Faith stories are not individual events.

Meditation on Collaboration #1

We do this faith life with others. Faith stories are not individual events.

In one of Ann Lamott’s books (she is coming to Omaha--read all about it in the Omaha World Herald http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10118776), she reminds us about how God used one of the bad girls of the bible to save Joshua’s spies. The story describes a number of values inherent in our great faith, one of which is that God’s purposes can use anybody and that sometimes the simple faith of the outsider is a of great help to the established community. In Joshua 2, we read all about how Rahab hides the spies from the King of Jericho and concocts a plan for their continued safety. She asks only that the Hebrews remember her act when they come back later to take over the town. The whole project is messy, since it includes a lady of the evening. But there it is, right there in the book of Joshua. It describes how representatives of the God’s community can collaborate with all kinds of folks in the creation of God’s Kingdom.

God’s plan includes the collaboration of an individual and a community. The story includes Rahab’s individual initiative on behalf of the Hebrew community. The point? the Biblical model describes how no an individual’s experience and action is validated through community. In this story, it goes even further by stating clearly, collaborators don’t even need to be between people of the highest societal morality. Rabab was a prostitute, yet she was part of the grand collaboration scheme in Joshua, chapter 2. For her collaborative efforts, she is among those listed in the genealogy of Jesus (Mt. 1:5)

Could it be that despite your past history, God is looking for your help in creative a faithful community on UNOs campus?

Watch for visitors at the door, they just might be the folks God is sending you for your collaboration in creation.

--f


Joshua 2
1Then Joshua son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” So they went, and entered the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and spent the night there. 2The king of Jericho was told, “Some Israelites have come here tonight to search out the land.” 3Then the king of Jericho sent orders to Rahab, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come only to search out the whole land.” 4But the woman took the two men and hid them. Then she said, “True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they came from. 5And when it was time to close the gate at dark, the men went out. Where the men went I do not know. Pursue them quickly, for you can overtake them.” 6She had, however, brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax that she had laid out on the roof. (go ahead, read the rest of the story)