Wednesday, 10 June 2009

• Online Journal (Or Ephesians 4:1)

              I am really being hammered lately on the idea of what a priest is.  God seems to be showing me through various mediums that I am simply to be an expression of what He is.  Rob Bell’s sermon series on “Jesus Came to Save Christians” began this enlightenment over a week ago.  As he said, “You are the message.  God called Israel and He calls us to be a bodily expression of Him.”

              This isn’t a new idea for me.  I mean, God calls us a “royal priesthood”.  But to hear Bell explain the backdrop of what a priest was and how He was really calling ALL of Israel to this was a new concept.  He went on to explain the 4 areas of the Jewish journey through the OT- Egypt, Sinai, Jerusalem, Babylon.  There is a ton of stuff that I could write on here, but for room’s sake I’ll just say that it’s HUGE for me.

              As I’ve read other things, I continue to get the same story.  And now scripture verses are beginning to make sense.  Shockingly, too, this teaching has given me more freedom.  I have always believed it is okay to drink, cuss, eat, or whatever if done in moderation.  But now I see all of my life not as “okay” and “wrong,” but as an act of worship and personification to who I believe God to be.  Take for example following verse from Proverbs 1:10: “My son, if sinners entice you, do not give in to them.”  Why not?  Formerly I would have thought, “Great, another rule to follow.”  But now I realize that I don’t give in to sinners because when I do, I express through my actions and words that God is okay with sin.  When I drink and because of my past, I could be expressing that God is okay with drunkenness and partying…even though I’m not really expressing that at all in my head.

              Then I was reading The Canterbury Tales for my British Lit class.  In the prologue, Chaucer writes of the clerk, “This fine example to his flock he gave, that first he wrought and afterwards he taught…well ought a priest example good to give, by his own cleanness, how his flock should live.”  In other words, DO first and teach later.  SHOW people who your God is!  As Ephesians 4:1 says, “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”

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