But my favorites are the reluctant time travelers.
I’ve always been captivated by them, drawn to their stories. It’s Claire Randall in Outlander. It’s Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five. It’s Henry DeTamble in The Time Traveler’s Wife. It’s history professor Alex Balfour in the Pastmaster books. It’s journalist Dan Vasser in the short-lived (but much praised and much missed) TV show Journeyman.
The reluctant time travelers have no control over when they vanish from their present life, none over where and when they travel, none over how long they are gone, and none over when (or if) they ever return to their original time. Somehow, I find that more believable.
Oh, and one more thing: None of them wants to go.
There are folk who live for adventures of zero predictability. I’m just not one of them. Count me with the reluctant time travelers. Someone wants me to go somewhere I don’t want to go and do something I don’t want to do? I hate that. I think we've all felt that way at one time or another.
Take Journeyman‘s Dan Vasser, for instance: He has no option. He has to go, no matter what. He could be sitting at his desk, or even at home with his toddler when, with almost no warning, he is swept into the past. The disorientation, alone, would be reason enough to not want the experience. Add in that upon his return to the present—also beyond his control—he could not provide a credible excuse for his absence. Well, let's just say his personal relationships suffer. Whatever force jerked Dan from his life as a husband, father, and reporter, it seemed to have zero concern for Dan. And, of most importance, Dan never had a choice.
The main way we differ from Dan? We almost always have a choice.
We can say “No.”
You might think the prophet Jonah was more like Dan than us, but that would be wrong. Jonah had free will. In this week’s scriptures, Jonah is told to go and preach in Nineveh, a very wicked mega-city in the same mold as Babylon. Jonah resists. God insists. Jonah strongly objects to what God instructs him to do. So strongly, he actually goes in the opposite direction!
You know the story. God prepares a "great fish" to swallow Jonah. Eventually, Jonah prays and (somewhat) repents. Upon his release from the fish, Jonah goes to Nineveh and preaches what God had instructed him to preach in the first place—but he is not happy about it.
The book of Jonah is not really about Nineveh, nor about the sailors on the ship, and certainly not about the fish. The story is about Jonah's relationship with God. Don't think for a minute God had to send Jonah to Nineveh. God could have sent anyone. God chose Jonah for a reason. Jonah needed some lessons: about obedience, about God's priorities, about grace, about second chances.
And a lesson about God's sovereignty.
Unlike our reluctant time-travelers, Jonah had—and exercised—free will. He chose to disobey God. And why? Because he didn't agree with God's willingness to redeem some wicked people.
God is sovereign. He can do as He wants. And what God wants is to forgive people their sins. If we're not on board with that, we're on the wrong spiritual journey.
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IMAGE (“Hanging Gardens of Nineveh?”):
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DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast meets Friday mornings at 8:00am. Please join us for scripture, discussion, prayer—and laughter. We gather on Zoom** and in person at Our Breakfast Place.
Blessings,
Steve
**Contact me for the Zoom link
NOTE: Zoom allows you to mute the camera and the microphone if you don’t wish to be seen or heard.
SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK
Find them here:
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=160
Print them from here:
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/pdf//Ax_Proper20.pdf
Exodus 16:2-15
Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45
Jonah 3:10-4:11
Psalm 145:1-8
Philippians 1:21-30
Matthew 20:1-16
Proper 20 (25) (September 24, 2023)
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