Scripture: 2 Kings 2:23-24
Elisha went up from there to Bethel. As he was going up the road, some young people came out of the city. They mocked him: “Get going, Baldy! Get going, Baldy!” Turning around, Elisha looked at them and cursed them in the LORD’s name. Then two bears came out of the woods and mangled forty-two of the youths.
Thought for the Day: I know some of you are saying to yourselves, “What! That’s in the Bible?” Yes it is! Children are torn apart for laughing at a bald headed man. Does it get any better than that? I say, “No!” Isn’t it a great passage for teaching children to respect their elders? With all kidding aside, how exactly does a person hold together a passage like this and the stories of Jesus who loved the world, and everyone in it, to the point of death…even children who laughed at bald headed men. I would suggest it is more than a stretch. This Sunday, I will begin a new worship series entitled: Stories We’d Like To Bury. Scripture has more than a handful of passages that we have buried or would like to bury, but running away from certain passages doesn’t portray much integrity. Even if it is messy and leaves us scratching our heads, it is better to take on the most challenging or strange or outlandish passages in the pages of our Bibles. Don’t come expecting all the answers. Instead, let’s come together and ask some good questions.
Prayer: Discourage any attempt, God, to ignore the challenging passages. There is a desire to handpick the happy and relatively easy scriptures while burying what isn’t easy. Call us; challenge us; create within us a yearning to wrestle with even the most obscure passages…even when the wrestling produces no good answers. Amen.
SEE YOU SUNDAY
