BLOGGING TOWARD SUNDAY…

I don’t tell folks often enough: I feel so blessed to be a pastor! And I feel doubly blessed to be the pastor of Union Grove UMC. The job can be demanding at times, no question, but most of the time I am highly aware of the sheer joy of being a pastor to such a wonderful congregation.

I am sometimes asked what part of my job I enjoy the most. I don’t have to think about that very long. I love the fact that my job requires me to read. It’s a sad fact, but true, that many pastors do not consider reading and studying to be a major part of their pastoral responsibilities. For me, however, reading and studying are what fuel every other facet of my ministry. My reading inspires and sustains me. It challenges me to go deeper, to work harder, and to be more aware of what’s going on the world of religion. Without my reading, life would be dull indeed.

I know that most of you will never read the books I read, even when I recommend them highly, which is why, when I run across one which has really stirred my soul, I will publish brief quotes on the blog. If you won’t read the whole book, maybe you’ll at least read a representative passage. Here’s one from John Dominic Crossan’s autobiography, A Long Way from Tipperary.

What about heaven and hell, what about terminal rewards and punishments, what about eternity and the afterlife? First, let me be very blunt: I refuse to accept heaven from a God who could invent hell. At the end of this terrible century, I cannot think about Nazi Germany, for example, without wondering whether, if I had been there, I would have had to courage to deny, resist, or protest its atrocities. I can only hope that I would have recognized its evil and not cooperated with its program internally, at the very least, even if not externally, at the very best. The God of hell is a divinity to fear but not to love, to dread but not to worship, and it is morally necessary to say that loudly and clearly. I will not hide behind divine mystery or human finitude. Hell is an obscenity, one more example of crimes against divinity that down deep justify our own crimes against humanity.

For myself, I consider heaven and hell as options for life here below, options for a life based on justice or injustice in this world.

Filed under: Blogging Toward Sunday