Sunday's coming!

Jonah ch 3; Mark 4: 26-34 There is a Godly Play version of the story of Jonah. Its title is “Jonah – the backwards prophet”. Jonah seems to manage to get things completely wrong . First God tells him to go to Nineveh – which is to the East of Joppa, near where Jonah begins the story.   Jonah immediately seeks a boat going to Tarsish – we sets off West, into the Mediterranean, until diverted by a storm and a large fish, who returns Jonah to dry land. Then in today’s chapter we’ve heard how God tells Jonah a second time to go to Nineveh. This time at least Jonah, the backward prophet, gets it right: he goes in the direction God sends him. He walks deep into the great city and proclaims “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”. It’s hard to imagine his surprise when the people of Nineveh, a people so wicked they have drawn themselves to the attention of Almighty God, listen to him. Even the king listens to Jonah’s message, sits in ashes and orders t...

2 Corinthians 4: 5-12        Mark 2:23 - 3:6 Some passages of scripture feel like a real gift, don’t they? They cheer us when we are down; inspire us when life seems humdrum; and provide guidance when we are unsure what to do. It is just possible that the passage we heard from the second letter to the Corinthians is the favourite of someone here. In fact, I know it is, because it is my favourite! Two of those verses were the inspiration that I needed when I was being encouraged to think about becoming a minister of word and sacrament. I really wasn’t sure: I loved what I was doing (school teaching) and I certainly didn’t feel like I was good enough to be a minister. Those verses spoke to me: “it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraor...