I've been handing out surveys about our liturgy, to do some fine-tuning. I got one from the people who hate me. It was anonymous.
The church has grown, in part because of my preaching. Every new member has said that their first reason for staying was the quality of my preaching.
"Joel Osteen plays at 11:00pm on Px TV. Don't preach about authors I'll never read, or about esoterica."
On Sunday I preached a pretty evangelical sermon on fighting the good fight. Imagine being a consultant, I said, and noone listens to you. You don't know if you're going to be a failure or a success. At that point, you might understand how God has been present. I discussed how pharisees confuse the "I" and the public with God. I spoke of how the sinner, the tax collecter, knew that such public relgion led to hypocrisy, because he himself was a hypocrite. A new member, a scientist who's started coming to church for about a year, said he'd thought it was fantastic.
My enemy looked at him, and looked at me. Of course, he didn't agree. But he didn't say anything.
"Just preach Jesus, and the people will come" the note said.
Hey, go with what works! You can't please everyone, right?
Posted by: Elliot | Oct 26, 2004 at 10:47 AM
I don't understand the reference to "my enemy." The note-writing parishioner, right? Why is he your enemy?
Posted by: D. C. | Oct 26, 2004 at 11:20 AM
he's not really my "enemy" just a very hard to please parishioner. The fellow grew up in a parish which had several corrupt priests in a row, before coming to St. Barts, where he was Sr. Warden [and treasurer] to the priest I replaced [I had uncovered financial... inconsistencies]. I'm being dramatic.
Posted by: John Wilkins | Oct 26, 2004 at 12:33 PM