JOHN THE BAPTIST, JOHN THE DOUBTER

(This post is an expansion on a sermon I preached.  Read the blog and then listen to the sermon "It All Makes Sense with Jesus." )

In Matthew 11, Jesus called John the Baptist the greatest of all prophets. 

“Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. … Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11: 9,11)

We honor John the Baptist as the epitome of uncompromising spiritual strength.  We have canonized his legend and forgotten his truth:  John’s spiritually victorious life was also a life of agonizing DOUBT.

Read his story again.

So the child grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel. (Luke 1:80)

In the deserts, apparently from a very young age.  His parents had a house in the hills southern Judea.  They had connections in the Temple in Jerusalem.  Why was John in the desert?

Because he ran away.  Not to adventures in the great metropolis of Jerusalem.  Not to the freedom of the semi-pagan Decapolis, or to the outlaw lands of Galilee.  No.  John ran to the most desolate and lonely spaces his nation offered.  He fled----- from everything.

Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist… (Matthew 3: 4a)

You know those kids at your school who dress like hobos even though their parents are rich?  You know the ones who blacken their eyes and refuse to condition their hair, and carefully choose the least physically flattering clothing they can find.   John the Baptist would have been one of them. 

…his food was locusts and wild honey. (Matthew 3:4b)

You know that kid who starves himself at lunch and on field trips because he’s such a strict kind of vegan that other vegans think he’s crazy?   That kid’s got nothing on John the Baptist. 

From before he was even conceived, John the Baptist’s life was clearly defined.  The purpose of his existence was predetermined.  We glamorize being “The Promised Child,”  “The Chosen One.”   But think about how suffocating that was.  John was an adolescent who never had the chance to find himself.  There was no seeking, no just being.  John’s future never held the mystery of what he might become.  He was always “the prophet of the Highest [who] will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways” (Luke 1:76).  And if he screwed up, Israel’s Messiah might never appear.  That was John’s bedtime story.  

“You’re not the Messiah.  You can’t save your people.  But you can single-handedly destroy 5,000 years of prophetic hope.  Nighty-night.”

No wonder John defined himself in negatives.

John was not the Temple priest his father Zacharias was.  He was not the well-pedigreed heir of religious royalty that his mother was. 

The Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”

He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”

And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?”

He said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

And he answered, “No.” (John 1: 19-22)

When asked, “What do you say about yourself?” John replied, “I am The voice of one crying in the wilderness,  ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”  (John 1: 22, 23)

Do you hear the sadness?   I’m not a body.  I’m not a person.  I’m just a voice.  And not even my own voice.

But John still followed his calling.  He preached the words God put in his heart.  He baptized sinners and hypocrites.  The man who’d fled from the world endured fame.  Read the exchange in Luke 3: 7-18.  No matter how raw and roughly John preached, the people just kept coming.  No matter how far up or down the Jordan he camped, people found him. And John didn’t like people.

John’s only solace was the promise of the Messiah.  When the Messiah appeared, John would announce Him, fulfill the burden of his birth and finally, finally find peace.  From a child, from a fetus John knew that the Messiah was his cousin.  His mother knew that the Christ was only 6 months younger than John.  His family knew Jesus’ family but John and Jesus didn’t meet--- for 30 years.

Thir-tee. Yeeeaaarrrrs.

John didn’t even know what Jesus looked like.

I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water. (John 1: 31)

But John still followed his calling.  He preached the words God gave him.  He baptized.    Before Jesus spoke the Great Commission to His apostles, John fulfilled the Great Commission by the Holy Spirit.  And then the moment came.

After a long day of ministering to the same kinds of soul-wearying crowds, one last person came down to be baptized (Luke 3: 21).   It was Jesus, and finally John’s life made sense. 

John recalled, “I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.” (John 1: 33, 34)

John could fulfill his mission.  He could do what he was born to do.  He baptized the Messiah, and “immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness.” (Mark 1: 12)

Wait.  What da’ crap?!  Where did Jesus go?

For a month and a half (well, for at least 40 days), nobody knew where Jesus was.  John had finally found the cousin whose life defined his life and now he’d lost him.  

Consider that for a moment.

Your entire sense of value as a person is wrapped in being the one who introduces the Christ to the world, and the moment you can do that, you turn around and Pthht! He was gone.

