When to walk out on a sermon

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On the morning of Sunday 19 May, 1940, Clementine Churchill returned early from a church service at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in central London, having walked out when the preacher delivered a pacifist sermon.  Winston told her, ‘”You ought to have cried, ‘Shame!’, desecrating the House of God with lies!'”   (Darkest Hour, by Anthony McCarten, p. 154)

It was Easter 1968. When Martin Luther King was assassinated, all of us–white and black alike–were hurting and confused, disturbed and concerned.  That Sunday I preached a sermon that addressed racism in America. I was 28 years old and in the first year of pastoring Emmanuel Baptist Church of Greenville, Mississippi in the heart of the Delta.  I’ve long since forgotten the sermon, but will never forget a phone call I received that afternoon.

Mrs. Glenn Powell called. She owned a beauty shop in town which I had quickly learned was gossip central.  Mrs. Powell had made no secret of her unhappiness with my sermons or with me personally.

“Brother McKeever, what will you be preaching tonight?”  I told her.

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The wonderful joy of being truly clean

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“Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin…. Purify me with hyssop and I shall be clean” (Psalm 51:1,7).

“The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin” (I John 1:9).

David remembered being clean and he missed it so badly.

Know that feeling?

On the farm, we would bale hay.  The baler was the type that ran off the belt driven by the tractor engine.  We would park the tractor and baler by a pile of hay, unhitch it all, turn the tractor around and hook up the belt and turn it all on.  Then, someone feeds the hay into the baler, then throws the block in to separate the bales, and I go to work.  I’m on the ground underneath all of this, hay (and dust and debris) falling all over me.  I feed two baling wires into the block as it moves through the system, then wait for the person on the other side to return those ends back to me through the next block.  I pull the wires through and tie off the bale.  The machine spits it out as we continue feeding hay into the baler and work with the next set of blocks coming our way.  Eventually, we moved on to the next pile of hay.

It was a dirty business. At noon, we shut it all down and walked to the farmhouse for lunch.  But not yet.  No way is mom going to let this dirty bunch into the house. So we rigged up an outside shower.  One at a time, we each get under it, dry off and put on clean clothes. Only then are we allowed to sit in the dining room and partake of  the amazing array of country vegetables mom and our sisters have been working on all morning.

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How I’d vote in the Alabama senatorial election

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I’m completely aware that the title is presumputous!  I don’t live or vote in Alabama–although it is my native state–and in some ways might as well be chiming in on the alderman’s race in Jasper, Alabama.

But a pastor friend in that state sent the question: “How would you vote if you lived here?”

The quandary–for those who live outside the western hemisphere or in some distant future–is that the two primary candidates are Judge Roy Moore, Republican, who has been accused by a number of women of sexual overtures of one kind or other years ago when they were minors and he was an adult of 30 or so, and Doug Jones, Democrat, who espouses the party line in support of abortion and the usual liberal politics.  There are a thousand details, but these two matters cause the ethical dilemma of my friend and many others like him.

The charges and counter charges, accusations and denials, have been swift and many concerning Judge Moore.  Proving something that was merely verbal and occurred forty years ago is next to impossible. This means–unless I’m missing something–Judge Moore can do what Supreme Court nominee (and later Justice) Clarence Thomas did: deny, deny, and deny.  It was Thomas’ word against Anita Hill.  In this case, it’s Moore’s word against a half-dozen women.

The voters become the jury.

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“Who, me?” “Not me! I would never do such a thing.”

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For those who come across this piece in some distant future, it would be helpful to state what’s happening in the U.S.A. at this moment, November/December 2017.  An outbreak of accusations against well-known men by women who accuse them of sexual offenses (harassments, manipulation, pressure, molestation, and such) is a daily occurrence.  Prominent men are resigning their positions or being fired by their boards.  No one thinks we’ve seen the worst of it, but everyone expects this to be the leading edge. 

A woman friend tells me she’d love to see a movement of men stepping up to say, “Me, too,” in some kind of admission that they are partly at fault for the climate of sexual harassment in our culture.  “Either they have done the things we’re talking about–the sexual innuendos, the flirtatiousness, the manipulation–or they have been complicit by their silence,” she says.

I’m still thinking about that one.

It’s a minefield walking out in front of the world to say, “I’m to blame.”  Particularly if you feel you aren’t.

And that’s what prompted what follows.

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These are a few of my favorite Proverbs

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When the dog bites, when the bee stings, I quickly remember a few of my favorite Proverbs….  (apologies to Luther Vandross who wrote “My Favorite Things”)

A blog is not a sermon, right?  Not necessarily an essay, nor is it a theme written for a class.  Theoretically, a blogger should be able to write about whatever he/she wishes.  That being the case, I herewith submit this sampling from the riches of Proverbs which are among my favorites.  Along with appropriate comments, of course.

I said to my Old Testament and Hebrew professor, “Solomon could not have written these.  They champion monogamy and faithfulness to one’s wife, something he clearly knew nothing about.”  Dr. George Harrison said, “When it says in the opening verse ‘the proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel,’ it could mean something as simple as that he collected these.  It’s not necessarily saying he wrote them.”

Good.  Maybe he did write some of them.  After all, the Queen of the South was impressed by his wisdom (I Kings 10:7) and perhaps these are some of the reason.

