"Fail" -- Sermon February 17, 2024

Bethlehem Lutheran Church Podcast

Do you ever find yourself wishing someone else would fail, just so you look better? Pastor Stephanie has spent the last two weeks in Norway, training with the MN National Guard. The Winter Survival Training included a number of challenging tasks that would have ended in failure if every member of the team didn't put in the effort to see the whole team succeed. Wanting others to fail so that you could look successful, likely would have resulted in the failure of everyone. In our focus text this week, Jonah wants his enemies to fail, so much so that he only puts in minimal effort into his task of warning the people of Nineveh of their impending doom. In his desire to see them fail, Jonah fails himself. But the Good News in the story is God’s mercy is shown to both the people of Nineveh who succeeded in turning from their evil ways and to Jonah who failed at being God’s messenger. God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (even when we fail)!