A Pastoral Note to Pastors of the Resistance

You aren’t going to like this.

You probably aren’t even going to read this.

But you need to hear this; stop freaking out.

Act like you’ve been here.

I know that every day brings fresh hell from the White House and Capitol Hill. I know your congregants and friends are anxious and angry. I know you probably feel under personal attack. Many of you are under personal attack.

But please…act like you’ve been here before. Because you have.

When I played Baketball, my coach would always say ‘Act like you’ve been there before.’ Don’t celebrate after a great shot or a good stop. Don’t act out over something small. Don’t get over heated by a foul call that didn’t go your way. ‘Act Like you’ve been there before.’

I have found that this is good advice as a pastor as well. People come to me most every day with the scariest, saddest, most traumatic — and also the most wonderful, joyful and special moments of their lives. Sometimes they shock me. Sometimes they terrify me. Often I don’t know what to say.

But my job in that moment is to act like I have been there before, because the Church has been there before. And Jesus has been there before. So I respond calmly, thoughtfully and prayerfully to whatever is in front of me.

Now contrast that to how you respond to the latest presidential tweet? Or the new legislation? Or closing/firing/reshaping of a government office.

It is hard for me to see so much anger and vitriol and exasperation from the clergy online and in person about what our government is doing NOT because I don’t feel the same emotions or because these are unreasonable things to think — but because I wonder what our parishioners think?

But Grey, what about your Roy Moore tweet?

Oh yeah. that.

That was bad. NOT because it was wrong! because really — That is some Fucking Terrible Theology right there — but because it is unproductive.

How can I, how can we all, channel our righteous and justified anger about Roy Moore and his treatment by some segment of Evangelical leadership and really help to change the Church? and Change the world?

Who reading that tweet is going to say ‘I need a pastor like that?’

If all they see from me is anger and exasperation and being emotionally spent, where are they going to look for respite, restoration, and renewal?

If all they hear from the pulpit is fear and vitriol about what is going on in the world, how is that any different from the anger and fear they hear the other 6 days and 23 hours of the week?

Now you are saying, I am sure, we have never had a crisis like this. We have never had a president like this. It has never been this bad!

And that may be true.

For you.

But it is not true for some of your parishioners.

It is certainly not true for this country.

And it is most definitely not true for the Church.

So far as I can tell they are not rounding up Christians to be fed to the lions. And while things are bad for many minority groups, in particular black men and women, Muslim and Arab immigrants, and immigrants from Central and South America — there are no internment camps, there is no longer chattel slavery in the U.S., and we are not (yet) arresting people for believing in particular expressions of the divine.

As Pastors we are called not only to represent ourselves and our churches, but the Church throughout history and more importantly Jesus Christ.

And while Jesus Christ DID flip tables once, by far his most consistent response to persecution, poverty, torture, and abuse was compassion. Prayer. Love and healing.

Why?

Because Jesus had been there before. Jesus as the word that brought the world into being, as the Child of God incarnate, had seen more suffering done by the hands of humans and in the name of God than any of us could ever fathom. Jesus before and after the crucifixion bore those scars and knows better than any of us what suffering, rejection, torture, persecution, famine, sickness and pain feels like.

And I get it. The Anger feels necessary. It feels powerful. It feels holy. Righteous Anger! Perhaps. But is it, productive? Does my angry tweeting, preaching, facebook posting do anything to change the situation? I am not lucky enough to have access to many people in power and if I did I am not sure they would listen to me, and certainly not through all of this anger.

My anger can’t change the world.

But my prayerful presence, my calm voice, my encouraging words, allowing Jesus to speak through all of that — can.

It can inspire someone to see the world differently.

It can inspire someone at the end of their rope to give it one more try.

It can inspire someone who believes life isn’t worth listening that there are people who care enough to listen, to commiserate, to try and make it better.

Your pastoral presence can change the world.

So when you see whatever terror is being thrown at our feet this week, when you become aware of a new kind of torture, a new kind of persecution, a new kind of evil being inflicted up your people — REMEMBER the Church has been here before. Jesus has been here before. And you, in your capacity as a pastor called by God confirmed by a community have also been here before. And trust God to help guide you and your people through it with strength, calm, patience and grace.

And save those nasty tweets, posts, and sermon quips for dinner or drinks with friends — and let your friends pastor to you, too.