Jitterbugging for Jesus

If we sit and think about the state of the world, we may well become very depressed; then let us get to action in our small corner of the world.

We may sometimes despair of the Church; then let us get to action in our small part of the Church.

— William Barclay*

Professor Barclay, the biblical interpreter for the common folk and the scholarly.

It is all to easy these days for even the most steadfast people of faith to become depressed to the point of hopelessness and despair.

I have days myself when I feel like giving it all up and going the way of “eat, drink, and be merry, and eat and drink more, and banging on me drums all day.”

The world seems to be coming thoroughly undone sometimes, although, I have to say it has seemed like that to every generation since the Garden.

Still, this is our time. The world is so much with me so many days now that I oftentimes say to the Lord like the father who said to Jesus:

“Lord I believe! Help my unbelief!” (See Mark 9:19-24 here.)

I still have many of The New Daily Study Bible volumes written by the great Scottish Professor William Barclay (1907-1978), with hundreds of dog-eared pages and sections I’ve practically painted with highlights from markers.

Barclay’s mission in life was to interpret every book of the Bible with such vivid clarity as to reach the so-called common people — the “unscholarly” Christians. His genius was that he managed to do that while winning over the high-browed scholars.

I’ve been steeping myself in the Gospel of Mark lately for a writing project and could not resist the urge to go back and read Barclay’s The Gospel of Mark study guide.

With that introduction, I’ll share with you what Barclay had to say about the dad who sought healing for his son.

[Jesus] had decided to stake his life on the redemption of the world. And now he had come back down [from the mountaintop] to find his … own chosen disciples, beaten and baffled and helpless and ineffective. …

Looking at the Twelve, he must have had a sudden realization of what anyone else would have called the hopelessness of his task. He must have … almost despaired. …

How did he meet the moment of despair? “Bring the boy to me,” he said. When we cannot deal with the ultimate situation, the thing to do is to deal with the situation which at that moment confronts us.

It was as if Jesus said, “I do not know how I am ever to change these disciples of mine, but I can at this moment help this boy. Let me get on with the present task, and not despair of the future.”

That is the way to avoid despair. If we sit and think about the state of the world, we may well become very depressed; then let us get to action in our small corner of the world.

We may sometimes despair of the Church; then let us get to action in our small part of the Church.

Jesus did not sit appalled and paralyzed at the slowness of people’s minds; he dealt with it with immediate action.

As I said in the conclusion of my book The View From Down in Poordom, it’s all to easy to get overwhelmed by the despair that is poverty in the world. It’s also easy to get overwhelmed by what God expects of us in alleviating that poverty. God expects a lot and then some from those of us to whom much has been given.

But as I wrote:

Rather than just handing out cans of food at the food pantry with a smile and a “God bless you” — which is good as far as it goes — take a little extra time to make one or two or ten new friends there or wherever the needy may be found near you.

So as the wise Professor Barclay said, “Let us get to action in our small corner of the world. That is the way to avoid despair!”

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*Barclay, a self-described “liberal evangelical,” will always be controversial because he believed strongly in universal salvation, because of his pacifism (“war is mass murder”), and for his skepticism about the Trinity.

Even though many conservative evangelicals and fundies denounce him as a heretic hate on him and his personal legacy, many of those same conservatives give him his due grace, like the conservative author at this link. It’s an interesting take from the conservative tribe.