There Will Be Signs

Jesus' disciples pose a big question: who ranks greatest in the kingdom? He doesn't point to himself or to God the Father. Instead, Jesus calls a small child into the middle of the room and says whoever humbles themselves like this child becomes greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Loving these kids well starts with empathy, not lessons; we have to feel what they feel before we teach them anything.

This Children's Sabbath, a day set aside to honor and care for our children, we remember our role as stewards of a faith handed down to us. We owe the same gift to every child still to come.

Picture your worshipping community for a second. Most of us picture one room, one hour, the same familiar faces in the same familiar seats. Paul writes to Philemon from prison, begging him to welcome Onesimus home as he'd welcome Paul himself. Miles apart, they still belonged to the same family in Christ. On World Communion Sunday, we remember that our table connects us to believers past our own sanctuary walls. Come Oct. 4 and pull up a seat at that same table — it reaches farther than these walls ever could.

This Sunday is our final sermon in our Jonah series.  In our story timeline, Nineveh gets spared, and Jonah wants no part of celebrating it. His anger exposes the real issue: Jonah can't stomach a God who forgives people he's already decided don't deserve it. Most of us carry a version of Jonah's list — people or groups we've quietly written off as beyond grace. God never argues Jonah out of his anger; God keeps asking questions until Jonah faces why he still holds onto it. Will we be able to celebrate God's mercy, even when we don't agree? 

This Sunday, we continue with week 3 of our Jonah series. Jonah finally obeys God, but only just — he delivers a five-word warning and immediately turns to leave Nineveh. Somehow that half-hearted sermon works: the entire city repents, and the king orders sackcloth and fasting for people and livestock alike.

God's mercy clearly doesn't depend on how enthusiastically Jonah shows up, which raises an uncomfortable question for the rest of us. How often does grace work despite us, rather than because of anything we did right?

Come reflect with us, Sunday at 8:30, 11:00, or 11:15 am. See you there!

Last week, Jonah's story took a turn — swallowed whole after asking to be thrown overboard. This week, from inside the fish, he prays a psalm of thanksgiving instead of the death he asked for. He remembers God in the depths and rejects the idols around him (Jonah 2:6-9). The fish spits him out, and God asks him to do the one thing he already refused. Join us Sunday for a new take on an old story.

Our new sermon series opens with a challenge: do you really know the stories you THINK you know? The story we are "diving" into is the story of Jonah and the Big Fish.

Jonah runs the moment God calls him. God tells him to preach repentance in Nineveh, the capital of Israel's fiercest enemy, and Jonah bolts for a ship heading the opposite direction. A storm nearly sinks the whole crew, and desperate sailors cast lots to find the cause — landing squarely on Jonah. Jonah asks the sailors to throw him overboard, expecting death, and a great fish swallows him instead. But that's not the end of the story...