Simple as Doves

Bringing peace to the people around us

10/08/2019

Jonah 3:1-10 The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: "Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you." So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD's bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day's walk announcing, "Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed," when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.

Most people are familiar with the Old

Testament story of the reluctant prophet named Jonah. We recall from our children’s Bible books about how Jonah tried to flee from God’s call as s stowaway on a ship, how he was swallowed but also saved by a whale (it was Moby Dick), and finally had remarkable success preaching repentance in Nineveh, the capital city of one of Israel’s most feared enemies, the Assyrians. The Assyrians annihilated the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. and scattered the Israelites all over the world in the “diaspora.” In one day of preaching Jonah converted the whole city of Nineveh, in six years of preaching I haven’t converted five people in Fort Smith. There are prophets and then there are prophets.

Most people do not know, however, that Jonah’s name means “Dove.” Just like a dove symbolizes peace, so Jonah takes God’s peace to other peoples, even foreign peoples. I would like to reference three other instances in the bible where doves are specifically mentioned and draw out some practical conclusions for us. The fist reference is found in Genesis 8, where Noah has been in the Ark for a long time and sends out a dove three times. The first time the dove returns empty-beaked, the second time he returns with an olive branch, and the third time, he does not return at all. The dove, like the symbolic rainbow in Genesis 9, promised peace between God and humanity. Like Jonah, so Noah brought God’s peace to the world after the devastating flood.

The second instance of the dove occurs at the baptism of Jesus at the Jordan River by St. John the Baptist. We read in Mt. 3:16: “After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him.” In other words, Jesus does not just bring God’s peace, he is God’s peace in the flesh. All who are joined to Jesus’s Flesh through Holy Communion likewise enjoy his peace. And in case you missed the Jesus-Jonah connection, Jesus makes it even more apparent in Mt. 12:39: “An evil and adulterous generation craves a sign. Yet not sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus makes it crystal clear he is the new Jonah, the new Dove, with the olive branch of peace in his mouth.

The third instance of the dove that is worth noting can be found in Mt. 10:16, where Jesus sends his apostles out to preach and share his peace. What symbolic image (among others) does he give them for their ministry? He says: “Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.” The mission and ministry of the apostles, indeed of the whole Church, like that of Noah, and Jonah, and Jesus, is to bring God’s peace to a troubled world.

I hope you can already see the practical application of this reflection to our daily lives. Do we bring peace to the people around us? This is a lesson I am having to learn over and over again, as I realize that my words, my actions, and even my facial expressions have not always brought peace, but rather anxiety, fear or even revulsion to others. Sadly, I sometimes overemphasize the “shrewd as serpents” part of ministry and almost forget about the “simple as dove” part. Maybe that’s one reason why the preaching of Jonah, the Dove, in Nineveh was far more effective than my preaching in Fort Smith.

As you go throughout your day and run into various and sundry people, ask yourself: did I bring peace into that person’s life by a word, or a gesture, or by a look? Make peace your priority as you live your Christian life, and as you read the book of Jonah, the Dove.

Praised be Jesus Christ!