God Interrupts: Meditations in Jude

"Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints."  -Jude 3

I'm sometimes tempted to equate the sacredness of the Bible with formality.  This tendency betrays the fact that the Bible can be surprisingly informal when we consider the many different personalities of its writers and the many types of literature God used to communicate His revelation.

For instance, Jude is one of the Scriptural writings that reads like a typical letter from one person to another person (or group of persons).  The way in which Jude opens his letter reminds us that the Bible is not simply one long set of religious truth-statements that we need to read, memorize and believe.  Jude's letter has character.

And so while Jude's letter IS inspired by God, the humanity of Jude is not removed from the truth God communicates.  What kind of faith-system actually allows the humanity of writers to seep into its sacred writings?  Apparently, Christianity does.  As a result, even in the way Jude's humanity drips off the pages, God is still communicating His truth.

"I was eager to write to you about our common salvation", Jude says.  If you didn't catch that, Jude is basically admitting that he had another agenda for writing to his readers.  At first glance, this would seem to be the kind of trivial information that is both unnecessary and unrelated to the REAL message God wants to communicate through Jude.  But is this really the case?

As I sat down to work today (sermon prep), I thought about how messed up my schedule is right now.  I had an amazing amount of goals and plans for how I would start the New Year.  However, most of those plans and goals depended on the quality time that I was going to spend reading and writing last week.  However, I was never able to accomplish the reading and writing I had planned on doing last week due to some unforeseen events.

Leading up to last week, a 20x20 portion of our church building's brick fascia collapsed in the high winds of Christmas Eve.  On top of that, my wife broke her wrist in two spots the following Sunday.  My wife's broken wrist was a big enough deal that she had to have surgery.  I joked to our church-family this past weekend that "I had a broken building and a broken wife".  Both of these "inconveniences" shot holes through my agenda for last week.

God interrupts.  As much as it often grieves me and makes me mad, God sees fit to change the course of my life AND your life when it pleases Him to do so.  I don't deal well with my rhythms being hijacked.  I like routine.  But I'm pretty sure God isn't real concerned with what I prefer.  He's more concerned for His Glory and that His people not miss out on being the mediators of His glory to one another and to those far from God.

Back to Jude.  I just stared at verse 3 for a little while and thought about how Jude might have felt when his original purpose for writing this letter was hijacked by God.  Was he angry?  Sad?  Pouty?  I'm pretty sure he was somewhat put out by having to alter his original plan.  Why else would he have mentioned his original intent?  I'm sure I'm reading too much into this, but it almost seems as if Jude is a little miffed with his readers for interrupting his original plan.  I'm pretty sure God wasn't concerned with Jude's preferences either.

Regardless of Jude's feelings, he DID change the subject-matter and addressed something that was apparently of major importance to God--so much so, that his letter actually became a part of the Bible.  I can't be for sure, but I get the sense that Jude’s letter wouldn't have been in the Bible had he stuck with his original subject matter regarding their "common salvation". 

So I wonder:  Do I hold my agenda and my plans loosely enough to be used by God when He interrupts?  No matter how "noble" or good my plans might be, do I have room to stop and consider that God might be doing something more noble and good when my rhythms are trumped by His providential hand?  Knowing myself like I do, I prefer not to answer that question--because the answer only exposes my self-centered tendencies.  

How about you?  Does God have "permission" to interrupt your life and your plans?  Perhaps God is in the midst of a full-on interruption of your life right now.  As I write this, I find myself almost panicked that we would/could miss (or choose to avoid) God's call on our lives and our church because God's will might arrive in the form of interruptions that we perceive as mere "barriers”.

But here's the deal.  God's will cannot be thwarted by us.  He is sovereign.  If Jude had not abandoned his original plans, we might be reading the same content of Jude's letter, only by a different writer.  Who would have missed out?  Jude's readers?  God's will?  No...JUDE would have missed out!  He would have missed out on being a partaker in the Gospel's work by allowing God to use him in the midst of interruption.

You never know what God might be doing when He puts the breaks on your plans and my plans.  Who loses out if you or I run from God's will or reject God's intervention in our plans?  You know the answer. 

Father God...let us love your will and your ways and always be watchful of when you might be accomplishing Your will by changing our direction.  Please keep us from despising the work of your hand and loving the work of our hands too much.  We pray these things in Jesus' great and glorious name.  Amen.