This week’s Adult Bible Study Guidefocuses on patience. The main message is relax, wait on divine time, don’t rush in like a fool. Given the quarter-long focus on the crucible metaphor, a.k.a. trials, patience is presented as a classic Christian virtue proved under duress. The lesson draws on the biblical stories of David and Elijah to reinforce the practical point: be patient. This is especially vital for Adventists awaiting the advent. It poses this question: “Why do we sometimes have to wait so long for things? What lessons can we learn about patience while in the crucible?
Everyone should spend a thoughtful hour and listen to N.T. Wright’s sermon…it is just wonderful. He has a pithy sense of humor and I can’t remember hearing such a great sermon for such a long time. In a Q & A afterwards, someone in the congregation asks him a question about the delay in Jesus’ second coming…he says, “That’s God’s business…He’s in Management and I am just in Sales.”!
In the Absolutely Fabulous Movie, God (played by Mick Jagger’s former girlfriend Marianne Faithful) says, in response to Edina’s offer to become The Almighty’s Press Agent, “ I’m real. I don’t need PR.”
So yes.
N. T., like all preachers, is just a salesperson trying to convince people to pay his organization for something the customer could get directly from the manufacturer, without the middle man’s carrying charges, markups and fees.
Admittedly I didn’t listen to his entire sermon, only enough to suspect that he didn’t have anything to offer other than what I’d heard in the thousands of hours I’ve spent listening to similar homilies. And sure, it’s prejudgement on my part, but I’m reasonably certain that there’s nothing he is going to in his next two hundred sermons that would convince me to join him in going door to door, or coast to coast, trying to sell what he claims are Jesus’ wares.