Friday's Thoughts

The sermon will be a confluence of two primary impulses and both of them are religious if they are balanced by each other. Sometimes the paradoxical nature of faith is such that too much of a good thing is not good.

When we think about what it means to be compassionate and supportive we realize the priestly nature of the faith. Priests are not just the ordained variety. The protestant conception of the word involves "the priesthood of all believers". We are to be "priests to each other". The problem for people who are supportive and compassionate is they can live a life of service to the point that they can become slaves to other people's needs.

Prophets are those who say what needs to be said and sometimes what needs to be said is something nobody wants to hear. Prophets who are not tender-hearted become strong willed to the point of losing their compassion. Talking to people without compassion can become the equivalent of gossip.

Compassion without a sense of the prophetic can become servile. The prophetic without the sense of priestly compassion can become mean-spirited.

The two have to be included otherwise life becomes distorted and our lives are lived with imbalance.

The prophet has to be a priest.
The priest has to be a prophet.

The best way to do a bad job is to take the compassion of a priest and the directness of a prophet and do what has to be done while caring about how it is done.

We are never completely balanced, however. We are more priest or more prophet but moving to become an equal amount of both.

Which are you? If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to have others see your insights click on the box below.

I look forward to hearing from you.


Charles Schuster