HEROES AND VILLAINS

Some people have the mistaken impression that the Bible is all about people who have life all figured out.  Even growing up around people who said they loved and knew the Bible, I thought the people whose stories were told in that book were different than the wonderful, loving, fearful, open-minded, prejudiced, courageous, gracious, lying, straight-talking, faithful, cheating, generous people I knew.

When you open up the Bible you discover that this account of God’s work in the world includes heroes and villains, rascals and saints. It is so shocking, in fact, that I recently read an article in Christian Century about how much of the Bible we should share with children and at what age level!

This weekend we are beginning a summer-long series of messages we are calling HEROES AND VILLAINS.
Messages will be taken out of 1^st and 2^nd Kings. We’ll step inside the story of a showdown between a prophet named Elijah and 850 prophets of other gods on the top of Mount Carmel. We’ll meet a woman who’s just trying to survive during a famine when a holy man shows up and asks for a handout. We’ll be introduced to a king who whines when he can’t have what he wants, and whose wife does his dirty work. We’ll watch a young adult who feels so inadequate he doesn’t know how he’ll carry on when his hero—his mentor—leaves. There is even a story about God that shows us God struggling with whether or not to give up on God’s people…the way one man named Hosea struggles with the decision about whether or not to leave his wife.

You’ll smile at some of the stories. You’ll shake your head in dismay now and then at the people you’ll meet. You’ll want to kick the pew or chair in front of you at the thought that God works in the middle of this kind of mess.

This weekend we are exploring the 18^th chapter of 1^st Kings. It’s a dramatic, spectacular story the director of a Hollywood action movie might envy. Join us for “Who Will Answer?” and then hold for a summer full of HEROES AND VILLAINS.