Sermon for September 24th 2023. Jonah, his help and hope.
The story of Jonah is one of hope and help, because in spite of what he goes through, the story ends with God by his side, telling him that a city of people and animals was saved, thanks to him. And now God is here, with Jonah, to make sure he is okay. I should also say that there are moments of despair for Jonah in this story which are quite challenging, so please do seek help or talk to one of us if you need to later, we are happy to listen. Jonah is one of the Old Testament characters we often miss or overlook, other than the part about the whale, which has always been popular in Sunday School and has inspired works from Pinocchio to Moby Dick. Jonah is one of the twelve minor prophets in the Old Testament and the only one to also appear in the Koran. In fact Jonah is important in the three Jewish, Muslim and Christian faiths. His tomb in Mosul was partly destroyed by ISIS in 2014 because of this inter-faith, in their eyes, apostasy. Ironically, after they were defeated, multi