a week late

There are some parts of church life that I just don't understand. For instance, why, when All Saints' Day falls on a Monday do we wait until the next Sunday to celebrate it? It makes sense to me that Mon-Wed you celebrate on the preceding Sunday, Thr-Sat the Sunday following. But then again, the Church rarely makes sense.

This week, however, I'm more upset about the stupid rules than usual because we missed a great preaching opportunity by pushing All Saints' back a week. Imagine preaching on this line from Luke three days before the end of one of the ugliest election cycles in history, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you..."

Even the worst of us preachers would have the chance to actually say something relevant from the pulpit, but instead we got Zacchaeus, the wee little man.

Nowhere in Scripture is the counter-cultural nature of the Good News more apparent than in those three prescriptions by Jesus. Nowhere! Imagine how different the world would look these days if we actually loved our enemies, did good to those who hate us, and blessed those who curse us. John Mayer wouldn't have had to sing that God-awful song about waiting for the world to change. Our neighbors would already be home from war. The impoverished would have a chance at life. Our TV ad space would be filled with the good qualities of our candidates rather than the overly dramatized "bad" stuff.

But, as usual, the church is a day late and dollar short on a topical issue. I guess I should be used to that by now.