Proverbs 3:5-6.  Everyone’s favorite.  My wife Bertha’s favorite. ” Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.”  (some translations say: “He will make your paths smooth.”  Or “straight.”)

That’s a promise.  Not everything in Proverbs that looks like a promise should be considered one.  But this is.  And it’s been time-tested over the centuries.

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Pastor: Start afresh every year

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“Now, team, this is a football!”  (Said to have been an opening statement from legendary coach Vince Lombardi after his team’s devastating loss the previous day.)

Coach Dabo Sweeney sits in the catbird seat.  As his team, the Clemson University Tigers, sits atop the latest football poll–making them number one in the nation–they are preparing to face the tough Miami Hurricanes this weekend.  Survive that, as they probably will, and Clemson will be set for the championship playoff, two games to decide the final ranking of the 2017 season.

This morning on ESPN’s “Golic and Wingo,” Sweeney was asked how he gets players not long out of high school ready to face these tough challenges.  He said two things worth our consideration:

“I start over every year.”  “I try to get buy-in.”

A college coach trains his leadership just the way he wants them.  Finally, about the time they are functioning at peak level, they graduate.  A new group of freshmen comes in and the coach has to start over.

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The Facebook Syndrome: Alive and well in our churches

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“Encourage one another and build each other up” (I Thessalonians 5:11).

Bertha was in her mid-forties.  She and husband Gary had gone to pastor in central Florida, and the women of their neighborhood had given a welcoming tea for her at a local upscale restaurant.  There were perhaps 20 or 30 in attendance.  It was an impressive event.

Throughout the afternoon, an elderly lady across the table kept staring at Bertha.  Finally, in her quavering voice, the woman said, “My dear.  You are soooo lovely!”

Bertha smiled and thanked her.

A short time afterwards, Bertha was walking home from the tea with one of the women who was a neighbor.  The woman said, “Oh, by the way, the older woman who told you you’re so lovely, she is actually almost blind.  I thought you would want to know.”

Bertha has no memory of how she responded to that.  My own opinion is there is no answer to it.  It’s a show-stopper.

Why, we wonder, did the neighbor feel it important to shoot down the older lady’s compliment?  What kind of mentality prompts one to do such a thing?  Why couldn’t she be content with the pastor’s wife receiving a compliment?  (And a fitting compliment at that.  Bertha is my bride now of nearly 11 months, and people still remark on her loveliness.)

Facebook users see it all the time.

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100 things I’m thankful for this week–and every week.

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I began by thinking of the simple, everyday blessings we take for granted.  But the more I give thanks for, the more things and people come to mind….

The first twenty……

I’m thankful for bananas in my local store.  They were picked green in some Caribbean country and shipped here in refrigerated containers, unloaded in New Orleans and then trucked to Mac’s Freshmarket down the street.  I am so blessed.

I’m thankful for crunchy peanut butter.  Wonder if George Washington Carver thought of leaving crunchy peanuts in the butter he invented.

I’m thankful for a faucet I can turn and hot water comes out.  The first eighteen years of my life we did not have that.

I’m thankful for a bed.  Nothing rejuvenates a weary body like a good night’s rest.  And I have a king-sized one. Am I blessed or what?

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Perhaps the hardest thing a pastor will ever do

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Speak to the current moral dilemma facing the country (or dividing your community) without making matters worse.

That has to be one of the most difficult minefields a pastor ever has to tread.

One misstep and he’s a goner.

Twenty years ago, it was President Clinton’s infidelity that was dividing the country.  In the same decade it was the O. J. Simpson trial.  These days, the issue is sexual harassment (or any of its various manifestations: sexual molestation, intimidation, assault, etc.) by men in positions of power.

A man–always a man–runs for prominent public office and someone stands up and says, “He attacked me.”  Or, molested me.  Touched me inappropriately.  Took advantage of me.  Raped me.

The media flocks to the accuser and stories are written. Sleuths check out her story and some corroborate it while others trot out family members who say she is a chronic liar or family members of the accused to say they’ve never known him to do anything like that.

Then, next step.  Other women step up and say, “He treated me the same way.”

Quickly, the matter becomes page one across the country.  Leading the nightly news.  Fueling talk shows. Dividing everyone on Facebook.  Splitting families.

Defenders are enraged.  Supporters of the accusers are offended by the way their friends have accommodated themselves to the culture and forgotten Jesus’ call to defend the helpless and bless the children.

So, the poor pastor decides this matter must be addressed in next Sunday’s sermon.  What is he to do?

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A few word studies to bless the Bible student

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What made me want to study Greek and Hebrew in seminary was faithful preachers during my college years who sometimes gave us the meaning of a word in their sermons.  Not too much, of course.  It’s easy to overdo this.  And nothing very technical.  The guy in the pew does not care a whit about the aorist tense or pluperfect whatever, or that Josephus used this in one way and Herodotus another.

Pastors should do this sparingly, but when they do it wisely and well, a word study can enrich Bible study and inspire the hearers.  (I suggest no more than one word meaning from the Greek or Hebrew per sermon.  The average worshiper can absorb only so much, and we must not presume upon their kindnesses.)

Here are a few from Pau’s Letter to the Philippians…

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