Hard questions

As we continue to play around with different ways to make Sunday morning flow better at my church, one of the things we have tried is to “divide and conquer” the receiving line after worship.  The preacher heads to the parish hall to say “hello” to everyone staying for fellowship while the celebrant stands by the nearest usable exit to catch anyone heading straight for home, WalMart, or their tee-time.  We chose this setup intentionally, thinking that visitors are the most likely to skate out quickly on Sunday.  This is especially true for those visitors who aren’t Episcopalians and well versed in the ways and means of the coffee hour.  We didn’t want visitors to have to come up with some pithy comment about the sermon, so we put the celebrant at the emergency exit.

Frankly, I find this refreshing.  ”Good job.”  ”I liked your sermon.”  ”Great… ser… vice.”  This things can go to your head.  Even bad preachers (or good preachers on bad Sundays) hear heaps of praise most Sundays.  It has created an American Idol-esque epidemic of preachers suffering from Preaching Ability Dysmorphic Disorder.  I’m digressing… PADD is for another day.

Occasionally, after a sermon, I’ll get hit with a tough question.  It is usually based on the fact that I don’t give concrete “action steps,” but rather trust the person and the Spirit enough to let them figure out how to love their neighbor or trust in God.  Sometimes, the hard question comes because the promises of God don’t always happen in the time frames we expect.  Take, for example, the problem of unemployment.  On Valentine’s Day, 2011, CNN Money asked the question, what is the new normal for unemployment?  They ventured a guess of 6.7%.  I’ve heard others say 8% is the new normal.