The Magnificent Mundane

Chapter Four - The Typographical

By John Boda

Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life.  I don’t see many of the brightest and the best among you, not many influential, not many from high society families.  Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately choose these nobodies to expose the hollow pretensions of the some bodies?”

I Corinthians 1:26-28

“There is a tendency to think of the people in the Bible as extraordinary people whom God sought out to work for him.  Actually it’s the opposite.  They are ordinary folks, like you and me.  God did extraordinary things through them because they believed God.

Alex Knight, Ordinary People

“In my ministry as a vagabond evangelist, I have extolled certain saints and contemporary Christians, speaking of at what cost they have struggled to surpass lesser men and women.  Oh God, what madness I have preached in sermons!  The good news of the gospel of grace cries out:  we are all equally privileged, but unentitled beggars at the door of God’s mercy.”

Brennan Manning Ragamuffin Gospel

“All the persons of faith I know are sinners, doubters, uneven performers.  We are secure not because we are sure of ourselves but because we trust that God is sure of us.”

Eugene Peterson from A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

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Why is this chapter called “The March of the Mole People?”  Well, my most honest answer is that I love the sound of it, and always wanted to include it in a study or song! (That is partially true, but there is more).

This chapter will deal with the typological, namely something that is a type or metaphor of something else - enter the mole people.

I have not had the pleasure of viewing the 1956 film yet, but I have heard the title song, “The Mole People,” many times. (If you can find Michael Feinstein’s “Pure Imagination” CD, it is a wonderful album filled with lots of imaginative songs, including the Mole People), which is great for kids and adults alike.

As you can see by the title song’s lyrics, which I have included here, the mole people are interesting fictional characters who live in holes underground and constantly dig and go chomp-a-ditty chop-a-ditty-chomp! 

In essence, here is my point:  Mole People: imaginary people based on the characteristics of a real animal.

Bible Super Heroes:  Real people based on the characteristics of imaginary comic book super heroes.

I have likened the elevated super bible heroes to mole people.  Both are fictional and imaginary.  The March of the Mole People started in the Old Testament with Abraham and in the New Testament with the 12 disciples.  I want to look at some of them more closely later, but let me say that none of them started as a super bible hero - or a mole person, but rather all of them were real, live, average, mundane, day-to-day God-seekers.   Yes, many of them went on to become people of importance and influence, and accomplish great things for God, but never did they transform into super bible hero - mole person who become adorned and even worshipped by throngs of people who look up to them.

The march of the mole people is simply the endless inflation and fan-worship given to these saints of old and characters, mostly by good-intentioned pastors and teachers in churches.  “They’re marching to Zion” as the old hymn declares, and the march continues as strong as ever today. 

Having a theology of super bible heroes - mole people, whether just in your personal view and spiritual walk, or in preaching and teaching, or in both, is antithetical to walking in a magnificent mundane mindset.  It is also antithetical of the life and teaching of Jesus, and the entire Bible itself!

( I find it very interesting that currently while I type these words, the media hype is raging about the current film, "The Da Vinci Code". What is so ironic about the fictional story, is the claim that  our four Gospel books all focused on Jesus' divinity, while ignoring his humanity, and the many Gnostic writings focus on the secret hidden truth of Jesus' humanity. The clear truth is just the opposite! Nearly all the Gnostic writings go into all kinds of stories dealing with Jesus as a superman, and even an uncontrolled super boy growing up. The four scripture Gospels, while they do clearly show Jesus' as God, they also clearly go deep into Jesus as human as well. The accepted theology is "Fully God - Fully man".)

We are all imperfect people each our share of dysfunctions and hang ups (Jesus was hung up for our hang ups)!

What kind of perfect, saintly people does God use?  Just a few come to mind:

Noah: righteous, walked with God, got drunk and naked with relative

Moses:  God entrusted the 10 Commandments to a stuttering murderer.

Abraham:  Friend of God, father of Faith, Habitual Liar!

David:  Man after God’s Heart, King of Israel, adulterer, liar, murderer.

Peter:  One of the founding pillars of the church, more a stumbling block than a rock, also, liar, hypocrite, and foul-mouthed fisherman.

Paul:  Chief Apostle who wrote most of the New Testament, murderer, blasphemer.

Thief on the Cross:  No good thief and common criminal, was the first Christian

in heaven.

“That the scriptures are brim full of hustlers, murderers, cowards, adulterers, and mercenaries used to shock me - now it is a source of great comfort.” 

Bono of U2

On Bible heroes:  “These people didn’t float down to Earth lightly, they fell with a great crash, and the sound of it echoed down the corridors of my bible hall of fame.  Some of them were guilty of things I have never even thought about doing.  And yet in spite of this God worked with them.  Once they were heroes of faith to aspire but to never reach; now they were heroes of faith who were not that much different than me.  These characters were never meant to be showcased for their wisdom, cleverness, bravery and strength.  They were to be examples of what God can do through whomever he chooses.”

John Fischer, Twelve Steps for the Recovering Pharisee Like Me

“Sometimes I wonder if it might be that liars and manipulators and thieves and avengers are the only people (God) has to work with.  Or maybe these are the people he wants to work with.  Could it be that God choose people like this because he’d rather work with those who know their glaring faults than with the Pharisees who are impressed with their own rightness and God’s excellent choice in choosing them.”

