Short on Ladders and Long on Sermons

        Yesterday, I raised this question: Who is the most important person in a church? As you remember, I identified that person as the one who is suffering. After thinking about it overnight, and having done the work of a pastor over the past 24 or so hours, I am faced with the fact that everyone in the church is suffering—EVERYONE. Yes, the family who is sitting in the hospital, hoping-against-hope that their loved one will overcome a massive heart attack, is suffering more than the family who is trying to find a way to pay their telephone bill. The family whose mother was just killed in a tragic auto accident is suffering more than the family whose azalea bush just died. But, suffering is suffering, and to the person who is enduring it, it is painful—very painful.

          To the person who is suffering because they cannot pay the telephone bill, we say, “Stop whining and get over it. If you had been tithing, you wouldn’t be in this mess” (God, help us!). Occasionally, we pay the bill for them, but most of the time, we do not because we certainly do not want to enable their continued financial irresponsibility. Sometimes a guy just needs a ladder, so he can climb out of the hole, rather than a sermon on why he is there. For some reason, the church is long on sermons and short on ladders.

          To the family who is about to lose, or has just lost, a loved one, we, well what do we say (or do, for that matter)? The truth is we do not know what to say, and we do not because there really is nothing to say that will end their suffering, unless, of course, we can say, “Be healed!” and the healing actually take place, or “Arise!” and resurrection actually happen. Because we do not know what to say and our track records for healings and resurrections is rather low, we fry up a couple of  chickens and make a batch of tater salad, and deliver it to their house for supper. Well, that is what we do, here in the South (I guess that is why we call fried chicken and tater salad “comfort food”).

          The truth is, even though we are all suffering to one degree or another, most of us have no idea how to deal with our own, much less that on another. It is as if we are the blind leading the blind in a hospice of suffering—no one knowing what to do or what to say.

          I have an idea! Since the most important person in the church is the one who is suffering, and since we all are suffering, why don’t we simply purpose to make everyone aware of just how important they really are? It might even prove to be more effective than fried chicken and tater salad.

"This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (John 6:29 NASB).