"Hey, You!"

Some years ago, I took a course on the Torah, taught by a Jewish scholar from the University of Jerusalem.  What a wonderful course it was!  On the first day, the teacher asked each of us to comment on what it was about the Bible that fascinated us.  My answer was that I was intrigued by the "Hey, you!" aspect of the bible, from beginning to end. 

What I meant by that was that from the very beginning, God was always "choosing" people -- for no apparent reason -- and that His choosing was always a surprise to the chosen ones.  It was as if I were walking down the street minding my own business when out of the blue someone yelled "Hey, you!  Yeah, you!  Come here!"

God's first "official chosen" one was Abraham, a man taken for whatever reason is not told us from a pagan culture, a man not especially "good," a man like us prone to mistakes and mis-judgments.  He was followed by other men not especially "good:" Moses, David, Gideon, Jacob, Jeremiah, Samuel, Jonah, Isaiah, and in the New Testament, Peter, Matthew, James, and Paul.  God is always choosing people for some reason known only to Himself -- and that includes the entire race of Israel itself. 

What He chooses them FOR is evidently character development and transformation.  First, they have the experience of being chosen or elected, and they usually balk:  "Why me?"  Abraham had to walk with God for many many years before Isaac was born-- the child of the promise. 

God needs people who are usable as instruments of His design.  To begin with, the instruments need to know that they are not alone, not just "doing their own thing," but "chosen" to do God's thing in this world.  The first lesson they all have to learn is "I will be with you."  Someone once told me that God does not need my "ability," but my "availability."  It is those who have no clue as to what they are supposed to do or how to do it that God can use.  "Just walk with Me," He seems to say; "I will show you the way."  Psalm 32:8 puts it this way:  I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; let me guide you with Mine eye" (or alternate translation:  "I will counsel you with My eye upon you."

That is why I am fascinated by the "Hey, you!" aspect of the bible -- people minding their own business and utterly stunned by the call of God:  "Please take someone else!" they seem to say; "I don't know my right hand from my left;" "I don't know how to speak;" "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man/woman." 

"Yes, I do mean you!" the Lord replies; "I can use you.  Don't be afraid."  It seems to me that all these people are not afraid of God; they are afraid of their own weakness, sinfulness, inability to be faithful to the call.  The "chosen" ones are all quite flawed, as is evident in their stories -- and yet, God's call and His choice are irrevocable, as is also quite clear.  It is not that God likes them better than He does other people, or that they are more worthy than anyone else.  The paradox is that He "...chooses the weak and insignificant things of this world to shame the proud and the strong."  And it often takes us a long time to realize that. 

God's "choseness" is for the sake of communicating choseness to everyone else!  "If He can use me, He can use anyone," is the message.  We lead others to the depth that we ourselves have been led, and if we do not start at ground zero, we cannot help those who find themselves at that level.  "He led me out of darkness into His marvelous light" the book of Peter tells us.

The pattern of "Hey, you!" continues down to our day.  The church itself learns slowly; popes have been slow learners; those in the pews learn slowly that they are "chosen," -- not to the exclusion of others, but to reach those in the back pews, those who feel barely worthy to enter the door.

We have no ability to communicate to anyone else that they are good or special or loved by God until we ourselves have learned it strongly -- and we know it because while "we were yet sinners," we were chosen.  Once we realize that it was not our 'specialness' that led to our being chosen, we can relax and promote the empowerment and specialness of others.  Only the Beloved can pass on Belovedness.

If we do not understand this, if we do not experience it for ourselves, we tend to think of religion as "excluding the unworthy, the impure."  Religion is not the society of the superior ones; it is the gathering of those upon whom God has forgiven and shown mercy, the gathering of the weak and the wounded -- those who can testify from personal experience how God can transform and heal a scarred life.

We were called to be "starter yeast," or leaven in a hurting world.  We are the audio-visual aids that point beyond ourselves to a bigger, stronger reality than our weakness and woundedness:  "I did not come for the healthy, but for the sick," He said.  Not so they could remain sick, but so that in their renewed health and resurrection from the dead, they could proclaim the wonders and the healing love of a God who loves the weak and wounded.