Pre-Sermon Coming to a Church Near You

Visited a new church for the first time yesterday. As I sat in the audience I began to contemplate how I might react if the pastor got up before the sermon and shared the following....


Good Morning.

As the senior pastor it's my privilege to welcome you here this morning. We're glad you're here. There's some news I wanted to mention before we get started this morning. As most of you know from watching the news of these past few months, the transition in Washington became official this past week. We now have a new government. Now I have no editorial comments of my own on the transition. There were many who have argued for, and many who have argued against the transition to our new totalitarian state. You can go online to read both positions at great length. The news this morning is that the long awaited transition is now official.

The good news is that the transition was peaceful and everything appears to be running smoothly.

The bad news, if you want to call it that, is that this church has now come under the control of our new government.

The further good news is that we have already had our first semiannual visit from the Office of Religion & Community Welfare and we received a letter on Tuesday congratulating us on passing our first inspection with flying colors. In fact, we performed better than any of the other churches in the area. We received such high marks from the inspection team that their remarks were positive in every respect. I saw the checklist, and I can assure you, it was a long one. The inspection team truly cares about their work and wouldn't have hesitated to offer advice on how we could do things better here. In fact, that's their job. But the team left here feeling like they weren't actually needed. Other than working to fill some of our vacant positions on staff, we were told not to change a thing. That's the good news.

The bad news is that the government has told us not to change a thing. There is nothing we do here that concerns them. There is nothing we do here that has a significant enough influence on our community to cause them to be concerned. In short, we have received an official letter from the government this week certifying that we are innocuous.

As senior pastor I take full credit for these events. And so I wish to announce that this will be my last Sunday addressing you from the pulpit. In truth, when I first took over as pastor, part of me hoped that we would become a church of harmony, perhaps harmonious enough to permit receiving such a letter. But now that I am holding it in my hand....now that I am holding it in my hand...I wish I had never seen it.

And so I would like you to turn with me now in your Bibles. This morning we will be taking a look at the following passages from both the old and new testaments:

Zechariah 11:9-17
Matthew 27:3-10, 26:14-16