John Fischer, Twelve Steps for the Recovering Pharisee Like Me

Abraham

Abraham is an extremely important individual.  He is called the father of our faith, not just for the ancient believers in the bible, but our faith.  In fact, we all became children of Abraham when we become a born-again-Christ-follower.

It is important to understand that Abraham was initially called by God while he was an average common idolater living in the land of idols in Babylonia.  All through his spiritual journey, while he shows his humanness in doubting, becoming fearful and twice lying about whom his wife is (not in trying to help her, but to save his own skin).  I once taught on this part of Genesis, as I was going through, I came to this part and called it “Fumbling Forward in Faith.” 

Many times Abraham seemed to take two steps forward and one step back.  It was an extremely refreshing study for me and helped put things in perspective allowing me to identify with him as I fumbled forward in faith as well.

As a former pastor/teacher, I know where most pastors and teachers come from in elevating these bible characters to superhero status because we all love heroes!  We all want someone to follow and look up to and model after.  Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, even unlikely heroes who become super elevated by the media and are transformed into a poster-child by simply doing their job in an extra-ordinary situation. (For example, Jessica Lynch, the media and military poster-girl of recent years.).

By elevating bible characters, like Abraham, into super heroes while overlooking or ignoring their Holy Spirit inspired written accounts of human frailty, pastors and teachers seek to encourage the church to persevere to the same greatness. Some Pastors and teachers believe that to focus on any human frailty or weakness in these super heroes would take away from what God did through them.  They mistakenly believe it would discourage us from moving forward if we use flawed Bible characters as our role models. Even though many of these church leaders will admit that we, and all people in the Bible (except Jesus) are flawed, many believe that these flawed characters must have been forgiven, and then advanced spiritually to a higher level, one where you exist without sin. I know for a fact, that many church leaders in the forefront today harbor these anti-biblical concepts, and worse, teach them to other people.

However, these are all false assumptions, based on more doubt and fear than faith, based more on personal, society-shaped disillusioned God-in-a-box churchianity, than biblically based real life Christianity.  Let me ask those who hold and propagate such views this question, “Why do you think God choose to include the shameful graphic detail of lying, cheating, stealing, adultery, murder, violence, and much more of nearly every important bible character?

If by leaving that information out would have been more beneficial to us, do you think God would have included it?  Look what the late pastor Mike Yaconelli wrote in his last book, Messy Spirituality:

What landed Jesus on the cross was the preposterous idea that common, ordinary, broken, screwed up people could be Godly.

Mike Yaconelli, Messy Spirituality

“Look at the Bible - its pages overflow with messy people - the Biblical writers did not edit out the flaws of its heroes.”

Mike Yaconelli, Messy Spirituality

One of the most influential bible teachers in history, Augustine, was greatly offended when he first read the bible.  Instead of a book cultivated and polished in the literacy style he admired so much, he found it homespun with earthly stories of plain unimportant people.  He took one look at what he considered the “unspiritual” quality of so many of its characters and the everydayness of Jesus, and contemptuously abandoned it.  It was years before he realized that God had not taken the form of a sophisticated intellectual to teach us about highbrow heavenly culture so we could appreciate the finer things of God.  When he saw that God entered our lives as a Jewish servant in order to save us from our sins, he started reading the Bible gratefully and believingly.”

Eugene Peterson in the Introduction to The Message Bible

 "I've spent most of my life trying to find people to put on a pedestal, and God has spent most of my life destroying the pedestals and reminding me that nobody belongs on one except him. If you are reading a biography of a "great Christian", and that biography doesn't tell you the bad as well as the good, burn the book, it's a lie and will only make you feel guilty."

Steve Brown A Scandalous Freedom

Some years ago, I was asked to be part of the teaching pastors at a men’s retreat.  We were all instructed to bring a message of any great male bible characters under the retreat’s theme, “Mighty Men of Valor.”

Even though at the time I had not been fully awakened into the grace-led magnificent mindset yet, I still smelled a rat!  There was something in me that wanted to resist elevating any of these bible characters into something that they were not.  Nevertheless, I went along with it and choose my bible man of valor - Noah.

Throughout my teaching on Noah, I included everything from his being “Perfect in his generation,” to his great faith, to his seldom spoken of drunken sexual perversion with one of his own children or possibly grandchild.  During my espousing on such matters, I raised a few eyebrows and felt that I put a damper on what was billed as a “Great Man of Valor” men’s retreat.  But if the Bible did not leave it out, neither was I!

The real clincher came when the main speaker focused on the only man in scripture called a “Man of Valor,” Gideon.  I was well acquainted with the Gideon story and know that it also contained some undesirable elements including a seldom-told bad ending.  As you can imagine, Gideon not only was elevated as a man of valor, but before the session was over, Gideon was portrayed in similar fashion as the caped crusader, the man of steel - able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.  Not only was he a superman but he was portrayed as a  Super Saint- one whom we all could and should aspire to be like.  However, when you aspire to be like some super bible hero, you always set yourself up for disappointment and frustration.  None of us can ever become a super bible hero person, because they, like mole people, never existed then, and they cannot exist now in the real world.

What was either purposefully or inadvertently omitted from the great Gideon disclosure that day at the retreat, was what Paul Harvey calls, “The Rest of the Story.”  Gideon eventually becomes a man of valor and was used by God to deliver Israel from the Midianite enemy.  However, at the time he was called by God and also called a “man of valor,” it was possibly given either tongue-in-cheek, or given to Gideon by God who lives outside of time and sees the beginning from the end and already knew the deliverance Gideon would bring .

