We were talking about church…and spirituality…and how the two coincide frequently…and I thought that I’d finally write this post this morning.

Did you ever notice how ministers sometimes pick a favorite topic and tend to stick with it?

There’s “7 deadly’s”….but it seems like the topic of the week can be a central underlying theme for a lot of sermons.

I wondered if people don’t pick a topic that they’re having a hard time working through themselves…and try and reconcile the things they’re wrestling with from the pulpit.

I don’t want to come off like I’m picking on ministers…I suppose that anybody who gets on a “soapbox” is probably coming at things from the same angle.

And who isn’t on some kind of soapbox these days?  It might not be a box that’s really high off the ground…you might not attract a lot of attention when you climb up on it…but I guess we’ve all “got opinions…and opinions are like a..”.

But when you hear a minister preach about the dangers of LUST, it may be that the issue is something that he (or she…equal opportunity) is having a hard time with.

They may have a wandering eye that they aren’t really willing to pluck out….so it might be less invasive to distract for a while and draw the attention elsewhere.

Maybe they’re pondering their next sermon on GREED while they’re at the dealership picking out their next new car.

Maybe they’re sitting at a computer, typing a blog about something they’ve thought about but haven’t figured out completely.  What sin would that be? The sin of “knowitallness”?  Pride? Who knows….

Every house is made of glass.

The thing that I ponder sometimes is how people get to the point where they set themselves up as any kind of authority.

Steward…Shepherd….Minister….those are all gentle terms.  These people take a soft hand and guide. They steer for the good of those around them….to the best of their abilities and understanding, they direct to what is good and right for the people they love.

They “steer”….they don’t push or put on a collar and snap on the leash.

Maybe what we’re looking for is to be pushed, though?  Maybe that’s what we want…for the responsibility to be taken away from us and replaced with forceful direction. Maybe if the responsibility is gone, it’s all easier somehow?

I’ve listened to a lot of “preaching”.  Some of it sounds like a bunch of screaming.  Some of it is so gentle and subtle that I don’t completely get the message until I’ve had a chance to think about it for a while.

I take some of it with a grain of salt these days.

Maybe not the message…but certainly sometimes the messenger. Just because someone is talking about things pertaining to the “spiritual side” of life, it doesn’t exempt them from being a major weirdo. I don’t have any qualms about arriving at that conclusion.

I’m not afraid to do that.

I think that God loves me enough to allow me to have some questions without instantly casting me into the lake of fire.

When you get a human being up on a pedestal, and give them a forum, there’s always a chance that some weirdness might come out.

It’s a human being that we’re talking about, after all.

Ordained or not…human beings can be weirdos.

“Anointed”….I think that’s what it all comes down to….the Holy Spirit and the anointment of this bunch of weirdos.

Nobody is smart enough to do it on their own.

God deserves a place in the Church.

At least in the Church.

At least.