Monday, September 22, 2003
Monday, September 22, 2003
He said, "If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go with
us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your
inheritance."
Unfortunately, you and I do not always act like a special people.
Once a man attended a fair and saw another man leading a fine, well-groomed horse. He asked,
"Is that a saddle horse?" The other replied, "No, sir. This horse will buck off a saddle. Nothing
can stay on his back."
"Is he a driving horse, then?" the man asked. "No, he was hitched up once to a cart, but he made
kindling wood of it," was the reply.
"Well, what is he good for? Why is he here?" the man asked. The answer was, "Style, man,
style. Just look at the picture he makes."
The man went on to say, "Once I was in a church building and saw people clad in fine clothes
coming into the morning service. I asked the preacher, 'Are those people workers in the church?'
'No,' he answered sadly. 'Do they visit the sick and minister to the poor? Do they attend other
services of the church?' 'Never,' he answered.
"'There's that horse,' I said to myself. 'Nothing but style.'"
Sometimes you and I don't act like a very special people. And because we don't always act like a
special people, the work of Christ is delayed.
(Exodus 34.9
NRSV)
God has always performed His work through a chosen people. Since He is the divine
Other--since He transcends time and space--since His nature is Spirit and not flesh and
blood--the only way He can communicate with us effectively is to incarnate Himself, to work
through flesh and blood to accomplish His purposes. He began with the people of Israel. Then
He worked through Jesus of Nazareth. Today He works through followers of that same Jesus.
Because of who He is and what He is about, God always works through a special people.
Dear Jesus, move me to do your work so that others will know of your great love. Amen.
