine,” “bush,” “gourd,” or “plant”--for Jonah.  This is the only place in the Bible where the word qiqayon appears, which makes it very meaningful.  The vine is unique.  It lives for only one day, and yet is the cause for much happiness and grief for Jonah.  

What is the meaning of this vine?

Throughout the book of Jonah, a few very important words are repeated; in particular, the word “great” (which is, in Hebrew, gadol) and the word “evil” (ra'ah).  Earlier, the book describes the “great city” of Nineveh, the “great wind upon the sea,” and the great fish that swallows Jonah.  The author of Jonah uses “evil” to describe Nineveh and the sea storm.  This word “evil” is in the royal edict which calls the Ninevites to “turn from their evil ways.”  Even God's plans against Nineveh are described as destruction, or evil.

Here, with Jonah outside of Nineveh, the two words “great” and “evil” come together.  The NIV translates the verse as “But Jonah was greatly displeased,” but in Hebrew it says that “great evil” comes upon Jonah.  Then God plants the vine, which saves Jonah from his discomfort, from his great evil.  The vine overthrows Jonah's great evil into great joy.

*

When I was in kindergarten, I had a friend named Zach who was in 1st grade.  We didn't have any classes together, but every morning we would sit next to each other on the school bus.  One day, Zach showed me the fossil of a fish that he was going to share with his class that day, and he spoke with me a little about it.  I felt honored to hold and examine this fossil.

One morning later, the bus driver stopped in front of Zach's house, and Zach didn't get on the bus.  Several mornings later, we would wait for him, but he wouldn't come.  Later, I overheard two teachers talking about him, saying that he had been very sick.  I eventually learned that he had died.

The vine reminds me of Zach because for a short while, like the vine, Zach brought me happiness and comfort, and saved me from the great evil of being without a friend, alone.  Our friendship taught me what a good friendship is like, that it involves sharing and happiness.  Zach was a gift to me from God, a friend whose company I could experience for only a short time, as was the vine to Jonah.      

This summer, I joined a class on a trip to Scotland.  For one week, we stayed at the Iona Abbey on the Isle of Iona, where we lived in community with members of the Abbey and about thirty other guests who were visiting.  One of the most memorable encounters I had was at lunch when an older volunteer sat next to me and began talking to me a little about herself. She also shared how she had been thinking about time, and how special a moment it is when we give freely of ourselves to others, when we share our time with them.  She said that her grandmother used to say that she only wished she had more time.  From our conversation I learned that time is a gift from God, but a gift so often difficult to embrace and share.

Iona Abbey

This volunteer encouraged me to be like the vine in the story of Jonah, to share the gift of time and company with others.  Could God have created all of us to be vines for the purpose of comforting, being with, and blessing each other for however much time we live?  To be, together, a garden in the wilderness?

Through the vine, God teaches Jonah how to cherish another living being, giving him the chance to have compassion for the lives of his enemies.  At the end of the book, God says to Jonah, “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”

The vine is a symbol for Nineveh, its people and its animals. Just as Jonah loved the vine, so God loves Nineveh—and far more than Jonah loved the vine, because Jonah did not plant, water, or grow the vine, but God created and has watched over the Ninevites. 

The vine is a symbol for life. Could it be that, just as Jonah dwelled in the shade of that vine, God dwells and receives comfort from Nineveh, from all of life?  Could all of life be a temporary dwelling place in which God delights, a temple through which we can worship God and be in God’s company?

*

In addition to being a symbol for Nineveh and life, the vine may also be a symbol for the place where God dwells, the temple.  After God asks Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry?”, Jonah goes east of Nineveh and builds a booth.  The word for “booth” in Hebrew is sukkah. This is the same word that is used earlier in the Bible, in the book of Leviticus, for the portable shelters that the Israelites lived in when they traveled through the wilderness after their exodus out of Egypt.

When Jonah sits under his booth, God plants the vine. As some writers have suggested, if Jonah's booth is a symbol for the booths that the Israelites lived in when they were in the desert, then it could be that the vine symbolizes the tabernacle, the movable temple in which God lived among the Israelites when they were in the desert.

This would not be out of place in the book of Jonah.  Throughout the book weaves the thread of worship.  Earlier, when the sailors ask Jonah who he is, he says he is a Hebrew who worships God.  When Jonah is swallowed by the fish, Jonah worships in song, yearning for God's temple. So it almost seems fitting for God to build a temple here in this foreign land in which Jonah can worship.

