Can you remember the Ten Commandments in order? Many can name the first two commandments, which are God naming God's self to us and God defining the desired relationship with us. These two commandments set the foundation for the other eight commandments, which determine our relationship with one another. The commandments connect us to God and to one another. But there are times when Israelites neglected or broke those connections.

Jonah, an unwilling messenger, spends much of his time running away from being in a relationship with God. Jonah attempts to disconnect himself from God, but through some creative means, God is able to reconnect with Jonah. Jonah encounters people who reveal their relationship with God, but instead of Jonah seeing these people as a model, he is tossed to and from until he begrudgingly accepts God's call to travel to Nineveh to deliver a message of repentance.

In this time of Epiphany, we need to have continual reminders of who we are to God and to one another. As God sent Jonah to Nineveh, God sent us a proclamation. God sent us a proclamation of not just word, but of Word made flesh. God sent this embodied proclamation to remind us of who we are to God and to one another. Even when we are disconnected and distracted, God uses creative ways to connect us to God and to one another.