9 october 2008

Sometimes I feel that being a priest is very limiting. What I mean is that since ordination I have become aware of the fact that I can loose this position. It might be different for others but for me this means that there can be a sort of idolatrous quality to be being a priest. I might like this so much that I desire it and may not be willing to give it up. Now it can become the carrot that entices me to go against what I believe to be true and right.

This become all the more clear when I consider how many potential risks I could take if I were not afraid of being stripped from the clergy. Every word I utter is weighed against “how much will these words or phrases cost me”.

I’m afraid I might be becoming a people pleaser. Being a priest is making me less bold and radical. I’m becoming careful and strategic. I never envisioned me becoming this kind of a leader. I’m just not ______ enough to be a priest. I think that we should speak in normal language about normal things, but all the time allowing this talk to be seasoned with the Christian world view that the Bible gives.

For example, some people are really offended when I say that Jesus sweated, went pooh and pee, farted and other normal human things. The fact that Jesus farted means that he was truly human in every aspect. For me this does not take away his divinity only accentuates it. Jesus is also God. Everything that God says and does in the Old Testament is reflected in Jesus. There is no difference. This means that he had to give a whole lot to take on flesh and be like us. It makes the incarnation that much stronger and virgin birth that much more tangible.

I can’t follow the politically correct stream nor can I follow the over spiritual pious one either. I am neither conservative nor liberal because, for the most part, both camps only want to spend time in there little closed circle of like-minded thinking and never venture out into the real world. One group wants to be like the world without transformation and the other wants to be so totally transformed that they stop being human.

Racists, drug traffickers, activists, cultists, false religious leaders, etc, can all say what they think and know to be true, I feel so trapped by consequences imposed by others. It is not even possible to discuss these ideas, except with a selected few. The goal is to make on one uncomfortable. The sharp point of the spear of truth is dulled just enough so that it no longer penetrates the heart of the listener. In such an environment there can be no transformation or fully committed followers of Christ.

God save us from our stupidity

Peace on your head