The Jonah Complex

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Jonah, Liturgical Seasons, Religious Thoughts

This morning the reading from Jonah at Mass got me to thinking about what I am going to call the Jonah Complex.  The reading itself didn’t actually cover the complex but reminded me of the story in its entirety and the more I thought the more I got drawn into pondering on the complex.

You know the story, God asks Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell them to change their ways or God will destroy the city, Jonah first of all decides to flee and ends up in a large fish, finally he goes and does as God has asked and all the people great and small repent.  These two elements of the story are often majored on, but it was the is the final part of the tale, the Jonah Complex that has been travelling with me all day.  The notion that when God turns bad into good, when God’s promises come true, we fall out with God.  In Johan’s case it is how dare God not destroy Nineveh, the fourth and final chapter of the book.

Jonah was furious. He lost his temper. He yelled at God, “God! I knew it—when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That’s why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness!  God said, “What do you have to be angry about?”  But Jonah just left. He went out of the city to the east and sat down in a sulk. He put together a makeshift shelter of leafy branches and sat there in the shade to see what would happen to the city.  God arranged for a broad-leafed tree to spring up. It grew over Jonah to cool him off and get him out of his angry sulk. Jonah was pleased and enjoyed the shade. Life was looking up.  But then God sent a worm. By dawn of the next day, the worm had bored into the shade tree and it withered away. The sun came up and God sent a hot, blistering wind from the east. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head and he started to faint. He prayed to die: “I’m better off dead!”  Then God said to Jonah, “What right do you have to get angry about this shade tree?”  Jonah said, “Plenty of right. It’s made me angry enough to die!” God said, “What’s this? How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted nor watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night. So, why can’t I likewise change what I feel about Nineveh from anger to pleasure, this big city of more than 120,000 childlike people who don’t yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all the innocent animals?”

translation – The Message

I have seen such reactions in churches towards individuals, towards vestries, towards clerics and towards whole congregations.  The astonishing thing is that these reactions often come about after prayer has been answered in a positive way.  People want help with something, so they pray to God, one presumes that such prayer is done in faith and with some kind of hope that God will respond.  However, when God then has the audacity to hear and respond to their prayers and make things better the complex kicks in.  People get all indignant about the fact they no longer have that particular thing to grumble about.  They grumble even more about it than they ever did while it was still around.  They grumble about the fact something has ‘changed’ even if it is a change for the better.  They grumble about the fact the old problem isn’t there any more.  They grumble about all the ways in the past they had tried to solve the problem and failed.  They grumble to God and to each other.  Sometimes they, like Jonah, even grumble about the fact that because the problem is no  longer there they look foolish in some bizarre way.  They sulk as Jonah sulked and they grumble about the conditions that they sulk in.  Such displays aren’t restricted to God’s people, oh no, it is almost as if it is part of the human condition.  To grumble when things are bad and grumble some more when they are put right.

For people of faith it could be said it is back to that old adage

‘Be careful what you pray for, because you might just get it.’

In this season of Lent we are often inclined to associate ourselves with the people of Nineveh, our need to repnet, but we shouldn’t forget Jonah, not just his running from God, but also his complex.  For when Lent ends; I know it isn’t long started but that is all for the good as it gives us time to work on this; for when Lent ends we need to be fully prepared to live in the light of the risen Son and not be tempted back into Lenten woes.  Ready to rejoice for ourselves and for others.  Ready to put the past behind us and leave it there.  Ready to celebrate all the good things God has done, all of them.

Dusk in Argyll

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Photography, The UK

A Lenten Thought

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Liturgical Seasons, Quotes

What good would it do if truth stood before us, cold and naked, not caring whether we recognised her or not, and producing in us a shudder of fear rather than a trusting devotion?

The Journals Of Kierkegaard translated by Alexander Dru

Sunday Angel

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Photography, Sunday angel

Friday Jaunt

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Photography, The UK

Yesterday with the Beef Stew in the Slow Cooker, Hubby and I headed off for the bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond, in particular Luss.  Grabbing a picnic lunch we ate near the beach with a large group of ducks hopefully of some crumbs before heading for a walk along the beach.

