It’s funny how I can find out little things that seem to add a whole new sense of coherence, depth – and even urgency – to my understanding of some of the things the New Testament says.
One of the most famous lines from the Bible, “For the love of money is the root of all evil.”
Well, I’ve always thought, “Okay, that’s really pretty obvious. You know, I should be careful about loving money cause then I might become greedy, I might become proud, I might become self-absorbed.” As if the entire range of evil spoken of here refers simply to the range of personal vices. But now I’ve begun to think that “all evil” here refers to ALL evil – that is, it is addressing not so much personal vices (although these are certainly included) but rather systemic evil. Read a book like “No Logo” (Naomi Klein) and you start to realize that not only does the love of money produce greedy self-absorbed egos, it is also responsible for genocide, the destruction of ecosystems, slavery, child labor, and pretty much every form of oppression and exploitation whether of people, animals or the natural environment. Suddenly there are concrete social, political and corporate references that make this verse hit home with a magnitude I’ve never really considered before.
The other (famous)passage I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is the verse that speaks of Jesus looking out and the crowd and seeing them as sheep without a shepherd. I’ve tended to interpret that as meaning that the people were sort of lost, sort of confused, sort of helpless (you know, in a cutesy kind of way). Then (and here I am indebted to N.T. Wright’s “Jesus and the Victory of God”) I realized that that passage is actually a quotation from a prophet in the book of “Kings.” Looking at that passage I realized that “sheep without a shepherd” refers not to people who are sort of lost and confused but to people who are being slaughtered, absolutely massacred. In it makes so much sense in light of my experience. I talk with so many kids at the drop-in, so many adults at the shelter and they’re trapped in a life-style that is killing them – and they don’t need us to tell them it’s killing them, they know, they feel the effects in their heart, mind and body. What they don’t know is how to escape, how to do anything different. Like sheep without a shepherd. Getting slaughtered. Then last winter when I was doing my sign campaign at Union Station I realized that the Bay Street crowd, the big shots in corporate business in downtown Toronto are in a similar situation. One day I held a sign that said, “Are you free?” and so many people stopped and talked to me about how they didn’t think they were. “Maybe I was once upon a time… You know the ball’s rolling and I can’t stop it now…” And they also know they’re trapped, but they don’t know how to do anything different so they keep doing the same thing day in and day out just living for those moments when they escape. Just like the street kids. Sheep without a shepherd. Getting slaughtered. It breaks my heart. Where are the shepherds?
Somewhere along the way the church has gotten off track. It’s become intimately involved with a culture that loves money, it has become just as guilty as anybody else out there, and as a result it can’t prevent the slaughter that ensues. And sometimes it makes me furious but mostly it makes me want to break down and cry.

I think I’ve finally got a glimpse of what Jonah was going through. I never could understand his reaction… sure I knew that he was going to a people that he perceived to be corrupt, even personal enemies but wouldn’t that be all the more reason to rejoice after the entire city of 120,000+ people repented and turned to the Lord?
But then I look at Toronto and all I can see is corruption, selfishness, oppression and heart-break. Surely, I say to myself, we are living in exile. Not only is the city defined by these things, but those who claim to be the people of God are equally guilty and equally involved in a culture of violence and greed. At the same time I make these observations I talk with friends who tell me that “God is doing great things in this city… the Spirit is moving in new and exciting ways.” And that’s what made me think of Jonah. Perhaps he was so focused on the corruption that he was absolutely unable to understand how God could so quickly act compassionately. How could such a city be the place God chooses to show his grace? It makes me wonder: am I like Jonah? Am I unable to see that, in his grace, God has already begun to break into this city? But, at least in Ninevah there were signs of repentance. The city fasted and prayed, it humbled itself and (most importantly for this is what lies at the heart of repentance)they changed the ways in which they were living their lives.
So perhaps the parallel is closer to Jeremiah. I’ve always thought, from a pragmatic Western perspective, that Jeremiah must have been one of history’s biggest losers. Here was a fellow deeply in love with his people, his city, his nation and his God. He was broken hearted by the state of affairs in which he found himself and devastated by the consequences he knew would inevitably result. So he does everything he can to bring home his message – change the way you live your life or we will go into exile. And he really does try everything. Running around naked proclaiming, “this is how you will go into exile!” Building models of Jerusalem with tiny siege engines, “This is how our city will fall!” At the end of it all what does he have to show for it? Nothing. The people he loves are killed, raped and led away, the city he loves is destroyed by fire, the nation he loves no longer exists, and the God he loves turned them over to the consequences of their actions. Jeremiah dedicated himself to showing the people of God how they had fatally compromised themselves with the culture around them and in the end he accomplished nothing. And so I am left wondering, “Is this situation more like Jeremiah’s?” Is it that the people around me, even the people I love and respect, haven’t recognized the true depth of our complicity with our culture? Boy, that’s a scary thought. It sort of adds a whole different human element to the rejection Jeremiah faced. After all (to quote Isaiah this time), “my people go into exile for their lack of knowledge.” A prophet, it seems, faces an amazingly lonely road. Maybe I’m just beginning to realize how lonely that road is.
All the more reason to focus on God as Lover.
At the same time I can’t help but wonder if these reflections are founded upon a pride I have been unable to root out. I could have a serious Messiah-complex. Who am I to compare myself to Jonah, let alone Jeremiah?