Idolatry and Pastoralship

  Taken from a section from a book I'm reading by Eugene Peterson called Under the Unpredictable Plant.

  "Why do pastors have such a difficult time being pastors? Because we are awash in idolatry.  Where two or three are gathered together and the name of God comes up, a committee is formed for making an idol.  We want gods that are not gods so we can 'be as gods.'
   The idolatry to which pastors are conspicuously liable is not personal but vocational, the idolatry of a religious career that we can take charge of and manage.
   [...]
   The pastoral vocation in America is embarrassingly banal [(lacking originality, freshness, or novelty)].  It is banal because it is pursued under the canons of job efficiency and career management.  It is banal because it is reduced to the dimensions of a job description.  It is banal because it is an idol -- a call from God exchanged for an offer by the devil to work that can be measured and manipulated at the convenience of the worker.  Holiness is not banal. Holiness is blazing.

Call for Endurance

   Civil rights wasn't won by just marching once. Slavery wasn't abolished after one battle. And Jesus didn't affect the world after doing one good deed.

   So why are we trying to change the world by spending just one day by not wearing shoes? By spending one day not eating to fix world hunger? Or even, by refusing to buy gas on a certain day in order to change government legislation?

   While it's apparent that many of us nowadays take part in some of the one-day events as mentioned above (such as TOM's no-shoe days), there still remains a lingering question of "what have we really done to change our world?"  Could it be that, in our surging attempt to fight against the forces of injustice, we've become sedated with "warm fuzzies" and good feelings that come from putting aside a day of eating for other people who die from starvation?

   While some small part of the world's eye may be brought to bear on the problems of our global community by our decision to fast for a day or two to fight against world hunger, how many civil rights fighters in history ever sought to change the world's state of injustice by spending a single day fighting for what they believed?  While I'm sure some cynics would no doubt find exceptions to this statement, there is no denying the fact that the overall path of justice in our history was carved by people who were willing and determined to endure against the relentless battering ram of injustice.

  It's time to wake up.  It's time to stop doing things for others for the sole purpose of feeling good about ourselves. We need to reach out beyond the apathy-breeding clouds of self-indulgence to seek out the floating souls of people who are lost and hurting.  Then, and only then can we have both the right and the privilege to say, as Paul did in 2 Timothy, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

It's time to endure.