Preachers and Politicians

Tomorrow Su and I leave for Cartagena, Colombia, where I am scheduled to preach on Monday evening to a group of IT missionaries on Galatians, chapter six. Believe it or not, this message was originally inspired after seeing a video of a lady's softball game that took place between the University of Western Oregon and the University of Central Washington. However, the message I have written on my computer today is very different from the idea I started with - Scripture has a funny way of changing our thoughts and opinions.

Preaching is beginning to seem a bit old-fashioned. There was a time in the "not-so-long-ago" that preachers and pastors were looked at with a kind of respect. Today, if I ever tell someone that I am a pastor/missionary/preacher, it is not unusual to see them reflexively touch their wallets or purses, just to make sure they still have them.

A Canadian politician was criticized by a columnist who said, "(He) is a preacher, not a politician." The implication was obvious. Preachers are by nature intolerant, impatient, and arrogant. Preachers are “know-it-alls,” dangerous to the citizenry of an enlightened and pluralized public.

Personally, it is a blow to find out my career choice has made me lower than a politician! My parents had hoped for so much more.

One of the reasons preaching seems to have fallen from favor is that it has become "uncool" to declare we know anything with certainty. Rather than framing an argument and making a statement, we now speak with so many conditional clauses that it becomes impossible for anyone to know what we really believe.

I love a poem by Taylor Mali entitled, Totally like whatever, you know? One of its stanzas reads this way:

"Declarative sentences - so-called
because they used to, like, DECLARE things to be true
as opposed to other things which were, like, not -
have been infected by a totally hip
and tragically cool interrogative tone? You know?
Like, don't think I'm uncool just because I've noticed this;
this is just like the word on the street, you know?
It's like what I've heard?
I have nothing personally invested in my own opinions, okay?
I'm just inviting you to join me in my uncertainty?"

The problem with preaching - at least preaching from the Bible - is that it is full of declarative statements. Some of those statements may make me uncomfortable but, if I am going to be truthful to the text, I can't change them.

In Galatians six, Paul makes some strong declarations. This former Pharisee, one of the up-and-coming leaders of his generation says, "But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." (Galatians 6:14) Not much "wiggle room" in that type of statement. The challenge is right in front of each of us who read it.

Now, if you still have interest in the video that started me on this expository journey, you can find it at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVlKtI7yd_s Of course, your challenge is to think of why I ever went to Galatians six after seeing it!