Thursday, September 4

Celebrity Clergy

Bible Excerpt from II Corinthians 12: 11-21

I have been a fool! You forced me to it. Indeed you should have been the ones commending me, for I am not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am a nothing.

Reflection by Anthony B. Robinson

Is your minister a celebrity? Do paparazzi dog the footsteps of your pastor, their cameras clicking and flashing? Does the face of your minister loom, god-like, on a huge video screen above your congregation's sanctuary? Is your pastor on television a couple of times a month commenting on whatever is hot and lively? Probably not. Chances are your pastor is more ordinary. He or she slogs through committee meetings with you. On Sunday mornings, your pastor doesn't do a star-turn in the pulpit but looks (and sounds) pretty human up there. Instead of being chauffeured around in a limo, your pastor is much more likely to be found driving kids to youth camp in his or her beater.

In the church at Corinth, some of the congregation preferred celebrity clergy, "super apostles," who had a lot to say about their mighty works. What they got was Paul, doggedly going about his duties, teaching, preaching, imploring, and on the side stitching tents to pay his bills. On top of that, Paul was short! God's power and beauty come to us hidden, hidden in the ordinary. In the midst of our own celebrity-crazed culture, are our eyes open to the ways God uses ordinary people to convey the extraordinary power of God?

Prayer

Dear Lord, open the eyes of my heart, I pray, that I may see your extraordinary power at work in ordinary people like my pastor. Amen.

About the Author

Anthony B. Robinson, UCC pastor, speaker and author, teaches leadership at Emmanuel College at the University of Toronto. His newest book is Changing the Conversation: A Third Way for Congregations.

The Stillspeaking Daily Devotional is a free service and is supported by your gifts to Our Church's Wider Mission. Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, adapted. Used by permission. All rights reserved.