I wonder what Jesus might say if he preached at our church one Sunday?
What would he say?
He would be walking into our cultural context. He would walk to our podium, I suppose. Perhaps he would use the wireless mic that I normally wear. He might hear the baptistery occasionally gurgle behind him. He might hear the air conditioning come on as he speaks (yesterday the temperature got up to 107 degrees here). Hopefully, one of those crows outside would not come to the window and caw.
I just wonder what he might say to our church? What would be the tone and substance of his message?
I just wonder:
1. Would the subject of his message be similar to what I have been preaching to this church? Or, would it be very different? Is there an aspect of the Gospel that he would emphasize that I really haven’t been emphasizing?
2. What about his style, tone, etc.? Is there anything about either the style or tone that might be "different"?
3. How would the people in this church receive his message? Would his message be surprising or shocking, or would it be something they expected? Would there be a real appreciation for what he said?
4. What about the application of his teaching to our church and to our lives personally? How would we respond?
Do I know the answers to these questions? No. But it is interesting to think about this in the context of the congregation of people with whom I am most familiar.
As you think about Jesus preaching to your own faith community, whether small or large, are there other questions that surface?
Jim,
I love your blogs. One thing that Jesus would say would concern the poor and our lack of true commitment to their plight. He might make a response concerning the beautiful church buildings and homes we live in. Are they full of dead mens bones?
Wow. What a provocative post. It made me think that Jesus might say something related to the bird at the window. He did talk about birds. Or about the air conditioner or whatever was there. In the great tradition of the prophets, Jesus used the signs that were there. I haven’t done that enough in my own preaching.
I was once asked by a guest preacher, "Do you feel like your people need challenge or encouragement?" I’m afraid if Christ was my pulpit guest, we would hear more challenge than encouragement, more prophet than pastor. And I guess as pastor, I bear much of the responsibility for that. Thanks for a challenging word.
Jesus’ style was rather informal and down to earth. He took whatever was close at hand and used it to make people think about things in a way they had never considered them. He challenged religious folk who thought they had it all together and comforted those who thought they were beyond hope. He seemed to have a good sense of humor, so I think the casing and gurgling would be okay. In fact, I wonder of he might ne a little amused at how we have formalized and complicated some things?
Allan–Thanks very much for the kind word regarding the blog. I appreciate your comment. I suspect you are right. Frank–Thanks very much. I had not thought about Jesus saying something related to the bird in the window but I suspect you are right. Drew– I appreciate your reading this in light of your own context. That is so important.
Connie–good observations about Jesus style. I suspect he would find our formalization of things interesting. He had a way of quickly getting at the heart of things.