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You don’t deserve it

A recent post by Thabiti Anyabwile lists stats on current pastoral experience, which he rightly calls “sad and alarming.”

These data being what they are, there is a good chance this post is being read by a pastor recently fired from his church, but without good reason.  Those who removed him cited their reasons, of course.  They had to, to justify what they did.  But you, pastor, know that your expulsion was unwarranted.  This post is for you.

You were faithful to your Lord.  You loved him and his people.  You preached his gospel straight.  You prayed for his people, served them, led them.  Then they fired you.  You didn’t deserve it.

The Lord’s word for you right now is this: “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12).  Naturally, those who rejected you do not see themselves as persecutors.  But those who rejected the prophets didn’t see themselves as persecutors either.  The important thing for you, however, is where you now stand.  You stand in the noble tradition of the prophets.  Jesus wants you to know it and be dignified by it.

The prophets suffered because they spoke a word from above.  Some church people honestly cannot conceive of religion except in terms of their familiar concepts and patterns.  When they reject a word from far beyond the familiar, they are only doing what they must do, given their own premises, to defend their religion.  But their behavior matches the biblical category of persecutors.  The ministry of the gospel cannot be opposed with innocence.

Pastor, what got you into trouble was, you violated their religion.  But you did not offend your Lord.  You spoke for him.  That was your fatal move.  So congratulations.  You are a true son of the prophets.

What feels right now like loss is, in fact, gain.  What feels like divine rejection is, in fact, divine reinvestment.  What feels like disgrace is, in fact, honor.  And by his wonderfully surprising strategies, the Lord will amaze you with new blessing.  He will bless you in ways you could not have experienced if you hadn’t been thrust out.  Best of all, he is identifying you not only with the prophets but with Jesus himself, who suffered the most.  It was religious people, with their well-meaning cruelties, who persecuted him.  But he rose again.  And so will you, if you will trust him and follow.  But you are now marked, more deeply than ever before, as his man.  You don’t deserve it.

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