Sacked
Today we don our ashes as a reminder that we are dust.
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it. - Jonah 3:10
In today's reading from the Book of Jonah, we have an interesting turn of events. Jonah, following God's instruction, sets out to Nineveh to warn the city of over one hundred and twenty thousand that they will be destroyed by God.
He goes and is so convincing that all put on sack cloth and cover themselves with ashes. They repent.
When God, moved by their actions takes heed and decides not to destroy them, Jonah, instead of rejoicing, gets angry. He wants to die.
Imagine how embarrassed he must have been. He made a spectacle of himself in front of the entire city warning them of the end and now nothing happens.
He might look like a fool, even though he was instrumental in saving them from death.
Sometimes doing God's work is like that. We may help accomplish great things and yet no one knows. Our success is in our anonymity.
But who really wants to be anonymous when they do something good?
Jonah reminds us that we crave accolades. We want notoriety. When we sacrifice and do what is right, we want to get the credit. But God reminds us that there is no credit to seek. In their repentance, the people of Nineveh saved themselves.
Today we begin our forty days of introspection and repentance. We don our sacks cloths and cover ourselves with ashes so God will take notice of our sincere desire to change, to be better.
And He will. We will come through Lent having experienced the saving grace of God, whether we know it or not, and we will be better off for it.
But don't expect a pat on the back or headlines in the local paper. Our journey will be personal and private. The more we sacrifice the less we may feel we receive, for it is not for rewards that we humble ourselves, but for redemption.
So, why not set out to be anonymous this Lent? Why not see how many good deeds we can do without telling anyone about them?
Let us make our journey through the city of Nineveh and not expect anything great to happen, so that we might know for ourselves what humility feels like. Let us be sacked.
And we will be changed for it.
More to come...