James’s Blog: Partying out in the Open.

There’s a line in Nehemiah 12, when the people of Judah are celebrating the dedication of Jerusalem’s wall, that reads like this: “The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away.”

In the Old Testament, in verses like Exodus 19:6 and Deuteronomy 4:5-8, it’s clear that what God intends for His people is for them to be a community that draws other nations to Himself. I think that’s always God’s agenda – drawing people to Himself. Sometimes, like the nation of Israel, his contemporary followers think that God’s purpose is to withdraw into a sanctified huddle, to dispense judgement and moral instruction on the world from afar. It’s almost as if some of us think that Jesus stood up in Nazareth and declared:

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon me,

because He has anointed me

to put up walls between myself and the rest of society.”

Well, he didn’t.

I’m not renowned for drawing people into the community of God, and I am certainly prone to letting things get on top of me, but I am also convinced that I have plenty to rejoice about, and if there’s one thing that gets people’s attention, it’s a party – particularly in days when it seems like there’s not much to celebrate.

John Bunyan said, “I have often thought that the best Christians are found in the worst of times” and I think he was right. During difficult days, a follower of Jesus will find something to rejoice about, and the sound of a party carries a long way on the wind.

Then God gets to turn to the rest of the world and say, “Do you like what you hear? Well, come and join my party.”