Jonah 3:10-4:11

We must hear both the humor and irony of the Jonah story. Why is Jonah upset at God’s mercy? What do you notice about Jonah’s request after stating God’s mercy? How does God respond? What course of action does Jonah undertake? What is ironic about the bush? What kills the bush? How does Jonah respond? Assess Jonah’s emotions? To what end is God trying to form these emotions? Why?

Matthew 20:1-16

Notice again that the kingdom is like the landowner. How would you characterize the landowner? Who complains about the landowner? Why? Why do some persons find the extent of God’s mercy so offensive? What is the cause of such emotional responses to mercy? What does it tell about the person who objects to this mercy?

Philippians 1:21-27

Steve Fowl, in his commentary on Philippians, calls the letter an “exhortation to martyrdom” – remarkable in a letter committed to joy as well. How does Paul’s attitude compare/contrast with the workers in the Gospel narrative and Jonah’s in his story? What is the difference? What do you notice about the two different approaches to life that each shows? What is the different range of emotions? Why do the emotions differ so?

One final note: As we head toward the end of the month, particularly with the economy sinking deeper and deeper into negative territory, more and more persons in our neighborhood will be coming to us in need of food. We need additional help in driving and in insuring that the food is distributed in love. Tuesday we had 380 persons through the distribution. My guess is that this will continue and that on Saturdays, we will approach 600 persons again. Your presence in the courtyard and outside greeting persons in the line makes a difference – as well as those that it takes behind the scenes to fill and empty the truck. If you know of other places that we might beg to get more food to distribute, let us know! We haven’t had “too much” yet and we’ve shown that we can distribute 9 tons of tomatoes in 36 hours!