“God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise” (I Corinthians 1:27).

The New Testament was written in Koine’ Greek for a reason. God wants the common people (careful now…tread lightly when speaking of “the common people”) to know and understand His truth.

A friend of mine once told his pastor, “Could you preach a little more simply for folks like me?  After all, the Lord said to feed His sheep, not His giraffes.”

“Snobbishness” is a loosely understood word that means one thing to Aaron and something entirely different to Zachary.  As a Supreme Court justice once said of pornography, however, even if we cannot define it, we know it when we see it.

What follows is one preacher’s note to his preacher friends on guarding oneself against snobbishness, that is, appearing better than others, aloof from the very people we are sent to reach and nurture in Christ.

1) Be careful about telling the congregation–or any audience on the planet!–about the time “When I got my doctorate.” Or, “When the U. S. Jaycees named me one of the ten outstanding young men of America.” Or, “When I won my Rhodes scholarship.”

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Anytime a pastor stands in the pulpit to give his opinion on a movie currently playing which he and his wife have just seen, look for trouble.

Some will resent that a pastor goes to the movies. Of those who don’t mind, some will be concerned that he admits it publicly.

Some will be concerned that the movie was not rated G and produced by Good-and-Nice Productions of Hometown, USA.

The balance of the congregation will split between those who agree with the pastor and appreciate his “take” on the movie and those upset because the movie takes liberties with history or offends their pet group, contains a mild profanity or shows the married couple in bed.

“The Butler” is in the theaters now. “Based on a true story” usually means the basic framework is historical but much of the rest has been concocted out of whole cloth.  The  movie has been out a couple of weeks and so on Labor Day some of my family and I decided to take it in. The reviews we’ve seen have been positive, so we were expecting an enjoyable outing.

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“Pastor, the minute you decide church must always be exciting is the moment you begin turning the worship services into pep rallies. After that, it all goes downhill.”

I said that on Facebook the other day and enraged a few people.

“Worshiping the Lord should always be exciting,” one person insisted. I replied, “I’m doing the funeral of a 53-year-old man today. It will be comforting, but not exciting.”

I understand where the guy is coming from.

Truth be known, my post probably ticked off the young me, the person I was some 40 years ago.

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The pastor said to me, “Pray for me. It’s hard out here. But we’re hanging in there, trying not to return evil for evil.”

I teased, “That’s why they pay you the big bucks, to put up with that stuff.”  And after a moment’s reflection, added, “It’s why God has to call people into this ministry.”

If it were easy, they’d be lining up to get in on it.

Called by God. Yes, it’s how He fills the ranks of shepherds.

“Now, the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country…to the land which I will show you; and I will make you….” (Genesis 12:1ff.)

“Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law…. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush…. (And God said) ‘I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring my people out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3)

“And God said (to Isaiah), ‘Go and tell this people…'” (Isaiah 6:8)

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“But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii, and given to poor people?’ Now, he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it” (John 12:4-6).

You say something positive and someone finds a negative spin to put on it.

You post a praise on Facebook and someone gets angry because you didn’t touch all the bases.

You praise a singer and someone rebukes you for leaving out the pianist.

On this website, I posted an article on pastors keeping themselves pure and protecting themselves from sexual temptation. Several online sermon magazines lifted the piece (we gladly grant them blanket permission to do so) and distributed it widely.  Among the positive and gracious comments were several attacking the writer for a) not covering every detail of the subject, b) implicitly blaming the women for the preachers’ sins, and c) not giving the other side of the issue (there being apparently numerous “other” sides, everything from single women pastors, predatory preachers, restoring fallen pastors, and helping the pastors’ wives deal with competition from women in the church).

There are those among us who, like Judas Iscariot, can always find a dark cloud behind a silver lining.  Mary of Bethany anoints our Lord and worships Him, and Judas criticizes the extravagance.  It was her own perfume, she paid for it herself, the Lord Jesus had no problem receiving her worship, it involves no one else, and yet Judas picks it apart.

His spiritual gift is finding fault.

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Once in a while, a pastor has to made a tough call.

Do you speak out on a controversial issue or not?

Yes, you could come down hard on the latest political correctness issue that is dividing the country and enraging both halves.

You could address the racial matter that is driving the liberals crazy and inflaming the conservatives to near-incineration.

You could take a public stand on what your community is experiencing, knowing that many on both sides of the issue are upset with the others.

Some will insist you should take a stand.

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