In our Old Testament reading in 1 Chronicles we have finished with the genealogies <sigh of relief>. I have to imagine that you find the long lists of names as befuddling as I do. But as I was reading name after name it got me thinking. I find even this rather short list of names a bit tedious, but God doesn't. God knows each of us by name. God calls us by name. It makes me grateful that God is less easily distracted than I am.
The Chronicles reading ends with the story of Saul's death that we read previously in 1 Samuel. It's all rather gruesome – heads hung in temples and bodies left in open view – and it's easy for us to shake our heads at how barbaric people were then. We find ourselves put off with their violence and phrases like that in today's Psalm about bathing our feet in the blood of the wicked.
But don't you wonder how movies like Braveheart and Gladiator would have played if they had a movie theater in Jerusalem then? I don't think they would have done very well. I have to wonder if the people of that time and place wouldn't look at us as barbaric. I can imagine them saying, "Well sure, we have to be violent people. We have to be violent to survive, but watching it for entertainment? That's repulsive!"
I have to wonder how far we've really come.
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