Where we spotted this unusual fungi on a tree stump:

I have never come across anything like it before, beautiful.

It is hard to believe it is February, okay we both had scarfs on and when you got in the wind boy was it chilly, but still the sun was bright enough for me to get the sunglasses out and the sun and clouds played at making patterns on Ben Lomond.

Luss is a charming wee village that I used to visit often, but hadn’t been for a while, I hadn’t in fact realised that Hubby had never been at all, so I was looking forward to showing him Luss Parish church, unfortunately the church itself was shut so he had to manage on this occasion with a wander round the grave yard.  My ancestors have links with Luss, maybe that is why it always seems such a special place to me.

We wandered the quaint streets before Hubby refused a cup of tea – I know I was shocked too – and we headed back to the car.  We took the long way home arriving to the smell of beef stew awaiting us.  All in all a good day off.

 

Clearing Out The Gutters For Lent

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4 Maccabees, Liturgical Seasons, Photography, Religion

It is recommended, especially if you live near trees, that you should clean out your gutters after the leaves have fallen so that they don’t block your gutters and cause water ingress into your home.  Well in this country it is recommended, but in Norway the story is somewhat different.

This house is part of the Romsdal Folk Museum in Romsdal, Norway.  The Norwegians were onto the whole idea of covering your roof with grass instead of tiles long before it became the thing of the eco-set, this home missed one of the vital necessities for a grass roof, that is the need to occasionally put a sheep or goat up on it for never mind leaves in the gutters, you don’t want a tree growing out of your roof for pretty soon the roots will work their way into your home and your home will be no more.

Just as pleasure and pain are two plants growing from the body and the soul, so there are many offshoots of these plants, each of which the master cultivator, reason, weeds and prunes and ties up and waters and thoroughly irrigates, and so tames the jungle of habits and emotions.

4 Maccabees 1:28-29

Taming the jungle of our habits and emotions that sounds very Lenten indeed doesn’t it – maybe it is time to check the roof.

Go To Sleep Little Baby

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Books, Films, Music

Hubby and I sat down to watch ‘O Brother, where art thou’ on Sunday.  Bassed on The Oddesy it is a great way to remind oneself of the book without having to plough through it again, plus it has the added advantage of some great songs.

The 40 Acorn Challenge – Ideas

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Liturgical Seasons

Have you picked up the challenge?

I am not going to post on here each day what I have decided to do every day for the challenge, as I think that slightly spoils the point of it, it shouldn’t be about saying look what I’ve done but about doing something because it should be done and for no personal gain.  However I was asked for some ideas to help you on your way so here goes.

• If you click here you will be taken to Christian Aid’s site were one of your options could be to purchase 20 fruit trees  – Fruit trees could provide healthy, nutritious fruit for struggling families in and around Jinotega, one of the poorest areas of Nicaragua.  They also allow farmers to diversify their income, so that they are not dependent on growing just coffee.  This ensures they have a more secure livelihood.
• It doesn’t need to have anything to do with trees at all though, you could search out a local project to clean up a river which has been used as a dumping ground or become overgrown.   Rivercare might be your starting point click here.
• Do a similar thing off your own bat.  Take a bin bag a pair of thick gloves and go and pick up some litter, be careful what you pick up and where you pick it up remember safety first even when litter picking.
• Back to planting, anyone who arranges flowers in churches will know the constant quest for greenery, yet many churches don’t have the right kind of greenery in their gardens if indeed they have any at all.  Why not plant a holly tree or an evergreen shrub in your church – ask permission first don’t want you digging up the graveyard!
• This might seem ridiculously simple but if you aren’t already doing so, recycle!  Not just the paper and glass but everything you can.
• Or recycle one step further, lots of charities can use items which tend to be thrown away why not become a collector of stamps in your work place The Brittle Bone Society is just one of them, they take not only stamps but postcards and coins too.
• Volunteer for a local community project, there are loads of them about with lots of different jobs that need doing there will certainly be something that you have the skills to help with.
• And if you are feeling adventurous how about this a sky dive for the Stroke Association.  There are of course other charities who raise money through events like this so if jumping out of a plane isn’t your thing then why not find out just what your favourite charity has planned and considered doing that.

