Members and friends of Prospect Street United Methodist Church,

We will continue with our Drive-In Services every Sunday at 9:30 a.m. until further notice.

One final note about the drive-in services: To help those helping with parking and to make things go as smoothly as possible, we are asking that you please enter the parking lot from Prospect Street, and at the conclusion of the service we will have everyone exit from Church Street.

Thank you everyone.
May the grace and peace of Jesus Christ be with you,
Pastor Ty

You Turn

Jonah 3:1-5
The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

Jonah had already run away from the call of God once.  It had to have been difficult for Jonah to preach to this city.  Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire.  The Assyrians were notorious for their horrendous treatment of those they conquered, and the Israelites had experienced this all firsthand. 

For some reason, God wants Jonah to preach a word of warning to the people of this empire, in hopes they will repent.  The strangest thing that happens, after Jonah’s brief (very brief!) warning, is that everyone in Nineveh heeds the message and repents.  One challenging aspect of this story is that God does not ask Jonah what Jonah thinks of the Ninevites, or whether he thinks they are deserving of God’s mercy.  Jonah is simply told “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.”  And Jonah does it.

This feels similar to the way Jesus tells us: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you! Pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust.” (Matthew 5:43-45)

On this journey of discipleship, we are all constantly being invited to repent.  We are invited to exchange our broken and sin-tarnished attitudes and perceptions of the world, of others, and ourselves for the fresh love and mercy of God available through the Holy Spirit.  It usually does not make sense to us to extend grace to people who have never been kind to us and have mistreated us.  Yet, Christ is not asking us if this makes sense or is warranted.  Rather, we are being ushered into the way of love and life of God, who makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, who sends rain on the just and the unjust.  When we follow the commands of Christ, we surrender ourselves to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit.  In that process, slowly but surely, we become the kind of people who actually desire to join God in extending love and grace and peace especially to those who hardly deserve it, even people like you and me. 

Teach us, Ruler of the universe,
   to see people by the light of the faith we profess,
that we may check in ourselves
   all ungenerous judgments, all presumptuous claims,
that, recognizing the needs and rightful claims of others,
   we may remove old hatreds and rivalries
      and hasten new understandings,
that we may bring our tributes of excellence
   to the treasury of our common humanity;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(from The United Methodist Book of Worship)

Pastor Ty

Click the link to see our bulletin for Sunday, January 3, Drive-In Service

Drive-In Service Bulletin January 17 Web

Salvation Army Food Pantry collection will be Sunday,  January 24, 2021
Suggested donations: Soup & Crackers

You can give your donations to an usher at our Drive-In Service; or you can  bring your donations to the church any day!