Gimme the Ball!
July 22, 2012
Nathan
is the Mario Chalmers of religious life. Every pastor is.
Chalmers’
role as point-guard for the Dream Team leaves him in a tough spot: He has three
superstar scorers and only one basketball. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade
and Chris Bosh all want that ball on every play but in the free flow of the
game Chalmers must decide who gets it.
This
makes him, in the apt phrase of sports writer Scott Ciaccola, “the most
yelled-at man in the NBA.”
David
steals sovereignty from Saul and pulls of the ultimate fast break: a new
capitol, an intimidating palace, and military power. The only remaining
incalculable is the presence of the Almighty as symbolized in the Ark. That can
be a tricky business: The Philistines already intercepted it once; Uzzah fouled
out when he dared to dribble it; David finally got it back only to be posted up
by his own spouse just as he hit the paint.
So
he chalks up a new play for his pastor/point-guard: Let’s settle this once and
for all. I’ll enshrine the Ark in immovable splendor and establish myself as
the top scorer. Nathan nods, trains his gaze down court, and prepares to
deliver the final bounce pass. “Go, do all that is in your mind, for the Lord
is with you.”
Then
God calls time-out. “But in the night the word of the Lord came to Nathan.”
Prophets need a thick skin because MVP’s tend to holler when they don’t get
their way.
For
most people the pastor carries a clear job description: Deliver God on my terms
and my timing. Establish a set-play theology that lands the Lord’s blessing
when and where I want it and I’ll come across with the financial resources and
social perqs that insure your comfort. Plenty of pastors are willing to play
that role, to formulate spiritual set-plays that guarantee the promised the
pass.
But
God’s pastor must respond to the flow of the Spirit. God’s fight song is always
the cowboy ditty “Don’t Fence Me In,” never the Broadway ballad “Bird in a
Gilded Cage.” “The Lord declares to you that the Lord will build a house for
you.”
God
promises David a dynasty not measured in years: not two, not thee, not four,
not five, not six, not seven, but “your house and your kingdom shall endure
before Me forever.”
The
Gospel of Mark opens with the fulfillment of David’s dream (Mk 1.14-15) but
closes (in its original form) with no corpus
delicti, an unseen Jesus, and a gaggle of frightened pastors who don’t dare
tell their congregation that they’ve lost track of the ball (Mk 16.1-8). The
Church charges down court into the future with a Christus absconditus and no assurance that a sacred day or a holy
place can deliver what we desire.
May
God send us courageous pastors with the guts to tell us that the Kingdom of
Heaven is a game of street-ball with only one guarantee: a Kingdom that shall
endure before the Lord forever.
Slam Dunk,
Doug
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