Comment to Role of the pastor

  • Dan Beaty, put that banjo aside and come down from the banks of the Ohio, your beloved station. Come aboard, we have a guest from France today. We'll definitely be taking the scenic route. I've set the Wayback Machine to 1831.

    With us is political thinker and statesman Alexis de Tocqueville working on his new book, Democracy in America.

    From North to South and in between, he is carefully observing and recording his notes:

    The Ohio Side (Free State): The background hummed with active industry, cultivated fields, and busy laborers. Free Northerner are consumed by work and an enterprising spirit.
    The Kentucky Side (Slave State): Society appeared stagnant and quiet. Manual labor was strictly associated with enslaved people on the Southern side, free white men viewed work as degrading. As a result, they avoided labor, introducing a culture of idleness and luxury.

    He also wrote: That the traveler on the Ohio River could look from one bank to the other to see that "slavery, which dishonors labor, introduces idleness into society, and with idleness, ignorance and haughtiness, luxury and distress."

    Now hold those thoughts and recall the parable of Jesus:

    “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’ Matthew 20

    Our French guest quickly realized that certain work was expected to be done (without pay) by certain people - black people. It was what was expected of them. In Jesus' parable, certain people were to do certain tasks (for pay) according to their actual participation.

    Human nature has not changed. We instinctively detect inequality, just as those in the parable. Our Lord was not giving a lesson in economics. His intention was to exalt free salvations for ALL, regardless of their performance or the time clock.

    In conclusion, it is not enough to tell Christians today something few have ever heard - that all saints, young and old, male and female, are ministers, preachers, and priests - who have the right to pray in church, speak in church, share the Gospel, and visit the sick. 

    But... no one expects this of them... as long as others, the "ordained", are expected to perform these tasks, nothing much will ever change. 

    The "laity" will not engage. The nerve of volunteerism has been severed.

    The guilt can be shared by all and it is great. For every controlling clergyman - there are many lazy laymen and laywomen, more than willing to abandon their gifts and roles, handing them over to their paid agent, who will continue to meet their expectations. 

    We should mention here that all "pastors" are in no way controlling people. However, without knowing what they are doing they often act as a major hindrance to others.

    Time for review and for reform!