Calling & Character, William Willimon's book on pastoral ethics, seemed to start out as a fairly tame, conservative and even banal exploration of how American pastors should behave. Then, in the chapter titled 'Crossbearing and the Clergy,' Professor Willimon starts lobbing hand grenades.
On conformity:
"A pastor...is a living reminder that the gospel is not establishment but revolt, not settled accommodation but rather destabilization of present arrangements." (p. 98)
"The temptation to be 'conformed rather than transformed' (contra Rom. 12:2) is rather relentless. Church is forever in danger of degenerating into Rotary." (p. 99)
"I wonder if one of the ethical challenges for ministry in the mainline church is the sort of people we attract to ministry. We seem to have a high proportion of those who wish to keep house, to conform, and too few who like to play, confront, disrupt, revise, and foolishly envision." (p. 99)
On finances:
"I therefore consider it ethically significant that, in my denomination, we clergy publish our salaries. This is what we call collegiality. Unfortunately, we do not do much about the disparity in the salaries of the lowest-paid clergy and the highest-paid, nor do we hold in prayer those clergy (like me) whose relatively high salaries place in situations of greatest moral peril." (p. 101)
Comments with sarcasm on American individualism:
"If I explain my actions on the basis of tradition, community standards, my parents' beliefs, or Scripture, I have obviously not thought things through, have not decided for myself, have not been true to myself, have not rebelled against the external imposition of a role, so I have not been moral." (pp. 109-110)
My thoughts:
This book is a great reminder that "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise." (1 Cor 1:27) We are always trying to whitewash our faith in order to somehow make it acceptable to the world. People don't want to hear the stuff Jesus said, like "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." (Matt 19:27)
Our society defines success in very clear terms: be able to get what you want when you want it, don't depend on anyone else, get the things you need to make you happy. Unfortunately this is not the message Jesus preached. People don't want to hear about the widow who put the two bucks she had to her name in the offering box. And we certainly don't want to imitate it! American culture is telling us this is foolishness.
But if pastors and leaders try to hide stuff like this, they are not only lying to people but also failing in their mission. They forget that the mission is to say and do what is true. The gospel will work for itself, right? There's no need to dress it up. Pastors should not be about trying to improve church attendance on Sunday or making people feel okay about their dysfunctional marriages or promoting unity at the cost of honesty.
Luckily the gospel is not just about selling everything we have to follow Jesus or forsaking our families to follow Jesus; it's also about God's justice setting everything right that is currently wrong with the world, and about God's power delivering us from evil, and about God's grace healing us from all our diseases and inner wounds and sins.
Don't misunderstand me. I think contextualization of the gospel is a really important thing. I'm not talking about some Ray Comfort style of preaching that overtly tries to piss people off. I'm talking about contextualizing the gospel to American culture--because maybe Americans don't really need to hear about deliverance from evil spirits or material blessings. Most of them don't go around talking about the demonic attack they underwent last night or the curse that the neighborhood witch put on their kids. Most of them have a roof over their heads and food to eat and cars to drive. I'm not saying these things don't happen in the US; I know plenty of people in my neighborhood who don't own a car, and some who don't have enough to eat, and a few who are homeless. And many are undergoing spiritual attacks, but most of them aren't aware of it. What I am saying is that many Americans are really comfortable, and when they go to church, maybe they should feel uncomfortable. Many other Americans (including a lot of my neighbors) are living very difficult broken lives, struggling with joblessness and addiction and broken family relationships and lack of educational opportunities (and significantly, all of these issues and their contributing factors are being supported and perpetuated by dark spiritual forces at work in our culture). Maybe when these people come to church, they should find hope and comfort. But it shouldn't just be promises of jobs and counseling for dysfunction and so on and so forth--because "Church is forever in danger of degenerating into Rotary." We need to address those underlying, foundational causes like evil spiritual forces, or sins of individualism and materialism. Because if the Church doesn't preach the power of God and operate in that power, we are just another social justice non-profit organization.
Fortunately for all those American pastors out there, Jesus preaches a gospel that is simultaneously discomfiting and yet hopeful. He says, "But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places, who call out to the other children, and say, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.' For John [the Baptist] came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon!' The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Behold a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners!' Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds." (Matt 11:16-19)
And then he prays, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to babes [...] Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn for me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my load is light." (Matt 11:25, 28-30).
Not bad for simultaneously preaching hard truth and hopeful truth.
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