Wikileaks and Jesus' Family Secrets
Apologies up front to ICB members who will recognize this from the E-Messenger newsletter for this week. I don't usually blog what I write in the newsletter. But I thought a broader audience might think this is interesting.
-------------------------
The sermon series right now is called "Skeletons in Jesus' Family History". We're looking at the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1.
I was thinking about this in connection with the big story around the world these days... the Wikileaks revelations.
It occurs to me as I've been studying the Scriptures related to the people in Jesus' family tree - that if there was a Wikileaks in ancient Israel when the Bible was coming together - none of the news would have been shocking. Why? Because the Bible is brutally honest about its own characters. All the "secrets" are laid stated in black and white. Sometimes we don't like it. We de-emphasize those stories. But they are there. And the Bible itself highlights them.
This reminds me of a story I read in a book called Fresh-Brewed Life. Nicole Johnson shares this gem. After putting her children to bed, a mother changed into old slacks and a droopy blouse, took off her makeup and proceeded to wash her hair. As she heard the children getting more and more rambunctious, her patience grew thin. At last, the mother threw a towel around her head and stormed into their room, putting them back to bed with stern warnings. As she left the room, she heard her 3-year-old say with a trembling voice, “Who was that?”
A lot of times when truth is revealed that's embarrassing everyone sort of looks around and pretends that we don't have any idea "where that came from?" But the truth is we know exactly where it came from. God knows where it came from.
One of the things I love about the Bible is it doesn't allow for or encourage those false "who knew?" kind of responses. We do know who "that" is. It is us.
And the good news is that God loves, invites, calls, uses and transforms us anyway. But not always in that order.
-------------------------
The sermon series right now is called "Skeletons in Jesus' Family History". We're looking at the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1.
I was thinking about this in connection with the big story around the world these days... the Wikileaks revelations.
It occurs to me as I've been studying the Scriptures related to the people in Jesus' family tree - that if there was a Wikileaks in ancient Israel when the Bible was coming together - none of the news would have been shocking. Why? Because the Bible is brutally honest about its own characters. All the "secrets" are laid stated in black and white. Sometimes we don't like it. We de-emphasize those stories. But they are there. And the Bible itself highlights them.
This reminds me of a story I read in a book called Fresh-Brewed Life. Nicole Johnson shares this gem. After putting her children to bed, a mother changed into old slacks and a droopy blouse, took off her makeup and proceeded to wash her hair. As she heard the children getting more and more rambunctious, her patience grew thin. At last, the mother threw a towel around her head and stormed into their room, putting them back to bed with stern warnings. As she left the room, she heard her 3-year-old say with a trembling voice, “Who was that?”
A lot of times when truth is revealed that's embarrassing everyone sort of looks around and pretends that we don't have any idea "where that came from?" But the truth is we know exactly where it came from. God knows where it came from.
One of the things I love about the Bible is it doesn't allow for or encourage those false "who knew?" kind of responses. We do know who "that" is. It is us.
And the good news is that God loves, invites, calls, uses and transforms us anyway. But not always in that order.
