Snowy days of revelation

I once did a sermon series on the verses you're about to read. I don't think you'll have to wonder too much about why it popped back into my head.'

"Benaiah son of Jehoiada was a valiant warrior from Kabzeel, a doer of great deeds; he struck down two sons of Ariel of Moab. He also went down and killed a lion in a pit on a day when snow had fallen. And he killed an Egyptian, a handsome man. The Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but Benaiah went against him with a staff, snatched the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and killed him with his own spear." 2 Samuel 23: 19-21.

Snow. The mythical happening in the South, that has come to me again. It has been more than four years since I saw it on our house in Lacombe.

It came mostly overnight. I was up at 6:15, before the dawn, but with the night light I saw the white stuff. The word appears 25 times in the NRSV, despite the fact snow is a bit of a rarity in Palestine, on the order of the southern portion of the U.S.

So, making a symbolic run at snow is a bit hard, but I'll try, for though I'm very sleepy, it's writing time.

Most of the time the Bible references snow, it's used as a phrase to describe a degree of whiteness. "White as snow," is the phrase.

I wonder if that degree of righteousness exists in any of us any longer.

Just this morning I read a long diatribe describing the awful breech in community that is happening in the denomination that I am licensed by to preach the Gospel, of which I talk about the blood of Jesus making us as white as snow by washing away our sins.

We can't get together over an issue that won't go away, so we have very, very public trials, and what is accomplished? A stain begins to bleed onto our white righteousness. That's both sides, mind you, because we can't seem to get together in any way, shape, or form over what scriptures says, what it means, what it directs us to do. So, the possibility of millions seeking Christ in our denomination is lessened by the day.  At worst it shows our very unwhite under clothing. At best, well, best is hard to figure. The trial, which must end with each one on trial "convicted" by those conducting the trial because those being tried most certainly willingly violated the UMC's Book of Discipline, ends with nothing but bad publicity. Unlike what some say, "there's no bad publicity but no publicity," this is not something the denomination needs. As Dylan wrote so long ago, "How many cannon balls must fly before there forever banned..." How many blows can that ol' ship the United Methodist Church take till it sinks when real conservation about our differences could at least put some tar and pitch on the holes?

But there is hope. Sleet is falling on the snow, and bits of it are dribbling away. But we won't let go of this morning. Six Christian leaders, including Focus on the Family President Jim Daly, "The Bible" producers Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, have created a coalition called "Imago Dei," Latin for "image of God" to encourage people to treat each other with respect. "For the image of God exists in all human beings; black and white; rich and poor; straight and gay; conservative and liberal; victim and perpetrator; citizen and undocumented; believer and unbeliever," the campaign states. Now, that's not a United Methodist bunch of folks, but the idea that everyone is made in God's image is not denominational, but in my mind scriptural. If that is the case, then perhaps our conversation about each other might begin to change. If we are all God's Masterpieces, then where does the conversation go?

Will this turn darkness to light, black to white, unbeliever to believer?

Probably not. But goodness isn't it a better way to go about attracting those who are lost than beating them over the head with trials, negativity, even judgment? Isn't it? Come on church. Isn't it?

Maybe we're not the glistening white of the Mount of Transfiguration any longer, dirtied by the bit of the Garden that remains in us despite our best efforts. But we're still, all of us who believe, covered in His white burning righteousness. His. Not ours. His image, not Satan's. His ideals, not the serpent's. His love, not our own.

Come on church. Isn't it. Let's go down together into the pit and kill the lion that is keeping us from being together. Let's quit slipping on ice and fluff. Let's love, like we are loved.

Come on church.