Pastor’s Corner“ Cultivating Splagchnizomatic Hearts”

“You pity the plant…should I not pity Nineveh? ”The LORD to Jonah (Jonah 4:10, 11)

On Sunday, I asserted that the story of Jonah is the story of the LORD realigning Jonah’s heart with his “splagchnizomatic* heart”— the Father’s heart of profound compassion for every person, for all people, for “all that he has made” (Psalm 145:9). The challenging part of this story is that “all people” includes Nineveh, Israel’s enemies who legitimately deserve destruction due to their evil ways. Will Jonah (and Israel!) be able to move beyond mere obedience to the LORD‘s command into sharing in the Father’s heart?

“The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…” (Exodus 34:6-7a)

And it’s not only Jonah’s heart that the Father wants to

re-align. He wants to cultivate profoundly compassionate hearts in all his people, including in each one of us. How does this cultivation happen? That’s what we’ll explore this upcoming Sunday. Inspired by how the book of Jonah concludes with an unanswered question, I ended my sermon with three questions intended to open our hearts and minds to the word of the LORD:

·       When have you experienced God’s profound compassion in your life?

·       What people/causes/situations awaken deep compassion in you?

·       Who is your Nineveh?

While I won’t ask you to share your answers aloud, I do ask that you come with those answers in your mind, ready to respond to the Spirit’s continued work of cultivating profound compassion within your own heart…even for those who don’t deserve it.

Your Pastor in Christ,

*I made up this word, drawing on splagchnizomai, the Greek word for pity used by Matthew when he recounts Jesus’ parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:21-35). Splagchnizomai refers to a deep (intestinal!) level of compassion in response to human distress that moves Jesus and God to intervene. Paul uses a related word when he tells the Ephesians to be “tenderhearted (eusplagchnos), forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).