I think good preachers should be like bad kids. They ought to be naughty
enough to tiptoe up on dozing congregations, steal their bottles of
religion pills…and flush them all down the drain. The church, by and
large, has drugged itself into thinking that proper human behavior is
the key to its relationship with God. What preachers need to do is force
it to go cold turkey with nothing but the word of the cross-and then be
brave enough to stick around while [the congregation] goes through the
inevitable withdrawal symptoms. But preachers can’t be that naughty or
brave unless they’re free from their own need for the dope of
acceptance. And they wont be free of their need until they can trust the
God who has already accepted them, in advance and dead as door-nails,
in Jesus. Ergo, the absolute indispensability of trust in
Jesus’ passion. Unless the faith of preachers is in that alone-and not
in any other person, ecclesiastical institution, theological system,
moral prescription, or master recipe for human loveliness-they will be
of very little use in the pulpit.
- Robert Capon
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