As a pastor I get a lot of interesting junk mail, and occasionally some that really gives me pause. It's interesting, for example, how churches are often the mail target of some random fringe individual who sends out an unsigned multi-page manifesto either warning of the evils of religion or, more often, indicting the church (not just our church, but every church except theirs) for being apostate and warning us to get our act together. I can't imagine how much it costs these people to send out letters to churches all over the country as they usually come first class with a handwritten address but no signature.
I opened one of these this morning with the title in bold, "A Message from The Lord God Almighty." Now, I've often felt the presence of God in prayer and received some guidance from reading Scripture, but I've never known God to use the U.S. Postal Service to get his point across. Then again, this is a God who has used burning bushes, clouds, and graffiti in the past, so I should think God could use the postman if he wanted to (though, at our church there's always the chance that the Lutherans will get it by mistake. Our address is 4501 Hwy 224, theirs is 4051. We get their mail all the time, but we just keep the checks…).
Anyway, this particular warning from the Almighty was addressed "To all church leaders in America who remain silent on the news of this my Day of Judgment" (extra points for not spelling "judgment" with an extra "e"). The text of the letter was full of apocalyptic warnings, spoken in God's first person voice. Specifically:
"Why did I allow you to become a church leader?
Was it not to spread my word and my word alone? Now therefore, I the Lord give you this command: Begin to warn my people now about my Day of Judgment…Begin to show my people how they can survive it, so that they will stand while all around them fall, and the pains of hunger will not touch them.
"Teach them to pray, to increase their obedience to my laws, to pass on this warning to their loved ones, and fearlessly wait."
And then comes the finale:
"If you refuse to warn them about the urgency of my word, I will bring you down in shame, and toss you out of the church. They will watch as you are swept away in the flood of disasters, and I will send you to hell to join the devil and his angels; and you will know that I am the Lord God your Master, the Governor of all the earth."
I usually just toss these things into the recycling bin, but this one struck me today–not because it makes me afraid or because the writer's elevator may not go all the way to the top floor, but because there is some wisdom here that may, indeed, come from God. The Bible does, indeed, talk about the great "Day of the Lord" where God will judge the living and the dead, and we are called as Christian leaders to have a sense of urgency about the present, redeeming the time and offering a message of grace and hope in the midst of a dark world. We do need to be teaching God's word every day.
What the writer fails to realize, however, is that God's judgment is going to be a very good thing, according to the Bible. A God who would not ultimately judge the injustice and violence in creation would ultimately be no God at all, certainly not a good one. God's judgment is what will ultimately, to borrow N.T. Wright's terminology, "set the world to rights." We are to preach judgment not as a point of fear, but as a reason for hope. The world will not always be like it is today, but will one day be filled with God's good and just Kingdom, a new creation that redeems the old.
There's a kernel of truth in every criticism, so I take the writer's point to some degree. But if this were really God writing this, I'm thinking there'd be a whole lot more in there about mercy, compassion, care for the poor and marginalized. Failure to do those things was what always got the Israelites in trouble, and that's the kind of thing that will bring us down "in shame."
I can think of a lot of reasons why God might want to toss me or any my colleagues out of a church. As James would warn that those who are teachers and preachers of God's word "will be judged with greater strictness." Many are the pastors who have failed to live up to the call to ministry. I fear failing God and my people more than just about anything else I can imagine.
But the good news that's missing here is that even failure isn't fatal. God is a forgiving, restoring God–much more forgiving than we are of others or even ourselves. It's God's steadfast love that I find myself relying on every day, not fear and despair. If there's anything we should urgent about, it's spreading that love around.
My advice to these would-be prophets? Make sure you listen to the whole message God is trying to speak through you before you hit the mailbox!
