WormFest '08

Are you already tired of the presidential campaign stuff? Each presidential hopeful has a massive staff, whose duties include making the news circuit lauding their candidate. Each presidential hopeful spends millions of dollars to put their name, their face and their accomplishments in every American home, car, ipod, et. When they are not bashing their opponents or the current President, they are expounding on their candidate. They spin, distort and flat out lie so that the American public will believe that their candidate is more than an man/woman looking to move up the corporate ladder. It is disturbing to say the least.
Sunday, Ned spoke about reverence for God and of course he talked about King Herod in Acts 12. The king is in front of large crowd. The crowd is chanting and yelling that he is more than a man, even a god. The text says, "Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died."
I find this interesting because Herod doesn't appear to say anything!! He is not the one claiming to be a god. He doesn't say anything. He doesn't refute the comments, he doesn't blush and say, "aw shucks" or anything like that. He stands there, soaking in the praise, as if he really, truly deserved it. Quite the contrast to the reactions of Paul and Barnabas in Lystra. (Acts 14:8-19)
Remember, the crowd is so impressed with the healing of the lame man, they begin to worship the healers, calling them gods. The text says that when Paul and Barnabas heard this they were distraught. They tore their clthes and shouted down the crowd, speaking to them, attempting to refocus them on God and His message rather than the messengers. It says that even after a lengthy encouragement to praise God, the crowd still wanted to offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas.
That is incredible! Incredible because it is so unlike us humans to refuse credit, to be upset by adoration of others, to grieve at being the object of worship. This humble, God-centered, selfless attitude is rare in our society, in our churches, in our families and yes, in our elected officials. God is God and we are not. He is all powerful and we are not. He is all knowing and . . . you get the picture. The 2008 election will continue to be in our faces with increasing intensity. We cannot change the nature of the media driven beast. We can however, become the kind of people who are uncomfortable around praise and instead of saying nothing, give God the glory. So as we strive to become more like Christ, we must remember the example of Paul and Barnabas and even . . . of King Herod.


Neva