Gideon was said to be “threshing wheat at the winepress.”  Now there is something wrong with that picture!  Wheat was always threshed with the aid of the wind, high on top of hills or mountains, and wine was always pressed from grapes down at the bottom of hills or mountains where the large bunches of grapes could be rolled easily to the bottom where the winepress was located.  So why was he threshing wheat in the winepress?  Simple…he was hiding from the Midianites, he was fearful of his life!  The Midianites would spy out the people of Israel and determine when they had just prepared a harvest of wheat.  Then they would converge upon them and steal all of the harvest.  In essence, Israel was starving to death and could not fight back, they were way too many, and all Israel’s weapons had been taken as well.  Gideon’s idea is to work the harvest was down at the bottom of the hills, undetected from the enemy who would see him if he did it in the usual place on top.  That’s why it is possible that the title “Man of Valor” is entirely a humorous or sarcastic tongue-in-cheek statement!

Nevertheless, Gideon was more of a coward than a hero at that point.  He had a problem with doubt, and seemed more full of fear than faith.  This is seen on the other occasions as well if you study his account in detail.  If this was all, it would still be enough to de-frock this supposedly super Bible hero, to halt any more marching of the mole person - but there is more!

(Please take a minute or two to read the account, which is under the subtitle “Gideon’s Ephod” in many bibles, Judges 8:22-28.)

After Gideon’s great victory, the men of Israel came to him and wanted to make him king.  Gideon rightly replied, “I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you, the Lord shall rule over you.” (Judges 8:23)

If this was a Hollywood movie, fiction story, or just a good tall tale that is where it would have ended (Judges 8:23) - story over - credits roll - everybody lives happily ever after!  However, the Bible tells it like it is, and many stories have terrible endings that we would rather avoid. 

In Judges 8:24 - Gideon, like the TV character Colombo, in essence says, “Oh, but there’s just one more thing….”  Gideon asks for all the golden earrings that were taken in the battle, and there were plenty as the Ishmaelites were known for expensive gold jewelry.  The men of Israel gladly pile up all the expensive gold earrings and give it to Gideon as he requested.  Not only gold earrings, but also expensive pendants, and king’s robes and even chained jewelry that was around their camel’s necks.  Then Gideon makes it all into an “Ephod” or large idol, and sets it up in the city!  This was strictly forbidden by God and Gideon knew it.  The Bible then implies that Gideon suffered trouble because of it until his death.  Also, God withdrew his presence and there was no word from him for at least 40 years.  If you keep reading, things go from bad to worse for Israel for many years.  (God did use Gideon to deliver his people and Gideon is rightly one of the men of faith Bible heroes of old.  I do not want to take anything away from that - I only want to include the full story.)  Gideon, a man of valor, yes, but also a coward - an idolater - and a rebellious lawbreaker.  How many have ever heard that complete story in Sunday school or from church?

In my personal study of scripture, I believe this statement to be accurate:  of all the major bible characters (excluding Jesus who was without sin), only Daniel and Joseph are seemingly portrayed without any glaring sinful episodes or mistakes.  But beyond the obvious sin which occurs, the fact remains that every bible character, young or old, male or female was completely human, mundane and ordinary and lived in a mundane world.  Let us explore that aspect further. 

“Abruptly Jesus broke into prayer:  ‘Thank you, father, Lord of heaven and Earth.  You’ve concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary, people - yes, father, that’s the way you like to work.’” Matthew 11:25-26

“Jesus began with a walk by the lake, saying, “Follow me,” and they did.  Thus began his uncommon mission with 12 most common individuals - his first disciples.  He didn’t select a rabbi any scholars or look within the religious establishment to build his team.  Instead he assembled a ragtag bunch of folks with unimpressive resumes.  The propagation of the gospel and the founding of the church hinged entirely on 12 men whose most outstanding characteristic was their ordinariness.  When you take a fresh look at the disciples you’ll be faced with a stunning fact:  the men Jesus choose were ordinary, helplessly human and remarkably unremarkable!” 

John Mac Arthur from his book, Twelve Ordinary Men

Bible scholar John Macarthur wrote an entire book on the unimpressive credentials of the twelve people whom Jesus handpicked to become his disciples called Twelve Ordinary Men.   Have you ever thought of that reality?  How ordinary and unimpressive can you get with uneducated fishermen, tax collectors, and other assortments of working class people that certainly would have never made it into our group had we been recruiting for twelve guys who could change the world!

As I write this today, it is two days before Christmas, I have been hearing Christmas music almost non-stop, and I have been thinking about the lyrics of some of the great classics like “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem.”  Jesus’ birth there was prophesied many years before by the prophet Micah.  In Micah 5:2, in the Message Bible, it calls Bethlehem the “runt of the litter.”  (“But you Bethlehem, David’s county, the runt of the litter - from you will come the leader who will shepherd-rule Israel. “)  In other words, not only was this little town of no significance, its King, David, was originally a lowly shepherd and the lowest of low run of the litter. God must have a special attraction for the outcast, the lowly, and the humble because this was the town where he was born, as a man, not in a hospital, but in a stall for the animals, most likely a dirty, dark, smelly cave.

