Friday of the first week of Advent: Sleeping through Danger

Presence

God is with me, but more, God is within me. Let me dwell for a moment on God’s life-giving presence in my body, in my mind, in my heart, as I am here, right now.

Scripture

Jonah 1:4-6

…the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up. Then the sailors were afraid, and each cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. The captain came and said to him, “What are you doing sound asleep? Get up; call on your god!

Reflection

The Old Testament prophet, Jonah, was ordered by God to preach repentance to the pagan city of Nineveh. He promptly headed as far away from Nineveh as he possibly could, to the farthest westerly harbour of the ancient world. There he boarded a ship. He had scarcely left land when a storm came, so huge that the ship was on the verge of sinking.  The terrified sailors began to call on their gods. And what was Jonah doing during this tumult? He was in the depths of the ship, fast asleep. 

Putting off a major task depletes our energy far more than action does. The knowledge of what we should be doing haunts us, no matter how hard we try to push it to the back of our mind. It lurks at the edge of our consciousness, draining the moment, devitalising the present. When we ignore what we know we need to do, we escape the storm in our minds by abdicating responsibility and retreating into numbness. Jonah, thrown into the sea, is swallowed by a “great Fish” and spends three days in its belly. Finally, from this most withdrawn, hidden place, he breaks his silence – not to pray for deliverance, but to sing his thanksgiving.  He does what God has asked of him. This is the God of second chances.

Prayer

Lord, Jonah’s three day entombment turns out not to have been an end, but a beginning. He prays from a womb, not a tomb, and his prayer heralds rebirth. It is very hard to worship God in the place where we are not supposed to be. This Advent, help me embrace silence and darkness, secure in the knowledge that you will be there with me and will bring me into the light.
I am not so very different to Jonah. What am I running from today? What is God asking of me that I don’t do? In what way do I need to change my attitudes in order to become a channel of God’s love? What is my Nineveh?
Grant that, this Advent, I may find the answers to these questions.

Amen

Glory to you, Father, source of all being,

to you, Jesus, Word made flesh,

to you Holy Spirit, Comforter,

as it was before time began,

is now and shall be into the future.

Amen.