Towards Nineveh (Robert Graves)

 A purple whale 

Proudly sweeps his tail 

Towards Nineveh; 

Glassy green 

Surges between 

A mile of roaring sea. 

                                    

‘O town of gold, 

Of splendour multifold, 

Lucre and lust, 

Leviathan’s eye 

Can surely spy 

Thy doom of death and dust.’ 

                                    

On curving sands 

Vengeful Jonah stands. 

‘Yet forty days, 

Then down, down, 

Tumbles the town 

In flaming ruin ablaze.’ 

                                   

With swift lament 

Those Ninevites repent. 

They cry in tears, 

‘Our hearts fail! 

The whale, the whale! 

Our sins prick us like spears.’ 

                                   

Jonah is vexed; 

He cries, ‘What next? what next?’ 

And shakes his fist. 

‘Stupid city, 

The shame, the pity, 

The glorious crash I’ve missed.’ 

                                   

Away goes Jonah grumbling, 

Murmuring and mumbling; 

Off ploughs the purple whale, 

With disappointed tail. 

--Robert Graves, Jonah                  

Image source:  Jacob Steinhart, Jonah Preaching in Nineveh

https://images.curiator.com/images/t_x/art/e6i4lzeyl8gme8ngnnlu/jacob-steinhardt-jonah-preaching-in-nineveh-1923.jpg

Poem source

Many a believer (Frederick Buechner)

   Many an atheist is a believer without knowing it just as many a believer is an atheist without knowing it.  You can sincerely believe there is no God and live as though there is.  You can sincerely believe there is a God and live as though there isn’t. 

--Frederick Buechner, 

Beyond Words:  Daily Readings 

in the ABC’s of Faith 

Image source:  http://www.thebarefootbook.com/images/slide-feet-front3.jpg

Facing change (James Baldwin)

    Not everything that is faced can be changed, 

but nothing can be changed until it is faced. 

--James Baldwin          

Image source:  http://www.booksbyterryrbacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/mirror-reflection-small1.jpg

Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 21, 2018: Repent, and believe in the gospel...

Repent, and believe in the gospel…

When God asks for repentance, how do you respond?

   To the great surprise of the prophet Jonah, the response of the people of Nineveh is pretty much immediate:  Jonah has gone but a single day’s walk when the Ninevites, a pagan people, open themselves to conversion to the God of Israel:  they believe God and turn from their evil ways.  The Ninevites embody the openness of the psalmist in Psalm 25, who asks, Teach me your ways, O Lord.  In Nineveh as in David’s kingdom, the people have strayed and need to be brought back. Knowing they have failed to understand God’s ways fully, they are willing to learn, to listen, to do what is required to rely on the Lord, to be changed by God.

   Jesus’ message in Mark’s Gospel echoes that of Jonah:  The kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent, and believe in the gospel.  The people of Israel are called to repent and believe in Jesus – to believe in everything he is and everything he does, healing, restoring to life, preaching God’s love.  They must rely upon the Lord who reveals his love, who is still revealing that love, even (and perhaps especially) when we least expect it.  If we limit our love to what we know, we won’t get very far – God’s love is so infinitely more than we can imagine.  Rather, we must remain focused, and not miss any opportunity for conversion, any occasion for revelation.  After all, as Paul tells the Corinthians, time is running out and the world in its present form is passing away.  Paul is voicing a requirement for change, now, in this moment – he is calling the Corinthians to be more attentive to God, to God’s will, to God’s call, than to the world at large.  Jesus calls us to no less.

When Jesus asks for repentance, how do we respond?

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.

Image source:  www.wordle.net

The song that is your life (Martha Postelewaite)

 Do not try to save 

the whole world 

or do anything grandiose. 

Instead, create 

a clearing 

in the dense forest 

of your life 

and wait there patiently, 

until the song 

that is your life 

falls into your own cupped hands 

and you recognize and greet it. 

Only then will you know 

how to give yourself 

to this world 

so worthy of rescue. 

--Martha Postelewaite, Clearing               

Image source:  Louis Dericks, Two Women in a Clearing (1864)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Louis%2C_Dericks_-_Two_Women_in_a_Clearing_-_1864.jpg)

Poem source