So when Jesus shows up about a month and a half later, the day after John has told the story of the baptism to his disciples,   “John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’ This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ “ (John 1: 29, 30)

This is John happy.  This is John thinking, “Once I direct people to Jesus, I will have fulfilled my destiny.”   So that’s exactly what John does.

The next day, John stood with two of his disciples.    And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!”

The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.  (John 1: 35-37)

Messiah found?  Check.

Messiah proclaimed? Check.

People sent to follow the Messiah?  Check.

Ahh.  I did it.  Now I can find peace.

Nope. 

Now you can get thrown in prison on some old trumped-up charge about criticizing the government. (Mark 6: 17-18)

In prison, John’s old doubts came back.   Maybe he’d been wrong.  Maybe it was wishful thinking.  Maybe Jesus wasn’t the One.   

When John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”  (Matthew 11: 2-3)

Notice that John never doubted the idea of the Messiah.  He just wanted reassurance that he’d picked the right Messiah. John didn’t doubt God’s promise.  He didn’t doubt his calling. John doubted his competence in carrying out the divine assignment.

From childhood to shortly before his death, John the Baptist doubted himself.

In a media-verse of T.D. Jakeses and Benny Hinns, Joel Osteens, and Bishop-Apostle-Doctor-Overseer-Megapastors, people forget that many “might men of God” are, like John the Baptist, life-long doubters of self.

Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, etc., etc. We don’t doubt the reality of God.  We don’t doubt the Lord’s power or His plan.  We absolutely, to the point of death and beyond, believe what we preach.  But we don’t believe in ourselves. 

We’re always pretty sure that today’s the day we totally screw up the whole thing.

You see, John the Baptist’s story isn’t important because his public ministry was unique.  John’s story is important because his internal struggle is typical.

But his triumph is typical, too.

John the Baptist saw himself as a series of negatives: not the Christ, not the Prophet (Deuteronomy 18: 15-18), and not Elijah.

John was wrong.

Jesus said, “If you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.” (Matthew 11: 14)

John was much of what he thought he wasn’t. 

When we are called and we doubt but we follow our calling anyway, God makes us more than we are able to accept that we can be.  Many of us will die without ever acknowledging to ourselves who we really are in God’s eyes.  That’s just the way it is.  That’s the way it’s been for a long time.

Just ask Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

#Awordtothewise

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

YEAH BUT DO THEY UNDERSTAND? Blogging through the Articles of Religion. Article # 15 ,part 1,

Article XV - Of Speaking in the Congregation in Such a Tongue as the People Understand

It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom of the primitive church, to have public prayer in the church, or to minister the Sacraments, in a tongue not understood by the people.

An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?  (Jeremiah 5: 30-31)

There are two reasons to talk: (a) You want to be heard; or (b) you want them to understand.

When you want to be heard, it doesn’t matter that your point has already been made.  You’re still going to stand up and repeat the previous point because it’s your turn to talk and you want to be heard.

When you want to be heard, you choose your words for the sound you like  hearing come out of your mouth.  Your audience may be confused.  You might not make sense. Heck, you might not even understand the meaning of half the words you use.  So what? You sound good.

But there are consequences.

Between the 4^th and 16^th centuries, the Catholic Church outlawed re-translating the Bible from Latin into the local language.  The Church declared it a crime punishable by death for a layperson to own, possess, or read a Bible. It was 1969 before the Catholic Church officially allowed mass to be conducted in a language other than Latin.   For all of those centuries, the Church wanted to be heard, but it didn,t really want the people to understand.

And that is how anti-Semitism became common in a religion founded by Jews.  That’s how doctrines, traditions, superstitions, and atrocities that obviously contradict our own sacred text became so historically celebrated that, we’re still trying to unravel ourselves from their legacy.  Church leaders who wanted to be heard but didn’t want the people to understand are the reason that the Dark Ages were so dark.

As Jesus said to the Pharisees, we commit terrible errors when we don’t know the Bible nor the power of God. (Matthew 22: 29

God wants the people to understand.

In the Old Testament, Ezra the scribe was the leading academic expert on the Law.  In Nehemiah chapter 8, Ezra gave a 3+ hour reading of the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Bible).  Ezra thought it all needed to be said, but he realized that it would be difficult to understand all at once.

