More than a Fish Story
I wonder if the remaining turkeys are breathing a sigh of relief? They have escaped the cleaver for the time being and live to gobble on! Now that Thanksgiving is in the rear view mirror we turn our attention to Advent. The word Advent comes from the Latin Adventist which means a “coming” or “visitation”. In that spirit we are going to be looking a the coming of the word of the Lord to a prophet located around Nazareth, wait for it ... Jonah. “Now the Word of the Lord came to Jonah ...”.
Yes, for our advent series this year we are going way back, approximately 760 years before Christ, to the prophet Jonah. Why would we study Jonah for Advent? Well for starters, it is a story that is familiar both in its prominence in the Christian canon as well as in culture (think Pinocchio). Furthermore, let’s not forget, that Jonah was the subject of our summer Arts and Rec camp this past year. It is good to dive into this familiar material and look at it afresh, especially through a slightly different lens, like Advent. In addition, Jonah is a story that mirrors the other stories of the scriptures. From creation onward, God has been telling stories about His pursuit, our flight, hiding from God, exposure, repentance, return, grace. Jonah is one of these stories and we hope by looking through its lens we will see the bigger story of what God is up to in his world! For God is at work in his world. It is this work; this coming Word of the Lord, that we anticipate in Advent.
I encourage you to read through Jonah to prepare. It takes about 10 minutes to read through it out loud. While Jonah is historical, prophetic narrative, it is also rich in literary nuance. Pay attention to repetition of words, structure of the narrative, use of irony, etc ... I look forward to “diving in” with you.