Joppa: Obeying God's call, or, Why can't I hear him like Peter and Jonah did?

Originally published 1/22/19

I held no expectations of Israel. 2018 had been such a chaotic time of bursty movement that I only worried about each day as it came. I usually enjoy worrying many days in advance; I have a calendar whose sole purpose is weekly menu planning - I'm worried about what we're going to eat on Friday. I knew 2018 would be full of change when we started the year - with Michael and Isabel in their respective senior years change was inevitable - but the year's changes and challenges and sorrows just about wore me out. The widening of Michael's job search from Upstate South Carolina to the domestic US opened up both possibilities and anxieties of being far from family, as well as Isabel's exploration of colleges in Washington and Pennsylvania. Luckily, she came to her senses and settled at the college that was both a good fit and financially helpful, and close to home (as only a mom would appreciate). Michael's job, of course, took us to South Florida, in a rapid succession of events that included my Dad dying, his funeral, Michael's ordination to the diaconate and his starting a new job within 7 days. Then we begin the tricky process of buying a condo in Florida (there are more documents required than you would think), while preparing to leave my 18-year-old child in charge of a house and a grumpy dog on the side of a mountain in rural Central Tennessee. Oh yeah, and I'm trying to run a business, solely responsible for new business acquisition and software maintenance and development and paying account managers who are working their fingers to the bone for clients and our company. Then, setting up a new home in Florida with no furniture (we left most of it in Sewanee) and beginning a new church life, which included figuring out who I am in relation my husband who is now on staff at a church and how do we operate at church in that realm? So I was stopped short in mid-December when Mom said, "Have you been studying the Bible passages for the Holy Land and praying along with the prayer schedule?" "What prayer schedule?" In the move, communication from the tour company had gotten confused as well. As would be expected when you're operating from three addresses. Besides, when did I have time to pray? I felt ill-prepared for this trip. I felt like I should have re-read the Bible, or, at least read the materials that finally found their way to me. So on the way to the airport on the first leg of our trip Dec. 26, from Orlando to Asheville, I began to read the material. There was an itinerary, and a description of each of the sites we would visit, and referring Bible verses to review what happened at each location. Man, it was helpful. I just wish I started reading it months ago. And so I pressed ahead, and looked forward to a time that I could leave the worry and anxiety of everyday life behind. But I worried about doing that: my company is struggling, life at church had become cluttered with unexpected challenges, I missed my teenage daughter more than I had thought I would, and part of me was just plain tired. Then my friend Lauren, whose 4-year-old son Zac died in 2017 while at play, texted me: Tell Jesus I said hi. Make sure he's taking good care of Zac. The chaos came to a stop inside my head and I closed my eyes and knew that everything would be ok, that the world would continue spinning on its axis, that clients would come and go, that church politics would play out their narrative, and that children would begin a successful new year whether I was there to worry about it or not. I used the 30 hours of travel as a time to pray and center myself for the trip. Let me translate that: I wrote down all of my complaints about life and the current situation in my travel journal so that God and I would have documentation of what He needed to address with me while I was traveling in the homeland of His Son. Maybe, I thought, since I'd be so close, He might give me some obvious answers on the big questions I have, and help me resolve some issues that have been pricking my brain and soul for the past few years. I put in my list of demands and set high expectations that they would be met on this trip. "Welcome home," Shafiq the tour guide said to us in our orientation meeting late on the first night in Tel Aviv. "You have always been connected to this place." Tears sprang to my eyes and my chest caved in as my heart pumped faster when he said that, because I felt it was true. I've read and heard about this little country all of my life, and know the stories of what happened here despite my best efforts to make grocery lists during the sermon. Israel is a small country, just a little bigger than New Jersey; it's 270 miles long and 85 miles wide. We landed in Tel Aviv, the capital, which is on the Mediterranean Sea. Tel Aviv, founded just recently (relatively) in 1909 is a mix of urban city and what you would expect a Middle Eastern city that has seen much conflict in its short life to look like.

The view from our hotel in Tel Aviv, the first moning. That' s the Mediterranean on the right.

We began our journey early the next morning, heading south just a bit to that peninsula you can see at the top of the picture, which is Joppa. While many things happened here - it was the chief seaport of Jerusalem (which is 30 miles away) during King Solomon's reign (about 970-931 BC) - there are two things that happened here that spoke to me.

It is from here that Jonah ignored God's call to go to Nineveh, where he wanted Jonah to tell the residents of the city that God was going to destroy them because of their wickedness. The story doesn't say why Jonah didn't want to do that, but it may have been because it is 800 miles away - a 30-day walk, at best! Or maybe he just didn't want to yell at people in a big city he didn't know. So he went straight to Joppa and bought a ticket on a boat to Tarshish, which is thought to have been in Spain.

If you want to read an interesting story but aren't crazy about the Bible, the book of Jonah is a good one. It's 4 short chapters and it focuses on the humanness and complaintivity of man, how nothing is ever good enough. Sound familiar? (see above paragraphs)

If I knew that God was giving me a direct order, I would do it. I mean, that is my dream, to have a clear understanding of what it is God wants me to do. If he flat out told me Go to Fort Pierce and yell at those people, well, it might be awkward, but I like to think I would do it. On the other hand, people might think me crazy. And maybe that would give me pause, and I would say, Really? That's what you want me to do, God? Remember in Luke, when the rich man asked Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life, and Jesus told him (in addition to keeping the commandments) to sell all he owned and give it to the poor? That made him sad. He couldn't do it.

To the left is St. Peter's church, and a mosque minaret on the right. In between are ruins of an ancient old sea port. Maybe Jonah got on the ship here.

Why are we so human? Why do we value this life so much over eternal life?

