Alert: This post contains profanity.
How many of us will go to church today where the preacher, in all sincerity and belief that he is doing what is right, will try to "shepherd" us? Virtually every preacher in this country in some sense will try to "shepherd" us today. He or she will tell us what we need to do to be good Christians. He or she will tell us what we need to do to draw closer to God. They believe that it is their job to instruct us, to help us along our spiritual journey.
What did Jesus have to say about this? "Call no man Father." Only God is our Father.
Charles Barkley gets this. Now Barkley may have said: "I'm not a role model," because he didn't want to be overly scrutinized. But I'm not sure that's it. Barkley has always been up front about his partying and gambling. That's what we need a from a preacher--genuine acknowledgement of their fallenness and the proclamation of God's forgiveness of that fallenness.
To all preachers:
"Be up front about your sin. Acknowledge your fallenness. Don't let your congregation put you on a pedestal. Don't instruct your congregation. Actually, for once in your lives, point to Jesus--solely to Jesus. This is the greatest gift that you can give to your congregants--pointing to the unconditional love of Christ for fallen man--for those sins that we can't seem to shake, for those sins that continue to beset us."
For you see, the only way that we can ever achieve any sort of freedom from sin is when we know that God loves us even if we continue sinning. That's right, God loves husbands and wives when they shout at each other in front of their children. God loves children when they are disobedient to their parents. God loves men when they watch porn, and women when they read Harlequin novels (female porn, according to my wife.) God loves us when we put ourselves first over God and over our neighbors. We know that all of these things are wrong. We don't need a preacher to tell us to love God and our neighbors.
That's it--that's the pure unadulterated Gospel. When this is proclaimed from the pulpit, our hearts begin to change. Out of the gratitude for a love that exceeds belief, our hearts begin to change. We don't have to be right. We don't have to put on a pious front.
We become people who can apologize to our wives for not caring about what is important to them. We become people who can apologize to our children for screaming at an Alabama basketball game: "God damn it ref, make the fucking call." (In the past, I wouldn't have apologized to my children--"it was a terrible call so I should be free to express my frustration.") Now, I can apologize to my children. It may be that I shouldn't attend Alabama basketball games any more. :)
But, to all preachers out there, listen to Jesus and Charles Barkley. The American church might, just might, turn around if you do.
May God bless and keep all of the men and women who will step into pulpits today around the world. May God give them the courage to express the rarest idea in human history--the pure, unadulterated Gospel. May God remove the burdens of self-righteousness and piety from their shoulders. May God remove their congregants' expectations that they will be role models. May God remove their congregants' expectations that they will instruct them. May the Gospel be proclaimed today to the suffering.
No comments:
Post a Comment