H.L. Mencken is credited with saying that the journalist had two responsibilties: to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. I really think that is not the journalist’s, but the pastor’s role.
We focus much of out time comforting the afflicted. Sitting in hospital waiting rooms -(the ministry of presence)- walking beside families through the loss of a loved one, counseling troubled couples on the verge of divorce, providing practical aid and assistance to the poor, the imprisoned and the defenseless… all are normal parts of pastoral ministry. We like to do that stuff. It makes us feel needed, gives us a sense of purpose and validates our calling.
We are far less enthusiastic about the flip side of our mission: afflicting the comfortable.
The church, and by extension the pastor, should be a prophetic voice in society. If the church is the body of Christ, ministers are the mouth, giving voice to God’s heart in matters of justice and equity. We are not always successful. We are not always even willing.
Recent events in my life have sensitized me to the plight of the poor. Jesus often spoke about poverty, ministered to the poor, and called us to be advocates for the poor, and yet… the American church largely panders to the wealthy, promotes a ‘gospel’ of greed, and finds ‘those people’ an inconvenient embarrassment. In his book Crazy Love, Francis Chan wrote, “If one hundred people represented the world’s population, fifty-three of those would live on less than $2 a day. Do you realize that if you make $4,000 a month, you automatically make one hundred times more than the average person on this planet? …Which is more messed up — that we have so much compared to everyone else, or that we don’t think we’re rich? That on any given day we might flippantly call ourselves “broke” or “poor”? We are neither of those things. We are rich. Filthy rich.”
One hundred times more than the average person on this planet, yet, according to a statistic I read recently “32% of Christians claim to tithe, while only 12% actually do.”
One hundred times more than the average person on this planet, yet Compassion International has more than 100,000 children living in third-world poverty who lack a sponsor who could rescue them from poverty for $32 a month.
One hundred times more than the average person on this planet, yet we avoid the poor and the homeless because they smell bad, look bad, and are just not like us.
Comfortable, fat, blind consumerists we are, with our oversized homes, multiple luxury vehicles, RVs, jetskis and designer labels. We turn a blind eye and rationalize our lack of compassion, our selfish consumption, as our right to the American Dream. We debate points of doctrinal distinctives with our friends from that other church down the street, divide and redivide in smug superiority, as if that is what pleases God, what will determine our standing before him. Somehow we manage to ignore Matthew 25:31-46 —
“When he finally arrives, blazing in beauty and all his angels with him, the Son of Man will take his place on his glorious throne. Then all the nations will be arranged before him and he will sort the people out, much as a shepherd sorts out sheep and goats, putting sheep to his right and goats to his left.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what’s coming to you in this kingdom. It’s been ready for you since the world’s foundation. And here’s why:
I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.’
“Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’
“Then he will turn to the ‘goats,’ the ones on his left, and say, ‘Get out, worthless goats! You’re good for nothing but the fires of hell. And why? Because—
I was hungry and you gave me no meal,
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
I was homeless and you gave me no bed,
I was shivering and you gave me no clothes,
Sick and in prison, and you never visited.’
“Then those ‘goats’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or homeless or shivering or sick or in prison and didn’t help?’
“He will answer them, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me.’
“Then those ‘goats’ will be herded to their eternal doom, but the ‘sheep’ to their eternal reward.”
(The Message, Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson)
It’s refreshing to find other believers who are on the same page about what real ministry is. It makes me sad to think of all the years I spent inside the church, when the real ministry was outside of it. Keep up the blogging PastorG.