Jonah

One of my favorite books in the Old Testament is Jonah.  Why?  Well, because, for one thing, it's very short.  But, by far, my favorite point in the story is that Jonah has a bad attitude.  You'd think that he'd get an "attitude adjustment" by the end of the book.  But, no.  He's still mad at God and wishes all those folks in Nineveh had been blasted off the face of the earth.

You know, like those folks who like to rant on Facebook.

The new minister at my church, David, has been with us for three Sundays and this is his third Sunday to preach on the book of Jonah.  Each time he's begun the sermon he's started with a funny analogy about our new relationship.  First was about "First Dates," last week was about "Job Interviews" where he ended by thanking us for not leaning back and folding our arms and giving him the limp handshake at the door.

This morning he did the pre-sermon about "meeting the family."  Some of the tips were, when meeting your girlfriend's parents,  not to stare at your phone, not to arrive drunk, to bring a gift but not too expensive (don't want to look desperate) and so on.

Then he's gone on to teach from the book of Jonah - which, as I said above, is all about attitude and  exploring the nature of God and the nature of human beings.

So I'm thinking that the lesson here is that we can rant all we want but God hangs in there with us and still allows us to do magnificent things, inspite of ourselves and our changing circumstances.


***