Today’s Lectionary Readings: Psalm 132; Daniel 1:1-21; John 21:1-14; 1 Peter 1:1-2, 10-12; Psalm 28
Second career pastors bring a very different set of experiences with them into parish ministry than those who go right into the parish. I could give you several examples of what we bring, but for today’s purposes I’ll focus on just one. Lots of folks assume that pastors are nice, idealistic folks who walk around with their heads in the clouds and have no clue about what real life in the cut-throat world is like. As a result, folks in the pews often take what we say with a grain of salt. As we saw in scandals like the Enron Crisis a few years ago, some folks felt entirely comfortable sitting in the pews on Sundays listening to admonitions to live godly lives and then went to work on Mondays and engaging in all sorts of unethical practices. They could do this because they justified it by saying, “That’s what it takes in the real world to get ahead.” I experienced this attitude a lot during my ten years in “the real world” when I moved in political and educational circles. Today’s reading from Daniel, however, challenges the notion that you have to sell out your beliefs to get ahead. For in today’s reading, Daniel and his friends were thrown into the fast track to the monarchy. They very easily could have played the games that many of us play and thought to themselves, “Well, we’ll go along with the expectations of others until we gain power and THEN we’ll return to our faith and principles.” They didn’t do that, however. Instead, they chose to remain true to their God and their principles and ended up exceeding the expectations of others. Today, I invite you to explore your attitude toward living a faithful life. Is your faith something that you hold onto as long as it’s convenient, or is your faith something that empowers you to take risks and perhaps stand alone? Til next time…
Second career pastors bring a very different set of experiences with them into parish ministry than those who go right into the parish. I could give you several examples of what we bring, but for today’s purposes I’ll focus on just one. Lots of folks assume that pastors are nice, idealistic folks who walk around with their heads in the clouds and have no clue about what real life in the cut-throat world is like. As a result, folks in the pews often take what we say with a grain of salt. As we saw in scandals like the Enron Crisis a few years ago, some folks felt entirely comfortable sitting in the pews on Sundays listening to admonitions to live godly lives and then went to work on Mondays and engaging in all sorts of unethical practices. They could do this because they justified it by saying, “That’s what it takes in the real world to get ahead.” I experienced this attitude a lot during my ten years in “the real world” when I moved in political and educational circles. Today’s reading from Daniel, however, challenges the notion that you have to sell out your beliefs to get ahead. For in today’s reading, Daniel and his friends were thrown into the fast track to the monarchy. They very easily could have played the games that many of us play and thought to themselves, “Well, we’ll go along with the expectations of others until we gain power and THEN we’ll return to our faith and principles.” They didn’t do that, however. Instead, they chose to remain true to their God and their principles and ended up exceeding the expectations of others. Today, I invite you to explore your attitude toward living a faithful life. Is your faith something that you hold onto as long as it’s convenient, or is your faith something that empowers you to take risks and perhaps stand alone? Til next time…
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