An After the Sermon conversation
Not everyone likes the preacher’s sermon. I get it. Sometimes the preacher is having a bad day. Not every sermon is a homerun. Sometimes it’s a strikeout. Sometimes the listener is having a bad day too. It happens.
My last sermon may or may not have been a strikeout (if you were present on Sunday or watched online you can be the judge or be the umpire– to keep my “strikeout” metaphor straight). One first time (probably last time) guest took serious umbrage with what I said. Serious umbrage!
“You must apologize for not preaching the Gospel!” he said.
“I will not apologize for preaching about grace,” I retorted. If you weren’t in church last Sunday… shame on you. Just kidding there is plenty of grace (see the next two sentences). If you were absent, the recap is we started a new series called “SOLA.” It is a series that looks at the Five Pillars of Protestantism beginning with Sola Gracia or Grace Alone.
Suffice it to say the dude didn’t like the sermon on grace.
He stated that it is baptism that saves us. I again reiterated that it is Jesus who saves. Just Jesus. He didn’t like that answer either. He interjected a passage from James saying that our good works also saves us.
“It’s baptism and good works that save,” according to this man as he jumped from obscure scripture to obscure scripture to emphasize his beliefs.
I might have further upset him a little more when I told him we don’t “cherry pick” obscure verses to support our beliefs instead we believe in “plenary inspiration” meaning the “whole of scripture” is inspired. Furthermore, I reiterated again, the Bible is clear– it is Jesus who saves. Just Jesus. I said, “in fact, if you really want to know more, please join us in two weeks when the sermon will be on “Solus Christus” (Christ Alone).
I don’t think he will return.
Not everyone agrees with us theologically. We can’t change who we are (I don’t want to change who we are. I like us. Still there’s a piece of me that’s sad whenever someone exits for whatever reason. (FYI… just prior to that conversation, still after the 11AM service, I led a young man, also the first time in our church, to the Lord. Chalk it up to: You win some and you lose some.).
Pastoring is crazy these days. It’s extra crazy during election years. Ask anyone in a helping profession (police officers, nurses, teachers, social workers, and pastors), they will tell you there is an angered entitlement and victimized brashness that wasn’t present in past generations. It is much harder (thank you social media with its gossip and lies) to pastor than it was when I began 36 years ago. Life is different. Yet, people still need Jesus. That hasn’t changed.
Proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ has been my life’s calling. That passion is just as strong today (in fact stronger) as it was when I first sensed God speaking to me as a seventh grader sitting by a teen “afterglow” campfire at Water’s Edge Camp.
It is also a privilege and a joy to be a pastor. But it’s not for the faint of heart. Jesus didn’t say pastoring or life, for that matter, would be easy. He said He would be with us.
He has been.
He will be.
He is!
