CLOUDED PULPITS CLEARING copyright Doug Blair, Waterloo, ON, 2016
Candidacy Sermon This was an interesting development. Glenn was a university student who had attended their fellowship during five years at the college. Served an additional three in a distant city as understudy. He was now a new preacher looking for a pulpit… “What a pleasure to be in your midst under these circumstances. May there be some food and light brought to you this morning by the grace of God. Open the Bibles before you to Luke chapter seven…” Glenn proceeded to read the ENTIRE CHAPTER without pause. Part way through some of the parishioners exchanged glances with raised eyebrows. “I hope to have opportunity to bring before you something of Moses, of Daniel, Isaiah, David, Amos, John the Revelator. But what are crumpets when compared with the Living Bread, Jesus? I will not be unto you a Bible teacher. I respect you too much for that. I will not bring you books about the Bible, or anecdotes, or light-hearted wanderings. I seek to be the facilitator of an atmosphere of worship, of a habit of waiting upon the arrival of the Living God. There will be much of prayer around the room and of heartfelt personal testimony and triumph as the Holy Spirit is given His way. You will find that I have a dread of ethics and rules. They stifle Life – real Life that is intended to be imparted and not taught. You all have your Bibles and ample commentaries, concordances and dictionaries. The Church library is full of them as well. I expect you to prepare yourselves with the weight-lifting of independent study. From time to time I will canvas the Body for requests for topics giving particular difficulty. I will
labour through those knotty points with the light given me to bring us all up another rung in the ladder. We are going to grow together. Perhaps God will reward us with some breathtaking revelations and His personal presence. Teaching will not be the main purpose of this worship hour; rather worship itself and ambitious prayer. I believe that this will make us an effective force for righteousness, peace and joy in the community, although God will not pamper our pride by revealing the how and the why. I will not become a Providence for any man, woman or child; rather I will undergird each individual who asks, as God leads him through the valleys and heights of individual destiny. I will marry. I will bury. Baptise. Comfort. Co-labour. Call to the Table of Remembrance. Please understand that it will not be my intention to address the lowest common denominator in any message. I expect us to grow and not to stew in the status quo. Healthy growth of course requires exercise. That will include programs to involve the larger community and to bear witness to this marvelous gift of Good News which we possess in earthen vessels. We have been bought with a great price. We are not our own. Our mandate is to take His peace and assurance OUT THERE. Let us pray…” (That which followed contained the thanksgiving and the pleadings of a man broken by the image of Calvary, by the hurts and challenges of his fellows, by the revelation of his own shortcomings and by the shortness of the hour until return of the Bridegroom, Jesus – in short, these were the prayers of a good shepherd.)
Spilling It from the Pulpit
Brothers and Sisters in the Lord. There will be no sermon this morning. I have a confession to make, and I am blocked in serving as Christ’s ambassador until I have done with it. You may have noticed a lot of topical teaching in series recently from this pulpit. I have not had to labour in the preparation of any of them. They were old messages of mine on file. They were messages basically borrowed from another ministry. They were re-phrased magazine articles from any one of a number of televangelists. I have even asked friends in the ministry to lend me a few. I thought in this way that I could keep up with the pace around here. So many programs, and Pastor is expected to be at every one, all smiles and enthusiasm. Providing the official endorsement on a number of activities of dubious edifying value. Friends we have gone down the road of trendiness and populism. We have all copied what we have seen and admired elsewhere. With a heavy heart I confess that I introduced such a spirit into this house. I am not smiling. I am not enthusiastic. I am dry and ashamed. I ask your forgiveness. I stand here before you and the Lord asking for prayer, forgiveness and support. You know, in the early days every sermon was an adventure, a plea for Christ Jesus to open the floodgates of hope, truth and clarification. No one learned more from the process than I did. No one. Sometimes the delivery might have been clumsy; the topic might have seemed curious. But it was all
delivered under the urging and control of the Holy Spirit. I knew that. I was excited as He used me. I saw eyes in the pews sparkle with discovery, and any question that you might have offered thereafter was received with love and spurred on further prayer and research. Oh to be growing in Grace again. Oh to approach the pages of Scripture as newfound treasure. Oh to deliver my message as Paul did…in sincerity and truth. “Sincerity and truth”; those words cut me now. You are going to witness a change soon, or I will be done with the ministry. Remember how in Acts chapter six the apostles were released unto prayer, visitation and the preaching of the Word. Deacons stepped forward to handle administration, finance and community concerns. This must happen again in this Body. Soon. Men, where have you gone? Get back here! There must be no scent of the gymnasium, the concert hall, the theatre, the restaurant or the lecture hall about this place. It is a place of gathering in the Name and Spirit of Jesus, to hear His message and to accomplish His works; to heal, forgive, develop and reproduce in the Family. Remember how Jesus scourged the Temple in His Passion Week. Yes, He did have a temper. He was not beyond harsh words. “You have made my House a den of thieves”. Those are words that I have heard recently. I must apologize. I must change. I must go back to the Cross. Hopefully you will be there with me.
