2017 Belmont University Lenten Devotional GuideSample

Today’s Hebrew Bible passage begins at the end of Jonah’s story. Jonah has already delivered a prophecy of destruction on God’s behalf. And right after Jonah delivered His most compelling Hell-fire-brimstone sermon, the unexpected occurs. Nineveh repents. God spares them. And now, Jonah is mad about it. He wants God to follow through with the destruction. Silly Jonah. However, I wonder if we fight the impulse to trivialize Jonah and his candid confession, might we see ourselves in him? In the last few years, I have become increasingly frustrated with the state of our world. As much as I want to believe that things are getting better, the testimonies of my community tell a different story: black humans killed by those who are supposed to protect them, churches closing their doors to LGBTQ people based on poor readings of six verses, college students feeling emboldened to post racist Snapchats, friends in denial, telling me, “It isn’t really that bad.” Like Jonah, I frequently find myself shaking a fist at God, candidly confessing my frustrations. Where is God’s justice? Where is God’s wrath? Why do evildoers prosper? Why doesn’t God smite the evil people of Nineveh, Nashville, Washington D.C.? How many more times must I read “How long, O Lord?” in my Facebook News Feed? And perhaps my candid, angry confession has just as much to do with me as it does with those on whom I want judgment to fall. Many times, it is much easier to point to the darkness out there as opposed to unearthing the darkness within. Perhaps, the darkness out there enrages me, enrages us, scares us because we know that, at least in part, the darkness out there also lives within. The unjust system against which we rage is also the system with which we are complicit and from which we benefit. We, too, are Nineveh. Today’s psalm invites us to look inward, confess our sins, and implore God to create in us clean hearts, broken spirits, and souls that are crushed for the things that crush God’s soul. May our frustration with the state of the world compel us, first, to journey inward, confessing our own sins of complacency and selfishness. Once we’ve experienced the Easter promise of pardon and transformation, may we, like Jonah, sometimes reluctantly, bear witness to God’s justice and mercy to a world in desperate need of both. BRANDON MAXWELL Class of 2009 College of Theology & Christian Ministry