But the twist is that the next day, God destroys this temple!  The very place where God lives is destroyed by God.  Maybe Jonah does have a right to be angry.  Not only has God spared the Israelites' enemies from destruction; God has done violence against God's own servant, Jonah, through a scorching east wind, and worse, against God's own temple, through a worm.  If the house where God is supposed to live is destroyed, then where is God?

This question of God’s presence has lurked throughout the whole book of Jonah. When God first calls Jonah to go to Nineveh, Jonah runs in the opposite direction from Nineveh, and in the opposite direction from God’s presence. In the belly of the fish, Jonah sings and learns that even there, God is listening. Now, in his anger, looking at the great city, Jonah debates directly with God, which suggests that God is also here, in Nineveh. If the vine, symbolizing God’s temple, is destroyed, then where else can Jonah look for God except in the city that is before Jonah’s eyes? 

Jonah is angered to learn that God’s presence is not only in Israel, but also in Nineveh. Jonah is angered to learn that God’s concern is not only for the Israelites, but also for the Ninevites. But this is no surprise to Jonah. He has known this all along.

*

I go to a school in Richmond, Indiana, called Earlham School of Religion.  It is very diverse. First, it is a Christian seminary in the tradition of the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers.  Our seminary is in partnership with another seminary which belongs to the Church of the Brethren.  Also, many students at my school are not Quakers.  There are members of different denominations, such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Unitarian Universalist Church, the Assemblies of God, and the Church of the Nazarene. And some students do not identify themselves as Christians.

Beyond faith traditions, the student body is between the ages of twenty-three and eighty; I am friends with students from Africa, South America, and North America; and each of us comes from different ways of life and different perspectives on politics, social issues, and God.

And I haven’t even mentioned our personality types!

At my school, we study, work, play, and worship God together. But being in such a community has sometimes made me feel like Jonah.  My boundary line dividing who I think God loves and who I think God works and dwells among has become blurred, if not often erased, and this has made me uneasy and confused.  

But the presence of God is not something that I can point to and spot the way I can spot, for instance, the color red or the moon. I have been challenged to look for God’s presence in the people at my school—in all places and people—and to be open to who I believe God is and is not concerned about, who God is and is not working and moving through, open to who I believe does and does not count as God’s beloved. 

I believe God has been asking me, just as God asked Jonah, “Should I not be concerned about that great city?” At the end of the story, it is Jonah, and no longer the Ninevites, who need to turn to God. Just as Jonah cherished the vine, God has cherished the Ninevites even before the Ninevites turned to God, and God continues to love them. Will Jonah do the same? Will we?

*

With this question, “Should I not be concerned?”, the book of Jonah ends. We are left wondering what Jonah thinks of all this, what Jonah will do next. We are left wondering what we think of all this, what we will do next. 

Like Jonah, we too may be challenged today to share God’s concern for all people, especially the people most difficult for us to love. But Jonah is not the only character we can identify with in this story. Here before I finish, I would like to return to the Ninevites, and to a question that they ask. 

Jonah has preached to the Ninevites plainly:  “Forty more days, and Nineveh will be overturned!”  It is a simple sermon with no hope.  Yet the Ninevites express the kind of faith that we would expect only the people of God to have.  They believe God.  They become the holy people, mourning their sin and turning toward God.  Jonah tells them they are running out of time, and so they redeem the time they have and live into the question, the wager, upon which all their hope depends:  “Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” Another translation says, “Who knows?  God may relent and change his mind.”  

It is through this question, “Who knows?”, through this hope, that the Ninevites mourn their sin and receive God’s forgiveness. It is through hope that the Ninevites live. 

There is no reason for the Ninevites to expect that God will change God's mind.  As far as we know, the Ninevites have never before heard from or spoken to God, nor do they know God's ways.  But it is the Ninevites' only hope to hope that God cares for even them.  And they are right.

Just as Jonah cared for the vine, and just as God cares for the Ninevites, God cares for you.

What is your hope? What do you ask God for? May you have the same hope and courage as the Ninevites, even when the future seems to have already been written against you.

