October 28, 2008

I. Readings
Psalms 7, 12, 36
Jonah 3:1-4:11
Revelation 11:14-19
Luke 11:27-36

II. Selections
Psalm 36:8
[ All people] feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.

Jonah 4:2b
" ...That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. ... " [ Jonah, in Nineveh, to the LORD]

Revelation 11:18
" ...The nations raged,
but your wrath has come,
and the time for judging the dead,
for rewarding your servants, the prophets
and saints and all who fear your name,
both small and great,
and for destroying those who destroy the earth."
[ The song of the 24 elders who sit on their thrones before God]

Luke 11:32
" ...The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here! ... " [ Jesus to the crowds]

III. Meditation: The condemnation of (and by) Nineveh

Gracious and merciful God, slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love, all people
feast on the abundance of your house, and
you give them drink from the river of your
delights.

How is it that we who so often fail you
are the first to find your forgiveness of
others offensive? Our generation is guilty
of destroying the earth; should not your
wrath be aroused against us? Nineveh
repented ...