GreyParty

As always while home, I step into my parents’ house and at some point my father says, “you’re preaching on Sunday.” This trip was no different. Last time it was on Christmas day (05), this time it was New Year’s Eve. Here is the nutshell: __________________________________________________________________

“Resolution” does not mean a strong commitment to do something, though that is often how we use the word. There are multiple ways that this word is defined: none of them are the above. Don’t believe me? Ask Webster. <- Click

They all have one thing in common: action. A Resolution is the process or act of finding an answer or solution. This process might be an old one that we are revisiting, a new one that has arrived for the first time, or something we are currently involved in that we may want to revamp. But they are all processes, not static commitments to some high minded ideal. The implications of this are clear

1. Dates are arbitrary: You can begin a resolution at any point, esp. since Biblically, the most holy time is “NOW.”

2. If you are not actually in the process of doing something, you have not made a resolution.

3. Because it is a process, it is not an end onto itself; everything is not already figured out for you at the beginning. One must work through the process until the end.

We returned to a story I can’t seem to escape: Jonah.

The prophet. The racist. The man with serious anger management problems. The suicidal and homicidal liar. The moron who thought he could escape God by heading to Spain, because God no hables espanol.Jonah’s Resolution was an old one: He promised God to deliver His word. God called upon Jonah to revamp this, and do it in a new way: go to gentiles, gentiles who hate you, and want you dead. John reneged on his resolution: he halted the process. He broke out.

God, with infinite, parent patiently addressing a stubborn child love, called Jonah to account with a storm and a large fish. Jonah lied: saying he will continue with his process: he will “pay what he has vowed.” God is not mocked. He knows Jonah’s heart, but lets him out anyway.

Jonah lies to the people of Niniveh: he never mentions repentance, which is part of his duty, merely that they will be destroyed. I doubt those eight words were all God had for the people of Assyria. But they knew enough, and God is merciful. They were spared.

Jonah fumes. He wants them all dead. If not their lives, then his own. Three times in one story. Nice. God questions his heart: Jonah runs away again. God asks creation for favors to teach Jonah a lesson about resolutions: the sea, the wind, the fish, the plant, the worm, the sun: they all answer God’s call so He can ask Jonah where in the world his heart is. How could you be so far from where you should be? Do you not see what you have become?

Jonah’s story is not a clean one, which is why I love it. It shows that sometimes the process reveals an unpleasantness which must be addressed. The finality of a resolution is not always a happy one. The process might lead to darkness which must be addressed, before another resolution begins.

A TV set must be brought into focus: the resolution may need adjusting for a clearer picture. Jonah teaches, that sometimes the TV is fine. The remote doesn’t need batteries.

We just need glasses.