Courgettes and greatness

'Courgette' is the French name, used in the UK, for 'zucchini'

For the past two months, we have been enjoying the steady growth of our courgettes (a kind of squash in the gourd family). However, we've been harvesting them as soon as they are about four to six inches long, rather than waiting until they grow larger to become marrows. The main reason for this is that many of our young courgettes have rotted, so we pluck them as soon as they are ready. 

Apparently there are many possible causes for the withering of young courgettes. In our case, the most likely reason is poor drainage or too much rain, each of which disturb the root development.

A similar challenge involving a gourd plant occurred for the prophet Jonah. While sitting on the outskirts of the city of Nineveh, a gourd plant grew beside him, shading him from the heat. (Who knows? It could have been a courgette.) But the next morning, a worm devoured the plant, and when Jonah discovered this, he became angry. This led to a conversation with God in which God explained that, just as Jonah cared for the gourd, so God cared for the people of Nineveh.

As the capital of the Assyrian Empire, the Ninevites had a reputation for doing evil and violence. But God saw their value beneath their evil, giving them a chance to humbly repent and become holy. Nineveh was like the gourd plant, planted to provide shade and comfort to others, but just as the worm devoured the gourd, Nineveh's evil was leading to its own demise. 

Thus, God sends Jonah to preach against Nineveh's sins, in the hope that they will turn to God. The plan works. As soon as they hear Jonah's preaching, all the people of Nineveh, from the greatest to the least, declare a fast and wear garments of mourning. Even the king leaves his throne to sit upon ashes. Most importantly, they resolve to cease committing evil and violence, and they turn to God. This results in God having mercy on them and sparing them from destruction. At the end of the book, God tells Jonah Nineveh is a 'great city' because in it dwell thousands of people in need of guidance (they 'do not know either their right hand or their left'), and much livestock. 

Nineveh can resemble any nation, group or individual with both great power and great evil. I have been thinking about Nineveh because of a recent conversation I had with someone about my being an American living in the UK. He asked me, 'What good has come out of America?' I could almost hear beneath that question a resemblance to Jonah's question about Nineveh: is this nation worth God's mercy?

This may sound like a strange question, but it is relevant, especially in a time when most of the news people in the UK hear about the US is terrible: mass shootings, police brutality, violent protests and sexual abuse -- just to name a few examples. 

I said I could answer their question on several levels, but ultimately the good that I have seen in America comes from things one doesn't read about in the news: people I know who love their neighbours as themselves, people who 'act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with [their] God'. Throughout the many places I've lived and travelled in the US, I have met families and communities that welcome strangers and support those in need with mercy and compassion.

Where does this greatness in mercy come from? I believe it begins with repentance, just as the Ninevites' greatness was restored through their repentance. To illustrate, a friend on Facebook recently posted a picture of a family kneeling in prayer in their sitting room. The caption of the picture said something like 'This is how America becomes great again'. 

Someone commented in opposition, saying what's needed is not prayer, but that people should live as Jesus lived. I understand the reasoning behind this response; prayer alone is meaningless if we don't live in obedience to God's commands, seeking justice for those who are wronged and supporting the most vulnerable in our midst. Jesus spoke against those who flaunted their spiritual resources and yet did not show mercy to people in need. 

But Jesus also prayed regularly and taught his disciples to pray, and he marked the beginning of his public ministry by fasting and praying in the wilderness for forty days. Prayer was foundational, and thus essential, to his work of teaching, healing and liberating people from evil. Jesus is even now praying on our behalf before the heavenly throne, as it says in the book of Hebrews. 

Not only that; prayer is putting ourselves in a posture of humility before God. Every time we come before God in humility, we are repenting to some degree, since repentance is turning away from ourselves and turning to God. 

Without such ongoing repentance, we become like courgettes rotting from poor soil conditions. But when we turn from the evil and violence that are in each of us and turn instead to God, then with God's help we will destroy the worm that eats away at us, and God's healing will come. 

God has created all people for greatness. But this greatness does not come from doing violence or following our passions, which destroy us in the end; rather, it begins with humbling ourselves before God so that we may receive mercy, which leads to a life empowered by God in joyful service to others. This is true greatness.

As Jesus said, 'Whoever humbles himself will be exalted'. He is our leader in this, as he humbled himself even to death, and was raised by God as the victor over death and evil. He grants all who follow him the power to crush the sin that devours us, recovering our identity as children of God and granting us citizenship into the kingdom of heaven.