The one with the speech impediment is chosen to be the spokesman and leader of the Hebrews. The traitorous twin manages to wrestle away the birthright. The youngest, smallest son slays the giant. The “Sons of Thunder” are chosen by the Son of Man to be his disciples. A despised Samaritan does what two “holy men” refuse to. Saul/Paul – in my estimation, the most outrageous, incredible turn-around God has ever enacted in a human. The Bible offers us these and so many more.

Our puny selves become gainfully employed changers of the world. We have always been, and are still, the few who are evangelists; difference-makers. Don’t ever doubt what the Holy Spirit may be up to in you! We are God’s delightful treasure in broken pots. The tax collectors, whores, and murderers, ripped from between the lines of Holy Scripture. Poor madmen and fools who cut themselves shaving, trip over their own feet, and shoo away the children. All of us, daring to hope in the improbability that the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. The unconditional love of our God leaves us shaking our heads, maybe even chuckling at the sheer absurdity. The unconditional love is just that – freely given to the young man who is brain-dead from a self-induced fentanyl overdose; to the one ripping every drawer open to find the bottle, any bottle, with a sip of booze; to the one who can’t be bothered with caring for her disabled son; to the one who says, “I don’t have time for God”, when they honestly mean time for church. It’s all too unlikely, so much the case that we shrug with bemusement and say, “you can’t make this stuff up”. The ways of the world school us in despairing that something is too good to be true. The ways of God are that it’s too good NOT to be true.

Pastor Art