December 16

Jonah, Jonah, Jonah. I mean, really. Did you really think you could escape God?

It's easy to laugh at the foolishness of Jonah. But isn't that our reaction too? We all have Jonah days - we run from what we know is right, what God wants us to do. It's too hard so I'll just wait over there. Or sometimes it's more like This is too hard, Lord! Can't you just calm the storm now? Jonah days chase you for tender reason. The Hound of Heaven storms after you till you have the gift you need.(159) The gift of need. And we don't need what we already have. Or we don't have a need until there is want.

You aren't equipped for life until you realize you aren't equipped for life. You aren't equipped for life until you're in need of grace.(159)  Yes! I love these lines!

The life of a Christian is one of continued repentance and forgiveness. I previously mentioned our Confession and Absolution Lutherans have every Sunday in the liturgy as part of their corporate worship. Repentance should also happen privately at home. In the moment of realizing your limitations, your short-comings, your inescapable sins, all that you aren't - in that moment of surrendered lack, you're given the gift you'd receive no other way: the gracious hand of an unlimited God. Repentance, turning around, is the only way to be ushered into grace. (159-160) Absolution comes when we are in God's Word and are assured of His gracious forgiveness.

That sweet Gospel message - Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish, but Jesus took three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, in the belly of death, so no one else would ever have to. 

He did not abandon you in the ultimate storm of your soul. He will not abandon you in the immediate storm of your now. (161) 

Yes, the life of a Christian is one of continued repentance and forgiveness. A constant reminder of our Baptism and the assurance we have knowing that when we were in unbelief, God turned us around.

And here you see that Baptism, both in its power and signification, comprehends also the third Sacrament, which has been called repentance, as it is really nothing else than Baptism. For what else is repentance but an earnest attack upon the old man [that his lusts be restrained] and entering upon a new life? Therefore, if you live in repentance, you walk in Baptism, which not only signifies such a new life, but also produces, begins, and exercises it. For therein are given grace, the Spirit, and power to suppress the old man, so that the new man may come forth and become strong.

Therefore our Baptism abides forever; and even though some one should fall from it and sin, nevertheless we always have access thereto, that we may again subdue the old man. But we need not again be sprinkled with water; for though we were put under the water a hundred times, it would nevertheless be only one Baptism, although the operation and signification continue and remain. Repentance, therefore, is nothing else than a return and approach to Baptism, that we repeat and practise what we began before, but abandoned. Martin Luther - Large Catechism