Facing Nineveh.

The call to love our neighbor sometimes tests us to what we perceive to be our very limits.  Jesus has other dreams for our potential in furthering His Kingdom.  Love God and love your neighbor as yourself, he says.  This is the greatest commandment.  Everything hangs on this He says.  Jonah is a story of someone God called to love some neighbors that he did not believe deserved the mercy of his God.  God had another opinion of this group of people he created in His very own image.  And even though it was the One True God who had invited him on this mission to Nineveh, Our friend Jonah did not change his mind. He chose to go his own way.  Apparently it is not always a matter of saying no to God and walking away.  On this occasion, God just let him go.  No, he continued to pursue Jonah, to “persuade” him, if you will, to go and speak truth and extend mercy on these people Jonah decided were undeserving.   After three unpleasant days, Jonah, by all accounts a man of God, a prophet even, grudgingly decided to go and do what God had called him to do.  And to his dismay, the people repented and turned to God and were shown mercy. 

I believe we all have our Ninevites.  I certainly was faced with neighbors that were hard to love in my tenure as a Social Worker.  Some of the people in my Nineveh were adults and youth who sexually abused others, who abused children, who had given up on their children, who exploited their children for the sake of gaining ground in an ugly custody battle.  Sometimes, through the grace of God I was able to overcome my rage over the evil that one person had inflicted on another with compassion that was able to recognize the brokenness that motivated their actions.  Sometimes, I grudgingly gave them fair treatment solely for the sake of “doing my job.” 

The truth here is that it is not our determination of a person’s worthiness or value, not as someone who has decided to follow Jesus.  He has placed a value of priceless on every last one of us.  Each one is someone to pursue and welcome into His Kingdom.  It is we who create the barriers and the distance between one another.  We allow education, income level, race, language, profession, and even appearance to create miles between us when the truth is we are cut from the same cloth.  The same threads of the canvas have been woven together with great thought and intention to create a beautiful masterpiece for the Creator to enjoy.  Love, laughter, and our sacred relationships supercede culture and are the common thread of who we were created to be.  This is the power of the gospel, of living in the Kingdom Way. This is what has historically gotten people killed.  The way of the Kingdom turns everything upside down, the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.  The security we had in moving up any sort of ladder to increase our status is meaningless.  In the Kingdom we are all on the level.  Broken, yet loved, confident, but with nothing to boast about, for we are in the Kingdom by the same mercy and grace we have all received from our One Savior.