Shock and Awe

When the US invaded Iraq in 2003, President Bush described the method of attack as “Shock and Awe.” I have no desire to talk about the war in Iraq but I do want to mention a couple of things that I recently read. One shocked me and the other awed me.

SHOCK
My brother in law is a Methodist pastor. I was looking at his fb page the other day and saw a post by one of his pastor friends. The post read:

"I can remember only one time hearing this text addressed in church. It was in a Sunday School class when I was in high school-all teenage boys being taught by a man. Is there a way to preach on it and say what needs to be said without getting folks so "riled up" they can't hear it?”

Of course that made me curious and  I wondered, “What text is so volatile?” There was a link and I went to it to see. This is what I read:

"Whose temples?
1 Corinthians 6:12–20
Jan 09, 2012 by Cynthia D. Weems [a Methodist pastor]

It's hard to believe that any preacher would choose to preach on this week's epistle reading. There are words here rarely spoken in our sanctuaries, and using this text might get a preacher sent to denominational reform school.

I do not recommend this passage. And that is why it should be preached.

There are myriad ways this passage has been used to scare the "living daylights" (as my grandmother would say) out of impressionable parishioners tempted by the things of the flesh. I cannot say I spend any significant time preaching about the sins of this very flesh. Although perhaps I should."

I was truly shocked! This (scripture passage) is inflammatory?? This was basic stuff in churches I was part of and pastored. We even sang two songs from verses 19 and 20. One pastor says he has only heard it addressed one time and it will get folks “riled up.” The other pastor says, “I do not recommend this passage.” What in the world is being preached/taught in these churches????


AWE
Then I found this among my papers. It was written by Tertullian or one of his contemporaries around AD 200.

“I now come to the accusation that most of us are said to be poor; that is not to our shame, it is to our great credit. Men’s characters are strengthened by stringent circumstances, just as they are dissipated by luxurious living. Besides, can a man be poor if he is free from want, if he does not covet the belongings of others, if he is rich in the possession of God? Rather, he is poor who possesses much but still craves for more.

And so it is that when a man walks along a road, the lighter he travels, the happier he is; equally, on this journey of life, a man is more blessed if he does not pant beneath a burden of riches but lightens his load by poverty. Nevertheless, we would ask God for material goods if we considered them to be of use; without a doubt, He to whom the whole belongs would be able to concede us a portion. But we prefer to hold possessions in contempt than to hoard them: it is rather innocence that is our aspiration, it is rather patience that is our entreaty; our preference is goodness, not extravagance.”

Wow!

"Nothing that is God's is obtainable by money."

Tertullian