Hold the Church...

This past Sunday, our missions pastor was given a tricky task.

Our sermon series is entitled, “Give me Jesus… Hold the Church.” Enoch was assigned the sermon: “The church should back off.”

Which, he pointed out, if he were successful in preaching to us, we would no longer have use of a missions pastor and his job would be eliminated.

Of course his sermon was much more complex than a simple, “the church should back off.” (The sermon should be available here in a day or two.)

His major point was that the world needs and wants the love of Jesus, but they don’t see that love in the Church. We may start out looking like Jesus, but we paint our faces so we look “better.”

And we end up looking more like clowns than Jesus.

We need to approach our lives, our mission, our ministry, with selflessness, humility and obedience. Otherwise, we end up putting our emphasis on the wrong things; and I would say, start to look at “success” in a twisted way.

He retold the story of Thomas Aquinas and Pope Innocent (not likely a true story, by the by…)

The Pope was giving a tour of the Vatican to Thomas Aquinas. The pope showed Thomas the extravagant artwork, the vaults of treasures, all of the wealth of the church on display.

With a smile, the Pope said, “Thomas, no longer do we have to say to the world, ‘Silver and gold have I none”

“True,” Thomas sadly replied. “Also we can no longer say to the lame, ‘in the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk.’”

Ouch.

Just my thoughts,

Sean