Today, we look at a Day 4 text from this year’s summer curriculum, “Transformed Community: God’s Agent of C.H.A.N.G.E.”
Prayer: Good and loving God, help us to truly know your ways and genuinely try to work with you instead of against you. May we see your work in others and recognize the good and saving love that you share through our imperfect vessels. Turn us away from trying to fill up and polish over our issues and problems. Show us again how you make us strong in weakness, bring us to speech from silence, and from resignation to devoted action. Amen. Reading: Jonah 3:10-4:11 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: Whale Chow…Prophet of Temper Tantrums…Preacher Doolittle…Even though we might want to make fun of Jonah and keep coming up with monikers for his madness, we must recognize the oceans deep meaning of his story. Seriously, all puns aside, there is an unassailable truth in this conclusion of the “Sign of Jonah” (as Jesus calls it). The reality is that God’s mercy, love, and forgiveness do not make sense. We think that GodOur thirst for “justice” is often actually revenge. The challenge of reading the story of Jonah is to not get caught up in the drama, but to focus in on the participatory salvation. All along, God simply asks Jonah to be a part of the solution for who God cares about. There is a difference between who we care about and who God cares about (hint: our list is much shorter). The key is to open our hearts to care for those whom God calls us to care about. --Andrew Fitch
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