Elucidating the Erudite

Over at Questing Parson, the experienced pastor is trying to assist the seminary grad who says,

My objective, parson, is to ascertain from you some directives whereby I could be more effective in bringing these people a more erudite view of theology.

He says,

The parson held up his hand. “I don’t think that’s necessary, Reggie. Let me see if I can explicate your impetus for sitting here with me. You’re not getting along with the people at the church, are you?”

“No, sir, I’m not.”

“Reggie let me tell you about my five-year-old granddaughter. She was riding in her car with her dad; she was in her booster seat in the back; he was in the front. She was eating an apple as they rode along she studied that apple carefully. After a while she paused to carefully examine the apple. The she said to her dad, ‘Daddy, my apple’s turning brown. It looks icky.’

“’Its okay, sweetheart,” her daddy told her. ‘The apple is turning brown because when you took a bite you pulled the apple’s skin off. When you pulled the skin off you exposed the meat of the apple to the air. That caused it to start to oxidize. When the oxidization started, the molecular structure of the fruit changed. And when the molecular structure changed, the color also changed.’

“My granddaughter looked at the apple for a short moment, then she looked at the rearview mirror to catch her daddy’s eye. ‘Daddy,’ she said, ‘are you talking to me?’”

The parson pushed the empty plate toward the center of the table and added, “Reggie, the real secret to communicating with those people is to speak their language.”

Jesus had a knack for using the things people knew to explain to them things beyond the power of our language to capture. I am continually challenged by Jesus' example and I am quite sure that while he sometimes elucidated the erudite, it was with words like,

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.—Matthew 23:23

I'm reminded of a theology professor who continued as a pastor while teaching as he said any theology that made no sense to the person in the pew and did not assist with their daily lives, was of little value.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor