Jonah the Bigot

"Give me the child, till he's seven, and I'll give you the man" This was the Jesuit belief upon which they build their educational system - we are all greatly influenced by our society and culture, no man is an island, we all carry the marks of our upbringing. Paul recognized this when he told the Roman Christians not to be 'conformed' to this world, we are not be imprisoned or held captive, we are to be 'transformed' by the power of God. Jonah was a man of his time and the particular mark on him was "Nationalistic Patriotism" which had no desire or intention of sharing God's love with these pagan Gentiles in Nineveh. He failed to see that his identity was strong enough to accept the Gentiles as members of God's family. He failed to see that they had responsibilities as well as privileges - to be a light to the Gentiles, to bring them to faith - he wanted to keep them out of the Kingdom. He was, what we would ,today, call , a Zionist. A Jewish people in a Jewish state. He wanted to look after his own- that too is contrary to scripture! For this kind of Nationalism to flourish a separate identity is needed- a separate language and literature and perhaps sport, but also an enemy to despise. A kind of Sin Fein mentality which excludes all others. Examples: Hitler's Germany it was the Jews, Gypsies and Communists. In S.A. it was the blacks and in Ireland we have two kinds of Nationalism; for the Ulster Nationalist the enemy is the Republicans and for the Irish it is England and all things English (with the possible exception of Jack Charlton?) Jesus gives three words which undermine this basis: "love your enemies" The results of this kind of Nationalism in this country have included some less desirable one: bitterness, polarization - those seeking unity by force have only succeeded in driving a wedge between the communities- the Belfast-Dublin railway line is symbolic of this. population shift-1911- 4% protestant; 1971-4% protestant. How are we to relate to Nationalism from a Biblical point of view? Definition given a few weeks ago: "Patriotism should mean being thankful for one's nation without idolizing it, facing the reality about it, appreciating its heritage and the guilt trapped in it, refusing to link patriotism with militarism, seeing ones nation in relation to the whole world of humanity" We can take three basic points out of this: 1. Thankful People There is much that we can be thankful for. We live in a democracy were decisions are made, after discussion, for the benefit of the people. We have freedom of religion were we can worship and teach and evangelize. We have freedom to organize and be involved in political discussion, even to the point of criticizing the government of the day. We are free to associate with whoever we want and we are free to express our point of view in the media. As Christians we are admonished to pray for our nation for those in leadership and authority. We do this privately and corporately. I think it right that we extend this to the organizations that we are members of. So we pray for the leaders of the UN and the EC - hence our gathering for prayer last week and I would thank those who came, I'm only sorry that the urgency has either not reached some or has receded. Then we care also linked in with the UK by way of N.I and the Anglo-Irish Agreement. As Christians we are admonished to Submit to authority Leadership is ordained by God and we are to be law-abiding subjects so long as God's law is not in danger of the lives of the people put at risk. That was the position of Paul and the early Church. So we are to be a thankful people but this is not an uncritical passive role, we are also called to Challenge The Coleraine Declaration reminds us of this. My country right or wrong has no part in the Christian scenario. We have all asked the question: why didn't the church in Germany oppose Hitler more vigorously? In a book about Martin Niemoller- a German Army officer who became a pastor, it becomes clear that patriotism is part of the reason. An uncritical patriotism which failed to see the progression from love of country to persecution of all outsiders. National pride is one thing but a jingoism which excludes others and rejoices in their harm has no place in the Christian church. In this book the story is told of how, after the sinking of a French tanker the crew triumphantly played "Deuschland ubber alles" and after the sinking of another vessel they harassed the French destroyer which was picking up the survivors from the sea. We do well to ask questions. Is it good to have a close alliance between church and state? The C of E has been described as the Tory Party at prayer (not always an accurate description). It is wrong for one denomination to be closely aligned to the state. Not talking about a separation of church and state, just a recognition that there are different denominations in the state. We might also want to question the idea of Church controlled and segregated education. Is the work of Christian primarily the work of the family and the church or of the state? Why is integrated education such a good idea until you cross the border? Luther talked of the two kingdoms and saw church and state in separate compartments while Calvin saw them much closer together and we need to include both these positions in our thinking. Calvin's system is no longer practical but neither is it good to keep them separate. Jonah was challenging God instead of letting God challenge him. 2. Then we are to be an AWARE PEOPLE Too often we ignore politics and the politicians and allow them to do what they want and then we criticize them when things go wrong or some corruption is brought to light. Politics, which has been described as the art of the possible, involves people and decisions - we have a vital part to play and we should be playing it. Democracy is more than a system of government- there are plenty of countries who claim to be democratic- in fact most countries. SA is a democracy and East Germany was called the German Democratic Republic . A real democracy needs to have active people in order to work. While we give our TDs the responsibility of sitting in deliberation that does not mean that we abdicate the responsibility of keeping a watching brief. There are times when it is right to lobby our TDs and to write to the Newspapers to express our point of view. e.g. we have UN obligations to give aid to the hungry- we have been less enthusiastic about this than about Kuwait- in fact aid has been cut. Not to say that people must be made to see things my or our way and to do things the way we want- you can't make people believe, that is a gift of God. We cannot insist that everybody keeps the Sabbath Day holy, but I think we can ask that the state passes laws which do not prevent me from keeping it holy. We need to keep in touch by reading the papers and watching the news or listening on the radio. Jonah gives us an example that we are not to follow. Our relationship to the family of God is more important than membership of any state-that makes life more complicated but that's where we need to ask God for wisdom and courage. For our nation we say thank you but we also hold the right to be critical and to be aware of what is going on. If we do this we will not be following Jonah. We look for God's spirit to make a transformation in our lives and in the life of the nation.