One of the greatest wonders of the Christmas story is the announcement to the shepherds.  Shepherding was probably the lowest kind of job you could do, in fact, it required so little skill or education, and it was commonly given to children.  It was a dirty, smelly, low-paying job that required hard work seven days a week.  Because of that, shepherds could not observe the weekly Sabbath or any Sabbath Feast Days.  They became outcasts from society, with no hope of fitting into society or their religion.  Of all the people God would announce Jesus’ birth; these people were the least likely candidates!

That is almost comparable to God visiting us today as a man, and a large host of glorious angels appears to the overnight crew of young minimum wage workers at a Burger King and tell them first!

If we were writing the script, the angels would appear at all the finest Christian Colleges, the largest churches, and to all the well-known bible preachers and teachers.  Never would we have the glorious angels going where they did, but that is God’s style!  In the movie, “Oh God” with George Burns playing the cigar-puffing God, and John Denver the average store clerk, they get one thing right - God’s style of visitation to the unlikely, lowly, average and mundane.  Although it is a fun, entertaining movie, that is about the only theologically accurate portrayal.  However, it is a vital point in our discussion of the magnificent mundane mindset.

God still today often blows apart our theology and thinking.  If we follow God (instead of trying to have him follow us), we will always be surprised, refreshed, and filled with wonder and praise for Him whose ways are far beyond our ways!

Marching to the Beat of a Different Drum

“As we read the broad, comprehensive biblical story of God at work in the world, most of us are entirely impressed.  In fact, that many of us, while remaining impressed, feel left out.  Our unimpressive, very ordinary lives make us feel like outsiders to such a star-studded cast.  But however ordinary or out of it (we are) irreplaceable in the full telling of God’s story.  We count - every last one of us - and what we do counts.”

Eugene Peterson, Introduction to the book of Ruth, The Message Bible

“I’ve never gotten over the breath-taking reality that God calls ordinary Christians like you and me to be his divine agents of reconciliation.”

Bill Hybels in the forward to Garry Poole’s Seeker Small Groups 

Are you familiar with the march of the mole people all too well?  If you have spent any time in most churches, you probably have heard the drum beat pounding from the pulpit.  I would prefer to march to the beat of a different drum.  The drumbeat I am referring to is really the heart beat of the gospel:  living as agents of grace, acknowledging our sins, faults and weaknesses, in a world that our loving heavenly father loves through us.  There are no super-saints, no super Bible heroes, no one “arrives” on this side of heaven, no one attains to some super-spiritual plateau and stops there, no one in this new covenant era can become a Moses or King David or who is set up above everyone else. 

The march of the mole people needs to come to an abrupt halt!

In James, Chapter 4, when speaking of prayer, James calls the great prophet Elijah, “A man of like nature.”  How many of us have somehow transferred him into some super-saint-super hero?

Hero Worship

This human tendency to elevate people into super-hero god -like status is extremely common and probably had its start with Nimrod, who was the first world ruler and most likely the chief builder of the Tower or Babel (Genesis 11).

We have historical titles like, “Herod the Great,” “Alexander the Great,” and "Ivan the terrible".

As a great and talented a guitar player like Eric Clapton is, we tread dangerous waters when we echo the often-quoted phrase a few decades ago, “Clapton is God.”   Even in more recent years, Michael Jordan was referred to as “God on the basketball court.”

This tendency to elevate people into much more than they are would be bad enough if it was just a practice outside the church.  However, it is rampant in its abuse today within the church, with many of the objects of super-hero worship gladly receiving it, rather than rejecting it.

Incident at Lystra

This very same problem occurred in the pages of the Bible to the Apostle Paul and his companion, Barnabas.  The incident is found in Acts Chapter 14 where Paul and Barnabas are preaching and healing people in the town of Lystra.  A great miracle had just occurred as God, through Paul, healed a crippled man who had been lame since birth.  This man instantly arose and was jumping around which, in turn, caused the crowd to say, “The gods have come down - these man are gods!”  The priests there organized a big parade and were preparing a sacrifice to their pagan god when Paul heard about it.

The scriptures state:

“When Barnabas and Paul finally realized what was going on, they stopped their waving their arms, they interrupted their parade, calling out, ‘What do you think you’re doing!  We’re not gods!  We are men just like you and we’re here to bring you the message to persuade you to abandon these silly god-superstitions and embrace God himself, the living God.  We don’t make God, he makes us, and all of this - sky, earth, sea, and everything in them.’” (Acts 14:14-15)

"I’ve spent most of my life trying to find people to put on a pedestal. God has spent most of my life destroying the pedestals and reminding me that nobody belongs on one except him."

Steve Brown A Scandalous Freedom

Everyday People

A good quote that I picked up while studying about Abraham years ago is, “God doesn’t call the equipped, he equips the called.”

That quote is true for every person whom God chooses to use throughout scripture, and right now with you and me.

If we are to grow within the magnificent mundane mindset, we must realize and consider ourselves, and all others that we serve God with, as everyday people as apposed to mole people.  Everyday people live in the real world, mole people in the fantasy.  Everyday people refuse to live and function within a class society, elevating some to higher class and others to lower.  Mole people live in a superhero comic book mindset, elevating some people to god-like superhero status while viewing others as low, common, working-class status.  Everyday people realize that God works in a variety of ways through a variety of people.  (Different strokes for different folks).  Everyday people also never compromise the eternal basic truths of salvation by grace through faith in Christ.

