My identity is in identifying myself with “My God”

My identity is in identifying myself with “My God”

(A reflection by my Friend Rev. Joel)

Greetings to you all in the liberating name of Jesus Christ, the co-sufferer with the Dalits.

“Should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” (Jonah 4:11)

Being a Dalit hailing from a middle class family, and had been brought up in a very convenient and sophisticated manner, I am completely alien to Dalit oppressions and alienations. My mother is a very loving and a devout Christian who had all kinds of experiences in life for four generation as a Dalit Christian.

The TELC church to which I belong had received a pastor around seven years before. Being a non-Dalit he used to alienate himself from us and had acted partially. In one occasion my mother approached him about matters regarding collection of fund for the renovation of the church. But with all indifference, the pastor denied to come to my home saying that he would visit only the privileged and select few. As a young man, for the first time in my life, I was shocked that because of our Dalit identity, we were alienated and it raised so many theological questions in me about my own identity. In the upcoming years, after I have committed to ministry and came here, even in Gurukul, I have to face so many such instances of alienation and painful incidents. Especially whenever there arose a need for me to assert my identity, there all I find that, not only the Brahmins, but the so-called upper caste people, even those who once were Dalits, alienating and hurting me because of my identity. Even the churches I visit are in no way deferred from this dominating and humiliating caste constructs. This also questioned my understanding about the church, the Bible and even God. The ongoing struggle for my identity stirred my thoughts constantly all through these four years to theologically reflect on how God looks at this issue.

My travel into bible paused in the book of Jonah to find God’s perspective on this issue. Jonah was called and was given a task and so were the Ninevites. In that respect every human irrespective of their identity are given the grace to relate with God.

The exegesis on the book of Jonah gives us the reason for the biased and strained relationships of the Hebrews towards the Ninevites. The Hebrews considered the Ninevites as a potential threat to their nation. Thus the Hebrews always had hostility towards them. Because of that, the prophets often pronounced God’s judgment on these people.

So naturally the anger, resentment and considerations of Jonah could well be justified. But I would rule that down when it is looked at from the margins perspective. If we read the text socio-politically, we can easily identify that the Ninevites can never be compared to Dalits, because the Ninevites were also oppressors once and continued to search for the time and opportunity to do so again. So here, it is the psycho-analytic reading of the text from the margins perspective is chosen to reread and exegete this text.

To give a clarity about how I look at this text, it was the self- righteous attitude of Jonah, (though justified as a man of principles on one side); and the innocence of the people of Nineveh, (though their military and armed forces proved to do merciless deeds), which were taken as the basis for the re-reading of the text. I am not trying to represent the Hebrews and Ninevites to neither Dalits nor non-Dalits and vice versa. It is only in drawing parallels - I equate the self-righteous, ego-centric and pride-filled attitude of the Hebrews to the non-Dalits and all who dominate and oppress their fellow human, who consider themselves to be the most sanctified and pure community of one true God. I equate only the innocent and ignorant ordinary common people of Nineveh to the oppressed and alienated Dalits of India, who are free from all biased enmities’ against the Hebrews.

With this we shall go in to the text to study it intuitively. From that, we can see the perspective of God in whom I have found my identity, in and through the book of Jonah. Who is “The God” and what is His/Her stance in this issue? How can we identify ourselves in identifying with “The God” who can become “our God”? What are the insights or perspectives we learn about God?

1.     God is not biased or partial

Jonah was so pride filled about his identity as a Hebrew. He also was so arrogant in acknowledging that he belongs to the one true God YHWH who was the creator of the whole of universe. His claims were only his and not God’s. We can see that God considers both Jonah and the Ninevites equally and shows more mercy and grace to the innocent Ninevite people than for Jonah. In fact Jonah was the one who experiences the harshness of God and was considerably confronted; and not the Ninevites.

In verse 1, the Hebrew word reads literally, “and it was evil to Jonah, an evil great…” We have got a softened translation in English. For what has happened, however, something more than “displeasure” is happening to Jonah, indeed the second half of the sentence reads literally, “…and it burned to him”. The second and third verse affirms that Jonah feared that his preaching would have the positive effect that it did, in fact, have and he wanted nothing to do with the possible extension of divine mercy to these hateful people.

In that sense God was so considerate towards the Ninevites and not towards Jonah, the so called God’s own people for their arrogance, anger and unacceptable attitude towards their neighbors. God wanted these people to change their attitude and understanding towards their fellow Ninevites.

