Readings: Jonah 3:1-10; Psalm 51; Luke 11:29-32
In the first reading, we have the account of Jonah’s ministry in Nineveh. He preached repentance and the people responded immediately and positively to the message, God saw their efforts at repentance and He showed them mercy.
There are so many things we can reflect on today. For instance, the response of the Ninevites is a great lesson for us; the message of repentance of Jonah is also worth pondering on.
However today, I feel drawn to reflect on God as a God of a second chance.
The word of God was addressed to Jonah again. God gave Jonah a second chance, He resisted the first call but God didn’t give up on him out of His love, mercy and grace.
Also, the people of Nineveh deserved condemnation but God gave them a second chance and showed them mercy. God doesn’t want to give up on any of us.
This message is to encourage us not to give up on ourselves, we should never lose hope of mercy, and God is willing to give us a new beginning, a new opportunity, a new experience of His love and mercy.
However, to dispose ourselves to God’s mercy, we ought to avoid three things:
A. Despair:
This is a sin against hope, God’s love and mercy.
B. Obstinacy in sin:
Like the generation that Jesus described in the Gospel, because of their hardness of heart, they were seeking signs and justifying their sins unlike the Ninevites, such attitude deprives us of the benefit of mercy.
C. Condemnation of others:
We must be slow to write people off. Many of us are products of God’s mercy but we are very slow to show mercy to others. We are quick to condemn, discard and flush out people after discovering their faults, weaknesses and imperfections.
Let us reject every voice tempting us to despair, let us ask God’s Spirit to break every hardness of heart leading to impenitence, let us pray today for the grace to be slow to condemn others.
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Baraka-Gukena Okami on February 24, 2021