Tuesday in Holy Week – 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

“Consider your own call, brothers and sisters:  not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.” 1 Corinthians 1:26 NRSV

I chose to write my other devotionals based on Old Testament passages:  I touched on Hagar’s distress and Moses’ aggravation, heard wisdom from Proverbs, and sneezed through the frantic cleaning of the temple. I think, “I’ll never have stories such as those. I am not all that wise or powerful and certainly not of noble birth.” But wait! Neither were they! Most of the movers and shakers of scripture were just common people. The deal is they answered a call from God to go about bringing justice to the people, delivering mercy where it was needed, and walking humbly with their God. Some fiercely resisted. Some were called away from their current career. Some were crafted as prophets within the womb. Rarely were they royalty or president. Even Queen Esther started out as a no-account Jewish woman. Beautiful, yes, but nothing special otherwise.

So…consider your own calls, brothers and sisters. The only real qualification is a mustard seed-sized faith. That’s all we need to do God’s work.

It’s Holy Week. The journey is long and arduous but folks, we already know the ending of this story! Spoiler alert!! It’s a story about the son of a common carpenter who heeded God’s call, was servant to the people, touched many with kindness and justice, was brought low through a humiliating death and then blew the doors of darkness and death.

God of foolishness, thank you. Thank you for making it possible for us common folk to do the uncommon through your love. And so it is…

— Pastor Fay Ann Blaylock, Zion United Church of Christ and First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)