It’s not always easy to see ourselves as we truly are. But stories can help. When we listen carefully to a story that is authentic to the human experience, we come to know ourselves in new ways.

The book of Jonah is one such story. Despite its rather fantastical qualities, the story of Jonah is a real human tale. A story of human failure and divine grace, a story of the interplay between duty observed and plain disobedience. A story of the internal conflict between authentic honesty and dishonest selfishness. It’s all here, all of the meaning and the mess of life.

But the thing that makes Jonah’s story most helpful to us is how everything, all of it, is placed before God. And really, this is the thing most true about our humanity, the thing we most need to educate our imaginations with: there is no other kind of life except that which is lived before God.

Jonah is not a children’s tale. It is a very grown up tale that ends with a very serious question: what kind of person will you be?

Jonah is our Lenten series this year. Join us as we begin this journey towards Easter.

Jonah 1:1-3

Discussion Notes

Today we are talking about the importance of “and” and how God meets us in our story right where we are.

To read the story of Jonah well means we need to embrace its genre. In fact, any text requires an understanding of the language game behind it. we speak differently in prayers, we write differently in poetry, we tell stories in different ways than we do when we are explaining something.

Jonah 1:4-17

Discussion Notes
Today we’re talking about how grace emerges from hidden places, in surprise storms and through those we would least expect.

Okay, we're not talking about science fiction here but there is a way to read the story of Jonah as a re-imagining of history. A story where the question is asked, "What if we had done one thing differently?" What if we had listened to God by caring for the poor and speaking grace to our enemies, and what if that changed everything?

Jonah 2

Discussion Notes
Today we are talking about the paradox in the heart of the Jonah story.

Bonus Material

When I connect my words and my thoughts to my breath, when I connect my theology to my physical body, what happens is I become more present to the Divine that is all around me, not only in that moment but in every moment.

Jonah 3:1-8

Discussion Notes
Today we are talking about second chances and transformative sermons.

Bonus Material

This week we hit a pivotal moment in the Jonah story; his great second chance. The question is whether Jonah will take it.

Jonah 3:9-4:2

Discussion Notes
Today we are talking about how God chooses relationship and what does it mean for us and for the Divine.

Bonus Material

At the end of Jonah 3, God repents! At least that's what the text says. I think one of the best ways to understand this is a literary device where the writer shows God mirroring the movement of Nineveh. It's how the writer demonstrates God's responsiveness. But there is another way to think of this: divine accommodation. The idea that a good God accommodates to our capacity to know and understand the Divine.

Palm Sunday

Jonah 4 + Luke 19:41-44

Discussion Notes

Today we are looking at the story of Palm Sunday through the last chapter of the story of Jonah.