It's the Economy Pastor

“I need something to believe in,” he said. “It’s either that or just give up.”~Protester at  Occupy Wall Street

We are blowing the moment. We are preaching a version of Christ that cannot be found in the Bible to a people  that is crying out for the Christ that is present in the Gospels. What relevance is there in fulminating against gay marriage to a father struggling to feed his children? We are preaching against evolution while families wonder how to save their home from foreclosure. Our food pantries and benevolence funds are empty while pastors rant against gay soldiers putting their lives on the line for our country.

We are preaching to a dying church what the corpse wants to hear, while outside the sanctuary people who desperately need the Christ who was an advocate for the poor and the powerless can't figure out how the church they see at Value Voters conferences has any relevance to their immediate needs. So they turn elsewhere for comfort.

It's about the economy Pastor, do you want to pander to the dead souls in the pews or do you want to put more people in the pews. We have a Christ perfect for this moment in history, so preach that Christ. You know, the Christ that preferred whores to Pharisees, that despised the moneylenders and spoke in admiration of the Good Samaritan, the Christ who gave us the beatitudes. We have what "they" want to believe in. The homeless, the poor, the hungry, the widows and orphans, we have what they want at this moment in history.

Will we preach it to them? Do we have the will to minister to their material needs, believing that this expression of love will create a desire to know about a Christ that demands His followers help others unconditionally? Or would we rather just try to legislate Christian behavior, forgetting that Christ preached salvation not legislation? The moment is right here, right now. Will we blow it?