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Epiphany: 'Um, Why Am I Doing This Again?'
CHICAGO, IL (January 6, 2004) - Covenant Communications recently published a
series of online devotionals taken from church newsletters and email
submissions. The following Epiphany devotional comes from Jelani
Greenidge of Chicago's New Community Covenant Church, a Covenant
Communications employee associated with the Covenant Bookstore and a
Main Stage performer for CHIC2K3 last summer in Knoxville, Tennessee.
"And he shall purify the sons of Levi, that they may offer to the
Lord an offering in righteousness; they live in holiness, for they are
set aside that they may glorify the Lord, rejoicing in his power to
save, for he has made a way for them to yield their lives, that he shall
purify." And He Shall Purify, Handel's Messiah: A Soulful
Celebration.
Whew, it's over.
As bad as it sounds, there are certain occasions that sometimes I would
rather just skip. You know what I'm talking about. The best thing about
them is the fact that they only come once a year. It could be Christmas,
or Easter, or a loved one's birthday, or an annual church event. All of
us have those despondent moments somewhere between frantic preparations
and tense family get-togethers and laborious church services. Epiphany
is nowhere to be found and you just want to shrug your shoulders and ask
no one in particular, "Um, why am I doing this again?"
You never actually ask, of course. Not just because it would be rude,
but because you feel you should know the answer. If you're in ministry,
you know what I mean. We're the ones who are supposed to have the
answers, right? We don't want to reveal the possibility that we've
somehow missed it, that somehow we've fallen short of the glorious ideal
we initially envisioned when we started. It's not that we don't want to
be honest. We just don't want a lecture on what we already know - that
we screwed up and should know better.
This is a major theme in the book of Malachi. The prophetic message he
had for Israel was essentially, "Y'all screwed up!" Especially damning
was the fact it was aimed almost entirely at the priests. As descendants
of Levi, these were the very individuals entrusted with the duty of
interacting with God on behalf of the people. They were supposed to be
set apart for his service. As a result, they were to be an example to
the people. Yet over and over, Malachi calls them out for doing it
wrong. This is probably why Malachi is not the most popular text in
Sunday morning sermons.
Whenever I hear a verse like Malachi 3:8 ("Will a man rob God?") I
wince, sheepishly wondering if I remembered to bring my checkbook. In
situations like these, I get defensive. I wait for the hammer to fall,
inwardly dreading every minute. Even when I know I'm wrong, I still end
up feeling I was guilt tripped into doing the right thing.
Yet now I finally feel like I understand where Malachi was going.
Listening to a gospel choir passionately singing a lyrical
interpretation of Handel's And He Shall Purify, based on Malachi
3, I was struck by the celebratory nature of it all. It sure didn't
sound like they were waiting for the hammer to fall. Rather, they
understood Malachi's message: God isn't just angry at our disobedience,
he wants to do something to help. He will purify the sons of Levi.
Only in the context of failure and inadequacy can we grasp the enormity
of this promise. We don't have to be stuck in our triflin' patterns of
disobedience. The sin that so easily besets us now won't always do so.
It means that the people who SHOULD know better finally WILL. This is
marvelous news. You wanna talk about Epiphany? Listening to the potent
gospel groove, I finally felt it. And He Shall Purify has become
my personal symphony of Epiphany.
So if you find yourself asking that familiar question, know that God
will not only supply the answer, he will help transform you into
BECOMING the answer.
He shall purify the sons of Levi.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
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