Breastfeeding - Part 2

The Sunday Morning Worship Service

-or-
How to Breastfeeding at the Teat of the Double-breasted Suit
Part 2

The Fancy Sunday Morning Spectacular.  Light show.  Fog machines.  Pretty singers in matching outfits, except that one guy who never quite gets the memo.  Or maybe it's simpler.  Choir and a song leader.  Then you sit down for 30-45 minutes while someone looks out at you from a pulpit and tells you what the Bible is saying to you.  Because clearly you can't figure it out on your own.  And maybe in the early days you can't.

Now imagine you've been going to church your whole life, or that you've been going for at least several years.  Does this story change?  Sure.  A little.  Maybe you are reading your Bible a few times a week, or even every day.  Perhaps you're even doing one of those nifty reading plans to read the whole Bible in a year.

You arrive at your pew/seat/whatever Sunday morning and wait to "get fed."  The pastor gets up, opens up his suit coat and begins to nurse you.  Usually in clever repetitive letters or phrases.  On average at least 3 points.  There are well timed and placed jokes.  Well, sometimes well placed.  And you sit there and lap it up.  You've become the four year old running up to mommy asking for some milk.

It's weird.

It's immature.  My friends, if you know who Jesus is, I mean really know who he is, not just the stories about him.  You're ready for solid food.  And it's available to you.  Pastors are wonderful people, at least most of the ones I have known are.  They are genuine God loving folk who want to serve God with all their heart.  The word pastor comes from the Latin word for shepherd.  Jesus told  Peter to feed his sheep.  He told him to be a "pastor."  Something tells me this is not what he had in mind.  Imagine with me one last time today...

You see a shepherd.  For me it's one of those Bible picture ones.  White guy with a blondish beard, in some sort of blue dress with stripes on it.  He gets down on his knees amongst his sheep and picks up grass.  He starts to chew it.  Then he spits it into the mouth of the first sheep on his left.  Again and again he picks up the grass and chews it for his sheep.

Again...it's weird.


So why do we do it?

Yes I strongly believe Christians should have teaching and instruction.  I do not believe the only way is by coming back to the trough every week and getting your fill. 

The Word the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

(Hebrews 4:12)

When was the last time your soul and spirit were divided by the Word of God?  When was the last time your thoughts and attitudes were judged by the Word?

It's time we grow up church.  We can not keep waiting for pastors and church leaders to tell us how we are to live for Jesus.  Jesus had plenty to say on it himself.  It's right there in the last third of your Bible.  The books titled Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  Jesus has a lot to say for himself.  If you don't get it, ask someone.  Maybe they will know, maybe not.  So read it again together.  Keep reading and seeking God.  He'll tell you what it means.  That is how you eat the "meat" and give up the "milk."  Get up, work for your food.  Don't wait for the breastfeeding!


grace, peace + hope
-Bear