Wednesday of the First week of Lent – February 24, 2021

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Jonah 3:1-10 Luke 11:29-32

The first of today’s readings is preposterous. The story about the prophet Jonah (not the story about the whale—also preposterous) concerns the conversion of Nineveh. As knuckle-headed a prophet as ever there was, God sent Jonah to the “enormously large” city to command the people to repent of their violent and evil ways, all within forty days or the city would be destroyed. He delivered this message upon his arrival…and they complied! Just like that! What’s more, the king commanded man and beast alike to fast and don sackcloth for this atonement.

Sackcloth is a kind of goat-hair shirt, which must surely be a penance to wear; and Nineveh must have needed all of the goats in the Middle East to produce enough sackcloth for the city’s humans and cattle. Imagine that: penitent goats wearing goat-hair shirts. What a tall tale! Yet tall tales can tell big truths. The takeaway for me is that God gives second chances. “Who knows,” said the king, “God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath.” And God indeed did.

There are no cities that I intend to destroy, but I do hold some smoldering grudges. That business where I was not well served: I may never go there again, but I can stop bad-mouthing the place to others. That puffed-up, self-important colleague: I don’t need to take her down a peg, but instead I can look for ways to be pleasant, show some interest. That parent-coach for one of my children, the one who years ago hurt her self-confidence: ah, just let it go.

None of these grudge targets will be commanded to put on sackcloth to earn my forbearance; and none will actually ever know that I have relented. But I will know. And then perhaps I can approach the Easter season with a better claim to ask, in the words of today’s psalm, “a clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me.”

Q: Where can I be more like God who relents and forgives? What grudges do I need to let go of?

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