My bible study this morning from the Bible Reading Fellowship focussed on Deborah, the rather unlikely choice as a judge over the people of Israel in the book of Judges:
"At that time Deborah, a prophetess, wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel. She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the Israelites came up to her for judgment." (Judges 4.4-5)
My vicar, David has a wonderful way of engaging people with the bible. He says that he often thinks that if HE were God he wouldn't have done it that way but then he ISN'T and God does a pretty good job even if we think God's way is a bit strange sometimes. So maybe God knew what he was doing choosing Deborah even if she was a woman! The Israelites were suffering a series of military defeats and God chooses a non-combatant woman to guide them. It seems rather odd. Yet of course Deborah epitomises God's desire to show us that life is not about what we can do without God but how much we can attune ourselves to God and work with God and others.
The film Dogma contains a rather motley crew of unlikely heroes, the wayward angel Loki who repents of his rampage, the thirteenth apostle Rufus who didn't get to heaven because he forgot the instructions and the last zion Bethany - a mostly lapsed catholic working in an abortion clinic. Yet even more than all these, the PROPHETS are the most unlikely choice of all that God made to prevent the end of the world.
Silent Bob... a PROHPET. I think his name says it all really. You'd think that someone who doesn't say much isn't going to be particularly able in the art of giving prophecy and yet his role is crucial in saving the world.
Yet even Bob's silence is nothing compared to the AMAZINGLY bizarre choice of Jay as a servant of God.
Jay himself says:
"Me lead you?! Lady, look at me. I don't even know where the Hell I am half the time!"
I'd love to give you some quotations from Jay but I just can't TYPE that kind of language in here. Watch the film! However despite being a sex-obsessed swaggering swear machine, Jay so clearly has a heart of pure gold. Because of his no nonsense attitude he stops to help a woman being mugged, he sticks by her in her somewhat bizarre quest and shows some wisdom amidst all his profanity... well maybe not much but it's there!
My point is that Jay is the most unlikely choice for a prophet and yet it is Jay that God chooses in Dogma.
We may often think that we're not particularly good at anything but God doesn't see it like that. God sees within each one of us the potential for service.
Where is God calling you?
No comments:
Post a Comment