Bless This House, Part 2

Our stories matter more than we know. Here it is again, repeated from scripture; accompanied by a funny vignette on how it works.

Ephesians 3:9-13 says His plan is "to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord." Look at the prepositions again. What does that say to you? Paul speaks of this as a mystery of the church, indeed much of the church gives little attention to this honorable role they have been given: that of making the manifold wisdom of God known, and this accomplished BY the church TO the principalities in the air. You are the sermon to beings that can see you even though you don't notice them. And rarely do we know what these angels are discovering about the wisdom of God through us, but that does not change the divinely given order for it all. "

Upon coming to an understanding of the truth of this passage earlier this fall, we decided to cooperate with God about this house we just moved into, serving willingly as those illustrations in God's "sermon to the angels," as this was what He seemed to be asking from us. To agree to such a thing is not an easy task, but at least He is faithful in letting you know what "story" you are re-playing as a reminder, or even what story you are finishing that was left open-ended. We have been without internet for several days, so all the plots and sub-plots will need to layer over several days worth of blogging. But the story of our moving crew is a good place to start.

Our expectation was that the move would be difficult--if not near impossible--with the crew we had. But two days before the move, we learned that our church has a group that helps with emergencies exactly like ours. So a call was made to the group's leader to see what kind of help we could get for this move. She was going to try to add 4-5 people to our meager number. We breathed a sigh of relief.

When moving day came, however, no one from the church contingency was able to help. I don't share this news as a complaint nor to draw up a boil of shame on any of them. No, my point is that in this particular story, the church isn't supposed to be a help. However, I wouldn't be surprised if those that skipped helping simply so they could watch the Ohio State vs. Michigan game don't hear something about this missed opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus...but even that is not for me to decide. (And the game was on at our place for a good part of the move, anyway.)

No, in time I came to realize that this is after all a house established by the Lord, and when He walked such a story the first time around, the help given to Him by the actual "church" of His day was rather tepid until it turned downright dangerous. And this is the story we are re-viewing for the angels, reminding them how it was and teaching them how it might be when God begins to take active steps to revive His chosen people--the Jews, to restore them to Him, even as prophet after prophet foretold. As I wrote my original blog on our "receiving" this house, I said our move represented to me the idea of God moving His own people through revival into an awakened awareness of the nature of Jesus Christ. So the question became, just what would Jesus' crew of helpers look like in a story like this one? In a word, they were perfect.

First of all, if you include our two sons in the crew--which is fitting as they HAD to help--we had a crew of 7, God's number to represent perfection. And that's where God's sense of humor kicks in, for this crew was anything but perfection by most people's standards. It consisted of two women, three men, and two children. One of the men is diabetic and was having blood sugar issues, as well as having trouble with torn cartilage in one knee, requiring a knee brace and bringing considerable pain through the work. Another younger man, one we think of as a nephew if not almost another son, lives with the family of one of his friends as he has been estranged from his mother ever since she had him unjustly incarcerated in a juvenile correction center because he refused to live with her boyfriend. One of the women was cramping due to the onset of her menstrual cycle. One of the men was blind in one eye. One of the women has a physical condition that has diminished her strength. Finally, the little guys did the best they could to help by entertaining themselves, staying out of the way, and carrying what little they could handle. Though they didn't complain about it, they were famished by the time dark set in and the buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken were put on the table. The littlest one ate two platefuls of dinner rather than picking at the meal as is frequently his habit.

What did that mean? It meant we had representation from the following groups:
the sick
the lame
the unjustly imprisoned
the unclean
the young
the blind
the weak
the impoverished
and the hungry

Seems I remember Jesus saying these are the ones He came to serve. Guess they are saying that--as much as they are able--they will serve right back. So goes part two of the larger story of this house.