2.     God takes the side of those who are deemed to be the cursed

Once the oppressor or any human in that regard considers the “others” as cursed or deemed for doom, then God strongly takes the side of those who are in the receiving end. Here the Ninevites who were considered to be “the cursed” were shown mercy by God. There were no expectations from God’s side other than the expression of anguish and love oriented longings for those people. The implication might be that then – ‘Dalits are sinful for whom God’s grace is showered.’ That surely is not the inference, rather it is the grace and love of God to all humanity and it transcends all human natures and perspectives.

But Jonah was constantly confronted by God every time. Because of his wrong perspective, God was to confront him several times and to prove him wrong every time. That shows the true self of God who is both a compassionate and loving God on one side; and a righteous and compelling God on the other side. If human judges their fellow human with resentment and treat them with bitterness, alienate and oppress their “neighbor”, then God intervenes, compels for change, dispels all the wrong perspectives and obliges his own people to accept “the other” as they are. The God of such grace is my God; but the God whom Jonah projected is the God of Jonah’s understanding, and not the real God whom the word of God teaches.

3.     God’s word is mission oriented and not a judgment  

It is Jonah who pronounces judgment towards the Ninevites and not God. When we interpret the words of God given to Jonah earlier (1:1), in the light of the fourth chapter, then we can understand that it is only with the purpose of God’s mission, and not in the judgmental frame in which Jonah presented God’s word to the Ninevites. Here in the text, God is persistent, but not forcible. Each of those divine speeches in verse 4, 9a and 10-11 poses questions rather than commands. YHWH is presented as a teacher and a guide for Jonah. Corresponding to this change, comes the shift from a ‘theology of repentance’ to a ‘theology of pity’.

The controlling verb for the analogy between Jonah and YHWH is the Hebrew verb .hus^, often translated as pity. Elsewhere in the Bible, .hus^ functions positively in theological contexts to connote the attitude or emotion of sympathy that expresses itself in gracious action towards another. The verb carries strong meaning. Sometimes the verb appears with the noun “eye” (‘ayin) to convey the concept of overflowing tears for the object of sympathy. The range of the positive expressions includes compassion, benevolence and mercy. That shows the overflowing love with which God comes to His/Her people.

Nineveh evokes pity, not because it turned from evil, but because of the divine grace, because of God’s love and compassion for everyone regardless of their identities. It is not about whether Jonah or the Ninevites sinned or not, but about the unconditional divine grace and benevolence. The divine question awaits an answer. So open-endedness of the last verse invites self-understanding and self-transcendence. The story subverts the reader.

About the divine attributes which Jonah expresses, those were four in number. i.) the word “gracious and merciful”(hau n^un we”rah^um) used for God signifies comfort and love. The adjective rah.^um, akin to the noun reh.em meaning “womb”, holds the particular image of maternal compassion. ii.) The description of God “slow to anger” (‘ere-k’appayim) literally reads “long nostrils”, an anthropomorphism connoting friendliness and graciousness. iii.) The expression of “abounding in steadfast love” (we^rab .hesed) about God conveys the fullness of benevolence. iv.) The characterization of God as the one “repenting about the evil” (we^niham ‘al-hara’a) undercuts its own malicious objective as it evokes vocabulary, themes and deeds already attributed to God. Through this, we can understand the unconditional love of God with no expectations who loves; being compassionate to all with no expectations about the merits and deeds of human, God is ever grace- filled.

What then is the Gospel from this text? I find that there is no need for instructions or commands or answers for our questions, but the shedding of light about the right understanding of God itself will provide the right perspective to move forward to find our identity.

When God is not biased and partial, even we cannot do so. Whether we are a Dalit or a non- Dalit, we are to treat our neighbor as we are, giving them their dignity and honor which God had endowed them with. When God is not judgmental, we have no right to deem anyone whether they are to be doomed or not. If we do so, then we stand against God’s will and mission for a unified humanity which is completely freed from all corruptions of human mortality. If we continue to practice that judgmental and cursing attitude, we incur God’s confrontation on ourselves like Jonah.

That itself is a hope for our brokenness and we live as persons not without hope, not in this world, but in God; because we find our identity by identifying ourselves with “our God”. May that God of justice and peace become your God. I thank for sending me into Gurukul in search of my identity and to find that in Him/Her whenever I identify myself with “my God”, here in this campus itself.  

Praise God for God’s acceptance and love of my identity as I am; and so I am proud of my identity and also proud of your identity.