While walking in the desert one day, John the Baptist unknowingly entered a rift in time. He felt something odd happen, but was basically unaware of what was occurring. He knew it wasn't the Holy Spirit moving, but he felt like the essence of who he was had began to be transformed in time and space.
As he continued to walk, he came upon some young men walking also. He noticed they were dressed oddly and had a different appearance than the Jews, Greeks, or Romans that he knew of. They carried bundles of goods on their backs, so he assumed them to be nomads. When he asked them who they were, they replied that they were hikers. John was not aware of the land of Hike, but he didn't doubt their testimony.
The hikers asked John some questions about his appearance and what he was doing in the desert. After answering as honestly as he could, one of the men from the land of Hike said he wished he had smoked some of what John had smoked, then the men offered to help John by taking him to a church not too far from where they were. Though they thought that John was crazy, they sensed a passion and an honesty in him. They had seen the movie "K Pax" and knew that you could never be too sure of things... They had little faith, but great imagination.
Soon they arrived at the church and the senior pastor began to talk with John the Baptist. And even though John was a little disoriented and not certain about what was happening around him, he did know that his mission was to prepare hearts for Jesus Christ. So John began to witness and share the purpose of his mission. He soon asked if he could go on about his way and tell the good news to the people in the land of Hike.
The senior pastor was amazed by John's passion and his zeal for Jesus. But he also had concerns about John's ministry. After all, one could not let just anyone go into the world and do ministry. There were criteria to meet. If John were to be an ambassador of this church there were some changes that needed to be made.
The senior pastor first told John the Baptist that he would have to change his name to something less political. The church was non-denominational and couldn't have anyone calling themselves a Baptist. This could deter people with a predisposed bias of denomination from joining the church. And membership was already down a little. And when membership is down, so are the finances. So a name change was to be in order.
Next was the clothing issue. The senior pastor noted that he was all for individuality, but camel skin was just a bit to much for the tithing members. The pastor explained that the members expected anyone doing ministry to dress a certain way and that this dress code was very important for the image of the church. We can't have all of us Christians looking like freaks or slobs. Jesus died for more than that, the pastor explained...All John the Baptist could think about were the flowing robes of the Pharisees.
The pastor then explained that John would certainly have to brush his teeth and chew some tic-tacs to get the locust smell off of his breath. People won't come to the altar if they are uncomfortable or inconvenienced he explained.
Next on the list one must do in order to perform ministry was to get out of the desert and into town. John would need to establish residency in a certain area of town. And even though the church is open to everyone, we want to focus on just those in our "district", so to speak. So the pastor told John that he could go to the desert twice a month, but that he needed to focus on people in the "right neighborhoods" the rest of the time.
The senior pastor went on to explain to John the Baptist that he would need to be better educated, learn more doctrine and dogma, become more of a conformist, meet with committees, take a few tests, so on and so forth. When the pastor asked if John would consider all of this, he thought John would be discouraged, thank the pastor for his time, then wander back into the desert. But instead, John said that he wasn't certain what all of this meant, but that he was willing to die for his ministry if need be, if God so asked him to do so.
The pastor told John that Jesus wouldn't ask anyone to die and that there was no need to be fanatical. God wants us to be comfortable, he told John. And certainly a little more "middle of the road", the pastor explained.
Well John wasn't sure about all of this, that's for certain. He looked at the pastor almost blankly. The pastor sensed John's uncertainty and handed him a Bible. He told John that he could find the answers to some of his questions in this Bible, and that the rest could be discovered through tradition and faith in the the senior pastor.
So John took the Bible from the pastors desk, blew off the dust, and went into a quiet place to begin to read.
A few hours later John came back into the pastor's office to speak with the pastor. Before John could get a complete sentence out, the pastor explained that it was 4:30 and that the office was closing for the day. Actually for the week; it was a holiday. The pastor then asked John what he would do in the meantime and told John that he would have him put on the prayer list for next week.
John looked at the senior pastor and told him that he believed the Bible was truly the inspired word of God and that it was the absolute truth. He told the pastor that he wasn't sure what book he had been reading and that he didn't think that the people in the land of Hike knew the same Jesus that he knew.
John became louder and louder as his voice trembled with great passion. The pastor tried to tell John that he was much more educated on church issues and that John meant well, but was a little naive. This frustrated John so greatly that he turned and walked out of the senior pastors office and right out of the door of the church.
"Where will you go, what will you do?" yelled the pastor from across the parking lot.
John stopped and calmly walked back to the pastor. He then told the pastor that he was going back to the serenity of the desert to pray. After that, he would try to find his way out of the land of Hike and back into Jerusalem. When he would arrive in Jerusalem, he would look for King Herod.
"The Bible said that I am to be beheaded. And after my visit here, I think the sooner may well be the better."
No comments:
Post a Comment