Please read Jonah 1:1-4, 3:1-5,10 and Mark 1:14-20
Sermon Focus: “Running from God”
Key Verse: Jonah 1:2-3 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah ran away from the Lord…
Reflection Question:
Jonah’s resistance to respond to the call of God to go to Nineveh is understandable. The “Nineveh’s” we face as Christians today seem equally overwhelming. We, too, are tempted to “run away,” to believe there is nothing we can do. How do we respond to the current prevailing current events in the world, in our nation, in our denomination, in our own lives, without losing our souls? How do we respond, not run away, from Jesus’ call to “follow” him and become one of his “disciples”?
Connection for Today:
God did not let Jonah “off the hook.” Nor are we. The “good news” is that God empowered Jonah for his ministry and God empowers us for our ministries as faithful followers of Jesus. None of us are strong enough to face the relentless dark issues of our times alone. We can “run away,” we can retreat into cynicism and our private concerns, or we can root ourselves in our faith in God — in our belief in the ever-present power of God’s Spirit, in our relationships with each other, including our solidarity with other followers of Jesus who are traveling the same path towards biblical justice.