The NEB saints like all those that followed Christ at first were not sure what to do. After all The One Who was supposed to drive out the Romans and make the children of Israel more than conquerors was suddenly conquered by the very ones brutalizing them. How could this be? What should they do now?
In the chaos and confusion that followed the death of Christ many fled for safety, a very few clung desperately to hope but the NEB sainthood was born out of the majority of those who didn’t flee because they wanted answers, surety and assurances. You see the NEB sainthood is based on the physical at the expense of the spiritual and therefore pursued rest in what they could physically explain and what made human common sense.
And so it happened that the NEBs had a meeting even as the body of their beloved Christ was being taken down to be placed in a borrowed tomb. “I would like to call this meeting to order” said one, “we must decide what to do and how to reintegrate into the synagogue now” the voice continued. Another chimed in, “can we trust everyone here” with a voice that seemed to usher in fear. Then from across the room a hooded stranger said, “that’s a good point, I am concerned about showing my face” to which another said, “seems strange that the one we followed had the courage to die and yet we lack the courage to be ourselves, I am leaving” and with that several left the assembly.
“Please everyone calm down we must focus on order and creating a reasonable meaning from all this, let’s start by developing a name for our group, perhaps that could help us start to focus”, the “chairman” pleaded.
“Look”, said the hooded stranger, “we all know that Something More must be done, right?” With that brilliant piece of human logic the crowd all hypnotically nodded. Then the another stranger from across the room chimed in and said, “if they catch us there is Not Enough Blood in this room for what they will do to us and our families” and with that the cloud of fear and pessimism seemed to strengthen in the room. The hooded stranger went and stood behind the other stranger who sparked the new round of fear and said, “That’s it chairman, we can call ourselves the NEBs for Not Enough Blood and now could we all please leave to go be with our families?”
The chairman looked around at all the worried faces and said, “ok, well, eh well ok for now let’s go with that I guess if everyone is ready to go next meeting will be in four days and we will be called, at least for now, the NEBs.” And with that everyone hurriedly left the meeting place as quietly as possible using different directions so as not to attract attention.
But the hooded stranger and a few others seemed to linger behind. Who were they? Why did they stay behind? What would happen at the second meeting and with all the fear and panic would it happen at all?
To be continued…….
