Subverting the Culture

"Are these people right? Is there way of life in no danger from us? Is what we say about God and his ways among us not real in the way that Chevrolets and basketball teams and fresh garden spinach are real? Many pastors, realizing the opinion polls overwhelmingly repudiate their self-concept, submit to the cultural verdict and slip into the role of chaplain to the culture. It is easy to do. But some pastors do not; they become subversives to the culture."

--Eugene Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor, pg. 30 (emphasis added)

I stopped in the middle of my exegesis for this weekend's sermon to post. The idea just hit me like a bolt from the blue and this passage from The Contemplative Pastor came to mind. Allow me to re-trace my thought pattern and explain.

I'm sitting in my military office with Greek books strewn about me. I am preaching this weekend and I'm behind in my preparation. I still translate the text that I'm preaching from the Greek text, in part, to keep grounded to the Word and, in part, as a justification to myself, a testament to me that my B.A. in Theological Languages isn't totally useless. As I sit here, I feel a little bit guilty about it. "This is not busy," I say to myself. "This is not crucial to your position. There are few other officers in the Army who would deem this as an efficient use of time. How many other chaplains are doing this right now?" The voice of the Tempter sounds just like me. But he slips up with that last question.

How many other chaplains ARE doing this? Heck, how many other pastors are doing this? Or, as Peterson says above, have they become "chaplains to the culture" bending their expectations, duties, and their very thoughts to the culture in which they live? Are they so busy making Jesus into a life-enhancing coach that they forget that He was a couter-culture revolutionary who talked about being in the temple to be about His Father's business, destroying the temple, the armies of His Father, and the dawning of a new Kingdom.

Yesterday I sort of lost my temper with my brigade chaplain as he called me for my "numbers." How many people did I counsel? What were their issues? What programs do I have coming up? Quantify. Quantify. Quantify. The things that I had done so far this week were unquantifable. I had coffee with a brother in the ministry and we talked about Peterson's book, the Lord's Prayer, and subverting the culture. I spent two days teaching suicide intervention methods to sergeants and company commanders so that they will know how to engage someone who's struggling. Now I am preparing for preaching (and posting on my blog). These things look horrible on a "Religious Support Activities" report. But, to my soul, they are priceless and, without them, I have nothing to give the dozens of people who come to me for help.

My job description starts with, "Serve as pastor and chaplain to..." whatever kind of unit I am in. I'm taking that seriously and doing what needs to be done...no matter how it looks on a report.