truth

As I am in the ranks of the clergy I will say this with insight - I would rather be told the truth.

This week I have thought about the webs we weave. I have wondered why we do it. I have considered the fact that my own tendency to say what I think gets me in trouble. But I have also been angry about the layers which we heap upon the church to protect privilege and position - especially amongst the clergy.

One of the worst seems to be that we have lost the idea of glad service. No one has the right to hold post in an institution which has outgrown them or which they have outgrown - and yet as I look around, Sunday after Sunday in pulpit after pulpit there are priests churning out half-dead words to make a salary which will tip them over to the next job or into retirement. There is no passion, there is no feeling - it has become a lie.

I am not talking about that honest engaged struggle which we all face from time to time - I am talking about the dirge which comes beyond that - the place beyond the desert - a fruitless place.

However, lateral steps into other careers can be difficult - so perhaps the Church needs to be kinder - perhaps she needs to have a way to help those who are trapped in places where they are wiping out congregations with sheer apathy.

Protectionism is frightening because it leads to blindness and incompetence and that, eventually will hurt people. Noone is above needing to love to do this work - that is not young romanticism - you just have to have a heart that sings - at least some of the time. Tiredness kills clergy, congregations and tiredness replaces love with an arrogance and assumption of rights.

This church needs to recover for all people a theology of call instead of cynicism, of love instead of presumption. I want to hear the Gospel preached on Sunday by a priest with love in his or her heart - even if there are tears in his or her eyes - there is real pain in this world, there are real conflicts in this ministry. Jesus threw out the old and we have simply invented our own "old" - this is not good enough - new wine, new life in Christ.

Added note: I came in to the editing screen to take the edge out of this post - but I didn't - it seemed hypocritical to water down a post titled "truth" - so I will live with my outspokeness!!