Do a quick read of the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. Many familiar names will catch your attention: Noah, whose drunkenness disrobed and shamed him; Abraham, who lied to protect himself; Sarah, who mocked God’s message with laughter; Jacob, who returned dysfunction with deceit; Joseph, the dreamer who intimidated his brothers; Moses, a murderer and a coward; Rahab, a prostitute; Samson, who compromised his faith with riddles, women, and revenge; David, whose gaze lingered long on the nakedness of another man’s wife. But, wait a minute! In most of our Bibles, the sub-title for the eleventh chapter of Hebrews indicates a listing of great men and women of faith! What’s up??? Can you imagine a congregation of believers with similar epitaphs? It’s a rather messy conglomeration!

 

Christianity is imagined as a distinctively manicured people worshiping God in pristine surroundings with the surround sound of a robed choir and orchestrated hymns with accents of white-collared ushers and stained glass windows. (The manicure has been well prescribed with its spoken and unspoken rules of behavior and dress.) Hebrews 11 would not fit in such a congregation! Neither would the old Negro spirituals that went from the Southern plantation fields to the bars and then back to the churches with a new label, "gospel blues." Or, how about the swirling skirts of liturgical dancers, faces radiant with energetic praise to God? Such things would be, could be, an abhorrence to the "saints" in the polished pews! Such things mess with our preconceptions, our traditions, and may I add, our prejudices.

 

Christianity does get messy sometimes! Its people and its continuing metamorphosis challenges our imagination! But isn’t that what Christianity is all about??? Isn’t it about an eternal God who loves a crude and rebellious people, scarred by their own choices and by the choices of others? Isn’t it about an acceptance that welcomes the sin-scarred and allows God to not conform them, but draw them into a divine relationship that will free them to the utmost of their God-given potential – a potential that will radiantly display the God who chose to love them? I am no different than some. I have found a comfortable box to wrap my Christianity up in. But God – His box doesn’t always match mine, and other than a few, very essential basics, I don’t think God has a box at all. Precious sister in Christ, discern those essentials, and allow for what seems messy to us, to be the means of embracing the hearts of those who truly seek after God.