The aim isn’t to do something different every day, or even necessarily something new to you every day, and as I hope these examples also show it doesn’t need to cost you anything in monetary terms every day, it is simply to plant an acorn every day to do something that benefits someone else every day during Lent.

Sunday Angel

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stained glass, Sunday angel

Question Answered

Earlier on in the week I posed myself a question on the blog post Counting Strands – Has my outreach imagination been tempered or stopped working, or is there something else at play?

Yesterday we headed off for A Play, a Pie and a Pint and I got the answer.

Now there is a good deal of work that needs to be done including finding some other people who can also catch the vision that I caught while sitting listening to Kevin Lennon, tell the story of Scott and the Antarctic from a penguins point of view, but there is most definitely a kernel of an idea forming.

What the Queen Said At Her Coronation

There has been much debate about what the Queen said and meant during the week, also plenty of speculation over who actually wrote her words, however curiosity was niggling me over something else and it is only this morning with Kelvin’s blogging nudging me again that I have finally dealt with it.

In Westminster Abbey on the 2nd June 1953 Queen Elizabeth II was crowned, but not before she took the Oath – now I have in my possession ‘The Form and Order of her Majesty’s Coronation’ so I dug it out and read it again, in particular the bit which is often quoted but also the Oath.

The bit which people often talk of and which Prince Charles has referred to in the past is a prayer spoken by the Archbishop when the Ring is placed on the fourth finger of the right hand of the new monarch:

Receive the Ring of kingly dignity, and the seal of Catholic Faith: and as you are this day consecrated to be our Head and Prince, so may you continue steadfastly as the Defender of Christ’s Religion; that being rich in faith and blessed in all good works, you may reign with him who is the King of Kings, to whom be the glory for ever and ever.  Amen.

This is a Christian prayer and quite clearly is praying that the monarch will continue to defend Christianity.  As a prayer it is a hope, a wish, a religious desire, but I would venture to say that there is nothing binding either the current Queen or even Prince Charles when/should he become the monarch in these words.

The point when the Monarch is handed the Sword is another time when a prayer is said which could also be thought of as being under the above concept:

Receive this kingly Sword, brought now from the Altar of God, and delivered to you by the hands of us the Bishops and servants of God, though unworthy.  With this Sword do justice, stop the growth of iniquity, protect the holy Church of God, help and defend widows and orphans, restore the things that ar gone to decay, maintain th things that are restored, punish and reform what is amiss, and confirm what is in good order: that doing these things you may be glorious in all virtue; and so faithfully serve our Lord Jesus Christin this life, that you may reign for ever with him in the life which is to come.  Amen.

I would argue that the mention of the Church in this passage includes all Churches, even the Roman Catholic Church. However the bit that is possibly most relevant to the current debate is at the end of the oath which is taken right at the beginning of the service, when the Archbishop asks:

Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel?  Will you to the utmost of your power maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law?  Will you maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the Church of England, and the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government thereof, as by law established in England?  And will you preserve unto the Bishops and Clergy of England, and to the Churches there committed to their charge, all such rights and privileges, as by law do or shall appertain to them or any of them?

The Queen then replies:

All this I promise to do.

The rubic then states:

Then the Queen arising out of her Chair, supported as before, the Sword of State being carried before her, shall go to the Altar, and make her solemn Oath in the sight of all the people to observe the premisses: laying her right hand upon the Holy Gospel in the great Bible (which was before carried in the procession and is now brought from the Altar by the Archbishop, and tendered to her as she kneels upon the steps), and saying these words:

The things which I have here before promised, I will perform, and keep.  So help me God.

The first part of that asks – Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel?  I would venture to say that this is a personal oath, a question being directed to the monarch themselves to respond to concerning their own faith.  So no problem with that bit then, the Queen is well-known for being a devout Anglican.

The second part asks – Will you to the utmost of your power maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law?  This part is dependant on the monarch’s power and the law of the land.  However even if these two fall by the wayside there is nothing in this part that says the Protestant Reformed Religion should be the only religion in the land, only that a monarch should promise to maintain it.

