I wrote a post about the SBC a couple weeks ago that has gotten more traffic than anything I’ve posted on here. It had a catchy title. It was timely. It was a genuine lament. But as I sit down to write and plan out my posts now, I find myself fighting the impulse to simply respond to the discourse flowing through Twitter and Threads and Substack to get clicks and it has made me step back and evaluate my motivations for writing at all. Then last weekend happened and I realized that the discipline of resisting clickbait has a really important role to play for anyone looking to participate in ministry - vocational or otherwise.
To explain, though, we have to talk about last weekend.
On Saturday July 13, there was an attempt on the life of former President Trump. I’m not linking articles, if this is news to you, I admire the well-fortified rock you live under - it’s truly impressive. Everyone posted something about it. Everyone had an opinion about it. I found myself startled by the depth of fear and alarm I felt, to the point where I’m re-evaluating my relationship with political media. I don’t know what your reaction has been, but it’s safe to say that this event, and the death of the other man at the rally, has shaken us up a bit.
I was scheduled to teach youth the next morning and found myself working through how I could address the shooting if it was raised in our youth time. I would talk about how we are called to be peacemakers, even in the face of great violence, and how we are not here to partake in the partisan bickering and cheap shots. How God came to raise up a different kind of kingdom, not one of political violence. How Christians on both sides of the aisle need to offer a different way. Would they ask something I couldn’t answer? They are really good at hard questions. They’ve stumped me before. Then I got to church and it…simply did not come up.
We’re walking through the genealogy of Jesus found in Matthew this summer with the youth - tracing the history of Israel and God’s plan of redemption leading to Jesus through eight people/stages in that lineage. The core of our lesson was Solomon this week, but we spent about half of our time building up to Solomon by recapping where we’ve already been. This meant that I got to do one of my favorite things - recap the history of Israel through the patriarchs, the exodus, the conquest, and the judges and bring all of the threads together up to the monarchy. I love the early history of Israel. This was very fun and the youths were engaged and answering the questions I threw out. A win all around. And then we got to Solomon and the monarchy and talked about Israel rejecting God as king, promising David his throne would endure, and then God tying it all together and redeeming David’s line and restoring God as king of Israel through Jesus. It was great. And then we drilled in on Solomon’s life and failures and ultimately concluded with a great discussion about how we can’t depend on the faith of our parents and have to step into our own faith. Y’all, I had the best time.
And then we had donuts and big church started and then the elementary kids were released for Sunday school and I got to gather up a larger group of third through fifth graders for another lesson I was super excited about: how to navigate the Bible itself. We realized a month or two ago that our elementary kids are super lost when it comes to looking up verses, so we pivoted our curriculum to specifically start teaching them how to navigate the scriptures. We started Sunday with basics. How many books. What are the big numbers on the pages. What are the little numbers on the pages. Using the Table of Contents to find our books. What is even in the books? A huge chunk of the lesson time was spent with each kid looking up verses - just two. And it was fantastic. The kids were engaged. Everyone was ultimately successful.
And THEN I got the hard question of the day - from a fourth grader. But it wasn’t about politics. It was a sensitive, smart kid wondering how Jesus could be perfect if God killed people in the Old Testament. A question that has troubled people for generations. A question that, when answered sincerely, is without a simple answer. So I acknowledged that it was a really good, really hard question that he was right to be thinking about, then gave him the best summation I could and concluded by reminding him that his mom (a literal brilliant Biblical scholar) would be a great person to continue the conversation with. He smiled and agreed.
And that was it. We went back to big church. We all shared in communion. If politics came up in the sermon or prayers of the people, I wasn’t there to hear it. I know the priest continued our series through Acts. And that was that. My heart was very refreshed.
I found myself marveling at the difference between life on social media and in the news and life in the real world. I’m sure that the attempt on Trump’s life was on the mind of more than a few people at church. We were also still thinking and talking about the hurricane that hit Houston last week - checking in on the immediate needs of our people.
Life in the real world is more resilient and varied than “The Discourse” on social media and our ministries should reflect that reality. We have to teach people how to have Godly reactions to current events, but that happens through the slow everyday work of what God is doing in the church. That happens in the work of laying foundations and diving into God’s word over and over again, week after week, and not letting ourselves be redirected by every wave that comes against us.
A few weeks ago, I was scheduled to preach on Juneteenth for a Wednesday morning Eucharist service. I love history and was excited for the potential to tie some into my sermon. As I was preparing and reviewing the readings for the day, I realized that the message that I had to give for that day wasn’t about Juneteenth at all. That, in that moment, God wanted me to talk about his kingdom in the homily, not about the United States. So I did. I preached the lectionary texts, submitting to the calendar of the church over the calendar of the country.
There is nothing wrong with observing Juneteenth. I think, especially as a Texan, it is an important part of our nation’s history that must be observed and even reckoned with. But there is something to be said for centering our time and space on the things of the kingdom of God, not on the calendar and politics of the United States.
Someone tweeted that if your church didn’t preach about the attempt on Trump’s life, find a new church. I could not disagree more. If your church did not preach the Gospel of Christ on Sunday, consider whether finding a new church might be a good idea, but if your faithful pastor stuck with the sermon he or she had prepared, there is probably a good reason.
As I continue in the ordination/ministry formation process in my diocese, I am finding that God is teaching me the value of setting my time, focus, and motivations on things that are not of this world. This applies to preaching, to writing, to teaching, to being a lawyer, to each of my relationships, etc. When we set our time and motivations on the things of this world, they are susceptible to the fears and horrors of this world. They are reactionary based upon the slightest hit to our party or group. As a minister of Christ, we are called to stand firm on the Rock of our faith. That means that we have the conversations about the things happening in the world we live in, but we are not shaken and blown about. We are called to fix our eyes on the author and perfector of our faith. We are called to shepherd our flocks with wisdom and discernment, not changing at every whim or crisis of the times.
So writing clickbait is not our calling. We are each given a word from God for whatever sermon or tweet or blog post or book we are writing. Be conscious of that. Stick to that. Do not be blown about by the winds of this age. Stand firm on Christ. Fix your eyes on Him and follow.
This is it! Amen and subscribing 😊