The best stories in the bible did not happen in religious services.
They happened in the real world, the messy world,
And the best stories today, happen in the situations we sit in – still after thousands of years.
Joseph changed history working for a secular government in a pagan nation.
What does this mean for us in our life? Are we sitting in the real world? Or a sanitised version of it.
I was sat in Bible study last night listening to Psalm 51 asking for mercy, a contrite heart and washed clean. This is the opposite of the sanitised church. The guy who read it did so three times and then he talked – honestly. He opened up about some of the struggles he had endured and initiated in his life.
It was a breath of fresh air rattling through the stale air of sanitation. A divine shkuji. In Mary Poppins, there is a change in the wind and everything changes for the better, or for M. P. and the family she is looking after. My grandmother, if I was looking sad, would say the wind might change and you’ll stay like that.
This year with the beautiful weather we have had no matter how many windows I opened no draught would come through.
I was enjoying this guy’s testimony. At each juncture, he showed how God had directed him away from temptation and sin. So he was not glorifying his mistakes but allowing us to see a glimpse of how a very “holy” man also finds life difficult sometimes. I thought of how we all, no matter how “holy” we are, we all fall short of the example given to us by Jesus.
David was the king, he was chosen by God to lead God’s people and he messed up killing and adultering and Psalm 51 was his Tehilla to the Lord. If I wrote a tehilla today, or if the guy at bible study wrote a tehilla would we want out dirty laundry paraded in public like David’s is still?
I spent an enormous amount of time after the Bible study sitting on a bench thinking that through. My testimony has not been shared locally and yet if it brings glory to God – why not?
I got my answer this morning. A phone call from another participant at the same Bible study. Instead of seeing the God story in the guy’s recounting of a portion of his life, the phone caller wanted to hone in on all the things the guy had done wrong. What I considered to be a divine intervention in this guy’s life, this person dismissed. One of the phrases used was, “I cannot believe someone like that is allowed to lead a Bible Study.”
My tehilla shall remain personal and private. The promaja of change will come, the draughts will rattle the leaded windows in the chapels. The breaths of fresh air that bring the good news of Jesus Christ will be heard. I pray for the guy, that he continues to speak and does not stay quiet.
Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.
Jude 1:3
Rebuilding Community 