Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die.” Genesis 20:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 5, 2015): Genesis 20

The term “Holy Roller” seems to have been a phrase dreamed up by a humorist. In an 1893 memoir by Charles Godfrey Leland, Leland commented that "When the Holy Spirit seized them ... the Holy Rollers ... rolled over and over on the floor.” We will probably never know what it was that Leland was referring to, and Leland was a humorist so the description is likely to be an exaggeration, but the name caught on. Outside the church, the term “Holy Roller” has been used mockingly, but several groups, most noticeably those connected with the Methodist Church Tradition, have used the phrase like a badge of honor. Andrae Crouch once commented that “they call us Holy Rollers, and what they say is true. But if they knew what we were rolling about, they’d be rolling too.”

But the rock band Nazareth probably sums up the message best from the other side. In their song “Holy Roller” they ask this haunting question “Holy Roller can you save your own soul?” The image that the listener is left with is not the excitement of what God could possibly do with our lives, but the idea of professing Christian with some very imperfect behavior. To the outside world, Holy Rollers can appear to be very self-righteous, but in reality they are damaged goods. At best, they are pretenders, at worst they are hypocrites - nothing more than mere actors on the stage trying to recreate the role that they believe is required of them.

What sometimes surprises people is that this damaged image of the followers of God is actually the biblical image. The bible doesn’t carry within its pages descriptions of holy and perfect people. Outside of Jesus (and maybe the story of Joseph in Genesis) holy and perfect people are absent. The Bible does describe people who struggle with the same issues as other people of their time – and sometimes they succeed and do great things for God, but sometimes they fail. The image is of weak and frail people, what the Bible like to call clay vessels, fragile and easily broken – just like us.

The one truth that we seem to run into even within the story of Abraham is that as humans we fail. Abraham has failed. He has lied to Abimelek intending to mislead him, he has had no faith that God was bigger than Abimelek, and he has feared Abimelek more than he feared God. And yet, God refuses to discard him. He informs Abimelek that in spite of all of these things, this man is a prophet. He speaks for me.

The truth is that I am more like this weak side of Abraham then I really want to admit. I am a Holy Roller, and to answer Dan McCafferty’s question, no, I can’t save my own soul. I need help. And yet, God still recognizes me – and he still loves me. I have no explanation why. But God continually calls me his own.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 21