Ananias (Acts 9:1-22)

If you are not familiar with the events surrounding Ananias, please read the passage in Acts.

Let us briefly look at an everyday - non-mole person hidden in the Bible.

We find the few scriptures about Ananias in Acts Chapter 9.  His story begins with the tenth verse, “Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus names Ananias….”  He was just a “certain disciple,” we are not told if he was a church leader, an apostle, a prophet or anyone important, just a “certain disciple.”  In fact, based on the total lack of information about him except in these few verses, the implication certainly seems that he was nobody important, just a certain disciple, or one of those “everyday people.”

But God’s sovereignty choose him to accomplish a task, a task that you or I would have probably picked someone else for - Peter, James or John, or some other “higher up” close disciple of Jesus.

Saul had been persecuting the church with a furious murderous zeal, and everyone was afraid of him.  On the way to do more harm in Damascus, he is knocked off his horse and has in incredible encounter with Jesus himself!  This meeting with the Lord radically changes him and he realizes his great error.  Most people believe that is here that Saul is actually converted as he is blinded by the glory of God, trembling and astonished he says, “Lord, what do you want me to do?”  God knew exactly what he wanted him to do, and how Saul would become Paul, and become an effective and powerful Apostle, Evangelist and teacher who would be used to write most of the New Testament!  However, at this point, he is still newly converted and blind, asking, what is next?

Once again, in our human wisdom, we think that Saul should be connected with the top leaders who would initiate him for his mission.  However, God chooses an unknown certain disciple, probably a nobody in human terms, to go and restore his sight and help him to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  If you read the account of God first telling Ananias to go to Saul, it really is beautiful.  God came to him in a vision and simply said his name, Ananias. He did not respond startled, afraid, or even perplexed as to who was calling him, he simply said, “Here I am Lord.”  (If you recall the initial God -calling of Moses at the burning bush, a much different scenario occurred.  Moses kept trying to back out complaining that he had a speech problem and that Pharaoh would not believe him.) Nevertheless, Ananias, the average, runt of the miller, unimportant, everyday- person, simply responds, “I’m here Lord.”  He doesn’t make plain his concern of Saul’s bad reputation, but God, without reprimanding him, (in what is seen simply as a conversation in which Ananias must have been experienced in) tells him to go anyway.

As far as we know, God does not tell him details, but just that Soul is a chosen vessel to bear God’s name to Gentiles, Kings, and Israel, and he would suffer a lot for his calling.  Ananias goes and restores Saul’s sight and is used to help Saul become filled with the spirit, then he vanishes from scripture!  He accomplishes this extremely important task, in launching Saul to become the apostle Paul, who would affect untold millions and millions of people, then vanishes!

We do not know what became of this certain disciple Ananias, all we know is that God choose him for this special task, which he humbly accomplished.  You and I may not be big, important ministers like Moses, Peter, James, or John but you now that is ok.  God choose them for their specific tasks in their time, but for every well-known big name minister, there are countless others who God also chooses, and uses for specific tasks as well.

Countless other “nobodies” are somebody with God!  People who may never get the recognition for their work or sacrifice in this life, but rest assured, God knows them, sees them, and will reward them greatly in the next life.

I think that Ananias was one of those kinds of people.  He lived in an awareness of God’s presence, so much that when God visited him in a special way, he did not question and try to run, but welcomed it and offered his service.  I suspect that he also lived in a magnificent mundane mindset.  We do not now for sure, but I also suspect that after this service of restoring Saul’s sight, Ananias probably went back to whatever he was doing before.  If it had been many of us, we would write a book called, “How to Start a Ministry and Serve God.”  A world book tour would be next, going on Oprah’s show is next of course, then we would have to start a worldwide training ministry with a monthly magazine and either a weekly TV or radio show, or both!

Some people are called to do that no doubt! But probably the vast majority would do well to follow Ananias’s example and simply vanish and await further orders from God!

“God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; But God himself is behind it all.  Each person is given something to do that shows who God is.  Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits….All kinds of things are handed out by the spirit and all to all kinds of people - the variety is wonderful.”

I Corinthians 12:4-6

Eugene Peterson stresses the importance of God working in and through everyday people when he told of a memory he had of being at a dinner with a large group of Christians a few years ago in his book Leap Over A Wall.  After dinner, the host asked if each of would speak of a person in their life who meant the most to them as a spiritual mentor in helping them grow in their faith.  After each one gave an account of that special spiritual mentor, he noticed something very interesting, each spiritual mentor mentioned who made a huge impact in these people’s lives were all common, everyday, non-famous people.  In fact, much to his surprise, none mentioned were even pastors or church leaders.

Now I do not want to belittle church leaders (I am one of them).  But if that little group of Christ-followers was an accurate portrayal of who makes the most impact in people’s spiritual lives in the larger context, then maybe we should once again, ask God to re-shape our theology and begin to get a grip on the bigness of God who flows and moves outside of the box and accomplishes his purposes through whomever he chooses!

The leaders at the church fellowship where I call home are port of a growing group of churches who understand this principle.

They realize, as the church grows, that one or two pastors cannot possibly attend to a meet the needs of a needy flock of Christ-followers.  Therefore, our Sunday service is simply called a “Celebration Service” where people can come to celebrate God together.  But the real in-depth one-on-one ministry goes on in the hundreds of small home groups who meet in many homes, hosted by small group leaders.  These small group leaders are for the most part, people who are not church professionals.  They are lay people who mostly work the real world, but have shown a maturity in their faith, and an understanding of Christ and the Scriptures. 

Churches like mine do not say they are churches with small groups, but that they literally are churches of small groups--- a radical concept.  It may seem radical, but in reality, it’s just following the early church’s pattern as seen in Acts 2:4-6

“So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house…”

When the Apostle Paul, in Colossians 4:15, signed off his letter to the Colossians, he makes mention of one of the home church groups in the early church:  “Great the brethren who are in Laodicea and Nymphas and ‘the church‘- that is in his house.”  These home churches did not replace their weekly or probably daily gatherings, to be there on Sunday, but enhanced it.

It is important to realize that these home groups, and the larger Sunday assemblies, were led by everyday people that we will never know until we meet them on the other side someday.

Be encouraged, friends!  God uses everyday, seemingly unimportant people for a variety of tasks every single day.

In fact, if you look at the scriptures from a larger perspective, God seems to favor the simple, the ordinary, the mundane, and the underdogs of the world.

One reason that the Jonah is so endearingly important for nurturing the life of faith in us is that Jonah is not a hero too high and mighty for us to identify with - he doesn’t do anything great.  Instead of being held up as an ideal to admire, we find Jonah as a companion in our ineptness.  Here is someone on our level.  Even when Jonah gets it right (like preaching finally in Nineveh) he does it wrong (by getting angry at God).  But the whole time God is working within and around Jonah’s ineptness and accomplishes his purposes in him.  Most of us need a biblical friend or two like Jonah.”

Eugene Peterson, Introduction to the book of Jonah The Message Bible

The Scum of the Earth

Many people might be surprised to discover that the phrase, “Scum of the Earth” actually comes from the Bible.  It is found in I Corinthians 4:13.  In one translation it is “The filth of the world, “but it means the same thing.  In context, Paul is speaking of himself and his companion, Apollo, who were appointed by God to be servants and stewards of the mysteries of God - Christ.  But in Paul’s day, just like today, the people were always inclined to elevate the messenger and make them humble servants into mighty, super-saints (or as I call them, Mole People).

 Just a few verses before, Paul cautions them to:

“.........learn in us not to think beyond what is written that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against another.”     I Corinthians 4:6.  NKJ Bible

The Message translation really lays it out beautifully; “It seems to me that God has put us who bear his message on stage in a theatre in which no one wants to buy a ticket.  We are something everyone stands around and stares at, like an accident in the street.  We’re the Messiah’s misfits.”

A few verses later, here is how The Message Bible paraphrases the "scum of the earth" text;

“We’re treated like garbage, potato peelings from the culture’s kitchen.”

Before you think that Paul had an inferiority complex, allow me to explain.

Paul was trying to communicate the reality of his life as a servant of God in his travels.  He suffered greatly.  He was constantly attacked and even left for dead on occasions.  He and Apollo were servant messengers with a new incredible message of the gospel.  All the awe, wonder, and praise should be directed only to God, not to the messengers delivering the message.  If the people had any idea that Paul and Apollo were some kind of gods of angels, calling themselves, “The Scum of the Earth,” or “Messiah’s Misfits.” was sure to knock that illusion from their thinking.  (I’d like to state right here and now that someday I’m going to use that name,  “Messiah’s Misfits,” either for a music group, a book, or a home small group.  Don’t steel my idea!)

I love the idea it conveys, that God’s workings are not our doing, but God’s Paul was constantly preaching that message.

“Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life.  I do not see many of the brightest and the best among you, not many influential, not many from high society families.  Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately choose men and women that the culture overlooks, exploits, and abuses?  Choose these nobodies to expose the hollow pretensions of the some bodies.  If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious message around in the unadorned clay pot, of our ordinary lives.”

II Corinthians 4:6-7

Elevating and inflating the messenger has always been a problem within the church, since day one.  The day the church began is recorded in Acts, Chapter 2, on the day of Pentecost.  If the events in the chapters occurred in chronological order, then shortly after Pentecost, Peter had to verbally restrain the people from worshipping him and John, and remind them that it was God and his power that healed, not them. 

“Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon’s, greatly amazed.  So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people, ‘Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this?  Or why look so intently at us.  As though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?’” Acts 3:11-12

This tendency is repeated often also with Paul, and even the Apostle John could not refrain himself and tried to worship the angel when he received the apocalyptic vision, and the angel quickly stopped it!

Only God the father, the son and the Holy Spirit are to be lifted up, praised and elevated.  Pastors, teachers, evangelists, apostles, deacons, elders and worship leaders are all servants and messengers of the message and never should be inflated to more than they are.

Gordon Lindsay, in speaking on these dangers once said, “As one rises higher and higher in spiritual power and blessing, he must ever seek to become lower and lower.”  

That statement was born of an observation of the tragic collapse of the lives and ministries of many men who were used powerfully by God.  In each case, the enemy’s door of entry into the person’s life was an inflated idea of his own importance (ego).  

Once again, Paul comes to mind as one who lived in constant awareness of this danger, largely due to the grace and mercy of God.

God permitted Paul to suffer what was called “a thorn in his flesh” in order to keep him down to Earth and to keep him from exalting himself in view of the many revelations he was given.

