CHRIST IN WINTER:
Reflections on Faith and Life for the Years of Winter…
When we lived in Dallas,
while I was a student at Perkins School of Theology at SMU, and we ran a
settlement house in a barrio neighborhood with no paved streets and no street
lights, we visited a different church each Sunday morning. One day we went to
Highland Park Presbyterian.
It was a huge church. Not
as large as Highland Park Methodist, which had nine thousand members, but close
enough to be intimidating to a boy who grew up in a church of 60 members.
William Elliott was the preacher. He was called “Wild Bill,” not because he was
wild—indeed, he was rather staid—but because every man in Texas with the name
of William is called “Wild Bill.”
His sermon that morning
was, supposedly, on the saying of Jesus in Mark 10:44-45: “Whoever wants to
become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must
be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to
serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
“Wild Bill” interpreted
this, at some length, to mean that every man [1] in the church should aspire to
be on the Session, to be a Ruling Elder. [2] That was how you were to be a
servant of all, by ruling over all. Of course, it was “the same old same old” in
terms of power and leadership-the first shall be first-but baptized to make it
look Christian. If he were really preaching Jesus, he would have implored the
Ruling Elders to go work at our settlement house.
Or, better yet, to go out
to their limousines parked in front, usher their black chauffeur into the back
seat, and ask him where they could take him for lunch.
Not everyone in that
church had a limo with a black chauffeur, of course. But there was a reserved
area along the curb in front, closest to the doors, where there were about six
limos parked. Beside each stood a liveried black chauffeur, at attention, in
the hot Dallas sun. The chauffeurs, of course, were not allowed to worship
there, not allowed to come inside the building at all. I’m sure that the owners
of those limos were Ruling Elders, or could be if they wanted to be.
That was how Jesus was
preached in Dallas in 1960, and that’s how Jesus is preached increasingly in
our nation today, twisted to put an imprimatur on “The Christian way is, those
who have too much already should have more. That is how they are able to be
servants of all.”
After all, “the poor we
have with us always.” We have with us always also those who will twist Jesus,
even on his cross, to justify keeping them poor.
JRMcF
johnrobertmcfarland@gmail.com
1] If women were to
aspire, it would be to leadership in the Women’s Society, certainly not on the
Session, where they would have power over men.
2] Presbyterian terms. The
Session is the church board. A Ruling Elder is a lay member of that board,
distinct from the pastor, who is a Teaching Elder.
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