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"Kicking Over the Pulpit" by C. David McKirachan


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Kicking Over the Pulpit
by C. David McKirachan
John 2:13-22

I don’t know about you, but I’ve walked into church a few times, ready to kick over the pulpit and do the whole Amos thing: “Thus says the Lord, I despise the noise of your song and the stench of your sacrifice, but let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.” I’d revamp it a bit, “Thus says the Lord, the one that you forget, the one you’ve come to worship by sitting in the pews, half asleep, only paying attention when the ‘we’ve-always-done-it-that-way-before’s are violated by anything that moves in on the paltry pledge that you give or the attitudes of keeping the people you don’t like away from your comfort zones or the locks on the doors or your judgement of the poor, the addicted, the prisoner, the homeless, the immigrant, all of those that were at the top of the least of these. Goats all of you. And if you try to be nice, you don’t try too hard. Don’t rock the boat. Come and tell the pastor and let him/her swing in the wind while you shake your head in sorrow…..”

You know that speech. Anger issues bubble awfully close to the surface of our carefully constructed professional facade. Lent always got to me. I used to think it was fatigue, but I also think that my identification with the Lord made me mad as I watched people suffering under their sacrifice of chocolate without taking the next step and remembering him, ‘Do this remembering me.’ He emptied himself and we can’t find the space to raise our pledges.

So, I’d work on my issues. I’d pray for the people and meditate on his prayer in the upper room, doing my best to let his compassion run the show. But then we hit this passage of him making a mess of the temple, ruining the profit stream, offending all the elders and deacons and probably stepping so far out of line that he’d get reported to the Committee on Ministry and be invited to take a medical leave for losing it in church. Thanks a lot Jesus. This kind of help I don’t need. 

But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. He was fierce, intense, and very, very focused on getting the point across. Maybe part of the reason I have some anger issues is because I don’t allow his intensity and his focus and his purpose to be clear enough in my ministry. Maybe it’s because my anger issues are less focused on getting the point across than on my own frustrations and disappointments and fears. 

So, I spent some time working on this messy moment in his ministry and came out of it with a new respect for this guy Jesus. He had a lot of guts. Not only because he did the deed, but because he was very clear on why and how. And he never allowed it to change him. His compassion and his teaching and his willingness to open his hand and his heart to others never changed. 

The other part of it I figured out was that my ministry has a different venue than his. Part of it is a lot easier and part of it is a lot more confusing. But all if it better be clearly based on him and what he stood for and how he conducted himself.

I began thinking of what point would I be getting across with my Amos speech. Would I be doing it to make a break through, or would I be exacting vengeance on those who had let me down and hurt me. Vengeance feels good for a few seconds, but it doesn’t lead toward justice. And it has nothing to do with worship, unless we’re into blood sacrifice. Thanks anyway.

So, I preached a sermon about it, edited a bit, but still pretty intense. But I realized while I wrote it that they had anger issues too. And maybe we could get some of that intensity focused on doing some things for Christ. Represent….

To my surprise, a lot of people appreciated it. Of course I didn’t kick over the pulpit. I don’t think I could have gotten away with that.


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StoryShare, March 4, 2018, issue.

Copyright 2018 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.

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