 

“Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap (Thorn in the flesh in many Bibles) to keep me in constant touch with my limitations.”  II Corinthians 12:7

More on David

“Some of the greatest saints were high-octane sinners and holy lunatics.”  Leonard Sweet in Jesus Drives Me Crazy.

It is interesting that in I Samuel 16:11 in speaking of David, the scripture states, “the youngest.”  On the surface it would seem that it means just that, he was the youngest of the family.  But many words have deeper meaning when you dig deeper into the original languages.  In Hebrew, the term “the youngest” is “haqqaion” which according to Hebrew scholars denotes the idea of insignificance and the family runt.    

This is the exact Hebrew word used in the Bible when it speaks of young David - basically the insignificant family runt!

One of the best books that I’ve ever read which beautifully brings out of the magnificent mundane mindset, and the focus of this chapter, is Leap Over a Wall:  Everyday Spirituality for Everyday Christians By Eugene Peterson, and also more recently by the same author, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places.

I had already formed and thought out most of my thesis here, and didn’t even stumble upon these books until the writing of this chapter, but I’m thankful I did, and consider it more of God’s behind the scenes divine maneuverings in helping me more fully develop this theme.

The entire book is simply a commentary on the life of David, going through each event in his life, not only as Biblical history, but in revealing God’s working through David and how God also works today in our lives. 

Eugene Peterson writes

,” The David story is simultaneously earthy and godly.”  A common, maybe the most common, error in our quest to live well is to set up a model that we attempt to emulate.  The model shows us what we can become, to which we can aspire.  But it also continuously shows us what we are not yet, how far we have to go. 
The David story, like most other bible stories, presents us not with a polished ideal to which we aspire but with a rough-edged actuality in which we see humanity being formed - the God presence in the Earth/human conditions."

Wow, that’s it!  What a good summary of this whole theme!  When you read David’s struggles throughout the Psalms when he bares his soul to God, there is definitely something very earthy, human, but also very spiritual - divine.  David’s life is a beautiful picture of a person who lived and breathed the presence of God, which is everyday, human life.  He practiced the presence of God long before Brother Lawrence was alive to write about it! 

I have often wondered if there was any spiritual significance to the amount of text the Bible gives to a person or subject, for instance:  More Bible text = more important, less Bible text = less important.  There is probably some validity of truth to that concept, although I do not think we can make it an ironclad dogmatic rule of interpretation.  But if there is some validity to it, then it is no wonder that David and his life take up more Bible text than any other character in the Bible! (I find it ironic that a hugely popular best-selling book a few years ago would seem to indicate that millions of people would rather focus on a character named Jabez, who takes up all of two verses instead.)

Also closely connected with David, is the central person in the whole bible, the supreme focal point and the reason for everything - Christ!  Jesus is referred to by many significant names throughout scripture:  Prince of Peace, Emmanuel, Lamb of God, Lion of Judah, Son of Man, and three times in Matthew’s gospel he is referred to as “The Son of David.”

Jesus descended into our human existence from the eternal godhead as a baby, born through Mary in Bethlehem.  Mary is a direct descendant of David (who as shown in Chapter 3, was a descendant of Ruth and Boaz).

But if you follow the line, Jesus is the human descendant also of Moses, Abraham and many others.  Why does the Bible focus on David when it states, “The Son of David?”

There was something special about David’s life as a prophet/King (and possibly a priest) that linked him to Jesus forever in a special way.  There are many deep theological stories that we could branch off into exploring that theme, but now is not the time of place.  But I will state the one connection that I believe is important to this story - David’s earthly-spirituality, practicing the presence of God, and living his daily life within the magnificent mundane mindset.   Eugene Peterson mentioned in his book, Leap Over a Wall, that if you look closely at the entire story of David in all the scriptures that theme is not one divine miracle occurring in his life.  Of coarse his divinely directed stone from his sling into Goliath’s head could be considered a miracle, but it pales in comparison to the radical, awe inspired miracles associated with other Biblical characters like Moses, Joshua, or Elijah.  It seems that God moved and worked all through David’s life through the first two divine invasions discussed in Chapter 3 of this book (inconspicuous covert actions and intentional divine maneuverings).  Of course, these two methods are also the same ones that we encounter by far as the most common ways of God invading our mundane lives.

We must remember that Jesus’ earthly life was the perfect example and balance of the human/godly, not half man and half God, but much more theologically correctly stated as fully man - fully God.

(I realize this is a difficult concept to grasp! Many people struggle with it today, as they have almost since the start of the Church. The council of Nicaea, called by Constantine in 325 A.D., was to settle this very matter. Some taught that Jesus was too human to be divine, others, that he was too divine to be human. The final vote was 316-2 that basically Jesus is fully God and fully human. This also paved the way for the Biblical concept of the Trinity, but like then, today many still struggle with the concepts. Just know that you are in good company, no one has fully understood it, just some more, and some less - keep praying, seeking, and searching!)

Also interwoven through Jesus’ earthly life, God invaded the mundane fully in all three methods, the common first two, plus at times in “instantaneous glorious presence” with one that is obvious being his appearing in his glory with Moses and Elijah in what is known as the mount of transfiguration.

What times in Jesus’ life did God work behind the scenes in “inconspicuous covert actions?”  What about the first thirty years of his life that we know almost nothing about?! I realize that many Gnostic writings from Nag Hamadi claim to reveal much on Jesus' childhood, but they are extremely suspicious accounts to say the least. None of them were ever accepted as scripture, and many of them have clear contradictions and inconsistent accounts of Jesus when compared with the four Gospels in the Canon.)

