We are beginning a new series — Enemy Love: Jonah and the Sermon on the Mount — and we're going to spend the next four weeks in the little book of Jonah, reading it as the mirror image of the Sermon on the Mount. Or maybe the anti-story: if you want to see the Sermon not done well, go read Jonah.

I start with a confession: I've been reading the Sermon on the Mount devotionally, over and over, because it's a section of Scripture I need to take more seriously. And as I prayed about where to go for a few weeks — five weeks until Advent — Jonah came to mind. It's only about three pages. And I started seeing echoes all over it.

This week is Jonah 1. God calls Jonah to Nineveh — a people he hates, the rising Assyrian power — to preach righteousness. Jonah runs the opposite direction, to Tarshish, and falls asleep in the bottom of the boat. I walk through the two movements of the chapter: God wakes us from our sleep, and God uses us in spite of ourselves.

Jonah knew exactly why he was running. He knew God was slow to anger and abounding in love, and that if the Ninevites repented, God would relent. He would rather die — literally, "throw me overboard" — than see his enemies receive the grace he himself had received.

And the sailors — the pagan sailors — out-peacemake the prophet. They row back to land. They pray. They sacrifice and make vows to the LORD. God brings peace on that ship, with or without Jonah's cooperation.

So here's my challenge for the week, and it's the same one I gave on Sunday: who are our Ninevites? Who are the fish slappers — in the words of the great VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer — the people we are so disgusted by that what we want for them is God's wrath? We all have that somebody. And I think if we're honest, we all have a boat to Tarshish waiting.

Scripture: Jonah 1:1–16; Matthew 5:6, 5:9, 5:43–48

Message Big Idea: God will bring peace whether we choose to join him or not.

In this message:

• Ethan's VeggieTales trauma (and why Jonah the movie is not Jonah the book)
• Jonah as the mirror image of the Sermon on the Mount — and my honest caveat about that claim
• Why Jonah ran: he knew God would relent
• The guilty man who falls asleep — and the storm that wakes him up
• The pagan sailors who out-peacemake the prophet
• "Throw me overboard" — I'd rather die than see my enemies receive grace
• Who are our Ninevites? Who are our fish slappers?

If you love Jesus, then feed his sheep. And if you want to love your enemies the way God loves them — well, it starts with naming the ones you don't.

Next week: Jonah 2, The Rescue — the fish.

— Daniel

Listen to more messages:
Peace Presbyterian Church — https://peacepresflint.com/sermons
Acts 13 Network — https://acts13.net/messages

We've made it to the end of the Gospel of John — nineteen weeks, start to finish — and the finale is John's closing word to us: don't look back in shame, don't look sideways in comparison. Eyes forward into eternity as we follow Christ.

We open on the beach at the charcoal fire — a word John uses only twice in the whole Gospel, and both times it matters. Peter denied Jesus three times around one charcoal fire; now Jesus asks him three times, "Do you love me?" I talk about why the smell of that fire probably brought it all rushing back, and about how Jesus deals with Peter's shame — not with "you lousy loser," but with love. "Do you love me? Then feed my sheep."

Then Peter turns around, sees John, and says, "What about him?" — and I get honest about the comparison trap, because this one hits me. Keeping up with the Joneses, the twenty-somethings who feel behind, the curated Instagram feeds. Jesus answers with what our English translations soften: "You. You follow me."

We close where John closes — with the vastness of the cosmic Christ, a story so big the world itself couldn't hold the books that would tell it — and with the song that keeps running through my head: Caedmon's Call's "Faith My Eyes." Because we end this series right where we began it: believing is seeing, and believing is life.

Scripture: John 21:15–25

In this message:

• The charcoal fire — used only twice in the Gospels, and why the smell of it mattered
• Peter's reinstatement: three questions for three denials
• Why I don't make hay out of the agape/phileo wordplay (John's thesaurus)
• How Jesus deals with your shame: "Do you love me? Then feed my sheep."
• The comparison trap — and Jesus' sharpest answer in the Gospel: "You. You follow me."
• The cosmic Christ, the Grand Canyon, and the story with no end
• Closing out 19 weeks in John: believing is seeing, believing is life

Thank you for persevering through this whole series with me. Jonah is next — and I can't wait.

— Daniel

Listen to more messages:
Peace Presbyterian Church — https://peacepresflint.com/sermons
Acts 13 Network — https://acts13.net/messages

This is the penultimate message in our Gospel of John series — yes, I just like saying penultimate. We're in chapter 21, which, honestly, feels a little tacked on. John 20 ended so perfectly that scholars have been wrestling with chapter 21 ever since. I leave that mystery unresolved and just jump in: Jesus on the beach, the guys fishing all night, catching nothing.

And that's what makes this little scene the living illustration of John 15 — "apart from me you can do nothing." The disciples go back to their self-reliant routine, lean on their own strength and generations of fishing expertise, and the nets come up empty. Then the man on the shore says, "Throw your net on the right side," they move it four feet, and it's filled to overflowing.

I talk about what it really means to abide: Brother Lawrence washing the pots for decades and learning what he called practicing the presence of Christ. I share the C. S. Lewis line that apart from the Eucharist, the most holy thing you come in contact with throughout the week is your neighbor. And then there's Peter — putting his clothes back on before swimming to Jesus, because he recognized that breakfast on the beach with the risen Christ was a holy moment.

My challenge for you this week: tomorrow morning — when you open your laptop, make breakfast, or start your commute — take a breath and pray, "Lord, I am available to you right here." There are no ordinary moments when we practice the presence of Christ.

Scripture: John 21:1–14

In this message:

• Why John 21 feels tacked on — and why the Bible's messiness is part of the fun of taking it seriously
• The two unnamed disciples (and John's little slight)
• What "apart from me you can do nothing" looks like in a fishing boat
• Brother Lawrence, the pots, and practicing the presence of Christ
• Why Peter got dressed to go swimming
• How breakfast on the beach became holy ground

— Daniel

Listen to more messages:
Peace Presbyterian Church — https://peacepresflint.com/sermons
Acts 13 Network — https://acts13.net/messages