But the reverse is also true: Let him who is not in community beware of being alone. Into the community you were called, the call was not meant for you alone; in the community of the called you bear your cross, you struggle, you pray. You are not alone, even in death, and on the Last Day you will be only one member of the great congregation of Jesus Christ. If you scorn the fellowship of the brethren, you reject the call of Jesus Christ, and thus your solitude can only be hurtful to you. “If I die, then I am not alone in death; if I suffer they [the fellowship] suffer with me” (Luther).
-From Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

This verse (Jonah 4:2), is arguably the key verse of the entire book of Jonah. It would be easy, yet foolish enough, to look everywhere else to understand what this book has to say to us.

The sailors, the fish, the Ninevites, or even Jonah, but the protagonist of the story is, of course, God. We may see ourselves in the life of Jonah. We can see our selfishness, our unwillingness to love those who God loves, our tendency to want to run from God’s call, and all of that is needed and necessary. But let us not keep our eyes focused too much on ourselves as we read this book and discern its meaning for us. If we do that, we will be like Jonah: self-centered and self-focused, indeed! Let us instead look to the hero of the story (which of course, was not the great fish). It is God. The camera is aimed at God and God’s great love and compassion, for us, even in the midst of our wandering tendency, and for all of creation, even the ones who seem so disgusting to us.

We have been learning about the missional church from the book of Jonah.

Jonah is a great story from which we can learn missional characteristics. So far we have learned these missional characteristics from Jonah:

1. Mission begins with God (Jonah 1:1)
2. Mission has a message at its center (Jonah 1:1)
3. Mission involves the ongoing experience of grace (Jonah 2:8)
4. When it’s God’s mission, God turns the impossible into reality (3:5)

This week we will learn another missional characteristic from Jonah 4, as we wrap up this series. The chapter can actually be kind of a let down, to some degree. Just when we think that all is well from chapter 3, Jonah seems to fall from his communion, fellowship, and obedience to God. Anger sets in and Jonah is not happy about God’s grace and compassion. This is common when we engage in God’s mission. The self-centeredness of our hearts rises again when faced with new challenges. We want to cling to what we know and are comfortable with. Our reputations can be in jeopardy, the cost of joining in God’s mission is great, conflict arises internally and externally, and we can easily wonder, “Is it worth it?”

When we faced these challenges of joining in God’s mission, it can be very helpful to take an objective look at the big love of God. It’s what keeps us going.

Recently, I heard a sermon given by Dr. Fred Craddock,
to an annual conference for the Disciples of Christ
denomination. Dr. Craddock is Professor Emeritus of
Candler School of Theology at Emory University in
Atlanta, Georgia. He is well known as one of the
greatest preachers of our day in America. He was
offering a word of hope to members of a denomination
that is in great decline and often discouraged. He did
not suggest that their hope is in themselves, but in God.

One thing that caught my attention was, at one point in
his sermon, he was reflecting back on his early years as
a pastor and preacher. With great humor, he said that
for the first ten years or so in ministry, he preached the
same sermon every week: With God, all things are
possible. He said, “I may have used different Scripture
texts, and told different stories, but that was my sermon
every week.” He went on to describe how that message
came true and continues to today. God frequently does
the impossible.

Well, I guess I’ve kind of given my sermon away for
Sunday, but that’s what we find here in the third chapter
of Jonah.

We have been learning about the Missional Church through the
Book of Jonah. Remember that the term “missional” is different
than “missions” or “missionary,” to some degree. It’s not that we
just do “missions” by serving the community, although
“missional” includes that. Missional really means understanding
everything we are about, as individuals and as a church, to be
about God’s mission in the world. It is at the core of our identity.
We are always on mission. The mission of God involves being
witnesses to the lost as well as serving the poor.

Jonah is a great story from which we can learn missional
characteristics. So far we have learned these missional
characteristics from Jonah:

1. Mission begins with God (Jonah 1:1)
2. Mission has a message at its center (Jonah 1:1)
3. Mission involves the ongoing experience of grace (Jonah 2:8)

This week we learn another missional characteristic from Jonah
3, when Jonah responds to his experience of grace through
obedience. What happens when Jonah actually obeys God, and
preaches the message God gave him, to a city that is so far
from having God at its center? What does this chapter lead us
to believe about our own sense of doubt and what God can
really do through us?

