Friday, January
20, 2017
Then fourteen
years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus
came along, too. I went there because
God revealed to me that I should go. While
I was there I met privately with those considered to be leaders of the church
and shared with them the message I had been preaching to the Gentiles. I wanted to make sure that we were in agreement,
for fear that all my efforts had been wasted and I was running the race for
nothing. And they supported me and did
not even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised, though he was a
Gentile.
And the
leaders of the church had nothing to add to what I was preaching. (By the way, their reputation as great leaders
made no difference to me, for God has no favorites.) Instead, they saw
that God had given me the responsibility of preaching the gospel to the
Gentiles, just as he had given Peter the responsibility of preaching to the
Jews. For the same God who worked through Peter as the apostle to the
Jews also worked through me as the apostle to the Gentiles. Galatians 2:1-3, 6-8(NLT)
When you compare him to the
other apostles, Paul came late to the game, not being one of Jesus’ original
twelve. Paul also came with a vastly
different game plan than anyone else. Peter, James, and John had their eyes on a
Jewish kingdom; God gave Paul an assignment to bring the Gospel to the
Gentiles. In writing about this to the
churches of Galatia Paul expressed the reality that God had no favorites, which
means we are ALL
favorites of the Father. And the way
Paul operated…coarse, blunt, fearless and really hard to understand or harness,
Paul was, undoubtedly, hard to get along with.
Let’s just say sometimes it caused more than a few eyes to roll at the
apostles’ convention.
On this morning of the
Inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States, I have a sense
that the President-elect is something of a Paul in the 21st century. And as he is about to assume the helm of
these nowhere-near-united
states, I sense a certain Doctor Seuss-ness
as to what to think about the condition of this country and the uneven
nervousness across the aisles of red and blue.
America is like the Zode who split his pants because he got on his horse
and rode off in all different directions.
Besides those on the far-left
and far-right politically or religiously, other factions of age, socio-economic,
race, gender, and others who have a chip in the political-agenda game, well…suffice
to say there is enough lightning to go around when it comes to opinions of
whether Trump belongs in the White House or not.
This day, and dare we say the
next four or eight years, will NOT
be uninteresting; it will be more surreal than we could imagine.
And yet, here we are.
Like Paul walking into the
meeting with the apostles in Jerusalem, Trump will walk down Pennsylvania
Avenue later today, amid fanfare and wailing.
And most of the nation will, like Peter, James, and John did with Paul, begin
to hold its’ collective breath as to what will happen next.
And, because we serve a God
of ALL favorites, I
believe what will unfold in the days
ahead is the working-out for good the purposes of God[ii].
I am reminded of the inside
joke that circulates in preacher’s circles about the choices God sometimes
makes to bring about His will, especially when the not-present preacher they’re
gossiping about seems to be having a strong success. It goes something like, well, if God could use Baalam’s ass to speak
to a prophet, He can use that guy too.
I have an idea that applies
to The Donald, as well
as to you and (especially) me.
For You Today
Whether
you’re on the far-rabid right, or far-rabid left, or somewhere in the nervous
middle, please join me today in praying for our new President[iii],
and all those in authority. They’re
going to need it because the road just got a little rockier! May God bless and have mercy on us all.
NOTES
NOTES
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