So, the scribe assigned group-teachers to disperse throughout the crowd, read back scriptures during Ezra’s lecture, and make sure that every resident of Jerusalem understood what the Bible said. All of this happened during Ezra’s reading---- in real time.

Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law; and the people stood in their place.  

So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading. (Nehemiah 8: 7, 8)

It’s not that hard to be heard.  It’s takes a lot more effort to make sure that the people understand what they hear.   To make sure that the people understand, you have to give them the same access to the Word that you have.  You have to push them to read, to question, and to not just take your words for it. 

If you believe that you degree or title entitles you to unquestioning obedience, then you think waaaayy too much of yourself, because Jesus didn’t even profess that status.

When a lawyer questioned Jesus, the Lord didn’t respond, “Don’t you know who I am?”  Jesus replied, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”  (Luke 10: 26)

Jesus wanted him to understand.

At 12 years old, Jesus dominated a scholarly discussion with the premier theological minds of the Jewish Temple school.  But, when He went out in the boondocks to teach, he used metaphors about planting and reaping.  When He  taught to urban crowds, he talked about servants working in a master’s house.  When He evangelized fishermen on the Sea of Galliliee, He showed them where to get their biggest catch ever and then talked to them about becoming spiritual fishers of men.

Without condescending to anyone or dumbing down the text, Jesus used language that the people understood.

If at the end of your time on the platform the people can say “He sho’ did preach,” but they can’t say what they learned, then you were heard, but they didn’t understand.

If at the end of your time in the spotlight, the audience is impressed with how smart you are and all that you have done and achieved, but they don't have new information or methods to improve their lives; you were heard, but they don’t understand.

As a member of the congregation-audence, you may prefer to be entertained than to be taught so according to your own desires, because you have itching ears, you heap up for yourselves teachers who turn your ears away from the truth and aside to fables (2 Timothy 4: 4).  But, that's not what God wants for you.

A church that wants to be enabled and entertained but not taught is “a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God.”

God wants His people to understand His Word.  

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves  
#Awordtothewise 

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

FOR THE MESSENGERS

And I [Daniel]  heard a man’s voice between the banks of the Ulai, who called, and said, “Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.”

So he came near where I stood, and when he came I was afraid and fell on my face; but he said to me, “Understand, son of man, that the vision refers to the time of the end.”

Now, as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep with my face to the ground; but he touched me, and stood me upright.  And he said, “Look, I am making known to you what shall happen in the latter time of the indignation; for at the appointed time the end shall be.”  (Daniel 8:16-19)

I know that as a Christian and especially as a preacher and minister to the community, I’m supposed to be like Jesus.  That is my ambition, but honestly, most of the time I feel a lot more like Gabriel.

I’m a messenger, just the messenger, but I’m doing my best to make the people understand.  Still, my people have fallen asleep.  Some are mentally off in la-la land.  Others (and this is the most frustrating group) are spiritually asleep and unconcerned for the state of their souls and all the souls around them.

I want to do like my brother Gabriel.  I want to snatch them up and say, “Look, man!  I’m trying to help you out here.  I’m telling you what’s coming!”

he touched me, and stood me upright.  And he said, “Look, I am making known to you what shall happen

I feel Gabriel’s pain.  He got frustrated dealing with us humans.

I mean, you keep going out and telling these people what God told you to tell them.  And even when the message is literally the answer to their deepest prayer (Luke 1:13), they have the audacity to demand another miracle to validate the miracle of revelation you just delivered.

And Zacharias said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.” (Luke 1: 18)

Sometimes you just want to say, “Shut up talking to me.”

And the angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.”  (Luke 1: 18-20)

I understand Gabriel’s reaction.  But that’s not what messengers are supposed to do.

It’s not for me to cut off communication when my God-assigned task is to communicate.  Discourse can be irritating, but dialogue is and has always been the best way to make this man understand.

And that, I think, is why Gabriel was so much nicer when he talked to Mary six months later. (Luke 1: 26,27)

Mary asked basically the same question that Zacharias had.

Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” (Luke 1: 34)

But Gabriel didn’t tell Mary to shut up for 9 months.  Instead, he patiently made the woman understand.

And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.  Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.  

