As you prepare to go into the pulpit this week it feels like a lot rides on your message. But let’s remember that our authority comes from a book that was written by underdogs.
When you feel discouraged reach for a Bible. Not one word in that book was written by people who dominated others, but by those who knew defeat like a well-worn garment. Yet through centuries of trial they crafted stories like David and Goliath, Moses slipping away with slaves, disciples spreading the storis of a rabbi who was crucified. Our faith was birthed in times of loss, uncertainty and oppression.
Ours is a faith based on the unlikely perseverance of a group of slaves who slipped away to freedom in the night, refugees who went into hiding for 40 years. The Bible pulls back the curtain on a people whose adversity became the crucible for the faith we inherit. Whether you look at the Israelites or the disciples our faith was envisioned by folks the world called losers, but God saw as precious beyond all measure.
As preachers, every we take the skeletal outlines in these stories and put flesh on them in our pulpit. So, this week God needs us to step up and do what we do – share this faith again with folks who come looking for wisdom and hope.
Its always in times of national confusion that people look to faith leaders for wisdom that they cannot find on social media. They come craving a steady clear message about a God who can work through all things for good. They come to be reminded that God is often most present to us when we feel we’ve entered a wilderness, they come to be reminded that it was in the wilderness that the Hebrews learned to pray and rely on manna. Even those folks who come feeling smug about the election results may also harbor concerns about the future, and worries about what will happen if and when the new administration makes good on its promises.
It’s time to remind our folks and ourselves that the Bible is at its most inspiring when we find ourselves in a wilderness, or in need of a resurrection. We preachers know this terrain. We have the skills and perspective that people need this Sunday. We don’t have to do anything except preach. The Bible stories will do the rest.
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