Handling the Holy
Why is it that even though I preach the Gospel every week, I still have a hard time letting it sink in? You’d think those of us who handle this stuff all the time would be a little more affected by it than others. If only.
I preached a sermon last week on making wise use of our time, among other things. And here I come to the end of a week and realize just how many opportunities I’ve missed.
Two weeks ago, I had a sermon about how we worry about meeting our basic needs when God has promised to provide for us, and how much more free could we be to do God’s work if we prayed for our daily bread and let God answer that prayer? But here we come to that budget time of the month, and as I pore over numbers and wonder where all that paycheck is going, I hear a familiar ring somewhere in that part of my brain that’s always going – hey, didn’t you preach about this recently?
This is, in fact, what I think God is working hardest to correct in his people, both in the Old Testament and in the gospels. No matter who we are, and how wonderful an experience we may have had with God at some point, the Gospel becomes a static thing. We stop letting it amaze us, challenge us, change us. We’re back to handling the matters of a Holy God like we handle the cereal box in the morning – take it down when we need it, then roll it up and put it away until we need it again. It’s a tendency the Israelites dealt with, what the priests and kings had to fight, and the kind of thing Jesus was so hard on the Pharisees about.
How can we make the Gospel so fresh in our lives that it’s a new encounter every time we see it? How can we keep Christianity from becoming such a stale thing that we’re ready to spit it out after we’ve finished our Sunday morning “chores?” That’s one of the main things I preach about these days, and I’m still looking for an answer – much to the annoyance of those who come to church looking for the pastor to give them all the answers.