So you probably know that Jonah sets sail across the Mediterranean, and a storm comes up. The men on the boat draw straws to see who it is that has offended the weather gods. That's a little Biblical mystery for you: how does drawing the short straw mean that you're the problem? Interesting problem solving in those days. Of course Jonah pulls the short straw, or maybe it's just that he admits he's the problem, and tells them to throw him overboard. He'd rather DIE that do what God has told him to do. That is some awesome stubbornness.

God has a good laugh at that, and puts him in the belly of a whale. For three days. Gross. Now, did this really happen? There are groups that have contrived the exact kind of prehistoric fish it could have been in which a man could have survived 36 hours, which would technically constitute 3 days. Or, by the time Jonah washed back up on shore, he just looked like he'd been eaten by a fish.

Anyway, it was during that time that Jonah repented, as I think anyone would if caught in the belly of a fish, or stranded in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea for 3 days not on a Carnival Cruise.

Isn't that just like a human? We do what we want to do, with our own stubborn free will, ignoring the direct voice of God, and only repent when we've gotten ourselves into one fine mess. Have you ever promised God something if he'll just get you out of the mess your in? I have.

The Bible isn't clear on where Jonah was spit out by the fish, just that it was on dry land. By then he has decided to do what God wanted him to do, and so he goes to Nineveh, remembering it's 800 miles away, across Syria, which I think is mostly desert, in present day Iraq. He walked through the city yelling/preaching that God was going to destroy the city on account of its wickedness. Well, the people of Nineveh listened to Jonah, and repented. And God didn't destroy the city. And Jonah was pissed. He went and sat under a tree and mumbled to God, complaining bitterly that he'd done what God told him to do, kept his end of the bargain, angry that God hadn't kept his. Then God killed the plant he was sitting under, the one that gave him shade. It became so hot that Jonah again wanted to DIE.

In the end, the Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?” Jonah 4:10-11

That's how the story ends, which is kind of a bummer. Jesus refers to Jonah in Matthew when the Pharisees ask him for a miracle, and prophecies his own death and resurrection on that same three-day timeline, but we really don't know if he sat and continued stewing in his hot desert seat or if he finally got up and went on. I like to think he was just stubborn by nature, as are most humans, even those who were considered prophets of their time, and that he got up and went on his way. I know he says he wants to DIE, but does he really? I don't think so. He walked across the Syrian desert, for crying out loud, to obey God's word. Yea, he probably was pissy for a bit that he did all that work and God didn't destroy Nineveh, but maybe he finally came to the conclusion that because he came there, the city residents realized their wicked ways and repented, and were better people for it.

I wish I could do that, sometimes, tell someone they're being wicked and have them say "Oh my gosh! You're right! I'm so sorry! Please forgive me!"

I would say "Damn straight you are. Be a better person. Easier for me to deal with you."

And that's why I'm not a profit.

The other important story that happened at Joppa also has to do with coming when called. Peter was in a town called Lydda, about 11 miles southeast of Joppa when he heard that a saintly woman named Tabitha (or Dorcas) had died in Joppa. She was known for her kindness to others, especially the poor. Peter had just healed a guy named Aeneas, who had been bedridden for 8 years in Lydda, so word was getting around.

He came immediately to Joppa, and asked that everyone leave the room. Dr. Wilton interpreted that to mean he wanted to be alone with God, to concentrate on praying to him.

Peter sent everyone out of the room and kneeled and prayed. Then he turned to the body and said, “Tabitha, stand up.” She opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up. He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then he called the saints and the widows into the room and showed them that Tabitha was alive. Acts 9:40-41

He stays on in Joppa, at Simon the Tanner's house. The Catholics have built a church over the spot they believe to be Simon's house (and another possible house is on the other side of the square) to note the place where Peter had a dream or vision of a sheet being let down to earth containing all kinds of animals. A fountain at the contains all of the animals from Peter's dream.

What a weird dream. A voice instructed him to "Get up, Peter; kill and eat." I guess the sheet was full of unclean things, because he said, "No Lord! I have never eaten food that is unholy or unclean." That's the first time we learn the voice is that of the Lord. But God assured him he made these things holy, and after three apparitions of the sheet, it went back into the sky.

Right: Inside St. Peters. Most of the churches that note Holy sites are Catholics. They had the money and the explorers, and Pope Clement VI declared the Franciscans the official custodians of Holy places in 1342. It's beautiful, with a starburst cross above the altar, and a painting of Peter's vision of the sheet coming down from Heaven.

The next moment, some men from Caesarea (where we go next) came to the house, and that same voice (God) said to Peter to go with them without doubting, and he did. Cornelius had had a vision to call for Peter to learn about Jesus. And it was then that Peter came to understand he was to share the news with both Jews and Gentiles.

“I really understand now that to God every person is the same. In every country God accepts anyone who worships him and does what is right. You know the message that God has sent to the people of Israel is the Good News that peace has come through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Lord of all people! Acts 10: 34-36

Peter blindly answered the call of God to go when called. When called to heal, he healed. When called to preach, he preached, and in doing so came to realize his true vocation, to share the Gospel with everyone, not only a select few. The start of Christianity.

Again, God with the direct orders. I do wonder, why doesn't God directly order us today? Is he so much more subtle? Or is there just so much more noise these days? When we got on the bus, we could plug our phones in, and check our Facebook status, or see who's emailed us. I worried about the next bathroom stop, how mom was holding up after 30 hours with little sleep, and where we were going next. Peter was praying on top of a house, by himself, when God spoke. He was praying, alone, with the dead Dorcas, when he raised her from the dead.

Must I find a rooftop to escape today's noise so I can hear the call of God?