Thursday, April 2, 2015

Flowers, Cakes and Pastors.

Dear Pastor,

Contrary to what you may have been told, you are not a peddler of religio-cultural goods and services. No matter how the forces of western "Christendom" have historically conspired to define your vocation for you in terms that our culture at large can more easily understand, you are not a "service provider". You are not just another cog in the free market economy, offering to bring spiritual value and eloquence to social events for a reasonable fee. No. No matter what job description you may have been sold, that is not what you are. Whether you have arrived at this misunderstanding by inertia, inattention, or intent is no matter. The mantle you bear supersedes your misconceptions about it.

Yours is not to champion polite spirituality, or to "baptize" societal machinations into transcendence. You are a herald of the Gospel of Christ; a witness to the resurrection! You are an under-shepherd of Jesus; guardian and guide of the saints! You are not a service provider; you are a steward of sacrament and of souls!

The Florist: "I make it pretty."
The Baker: "I make it tasty."
The Pastor: "I make it legal and meaningful."

This is not the ground on which to take your stand, because these grounds are not yours to claim. Here, you can only ever be polite guest or malicious trespasser. All your angst and bluster about "religious freedom" will fall on dead ears in this place; the market is not obligated to heed your authority. They will reject your voice, and rightly so: you cannot spend your lifetime allowing the culture to define your vocation, and then suddenly take offense when the culture tells you what to do. So long as you accept the mantle of "service provider" - peddler and pimp of 'spiritual' value - you will remain servant to the market and the rules that govern it, and the market will be within its rights to make sure you play fairly.

I know how you fear being swallowed and undone by a culture that does not understand or value your call. That danger is real, and you are right to fear it. But, the answer will not be found in fighting more earnestly for a parcel of borrowed sovereignty within the economy of the market. Rather, your voice and vocational freedom can only be found in re-appropriating the truth that your call has been issued to you from within another economy, altogether. You are not a florist, or a baker. You are not an event-venue manager. You are a pastor; under-shepherd of Jesus, steward of sacrament and souls. Endeavor to understand this, and you will be set free to stop fighting the wrong fight, and to start having the right conversation.


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