Advent at Vineyard: Week 1: God-With-Us: Hope Through Vulnerability:: Anna Hillaker, November 29, 2015

The God of Second Chances: The Book of Jonah, Part 4 :: Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor :: Nigel Berry, Youth Pastor, November 22, 2015

The God of Second Chances: The Book of Jonah, Part 3 :: Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor :: Rev. Donnell T. Wyche, Senior Pastor, November 15, 2015

As we continue to spend time in Jonah, we are hoping to highlight and expose the story of the God of Second Chances.

Having received a prophetic message to preach against the wickedness and sinfulness of the Assyrian Empire, Jonah decides instead to flee from God by hopping a ship to Tarshish, clear on the other side of the world. God sends a storm to disrupt Jonah's plan to thwart God's mercy and compassion. The sailors trapped on that ship with him, under distress and out of options, realized that Jonah was the cause of the storm. After many failed attempts to reverse their fortunes, they resign themselves to toss Jonah overboard. God acting in his mercy and compassion sends a large fish to sallow Jonah. Jonah spends three days and three nights trapped in this whale before offering a prayer of thanksgiving. His expression of gratitude for life and connection to God, not to be mistaken for repentance or some kind of key to unlock his time-out, was a counter response to the bitterness that Jonah wrestled with. After all of this, Jonah is vomited on dry land. That's where we will pick up the story.

The God of Second Chances: The Book of Jonah, Part 2 :: Rev. Donnell T. Wyche, Senior Pastor

Jonah flees because he believes that God is unjust. If Nineveh is evil, it should be destroyed. What's the point of delivering the message in person, except for giving the Ninevites a chance to repent? Did you happen to notice that the original prophetic message doesn't include a call to repentance for Nineveh? It's just a prophetic judgement against their wickedness and evil.

Jonah may very well be happy to go to Nineveh to preach against it, to announce their impending destruction, but Jonah had no interest in creating space for Nineveh to repent. How did Jonah know that God would forgive Nineveh if it repented, because all Jonah had to do was look around. He was a prophet in Israel during the rule of an evil king, and God was still blessing Israel in spite of its sin, so it didn't take much for Jonah to assume that the same mercy and compassion could be extended to Nineveh.

The God of Second Chances: Jonah Sermon #1:: Pastor Donnell Wyche, November 1, 2015

This morning, I'm launching our four-part sermon series on Jonah, the story of the God of Second Chances. Jonah is the fifth in the collection of the minor prophets. Yet Jonah stands as one of the most familiar and popular books of the Bible--often finding its way into most children's bibles. Any familiarity with Jonah shouldn't cause us to quickly dismiss Jonah assuming its just a kid's story ignoring the rich complexity this story offers with notes of compassion, mercy, and second chances, all of which together nudge us towards reconciliation with ourselves, each other, and God.