Spiritual Hiccups - Not Far from the Kingdom

We pastors are largely an odd sort.  I sometimes think that there has to be something just a bit off for someone to become a pastor.  Some of these "offs" are harmless; others less so.  Many of us are prone to Messiah complexes, and so we are afraid to reveal our true humanity.  We need to be right about everything, which can lead to an inflated sense of our own opinions, as well as to great difficulty letting others see our doubts, failings and uncertainties.

I read a very good blog post this morning by Rachel Held Evans entitled "Dear Pastors - Tell Us the Truth."  You can read for yourself this very helpful "letter."  I read it just prior to my daily Richard Rohr devotional followed by the Daily Lectionary.  And somehow they all coalesced to speak to me about discovering our true humanity, which I have come to understand as the central meaning of being "in Christ." 

As a pastor, it is easy for life to become a performance, a role that is played.  Love, relationship, and humanity can get lost in such a life.  They can get buried under being the one who must provide, hope, ideas, confidence, and unwavering faith.  They can get lost in never ending anxieties over how to "fix" the church, and they can get lost in never ending fights over who correctly understands what the Bible says.  (I think the intensity of these fights is fueled partly by pastors' need to be sure and to be right.) 

As the controversies swirling around Jesus come to head during his last days in Jerusalem, as religious leaders attempt to catch him in some theological misstep, Jesus answers a scribe's question about the core of faith. Jesus pares things down to loving God with our entire being and loving our neighbors as ourselves.  And he adds, "There is no other commandment greater than these."

At what surely is the most stressful moment in Jesus' ministry, in the face of scrutiny and demands that he explain his theology just so, Jesus instead falls back to the language of love and relationship.  He insists that relationship with God is intimately linked to relationship with neighbor, which includes love of self.  And when the scribe embraces Jesus' wisdom, Jesus remarks, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."

Pastors certainly have special, distinct roles in the congregations they serve.  But pastors and congregations can get off track when we forget that our faith is bound up in a shared humanity that cares for each other and works together to love God and others.  But when we allow life with God, being in Christ, to draw us into the true humanity God intends for us, we too are not far from the Kingdom.

Click to learn more about the Daily Lectionary.