Dangerous and/or Excellent?

Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. - Yahweh to the people of Israel in Exodus 19:6

God spoke this promise to the people of Israel: they would be special. As priests, they would play a role in blessing the whole world. This was the corporate fulfillment of what God had spoken to Abraham generations before: “All peoples on earth will be blessed by you” (Yahweh to Abraham in Genesis 12:3). This promise complicated because it can be both dangerous and excellent.

Dangerous

In her message yesterday Brenna Rubio pointed out that when we often view our connection to God and our role in blessing the world as a paternalistic excuse for misusing power & privilege. We say things like, “this is for your own good” because we think we know better. Othering becomes inevitable: we have access to God and they don’t… so let’s help those poor people who aren’t like us.

Excellent

Brenna also pointed out that as a test, the call to bless the whole world is excellent. When we use that statement from God as an invitation to interrogate ourselves, we end up at a very different place than we do when we use it a privilege or a power. In this perspective, we get to ask regularly: “Does my faith result in goodness for the people around me?” There’s all sorts of invitation to sacrifice, generosity, hospitality, and service embedded in this way of looking at it.

Can you tease out some of the danger and some of the excellence in how you view your special relationship with God? Maybe ask the Spirit to guide a little self-assessment today.