“What I say isn’t that important, but what, the Bible says is important”  says the pastor.

“OK, I’m leaving” says I, “I can read it myself at home”.

What is going on here?  Why are we gathered together if what you say is not important?  James says “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, for you know that we who teach shall be judged with greater strictness”. James 3:1  Christ says “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” Luke 6:40  The Ethiopian Eunuch says “How can I [understand] unless someone guides me?” Acts 8:30,31

Of course what you say is important.  James warns because, teachers have been given a high charge of shaping and influencing others.  It should not be taken lightly but it should not be simply written off as if you have no responsibility.  This phrase makes it sound like you have been placed in the pulpit by a god holding a gun to your back, and if you make one false move, Bang!  It sounds like the wicked servant in Matthew 25:14-30.  He didn’t want to take any responsibility by risking the gift of his master so he went and hid it in the ground.  How foolish, God want’s us to take what he has given us and do something with it, risk it.  Boldly proclaim the word, find some new metaphors or take some metaphors from the Old Testament and show them in the light of Christ.  Rewrite the Psalms with the mystery of Christ revealed, as was the wont of the early hymn writers.  Don’t timidly hide behind a disclaimer.  It would be nice if we all could walk around in Galilee with Jesus but we can’t, but He gave us the Holy Spirit, He gave us pastors, he gave us you. You are a representative of Christ, you are ultimately his disciple, but you are also a leader discipling others.  Sure you could screw up, but that’s why there is repentance, you can’t give up the fight before it’s even begun. “Don’t you know that you will judge the angels?”  I Corinthians 6

I believe this type of statement is driven by a sort of we-don’t-want-to-accidentally-be-Catholic-ISM.   It’s like George Costanza who was always afraid that something would prove he was gay.  He was so insecure, he feared he was just one random event away from finding himself playing for the other team.  Evangelicals do the same thing when they try to pretend they don’t have any liturgy, tradition,leaders, history, rituals, or religion of any sort.  “Not me I’m sola scriptura all the way nothing to see here, he he”.  “I’m not a, Catholic–honest”.  Coming out of the confessional is not at all like coming out of the closet.

Every church has a liturgy whether they want to admit it or not, the question is whether you have a God honoring liturgy or not.  Every church has a tradition.   At Grace we have a tradition.  The church was started by a group of people discontent with the authority of their denominational churches who decided to have a bible study in the home of one Dr. Heetderks Sr..

Pastor Hoff and Dr. Heetderks @ Grace Gospel Tabernacle, Bozeman,MT

They believed that the denominational churches were straying from the bible so they left.  It is in a sense a tradition of throwing off authority, in the spirit of the Reformation and perhaps even the American spirit of our War for Independence.  Maybe that’s why we are so quick to throw away the glorious riches passed down to us from the medieval Christian.   This is our tradition and it does affect us even today. So, we need to stop pretending that we are above all this or more holy or closer to Jesus and the 1st century, whatever that means.  We have tradition.

We have pushed sola scriptura to insane limits. “All I need is my bible”.  “Well can I at least teach you to read?” “no education is a political issue and I’m just gonna sit here in a field with my bible, I sleep on it and is soaks into my head”. Like Steve Martin in his bathrobe in The Jerk: “this idol, my B-I-B-L-E, that’s all I need for me”.   This is foolishness.  And pretending that teachers don’t teach or exercise authority is merely to guarantee that the world directs these events.  I’m glad Philip didn’t tell the Ethiopian, who already had the scripture, that he had all that he needed. Instead he gave him the good news.  And the Ethiopian understood and asked to be baptized.  This is how God works, he uses human agents.  It was human agents who preserved the scripture all these years.  They carried it across 2000 years of history and thousands of miles of land and every culture under the sun.  It was they who fought battles for orthodoxy.  It was they who sought to apply Old and New Testament to every aspect of life and culture.  It was WE who threw it all away with silly notions of Cathlophobia.

So, pastors teach without apology.  Mine the riches of tradition and become part of it as you lend your creations to the great conversation that is orthodox theology.  Or we might start believing that what you say isn’t important, and just walk away.