For with God nothing will be impossible.” (Luke 1: 34-37)

I think God rebuked Gabriel after the Zacharias incident.  I think that Gabriel did some serious introspection in the months following his blow-up in the temple, and by the time he came to Nazareth, the angelic messenger was back on his game.

The people to whom he was sent had not heard God’s voice the way he heard it.  They had not spent the same hours in the Presence, studying, reflecting, praying, and wrestling through the message he had to deliver.   By the time he started speaking, the Word was a part of him, as clear and obvious as breath and light.

But they had never heard this message before.  Not exactly like this.  They needed to process the Word.  They needed to test the Word against life.  They needed to go see how the Word was operating in other lives, like Mary going to see how miraculous pregnancy looked on Elisabeth. (Luke 1: 39,40)

We messengers want our messages to bear fruit.  But sometimes the message is a seed.  And seeds take time to take root and grow before fruit is evident.

God had to tell Gabriel to calm down and be patient.

I know how Gabriel feels.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

WHICH CHRISTIANITY?

I saw this picture on Pinterest.  I choked down the reflexive indignation and took a moment to really, really think about what the poster was saying.  

I see her point.

Think about it.  If all you knew of Christianity was what you saw on tv then what would you know?  More importantly, what would you NOT know?

You wouldn’t know about the Methodist preacher pastoring 2 churches every other Sunday and working a 3^rd job because those two salaries together still aren’t enough to cover gas money on the 4 hour commute.  But that pastor still teaches Bible study at both churches, still visits all of the sick, elderly, and incarcerated, still makes graduations (even the GED ceremonies), and still gives more financially than any other member of either congregation.

But that pastor doesn’t get on “Preachers of L.A.”

If all you knew of Christianity was tv, then you’d see us spending all our time waving flags, toting guns, and yelling hate at gays, pregnant teens, Democrats, Republicans who vote with Democrats, and soldiers coming home in caskets.  If you got your Christianity from tv, you’d think that we sat around idly watching Black communities dissolve into violent, drug-ridden 3^rd-world type neighborhoods.  You’d think we walked out of church stepping over the bodies of Black men until somebody White pulled the trigger so we could march downtown and elbow each other for camera time in our gaudy suits.

You wouldn’t know about the 20 person congregation that picks up cans to keep the hot water on, and only keeps the hot water on because they let homeless families sleep in the sanctuary even though they aren’t zoned for that.

That congregation won’t get a featured segment on TBN.

If you got your Christianity from tv, you’d know about “Preachers’ Wives” and “Preachers’ Daughters,” but you wouldn’t know about the pastor who has to explain to his family why he spent the Disney World money saving somebody else’s family from eviction.

Those pastors don’t get their own show.

I understand why the poster of that picture is so indignant.  If seeing is believing, then how can she believe anything other than that Christians suck?

^ [You]…rest on the law, and make your boast in God, ^and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, ^and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, ^an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. ^

You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? ^You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? ^

For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written. (Romans 2: 17-24)

And what does it say about us---- us church folks---- that these are our representatives? What DOES it say that we make their shows possible with our credit card donations, dvd purchases, and orders of prayer cloths and anointed miracle water?

Where ARE the shows about community ministries?  Where are the features on the pastors who were reaching out on behalf of young men in Michael Brown’s neighborhood while he was still ALIVE?  Where are the special reports about good old-fashioned, boring, Jesus-style Christianity?

Would we support that with our one-time gifts of any amount?  Would we consider being a gold-level partner to make those broadcasts possible?

I hope the person who put up that picture on Pinterest gets to see some boring, not-made-for-tv Christianity.  I hope she gets to see love, and mercy, and grace, and self-sacrifice like I see (and try to live) every day.  I hope she gets to see Jesus Christianity not just channel 10 Christianity.

I hope we get the chance to show it---- in person, not just on tv.

---Rev. Anderson T. Graves II   (email:  atgravestwo2@aol.com )

Anderson T. Graves II is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church (5220 Myron Massey Boulevard) in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

ALL the World's a Stage?

Tony Ares, in his very positive review of the new James Brown biopic, added this spiritual observation: It never ceases to amaze me how church folk confuse great vocal chords with solid character. This flick paints a picture of how some of these folks singing the gospel are as separated from Christ as Judas himself. (http://afreshword.org/post/93735808778/movie-review-get-on-up)

I don' disagree with Tony at all, but I would add at least two more classes of church folks to his observation:  Preachers and Financial-givers

We all know that preaching (combining prophesy, teaching, ministering, and exhorting) is a spiritual gifts. Just read Romans 12: 6-8.