God may change God’s mind. Though you may fear otherwise, God delights in you. Time may overflow: time to cherish other people, time to cherish God, time to cherish life itself. It is not too late to turn to God, to live rightly, to live. Your future may be full of great joy. God may make a way for all people and all things to live together in the fullness of God’s love. God has, and God will. God may be as good as we hope God is—maybe even better. God may give a second chance.

Who knows?

Whatever you do in word. . .

I'm preparing to teach a bible study on Colossians 3:1-17. I was reflecting on verse 17 today: “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” I noticed something today that I hadn’t thought about before in the following lines: “In everything you do, whether in word or deed. . .”

Normally, when we think of doing something, we think only of deeds; physical actions, such as pruning tree branches or walking. Often times we think that words are not actions. 1 John 3:18, for instance, draws a clear line between words and actions: “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” Indeed, in this case, words fail to communicate compassionate love when they are not consistent with actions.

However, in Colossians 3:17, Paul includes communicating with words as one of the things we do, suggesting that expressing words is an action. After all, did not God create all things through speaking, through the Word?

What does it mean to communicate with words in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the father through him? How can my words, in whatever form they take, express the imprint of Christ’s character and reputation? How integrated are my words with the rest of my life? What does it look like to praise and give thanks to God through Christ in the act of communicating?

Sermon: "I Worship the LORD"

In the summer of 2013, I went on a trip to study worship and Christianity in the UK. My class was required to create a worship-related project, and mine included two sermons from the book of Jonah. Here is my first sermon, "I Worship the LORD."

Jonah 1-2

There are many ways to worship God, but some ways are better than others.

The book of Jonah begins with God calling the prophet Jonah to cry out against the wicked city of Nineveh. In response, Jonah flees from the presence of God. He goes in the opposite direction, buying a ticket to Tarshish.

But God will not let go of Jonah. God sends a storm that threatens to break up the ship Jonah is on. The sailors do all they can to lighten their load. Jonah, however, is asleep at the bottom of the ship. The sailors cast lots and discover that Jonah is to blame for the storm. They ask him a variety of questions to learn who he is: “What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?”

               

In response, Jonah says, “I am a Hebrew. I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and dry land.”

It is interesting that Jonah answers by saying that he worships God. He could have said, “I am a prophet,” or “I am the son of Amittai,” or “I was born in Israel.” Instead, Jonah defines himself as someone who worships God.

               

What does it mean to worship God? If you break the word apart, worship means “worth-ship,” or something that has worth, or value. We give worth to many things. When we eat lunch with friends, we are saying that they are worth our time. When we go for a walk, we give worth to the experience of walking, turning aside from doing something else, such as reading a book or going on a computer. To worship God, then, is to say that God is worth our time and attention. If you go back far enough into the history of the word “worship,” you come to the word vertere, which means “turn.” God is worth the turn that we make in order to remember and give ourselves to God.

               

This summer, I joined a class trip to Scotland and England. For one week, we stayed at the Iona Abbey on the Isle of Iona, Scotland, where we lived in community with members of the abbey and about thirty other guests who were visiting.

One of the things I learned while on Iona is that the Iona Community considers everything they do—from sharing meals to cleaning up to singing to hiking—to be a form of worship. So they do not call their services “worship services” because that would mean that everything else they do is not worship. Instead, they consider the services “public worship.” This has made me think about everything I do as potentially an act of worship to God.

Writing an essay for class can be an act of worship because through writing, I can delight in God’s gift of words. Walking to class can be an act of worship because I can give thanks for the beauty of the morning light. Listening and sharing in conversations can be an act of worship because it can fulfill the commandment to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Even a seemingly insignificant part of my life, such as brushing my teeth, can be an act of worship—although some cases take more creativity than others in discovering exactly how they are worship. Any moment can be an opportunity to turn to God.

Jonah makes that turn when he answers the sailors, saying, “I worship the LORD.” This is the turning point of Jonah’s story. So far, he has been running from God and God’s calling. But when he answers the sailors’ questions by saying that he worships God, he reveals that he is now taking God seriously, that he is waking up and remembering who he truly is: someone who worships God. As a result, everything changes.

*

It is not only interesting what Jonah says, but when he says it. By saying “I worship the LORD” in the middle of his running from God, Jonah suggests that running from God is one of the ways he worships.