We are continuing our series titled, “The Missional Church and God’s Love for Orange County.” As you may remember, we are looking at the Book of Jonah to learn what it means to be a missional people and a missional church. Last week we were reminded that mission starts with God, not in the heart or mind of Jonah. At the beginning of the chapter, God says to Jonah, “Go!” God’s command comes right out of God’s identity and purpose in the world. Throughout the Bible, God is constantly moving toward God’s people, in order to bring us into reconciled fellowship with Him. That led to the second characteristic of the Missional Church: At the center of God’s mission there is a message! Jonah was given a message to preach to Ninevah. So too, are we called to join in God’s mission in Orange County with the same message of God’s love offered to us in Jesus Christ.

Last Tuesday, at our Steering Committee meeting, we finalized our purpose, vision, and values statements. Everyone of you who is a part of Cornerstone Church has been a part of this process in some way.
Some have shared thoughts via the survey, and those thoughts were taken very seriously. Some of you participated on the Vision Team. And some of you have offered thoughts and contributions on an informal level in passing.
At the heart of the vision statement reflects a desire to be a missional church. The statement reads:
Our vision is to be a missional faith community in Orange County–committed to spreading the message of reconciliation to God through Jesus Christ; to bring about personal changes, social healing, and cultural renewal.
That’s kind of a mouthful! The heart of the statement is simply this: we seek not to exist for ourselves, but for the greater purposes of God. God’s desire is to bring people who don’t know Him, to Himself! And that’s what we’re here to do. Nothing else, really. That is our mission, our focus. And as we do that, through word and deed, the world changes little by little. As N.T. Wright says, heaven comes to earth and the world is ‘put to rights.’
This Sunday we will look at the core of the message, which is all about grace. Jonah had to experience it in his own life before he could be of any value to God’s mission. And so do we.

We are beginning a new series this Sunday from the book of Jonah. Mention Jonah and you think about the whale. Most people do. It is a famous account in the Bible. The truth is, the book is very little about the whale, and predominately about God: God’s character, God’s compassion, God’s love for the lost, and God’s dealing with Jonah.

Jonah is a book that is very relevant to our day. Jonah is a symbol of what it means to be human. He reveals the condition of the human heart. But Jonah is called by God on a particular mission.

You may have heard the term “missional” in the last year or so. It has become quite a buzz word in churches. “We want to be missional!” they say. And that’s great! But in order for us to be a missional church, and in order for us to be missional people, it would be necessary to understand exactly what that means and where it comes from.
For the next four weeks, we are going to learn what it means to be “missional” by taking a look through Jonah. The book of Jonah gives us wonderful clues into missional theology. We will look at several different characteristics of missional thinking.
Most churches understand the word “missions.” They usually have a “missions committee” that supports overseas missionaries, and perhaps sends people from within the congregation on short-term mission trips. And all that is wonderful and needed. But that’s not comprehensive of what it means to be missional.
Missional is a paradigm shift, a renewed way of thinking about being Christian in the world (I say renewed because it is not new to Christianity or to the Bible, even though the word itself is relatively new). It is to understand ourselves and our identity as Christians as participating in the mission of God in the world, at all times. We are “sent” to be witnesses for Christ.
Jonah was sent on a mission to a particular place for a particular reason. The places in which we live and work and study are really not that far off from Nineveh. The question will be for us, how will we respond to the invitation?

“I disapprove of the usual practice of talking ’small talk’ whenever we meet, and holding a veil over our souls. If we are so impoverished that we have nothing to reveal but small talk, then we need to struggle for more richness of soul.”

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of my life, and the enormous gifts of family and friends. Life with God in community with others is the best possible life to live.

In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results, and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result. Chance is not. “Gifts,” powers, material, intellectual, and spiritual possessions are the fruits of effort; they are thoughts completed, objects accomplished, visions realized.

The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart–this you will build your life by, this you will become.”

–From “As a Man Thinketh” by James Allen