Mission to the Obstinate
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Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. 31
And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. 32
And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not. (Ezekiel 33) This chapter speaks of the very heavy burden of the watchman. There are ministries out there where diligent disciples of Christ preach, and suspect that the audience is like an infertile valley, throwing back the message in echo, and producing nothing. This too is a God-ordained ministry, although it has the appearance of failure. Let it never be said that God did not give them a chance to hear before the Judgment. We must not come too quickly to this conclusion. Hard soils can be broken up by extraordinary rains. The watchman can only deliver the messages he has been given. To strain to put out images or formats that are not his own, and not sincerely from his heart, will only lead to more disappointment. These comments run counter to today’s seminary and denominational training. Full of strategies and success formulae. It’s about the numbers and outreach and homiletics. Typically North American. But
the dedicated Intercessor who travails for souls on his/her face in obscurity knows of what I speak. The results are mainly underground, awaiting unveiling at a time not yet determined. And all will be to the glory of God, and His consequent “well done”.
Already Been Said
There is a surfeit of teaching in today’s churches. Needed prayer and testimony time will be sacrificed for the sermon (and also, painfully, the announcements). Pastor’s plan is to take a very small portion of Bible text and load on the anecdotes and practical guidelines for “today’s parishioner”. Unfortunately there is a suspicion evidenced in many pulpits that if too much time is given to straightout Bible exposition the message will be dusty. Hence all the current and charming extraneous stuff. Perhaps pastors need to reimagine their roles. Might more emphasis be given to counsellor, comforter, coach, corrector and conductor? What a shock! So much time goes now into the crafting of the sermon. I must confess that many of the messages sound as if they are being directed to new believers; the foundational message of Grace; the multi-faceted pitch to turn one’s will over to the will of God. I ask myself, ‘Do the listeners have Bibles of their own, and do they read them with interest, discuss them with trusted friends?’ Let’s stop the spoon-feeding. Perhaps go directly to the people and ask where their understanding needs help and clarification. “Surgical preaching” I would call it. Do not emphasize what we are going to do or say; focus rather on what Jesus has already done and said. This is the only legitimate approach to “what would Jesus do” (WWJD). Talk about lifestyle? Go to the Sermon on the Mount. Talk about learning of the Father’s heart? Go to the Prodigal Son. Talk about spiritual equipment for challenges of holiness? Go to the Upper Room Discourse, and learn of His love, comfort, peace, Spirit and joy. Talk about the lateness of the hour and the burden for souls? Go to the Olivet Discourse and hear Jesus prophesy in the light of what is happening in our day. Talk about the wickedness of self-reliance and trusting in works? Go to the parable of the Vine or the parable of the Wedding Banquet. Talk about more effective prayer life? Go to John 17 or the incident of the determined Syrophenician mother. And in going to the first and best source we are sure to avoid detours and distractions. The Apostle Peter said that in his messages he was constantly “putting the people in remembrance”. He was not going over his weekend at the lake, some interesting lifestyle book just completed or front page news from secular whirlpools. (Leave all of that to the lecturer in some other forum.)
