Bringing down walls takes cooperation

Bazaar. What a strange word. It's a word that has Italian, Turkish and Persian roots. Originally, a bazaar was understood to be a market set up along a street in Far East with various shops and stalls. In some parts of the world, that notion of bazaar continues to exist. But in America, the word is mainly associated with churches, which use "bazaar" to describe a special sale at which miscellaneous items are available. Such a bazaar (here comes a shameless plug) is happening today from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Centenary United Methodist, where I serve as pastor.

While some words change in meaning, either subtly or substantially, over time, others do not. Cooperation, for example. That term still means what it always has.

When Bobby McFarland threw my street clothes into the shower during seventh-grade gym back in western Pennsylvania, he sent me a message about cooperation. You see, I was the only student not to sell magazines for the class fundraiser. One hundred percent participation was required for my class to get a pizza party. I didn't want to do it; as it happened, I was the only one who refused. No party. Ergo, wet clothes. I got the message about cooperation.

Cooperation is not a word that appears in the Holy Scriptures, but it is clear that cooperation happened even if the term isn't explicitly used. In Joshua 6, cooperation was necessary to collapse the walls around Jericho and allow Israelite occupation. Rather odd instructions were given to make the fortified walls fall.

The Lord gave the directives to Joshua, who in turn passed them on to the Israelites. The soldiers were to march around the city walls once a day for six days led by seven priests blowing trumpets made out of ram's horns (shofars). On the seventh day, the command was to march around the walls seven times, again with trumpets sounding, to be followed by a great mass shout. If the instructions were followed precisely, the Lord promised the walls would fall flat and the Israelites could take Jericho (Joshua 6:1-5).

During that siege of Jericho, some Israelite hearing the instructions surely replied in exasperated Hebrew, "The Lord wants us to do what?" If so, such rumblings never made it into the text. Maybe more than a few responded in that fashion. Yet the story tells us they must have obeyed because the walls did collapse as prophesied (Joshua 6:20). The people cooperated with God.

We decide, each day, whether or not we will cooperate with God. When Paul says, "Pray without ceasing," it is an imperative to make prayer a regular communication with God. When we pray only in times of supplication -- when in trouble, in need -- then we do not cooperate with the biblical mandate. I John 4:9 says, "If we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Billy Graham defines confession as "agreement with God." If we, then, agree with God, who already knows our sins, then we confess and receive the benefit of forgiveness and cleansing. In the Protestant tradition, confession is not emphasized except during the communion ritual. It's just not much of a priority. Failure to confess can be interpreted as noncooperation. Is it any wonder we carry such spiritual dead weight around with us?

If our Christian lives are not what we wish them to be, we ought to examine whether or not we are cooperating with the guidelines God long ago gave in the Scriptures. That's not a bazaar, er, excuse me, bizarre conclusion at all.

Jeff Long is pastor of Centenary United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau. Married with two daughters, he is of Scots and Swedish descent, loves movies and is a lifelong fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers.