Running from the Truth

Jonah 4:1–11 & Mark 1:29–39 Sometimes the hardest truths aren't the ones we don't understand. They're the ones that demand something of us. Jonah knows exactly what God is like: gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. But when God extends that mercy to the people of Nineveh—Jonah's enemies—he is furious. He wants God's compassion for himself, but God's judgment for them. In this sermon, Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway explores our human tendency to draw boundaries around grace and contrasts Jonah's resistance with the ever-widening ministry of Jesus, whose healing love moves beyond the familiar toward people and places others might exclude. What happens when we encounter someone whose beliefs we reject, whose behavior we cannot understand, or whom we struggle to forgive? Through the Christian practices of empathy, curiosity, listening, and civility—and through Anne Lamott's deeply personal journey toward forgiving her mother—Lewis invites us to face the places within ourselves where we may still be running from the truth of God's boundless love. Maybe it's time for us, too, to stop running from God. Preached by Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway at First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte on August 23, 2026.