How is running from God an act of worship? We find out later that Jonah does not want to go to Nineveh because he has a hunch that if he preaches to the Ninevites, who are the enemies of Jonah’s people, then God will forgive the Ninevites. And if God forgives them, then perhaps Jonah will have to forgive them too. Jonah’s running expresses not only his hatred for his enemies, but also his knowledge of how great God’s mercy is for all people. Jonah’s running declares the steadfast love and compassion of God. Like a child’s tantrum or prayer, Jonah’s running also expresses desire or fear. And at the very least, running from God shows that God is worth the energy it takes to run!

Like Jonah, some of us may be running from God or God’s call. Sometimes God asks us to do things we do not want to do, so we run. We turn away.

During our week on Iona, one day some of us rode a boat to the island of Staffa. A small group of us climbed along the edge of a cliff into Fingal’s Cave, where I felt a tiny urge to sing. But I dismissed the thought. Then I heard a woman’s voice, followed by another voice in harmony, singing a hymn.

Staffa

The next day, I was reflecting on my time on Iona, and I thought about Fingal’s Cave and how I did not sing, and the question came to me: “Why didn’t you sing?” I did not answer right away, but I later realized that I did not sing because I was afraid of what people might think of me, afraid of standing out.

The question “Why didn’t you sing?” had significance for me not only regarding my decision to not sing in Fingal’s Cave, but for other times when I had an opportunity to sing, to worship God, to follow God’s calling, and I did not obey. I ran.

Perhaps, in some strange way, my running from God was a form of worship. But it was incomplete. If Jonah, or I, or we want to fully worship God, we must eventually stop running and return to God, as Jonah does when he answers the sailors’ questions. In other words, even our running may bring glory to God. But let’s strive for better, more mature forms of worship. We will never know what could have happened had Jonah, had we, said “Yes” the first time.

*

               

Upon hearing about Jonah’s God, who made the sea and land, the sailors are frightened, and they ask what they must do to Jonah in order to stop the storm. Jonah says to throw him overboard. Here Jonah not only says he worships God, but he acts like it. When he offers himself into the sea, Jonah offers his life back to God. The sailors ask God for mercy for what they are about to do. And when they throw Jonah overboard and the storm ceases, the sailors worship God.

What does Jonah gain by saying “Yes” to God, by confessing the truth, by jumping into the sea? At the end of the story, Jonah goes and preaches to the Ninevites, and as he predicted, the Ninevites turn to God and God forgives them. Jonah does not get what he wants. But he does gain firsthand knowledge of the love of God. And until he obeys God, he threatens his own life and the lives of those around him.

*

               

Through a large fish that swallows Jonah, God gives Jonah a second chance. In the belly of the fish, Jonah keeps his word to the sailors: he worships God by singing a psalm of thanksgiving. Here is how he ends his song:

As my life was ebbing away,

I remembered the Lord;

And my prayer came to you,

Into your holy temple.

Those who worship vain idols

Forsake their true loyalty.

But I with the voice of thanksgiving

Will sacrifice to you;

What I have vowed I will pay.

Deliverance belongs to the Lord!

In the belly of the fish, Jonah makes a sacrifice. But this sacrifice is not with an animal, as it would have been at the temple; it is with singing. Before, Jonah worshiped God incompletely by running from God. He worshiped the idol of a life apart from God. Now that Jonah turns toward God, his worship is complete, and he is ready to go to Nineveh.

Through the fish, God gives Jonah a second chance to fulfill his call as a prophet and preach to Nineveh. But not only that: God gives Jonah a second chance to fulfill his deeper call, the call deep within us all, to worship God fully.

This gives me hope that despite our running away from God, God gives us second chances. God does not give up on us.

Perhaps some of us are running from something God has been prompting us to do. Perhaps some of

us are running from God. Keep your eyes out for God’s presence following you even in your running. Keep listening for questions that life may ask you, opportunities to answer truthfully and turn to God. Keep looking for God’s invitations and second chances, and when they come, may you have the courage to respond with “Yes.”

There are many ways to worship God, but some ways are better than others. Jonah’s life expresses many different ways to worship God—running, speaking truthfully, singing—but perhaps the best way he worships is by obeying God. May God give us the ears to hear God’s call and the courage to follow. And wherever God may lead us, whether to a great city or to the bottom of the world, may we, like Jonah, learn to sing.

Sermon on Jonah 3-4: "A Garden in the Wilderness"