Recently, I used Johnny Cash as an illustration in one of my sermons. I asked our youth how many of them had Johnny Cash on their IPOD. Several hands went up. Recently, I was riding with one of our deacons that is approaching 80 years old. I looked down at his floor board and saw just about every Johnny Cash tape that has ever been made. I had to think; what is it about this man that wins the affections of both teenagers and the elderly? How can both the MTV crowd and the Southern Baptist crowd esteem the same man? I believe it is his honesty. Here is a man that has been in the miry pit of drug addiction who single handedly destroyed his first family. In the depths of his depression, he crawled into the bottom of a cave to die, but instead was shown mercy by God. God slowly but surely pulled him out of the miry clay. The difference between Cash and others is that he never forgot the miry clay. He never forgot the darkness of Nickajack Cave. He didn’t trade in his black suits for white ones.
Could the church learn a few things from Cash? Are we losing our audience with our potpourri safe for the whole family Christianity? Have we forgotten what life is like in the miry clay of sin, or are we just too prideful to admit that we experience that miry clay daily? After all, we are Christians, and we have it all together. Right? I think far too often we think that the world wants immediate answers for all their problems, when really what they want is honesty and a little hope. I think it’s time that we as pastors lead the way in being honest about our struggles. After all, on this side of eternity there is a little of the man in black in all of us, we might as well be honest about it.
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2 comments:
I agree that church and Christianity came be too neatly packaged and risk-free. It can be too glossy, and this can deter the cynic, or the one who is in "nickajack cave" right now. The question is, "How do let this honesty play out in our ministry?"
I think one step in the right direction may be for pastors to confess their sins. Maybe not in a specific way from the pulpit in other words don't necessarily confess the details of your sin while preaching, though that may be appropriate. In small groups among trusted brothers we should be open and honest about our failures. It does a soul good to admit failures and struggles. I think confession is a lost art in the war against sin. I think one thing that our culture is highly sensitive to is hypocrisy (Ted Haggard, Jesse Jackson, Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart etc.) These types of men give Christianity a black eye. The problem is not them per se, the problem is that we lift ourselves up so high that when we fall we make a big splash. I guess what I'm saying is that our doctrine of humanity and sin should buffet our doctrine of perseverance. I know it's hard to "walk the line" on this issue because you don't want to fall into easy believism and license on the one side, or legalism and self-righteousness on the other. I guess the bottom line is we must be people who are so transformed by the gospel that we can relate to the guy in Nickajack Cave and offer him the hope that Jesus gives, but also encourage the guy on top of the world not to trust in his success, but point him to Jesus.
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