The Occasional Occurence

There was some good discussion last Sunday in my Sunday-School class. As is normal, I forgot my Bible, and had to slyly peek over at the one belonging to the person next to me. That didn't work out so well and I wound up - get this - mostly just listening to what everyone else was saying. The discussion went here and there and everywhere as it seems to do when the discussion is centered on an Old Testament text. We have been going through some of the prophetic books, and happened to be in Micah yesterday. It was mainly another message of "turn from your wickedness, Oh Israel, or beware!", but someone (Geoff B. I think) raised an interesting point:

"When God wants to get the attention of his people, he reminds them of what he has done for them in the past."

These prophets would come and remind the current generation of how God provided for them long ago, how they were slipping up at present, and what the future would look like if they continued on their way. But the thing that stood out to me was the history.

My brother-in-law John is a history buff. He studied it as an undergrad, taught it to kids in Costa Rica, and is getting his M.A. to teach it here in Ohio. The other day while he was over, he commented that history is the most important subject. Everyone kind of just went "huh". While I don't think that there is a "the most important" subject, I think that history is probably more important that I give it credit, especially in a personal sense.

Sometimes I get derailed by the present. I just go along taking care of myself and my family, pretty well handling things on my own. God starts to seem a little distant, dare I say, a little irrelevant to the happenings of daily life.

That's why last Sunday was such an eye-opener.

I need to consider my history with God. Israel's is all fine and dandy. God certainly provided for them. But he has done it for me too. I need to write the book of Wyglendowski. It won't be long. It would probably sit pretty well next to Philemon or something. But darn it, God has done some pretty great things in my life that I tend to forget, just like those crazy Israelites.

So, now that I am going to write my own "book of the Bible" I should probably get busy with that. But I have more to say.

Gladys, who has many "interesting" things to say was actually downright prophetic during our Sunday-School discussion (at least to me). She always talks about the Amish community that she grew up in. She said that (paraphrasing) "they held too close to just the Bible and didn't leave any room for Christian spirituality."

See, the other portion of scripture that we had read about was a prophecy of the Messiah. Most of Israel missed the boat on him. He was right there, and they looked past him. They clung so tightly to their scripture (which does speak of a ruling Messiah) that they missed him when he appeared. He came to bring as a different sort of king over a different sort of kingdom. But I can sympathize with them just based on reading the scripture.

I guess my main rambling thought is this: our personal and communal testaments of God's hand in our lives are just as important as scripture. The scripture of the Old Testament was Israel's story. If you are a Christian, you and your church are living your own scripture. What's your story? What's mine?

cw