But if you read the same passage a little more slowly, you’ll see that giving is also a spiritual gift.  The church has some anointed givers--- people like Lydia (Acts 16) whose widest impact on the gospel will be underwriting missionaries and evangelists. 

It’s too, too easy for Preachers and Givers to become performers.

So remember:

The sanctuary is not a stage. 

The offering is not the weekend’s take.

Worship is not a Gig.

The prophetic voice doesn’t turn on and off based on a payment schedule.  Just ask Balaam (Numbers 22-24).

The content, quality--- or length  of our preaching should not be determined by audience size, preferences, income, or enthusiasm. 

We answer to God for how we use our gifts, not to a local manager or a group of church groupies; and the integrity and holiness of our personal lives is very much part of how God evaluates how we have used, or misused the anointing.

And though we often recount that church is not a social club, we need to also remember that church is not a publicly traded company in which your influence is proportionate to your financial investment. 

The biggest tithe doesn’t buy you a controlling vote.  Just ask Simon (Acts 8).

Peter said to him, “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.” (Acts 8: 20-23)

You answer to God for how you use your gift of giving and for how you live your life---- regardless of how impressive your gift was.

Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.   

Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’

And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’  “ (Matthew 7: 21-23)

You don’t want to finish a “career” as a popular preacher or a revered patron only to stand before the Lord and discover that He’s the one person who doesn’t recognize you.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church (5220 Myron Massey Boulevard) in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to  

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

HEY, YOU PREACH LIKE A GIRL.

One of my Facebook friends posted something like:  The other day, someone told me that female preachers should preach like women and not like men.  I asked him to unpack that statement.  I’m still waiting. 

I can’t remember who posted that status, but I was moved to respond.  So, here is my answer to the question

What Does It Mean to Preach Like a Woman?

I don’t know who said this you, but maybe I can unpack it for you.

Maybe the brother who said this meant  that you should preach like Miriam (Exodus 15) who stood shoulder to shoulder with her little brothers Aaron and Moses, leading the nation of Israel.  Maybe he meant preach like Judge Deborah (Judges 4) who inspired an army and mentored a general, just like the male judges who led Israel. 

Could be that he meant preach like the Prophetess Huldah (2 Kings 22) to whom the king sent priest, and scribe, and royal advisors to ask how they could revive the nation according to the long lost Word of God.

Maybe he meant that sisters should preach like Isaiah’s wife and partner in prophetic ministry (Isaiah 8) whose children were a witness and testimony for the Lord and to the nation. 

Perhaps he meant preach like Anna (Luke 2: 36-38), the senior citizen prophetess who served full time in the temple and testified with her co-laborer Simeon of the infant Messiah Jesus.

Maybe he meant that women should preach like the 4 prophesying daughters of Deacon Phillip the evangelist (Acts 21: 6, 7).

I’m sure the brother who said this DID NOT mean that women preachers should preach like Noadiah (Nehemiah 6: 14) who along with several men sold out to the enemy and tried to undermine Nehemiah’s mission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
I’m sure he didn’t mean preach like Miriam did when in a moment of ego and bigotry, she and her other brother Aaron let their ambition override their anointing and tried to usurp Moses’ place.
 
Like genuinely called male preachers, genuinely called female preachers are powerful, purposed, anointed and human.  They are as capable of greatness or of corruption as men.

No more so.  No less so. 

Even in the patriarchal ancient world, the Bible placed sisters in just about every ministry that men held.  The Bible records women preaching, prophesying, leading, and ministering with equal power and with the full support of the Holy Spirit.   

Huldah’s harsh condemnation of the king, priests, and culture is no more softly dressed than Haggai’s indictment of the nation.   Anna’s proclamation of Jesus is not described as dainty or demure compared to Simeon’s testimony.

Women preached with power.  Women preached under their anointing.  Women preached what, when, and how God told them to.  Women preached AND they had strong marriages and families.

Maybe, just maybe this is what the gentleman meant by “preach like a woman.”   

Funny thing is that it’s also exactly what it means to “preach like a man.”

Galatians 3: 28

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
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To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom.

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