Everyone Did What was Right in His or Her Own Eyes

I’ve lost control. As if I ever had any. There was a day, so I hear, when clergy were highly respected and influential in American culture. I’m not thinking about Billy Graham, who belongs in another category altogether. I’m thinking about pastors in local congregations: high-steeple preachers and low-country parsons. There was a time when their counsel and wisdom carried more weight than it does today.

I’m trying not to sound pitiable, here. I’m not asking for sympathy. I’m trying to make an observation about the state of spiritual leadership in the context of 21st Century culture. I doubt I can be objective but I’ll try.

Eugene Peterson wrote in the 80’s that clergy are considered by the culture at large as something of an anachronism, as out of touch to the realities of our day. I sometimes feel like American culture treats us like an appendi; a rather benign, but useless, presence on the organism of society, which occasionally ruptures and pollutes the environment, rather than doing anything helpful. Clergy are portrayed as mildly benevolent, but mostly irrelevant; or as annoying parasites, feeding off the gullible; or even as devious schemers, wicked manipulators of the innocent.

And here I am, in the midst of this context, trying to talk about Jesus and his kingdom. It sometimes feels like Eugene Peterson’s translation of Ecclesiastes, “blowing smoke and spitting into the wind.”

The greatest challenge is the disintegration of pastoral authority in this post-modern world. The word of the preacher is often suspect, more so these days than ever. In seminary I learned about the “hermeneutics of suspicion,” which was a modern approach to scriptural interpretation seeking to discover the “hidden agenda” of the sources. For instance, Christian feminists might find much to complain about in the patriarchal narratives of the Hebrew scriptures as they read the stories with a suspicious or critical eye.

There is some value to this hermeneutic, but I detect a cousin to this school of interpretation in the pew these days. For lack of a better phrase, you might call it, “taking the preacher with a grain of salt.” At best, it means that we preachers can’t make anyone swallow everything we say (keeps us humble). At worst, it means our preaching is approached with some cynicism on the part of the listener (undermining our teaching effectiveness).

The internet contributes to this climate. On the one hand, I love the internet as a great resource for preaching. I can do research in one morning that several years ago might have taken days in one or two library visits. On the other hand, the internet is a non-filtered resource, and therein lies the problem. You can do a search for “Noah,” which can lead to rich teaching on God’s covenant with all creation, or you can find some video of some sincere but misguided soul who says he discovered a section of the ark on Mt. Ararat a couple of years ago. The second perhaps stirs our curiousity, but does little to address the meaning of the story for how we are to live in relationship with God.

For years the preacher could guide Sunday School classes in their spiritual growth by ordering proper curriculum from trusted denominational sources. But now, people have access to so much religious material, much of it of unsound or questionable theological perspective that the pastor has less and less control over the direction of teaching. The internet has reduced the teaching office of the preacher to just one more item on the menu of a cafeteria of choices, and like the American diet, spirits are bloated by too many empty theological calories.

In the book of Judges the cultural context is described over and over again as “everyone did what was right in his or her own eyes.” In other words, everyone was his or her own authority. Sounds current. Robert Bellah in Habits of the Heart, describes Sheila Larson who describes her self-made religion as “Sheilaism,” simply defined as taking care of herself and loving others. Doesn’t sound too bad, does it? But it has little in common with the traditions of Judeo-Christian religious teaching. The sad thing is that the church today is filled with “Sheilaists.” A Gallup poll quoted in Bellah’s book found that 80 % of Americans agreed with the statement, “an individual should arrive at his or her own religious beliefs independent of any church or synagogue.” So should we close the doors to our religious institutions? What a spiritual disaster that would be!

So, here I am blowing smoke and spitting into the wind in a Sheilaist culture. Why should I persist? Because of one simple promise. The prophet Isaiah says that the “word of God will not return empty.” There is so much garbage out there claiming to be gospel. It bothers me, but I can’t let it distract me. So I continue to offer what feels like a burning in my bones. But I offer it as one without authority, knowing there are people listening with suspicious ears. Still I’m trusting that this word that I preach or teach will be Spirit-honored as long as I offer it as honestly as I can. And maybe, just maybe it might become The Word of God accomplishing God’s purposes in the world today. The apostle Paul gives me some perspective, “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided through the foolishness of our preaching to save those who believe (1 Corinthians 1:21.)” Here I am – a fool of a preacher.