Laying Down A Paving Stone

In today’s gospel reading, the people are gathering around Jesus. Clearly he was saying something that was catching people’s attention. He is frustrated, however, because he knows that many of his listeners are asking for a “sign” of some kind that will prove to them convincingly that he is the one from God.

So he says that the only sign they’re going to get is the sign of Jonah. That’s it.

Having a greater understanding of that reference is such an important part of understanding this passage. I don’t pretend that I see it all clearly, but let’s have a closer look.

Jonah gets the call to go tell the people of Nineveh to turn from their ways, but he is definitely kind of a narrow-minded, selfish person. In fact, he:

• Is not interested in saving the Ninevites and heads in another direction
• Sulks and sort of pouts when the people actually turn from their ways (maybe he wanted them to get their punishment?)
• Talks back to God
• Is seemingly is more upset about the loss of his gourd-tree (that gave him shade) than the potential loss of about 100,000 Ninevites (and the creatures who lived there) that were about to be destroyed.

Ultimately Jonah does what God asks but is basically dragged there kicking and screaming. And the Book of Jonah ends somewhat abruptly without Jonah necessarily having a Hollywood ending or deep a-ha moment.  God offers a question for Jonah to continue pondering (which we, too, are intended to ponder).

One way that I interpret the “sign” of Jonah that Jesus mentioned is that God’s kin-dom is so much more inclusive than we can imagine. For me, Jonah represents all of us who get so caught up in our lives, our families, our personal projects, our perspective, our rights, our families, our safety, our comfort, our right-ness, etc. that we lose our bearings about what else is really important. This can happen individually and collectively. In essence, we become so narrowly-focused that we lose a bigger perspective on the world.

In the last chapter of the book of Jonah (and I’d recommend you go and read it, it’s only 4 chapters), God essentially says to Jonah, “You’re angry over losing a gourd plant???? There are like 120,000 lives at stake as well as the lives of animals! Please get some perspective here, Jonah.”

Getting some perspective.

Just yesterday I was at a book talk and dialogue with Roxy Manning who released a book called How to Have Antiracist Conversations; Embracing Our Full Humanity to Challenge White Supremacy. Roxy is an amazing writer and speaker and utilizes her skills and commitments around nonviolence and nonviolent communication to help us address racism and white supremacy in our world. But she also utilizes the idea of Beloved Community which was made popular by Martin Luther King, Jr.

For King and for Roxy Manning, the Beloved Community is “a realistic, achievable goal that could be attained by a critical mass of people committed to and trained in the philosophy and methods of nonviolence.”¹  Furthermore, Beloved Community includes a global vision in which everyone (and I would imagine King would advocate for plants, animals, forests, lakes, oceans, etc.) shares in the bounty of the earth. In the Beloved Community, people would have what they need to thrive, and conflicts would be resolved peacefully. King also saw actions like boycotts and nonviolent protest as tools for bringing about Beloved Community and often said, “the end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the Beloved Community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opponents into friends. It is this type of understanding goodwill that will transform the deep gloom of the old age into the exuberant gladness of the new age. It is this love which will bring about miracles in the hearts of [people].”²

That’s why Roxy Manning wants to work on dismantling white supremacy – because it stands in the way of the Beloved Community. Manning is also focused on dismantling “all of the beliefs and ideas and practices that have dehumanized all people…(p.200).” She goes on to say that she’s actually not interested in changing who the system is serving, but, instead, dismantling it entirely because “in such a system, no one is truly served, whether they are in the putative power-up or power-down position (p.201).”

Back to Jesus and Jonah.

I don’t know about you, but I relate to Jonah (much as I don’t like to admit it). I know that I have too small a vision and respond to very minor things in the face of much larger realities. I get caught in my feelings, my ego, my fears, my righteousness, my jealousies, my comparisons and lose perspective. I carry my own forms of cynicism, resentment, bitterness and envy and often succumb to a scarcity mentality. I fail to see my deep connection to the other. I get stuck on gourds!

And what I think frustrated Jesus so much is that the people of his day were asking for a sign – not that we’re all interconnected and part of the Beloved Community – but for a sign of their specialness or rightness. They wanted to know that they were “going to be OK” or that their families or group were going to be taken care of. And Jesus just won’t do this. He said, “Go look at the story of Jonah and see that the God I serve is bigger than you or your group. The God I serve is bigger than any of your narrow agendas.” That is the sign of Jonah.

With everything going on in the world, I know that I struggle to believe that the Beloved Community can really become a reality, and the shade of my gourd can be a pretty tempting place to rest!

Yet as Roxy Manning encouraged us yesterday, “Find a place where you can impact…and interrupt harm there…Don’t let the harm be invisible…This is how you make a difference.”

This week, we will all have opportunities to “interrupt harm” no matter where we are or no matter what we do (because there is no short supply of harm). We can decide not to dehumanize others (even those we dislike) in word or deed. We can hold compassion for ourselves and others even when strong feelings arise. We can work to use creative and imaginative responses to address harms against us or others. We can work to remind ourselves that our thriving is deeply tied to the thriving of others and act on that.

What we do may not “change the world,” per se, yet it will have an impact. As Roxy Manning says in the end of her book, “Every time I find the courage and self-possession to have an authentic dialogue, every time I hold myself with warm compassion, every time I allow myself to pause and recenter presence, every time I take action that seeks to meaningfully repair harm, I am laying down a paving stone, next to the many others already laid, on the road that will take us [to the Beloved Community] (p.205).”

1. https://thekingcenter.org/about-tkc/the-king-philosophy/
2. Ibid.