It is the final two parts that come in to play and are probably why, as Kelvin pointed out, the speech didn’t make much sense in Scotland.  Will you maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the Church of England, and the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government thereof, as by law established in England?  And will you preserve unto the Bishops and Clergy of England, and to the Churches there committed to their charge, all such rights and privileges, as by law do or shall appertain to them or any of them?

The Queen by oath has sworn to prohibit violation to secure from destruction, infringement, or desecration, the Church of England and what it stands for, as long as it is within the law of the land.

At another point in the Coronation service the Dean of Westminster delivers the Armills to the Archbishop who places them on the Queen’s wrists with these words:

Receive the Bracelets of sincerity and wisdom, both for tokens of the Lord’s protection embracing you on every side; and also for symbols and pledges of that bond which unites you with your Peoples …

The Queen’s Peoples, the people that she is bound to; are people of various faiths and of none; people of the Church of England and of other Christian denominations; people who want to tear down all faiths, and those who want the world to see that only their faith is the right one.  The Queen is bound to them all, even those who would rather not have a monarch at all.  The Queen in what she said defended her own faith and kept to her coronation oath, but not at the expense of the different faiths that some of her People hold, a delicate balancing act indeed, here is the full text of what she actually said:

Prince Philip and I are delighted to be with you today to pay tribute to the particular mission of Christianity and the general value of faith in this country.
This gathering is a reminder of how much we owe the nine major religious traditions represented here. They are sources of a rich cultural heritage and have given rise to beautiful sacred objects and holy texts, as we have seen today.
Yet these traditions are also contemporary families of faith. Our religions provide critical guidance for the way we live our lives, and for the way in which we treat each other. Many of the values and ideas we take for granted in this and other countries originate in the ancient wisdom of our traditions. Even the concept of a Jubilee is rooted in the Bible.
Here at Lambeth Palace we should remind ourselves of the significant position of the Church of England in our nation’s life. The concept of our established Church is occasionally misunderstood and, I believe, commonly under-appreciated. Its role is not to defend Anglicanism to the exclusion of other religions. Instead, the Church has a duty to protect the free practice of all faiths in this country.
It certainly provides an identity and spiritual dimension for its own many adherents. But also, gently and assuredly, the Church of England has created an environment for other faith communities and indeed people of no faith to live freely. Woven into the fabric of this country, the Church has helped to build a better society – more and more in active co-operation for the common good with those of other faiths.
This occasion is thus an opportunity to reflect on the importance of faith in creating and sustaining communities all over the United Kingdom. Faith plays a key role in the identity of many millions of people, providing not only a system of belief but also a sense of belonging. It can act as a spur for social action. Indeed, religious groups have a proud track record of helping those in the greatest need, including the sick, the elderly, the lonely and the disadvantaged. They remind us of the responsibilities we have beyond ourselves.
Your Grace, the presence of your fellow distinguished religious leaders and the objects on display demonstrate how each of these traditions has contributed distinctively to the history and development of the United Kingdom. Prince Philip and I wish to send our good wishes, through you, to each of your communities, in the hope that – with the assurance of the protection of our established Church – you will continue to flourish and display strength and vision in your relations with each other and the rest of society.

How I Want To Say Goodbye

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Books

While doing some final preparation for this afternoons session on ‘How I Want to Say Goodbye’ (preparing your own funeral) I went to get C S Lewis’ The Last Battle from the bookcase – there is a passage in it that I read out as an example of how a reading from a favorite book can be used at a funeral. Anyway while retrieving the aforesaid book I spied my copy of The Man Who Planted Trees, which a blogged about yesterday.  I picked it up and turned it over and over in my hands, how wonderful if at the end of your life someone felt that such a story full of hope and warmth could be read at your funeral.  Although it is a short book it really is too long to be read in its entirety at a funeral, I read it once again, but no unless the whole congregation knew the story the one part that might work would need the back story, and if that is needed then it wouldn’t work. but I did think the dedication might do for the right person, although I am certain the right person would never dream of picking it for their funeral.

To see a human being reveal really exceptional qualities one must be able to observe their activities over many years.  If these activities are completely unselfish; if the idea motivating them is unique in its magnanimity; if it is quite certain they have never looked for any reward; and if in addition they have left visible traces on the world – then one may say, without fear of error, that one is in the presence of an unforgettable character.