He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free … - Psalm 146:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 25, 2016): Psalm 146

His twitter description read “Sellin’ ice to the Eskimos.” Admittedly the description caught my eye, which is exactly what a Twitter description is supposed to do, but I was also confused. Besides being a stereotypical, and offensive, statement, it also left me with the worst image anyone can have of a salesman. I get that the phrase is often used to highlight superior sales ability – as in he’s so good he could sell ice to an Eskimo – but it also highlights the worst trait of a salesman, the ability to con us and sell us things that we don’t really need. The saying seems to go with every vacuum cleaner salesman that I have ever met. One such salesman once admitted to me that he had been instructed to do whatever he needed to do to make the sale unless making the sale was going to take food off of the customer’s table. In that statement, there is no mention of the customer’s need for the product, just of the company’s need for the sale. And my guess is that when you are going door to door trying to sell a vacuum cleaner, the ability to “sell ice to the Eskimos” might be a nice ability to have. But still, ultimately I don’t really need the product.

As a pastor, I am often accused of being a salesman for God. It is a scary thought because I am a horrible salesperson (read I definitely could not “sell ice to an Eskimo”), but deep down I do what I do because I really believe that we need God, no matter how much we might claim that we don’t. His presence in our lives is not extra or a luxury. He is essential to everything that we do.

But God’s essential character is because he is active in areas of our lives where we need him. He makes no effort to “sell ice to Eskimos.” He is active in the cause of those who are oppressed, wherever it might be that he finds them. He feeds those who hungry. He sits in prison with those who are confined, either by their own actions or by mistake.  

And he expects that we will be active in these places as well, wherever that oppression might be. In the wake of the tragedy in Orlando, I am convinced that my God is at work within the LGTBQ community. Maybe the big question is whether we are willing to follow him even there. Or if our theology threatens to keep us away from places where oppressed, hurting, hungry and imprisoned people really live.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 147