Hello Church Friends,



This Sunday I'll be preaching on one of my favourite biblical stories - Jonah! Do you remember hearing this story in Sunday school? I remember seeing pictures of Jonah sitting inside the whale's belly; in children's pictures the inside of the whale looks like a cosy living room - there is a table and chairs and sometimes even a picture on the wall. Impossible and ridiculous you say? If you are curious about what the inside of a whale looks like you can ask Michael Packard, he was swallowed by a whale off the coast of Cape Cod in 2021 and survived. All levity aside, the Jonah story is not just a mad tale about a man's encounter with a whale. It is at its heart a story about a man refusing to go where God is calling him. Jonah doesn't want to go to Ninevah, but when he heads in the opposite direction he discovers God has other plans for him. This is a story about God's message of mercy and forgiveness. Jonah doesn't want any part of it. Do you have a Ninevah? A place where you feel called to go but you don't want to go there? This is a story about God asking us to do hard things for good reasons. You can enjoy this fantastic story for the sheer entertainment value of it or you can reflect on where God might want you to go to offer mercy and forgiveness. With God's help we can do hard things. 

Blessings Rev. Louise