I was disappointed that the number wasn’t 100%! Can any of us be living through this pandemic without believing God has a message for us in the midst of it? Would God allow such a crisis without using it to deepen the contours of His likeness in us as His image bearers? Be it for repentance or instruction, testing or correction, we must believe that God is not silent in this moment in history. And then, the sermon you preach will be that which matters for you, and then it will matter for those who hear you.Yesterday, the Christian Post reported that “more than 60% of American believers of all faiths feel that the novel coronavirus pandemic is a sign that God is telling humanity to change how it is living.” It stated further that, “thirty-one percent of Americans who believe in God feel ‘strongly’ that the virus is a sign of God telling humanity to change.” At issue is your ability, willingness, to answer Jesus’ question for yourself. When we can’t answer it or when we don’t have the answer, well, there is the point of concern. When you get in the pulpit on any given Sunday, this is the question you need to answer. Resting on the laurels of denominational beliefs will not save any of us. About possibility.īecause at the end of the day, there is individual accountability. I want to hear Jesus’ question as less about certainty and more about inquiry. The demons that insist you aren’t enough. The demons that tell you that you are not good enough. This really is the question of life, isn’t it? Do you know who you are? Who you want to be? What are the demons that make reflecting on that impossible? Because there are many. Because “who do you say that I am” has everything to do with who you are willing to be. What is Peter thinking? “Holy … Now what do I say?”Įverybody needs to answer this question this week. “Who do you say that the Son of Man is?” is about risk. They do nothing except erect walls of exclusion and expectation and justification behind which we hide. Too much of our theology, constructs, and convictions is wound so incredibly tight - and is determined by boundaries that were never meant to be so restrictive of proclamation. Nothing about God becoming human is safe. Nor were Shiphrah and Puah thinking safe. So much about our preaching, our ministry, is safe. On what will you stake your identity, your life, your future? How do you want to be known? This is no benign question but has everything to do with who the disciples think Jesus is and more importantly, who they think they are. He’s asking on what you will wager your lives, the claim of your being.
I am not sure I could answer this question. Jesus’ question is that of extraordinary vulnerability. How will you deal with this? Do you have support structures in place that will help you negotiate what it means when moments of deaths are much more than death itself? These deaths remind us of that which you can voice and that which you cannot of the very real demons that want to control us, and that many of us seek to subdue. It matters, because at the end of the day, whom will you back? How will you respond? How does a death of a celebrity matter or the death of a black 18-year-old make a difference in your day to day ministry, in your preaching? To what extent these cases are not at all related and at the same time, so connected, so real. The death of a black teenager, senseless, suspect. The death of a celebrity tormented by depression and the onslaught of Parkinson’s. Negotiating your call this past week? So crazy hard. It is meant for encouragement of your weekly preaching but also encouragement for what you may be called to do. Because this whole column is about naming limitations, pushing boundaries, and calling out realities of the preaching life. Can I say that in the “Dear Working Preacher” column? Well, I think so. Which is why Jesus’ question is not requesting a mere response of confession.ĭamn. Or we think if we do say, we will incur judgment. This week’s texts instill a “come to Jesus moment.” Faced with faith decisions, on what will you stake your faith, how you live your life? There is just too much that we cannot say.
What will you stand up for? What’s important? When do you say what you need to, want to, have to? Or when are you silent? If this question doesn’t strike the fear of God in you, well, I am not sure what will.
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