  Certainly, God was at work behind the scenes those years as God was from the very beginning in bringing Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem and all these divine movements of God accomplishing Jesus’ birth and protecting him from Herod.  Then during Jesus’ three years of active ministry we see a dazzling display of God invading the mundane largely through intentional diving maneuverings as everything Jesus said and did was exactly God’s desire and will moving on the Earth as Jesus and the father God were one.

Practical Issues - The Divine Human Connection

On this link of Jesus with David as one that lived his earthly life both as Earthy/spiritual, we run into a few problems.  One of them is that Jesus was not just another normal, average, struggling pilgrim like you and me!  Jesus was the only person, apart from Adam and Eve before the fall, to walk this Earth completely without sin.  That fact alone makes it very difficult for us as sinful, imperfect human beings to relate to him.  Yet the Bible makes it clear that we can trust him and should relate to him because Jesus can identify with us in our weaknesses.  Jesus never surrendered to his weaknesses, but lived in daily surrender to God.

“We don’t have a priest (Jesus) who is out of touch with our reality.  He has been through weakness and testing, experienced it all - all but the sin.  So let us walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give.  Take the mercy, accept the help.”  Hebrews 4:14-16

Also,

“Though he was God’s son, he learned trusting-obedience by what he suffered, just as we do.” Hebrews 5:7

I am afraid that many of us have turned Jesus into some historic imaginary super hero character - a mole person too!

Yes, Jesus was completely holy, pure, perfect, obedient, and yet came into this life the same way (born of a woman) as you and me, and lived in a flesh, bone, and blood-filled human body.  We can relate to him.  As I talk with people and researched these subjects cover the years, I have come to a rather interesting conclusion.  It seems that the majority of Christ followers have no difficulty in believing in Jesus’ divinity as God but have much difficulty in believing and accepting Jesus’ humanity.

On the other hand, the majority of non-Christ followers, which would include agnostics and atheists, have no difficulty in believing and accepting Jesus’ humanity but find great difficulty in believing and accepting Jesus’ divinity as God!

Since I assume that most of my readers are Christ-followers, let me address that problem briefly.  We must realize that by coming to grips with Jesus’ humanity, we do not take away at all from his divinity.  Once again, Jesus was fully man-fully God.

It may be helpful to stop at this time and ask God to reveal more light from the scriptures to you on Jesus’ humanity.  If we intend to walk and grow in an everyday awareness of Jesus’ presence, it is imperative that we have some grasp of identifying with Jesus’ humanity.

Did you know that there are scriptures that reveal that Jesus cried - he got angry - he sang - he felt lonely - he got tired and slept - he enjoyed the outdoors (especially one specific garden called Gethsemane) - he liked kids - and he even grew up in a dysfunctional family?!  (His brothers did not believe in him and thought he was just out to boost his ego.)  Even though there are no specific scriptures on the following, as a human being we can also rightly conclude that Jesus laughed (and probably often) he probably worked a regular job until he was thirty, like his adopted father (Carpenter).  And did you even consider the fact that every day of his life he had to dispose of bodily waste! 

It is interesting to know that one of Jesus’ most favorite names that he used for himself was “Son of Man.”  Also, in one of the gospels, John 19:5, when Jesus came out to Pilate after being scourged, Pilate declares, “Behold the man,” which I believe was divinely inspired by God who was using and speaking through evil unbelieving people to accomplish his will.  Like today, the unbelieving people have no problem in believing in Jesus’ humanity, but cannot accept his divinity as God.  Even after Jesus rose from the dead and revealed himself to many people, it was not as a shining knight super hero, as well he could have portrayed himself, but once again, as a man.  In his new resurrected body, he walked alongside the Emmaus Road and opened up the scriptures about himself to two of his followers.

Jesus appeared in a closed room to his disciples and even had Thomas touch him and put his hand into his side.  Jesus walked along the shores of the Sea of Galilee in his risen body as a man, and even ate breakfast - grilled fish of a fire that he prepared!

What is the lesson and message for us today?  We can fully trust Jesus both as a man who lived and breathed on this same Earth as us, and we can fully trust in Jesus as God incarnate who left his throne in heaven to come to Earth.  As the Message Bible vividly states, “The word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.”  (John 1:14)

I want to conclude this chapter with a passage of scripture from the Message Bible that conveys this crucial point much better than I could:

“Since the one who saves and those who are saved have a common origin, Jesus doesn’t hesitate to treat them as family, saying ‘I’ll tell my good friends, my brothers and sisters all I know about you, I’ll join them in worship and praise to you.  Again, he puts himself in the same family circle when he says, ‘Even I live by placing my trust in God and yet again, ‘I’m here with the children God gave me.’  Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it is logical that the savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death.  By embracing death, taking it unto himself, he destroyed the devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death.  It is obvious of course, that he did not go to all this trouble for angels.  It was for people like us, children of Abraham.  That is why he had to enter into every detail of human life.  Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people’s sins, he would have already experienced it all himself - all the pain, all the testing - and would be able to help where help was needed.”  Hebrews 2:16 -18

Thanks for reading, the next chapter is the final one, and the one where I will try to put this all together in a practical sort of way…..God willing! JB