Mythology
There’s a myth going round
That with teaching You will grow (Once you know) Into Christ. And the lectures pile Higher and deeper To inspect and dissect Mercy’s price. But the head Can be led By strange fashion And the head Can be fed Nasty pride. If you want To delve into His Passion You must venture Much deeper inside. You must soak In those Gospels In reverence. You must pray For His purpose Each day. And the Christ like the dew Comes to visit. And the Christ Becomes you And will stay. It is all about Being His prisoner One in bonds to The Love that He’ll share. And He feeds
And He feeds By His Spirit. You become Christendom In His care.
Suffering Bishop
He tangoed with the world And they loved him from the pulpit Spoke the layman's tongue Pacing oft their aisles close by Used to love the Greek And its marvelous precision Used to woo his pipe As the smoke rose to the sky Had a faithful wife Who would laugh and thus relieve him Had a humble start In some store-front dens of prayer Rose in rank ascribing To Church calendar's dictation Still the people's hearts Were his major love and care. “Bishop” soon they called him But heart still in the sheepfold Bleatings much preferred To the policies of men. Bibles less and less Made the fount of life's solution Could they ever child-like Hush ...and come to Christ again? Soon things got still sillier Changing holy writ and gender Talking oft in circles Of the marriage rite defiled Making life an option In the unborn pure and tender Seeing not their Master As He praised and hugged each child. Then the word “retirement” And the accolades and speeches Happy pictures taken
And posted quick to Net Looking back a landscape With muddy trench and crater Baffled how the Son of God Would have the victory yet.
Isaiah 64
I am looking for the one A yielded one, you see Who stirs himself up night and day To take a hold of me. The Temple now in disrepair The City marred with sin. And none who flee iniquity. The mud they wallow in. And so I’ve hid my face a while That some might mourn and cry “Where gone our God We feel His rod We search a brazen sky.” I do not bring Grace cheaply I break before I bless. Right now I seek A Watchman meek Travailing o’er this mess. And when I hear his yearnings A grieving climate comes To cause to weep Declension deep Throughout the streets and homes. And this will be the purging And this will be the spark
I will come down And sweep this Town And brighten what was dark.
Shine On the Monday following Easter weekend, and upon Karl’s insistence, Ted went out for coffee and a talk. The old German parishioner had sensed that Ted was tired and a little discouraged. Perhaps a lot discouraged. “Zo da message yestaday had been goot, ant hit all da main points. But vat’s up Ted? You sheem down.” Ted really trusted this old fellow. There had been prayer vigils and many house visitations together. He was tired. He felt that so often the people of the church just needed to be weaned off his supply. Did they spend their own time and quiet moments in the means of Grace? Prayer. Scripture. Heartfelt discussion. And don’t forget simply waiting upon God for His input. He felt that he would burst if he had to attend one more fellowship meal or social night. Sometimes he would breeze by a broadcast of one of the American mega-churches on television. They had the numbers, the happy faces, the publishing and recording branches. But you know it was largely ear-tickling and he knew it. Forget the infatuation with the do’s and dont’s of Christian Living. Let’s just draw closer to Jesus and His Gospels, and receive as if by absorption, His life, love and sense of mission to lost, hurting ones. When might the River flow with Ted’s bunch? And where were the youth? And where were the anxious new faces on any Sunday morning? And where the brokenness in the flock? Ted really didn’t know where to begin, but he took a stab at it. …Forty-five minutes later Karl put his withered old carpenter’s hand on the Pastor’s on the coffee table. “Zo, mein friend. Rezolve dat it ishn’t up to you. No, you are not anybotty’s canal horse here. Ztay close to da Mashta. Shine. In da goot report tank God. In da bat report pray to God. Use da name ov Jesus mit joy and fear, often use it. Ant da people vill draw closer. Ant da people vill pick up da reins. Amen?”
Let Little Children... He hugged the child So frail and mild With warm embrace And those around
True kindness found In this One's face. The boy sat still As if to thrill In stories told Of God above Of shepherd love Found in the fold. But men had rules Punctilious fools All tied in knots Had lost the trust Both clean and just As youth once thought They tried this Man Of God-sent Plan With problems rare He showed the boy And loyal joy The Answer...there. “Friends simplify Don't say that I Present harsh test It's not a fight Just hold on tight And share my best.”