As Jack Nicholson famously said,
“You can’t handle the truth!” Can we handle the truth or understand the truth?
Joseph’s visions were scoffed at by his brothers,
and he was rebuked by his father, yet Joseph seemed confident in his fate as a
ruler of men. Isaiah the prophet wrote that one would come before Jesus to
prepare his way. This earlier prophecy was extremely accurate. However, was
society accepting of John the Baptist? Did the establishment support his
theology of repentance? Paul urges the
early leaders of the church in Corinth to remain unified in their preaching of
the Gospel. By accepting the pedestal of their followers they were misusing
their spiritual gifts. Why didn’t these early leaders understand what their
followers were doing?
Are we making the same mistakes today? Are we not
seeing the obvious? We place our leaders on a pedestal expecting them to be
wise men. We are not accepting that everyone can have relevance and something
to offer. We place too much of an emphasis on the solutions instead of the questions.
Psalm 44 tells us of a cry for help after a
significant defeat; that the people were now enslaved through defeat; that they
did not understand why the God who had previously led them in battle abandoned
them; yet they remained faithful and prayed for his return.
These readings reminded me we need to open
ourselves to the unconventional and the unexpected. We should not make
assumptions about leadership and where leadership originates from. We must have
faith in God and support each of our leaders with faith.
More
importantly we should look to the revolutionary teachings of Jesus and ask the
question, “What would Jesus do?” Asking these questions may actually create
more adversity; however we must remain true to our faith in Jesus. In the end
we will be better prepared to see and understand the truth.
-- Daryl Russell
No comments:
Post a Comment