Who is Your Nineveh?

From "Greater Things" in The Wages of Peace

In the story of Jonah and the whale, we tend to focus on Jonah’s being swallowed by the whale for three days. We remember that he was not doing what God asked, admitted

he was at fault when the storm came, and volunteered to be thrown overboard to save the ship and crew. That part of the story is so strange that we tend to overlook the beginning of

the story and why he was running from God in the first place. Jonah was a prophet, a man of God. And God called him to the people Jonah did not want to be saved. He did not run

away from God because he was scared, he ran away because he did not like God’s plan.

One consistent theme in the Bible is how God subverts our expectations. God picks the youngest of the brothers, David, to become the king of Israel. God tells Jonah to go to the

place he least wants to go. The coming king did not establish an earthly kingdom but a spiritual one. The king who was supposed to rule died on the cross. The people he ate with and spent time with were not royalty or the religious elite but the tax collectors, prostitutes, and other sinners. I must be disciplined to remember that the economic peacemaking work enhances and complements our other ministry and community service activities. But what is the bigger picture? What is the broader story God is telling? What, if any, is my small role in that? Even as I ask those questions, I am mindful that the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel has crept into my thinking and theology in ways I still do not fully understand and that I’m still rooting out. When I think of the greater things God may call us to, in addition to or in place of economic peacemaking, it might be grander and more exciting. It also might be a call to preach to the Ninevites. So, who is my Ninevah? Whom do I detest and dislike? What would my response be if God called me to serve them, either with direct economic peacemaking or by pursuing some other, unpredictable ministry?