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Commentary
Verbally assaulted on Sunday morning Andy Bryan, Sep 25, 2008
Andy Bryan
By Andy Bryan Special Contributor
I was verbally assaulted recently after worship. That sounds dramatic, but I don’t know any other words to describe it. I was the target of 15 minutes of verbal abuse in the guise of a theological critique of my sermon.
A family of first-time guests, a mom and her six kids in their teens and 20s, came up to me in the line after the service, near the back of the church. There were a dozen or so people in line behind them.
We shook hands and they told me their names, and I introduced myself and told them how good it was to have them here in worship. It kind of went downhill from there.
“Is this a Bible-believing church?” she asked next.
My sermon, based on Romans 3 and 2 Corinthians 5, had centered on the theme that Christ died for all and not just some, that there is no distinction between people in God’s eyes, that we all sin and fall short of the glory of God, and that God loves all of us rather than only a particular group.
The visitor and her family subjected me to a litany of ultra-right-wing Christian buzz words and phrases.
They felt very sad for the children in the congregation who had not heard the call to repentance that morning. And they were angry with how I had presented what makes us all the same: I emphasized that God loves us all and they wanted me to emphasize that we all sin.
They questioned my own faith and my role as a pastor who would only preach a part of the gospel. They lamented the spiritual condition of the congregation, which is clearly suffering under my leadership. Their tone was bitter and angry, accusatory and malicious. It made my stomach hurt.
I realized that they really didn’t want to have a conversation. From what I can remember, my responses included:
I would love to have this conversation with you. Please call me at the church first thing in the morning.
It isn’t reasonable to include every aspect of the gospel message in every sermon, and your observations are based on hearing only one sermon.
If you would like to wait for me, I’ll continue this conversation in a few moments. Right now others are waiting in line behind you.
It’s not really up to me whether everybody goes to heaven. I think God makes that decision and that God really, really wants everybody to get to heaven. Today’s sermon was more concerned with living a Christ-centered life right now.
Salvation is a journey, and as John Wesley pointed out, people find themselves at different places on that journey. You can’t preach to everyone every time.
Halfway through it, I realized that nothing I could say was going to make a difference to this woman.
In an attempt to make one final point, she observed that I was nothing like John Wesley and began quoting the hymn “And Can It Be That I Should Gain.” I have to confess I was amused by her look of surprise when I began matching her word for word and then finished the verse for her when she stopped.
I still wonder, what was their motivation? What was at stake for them? What possessed them to have this conversation at this time in this place? Why would they feel it was appropriate?
Writing about it has been a helpful part of shaking the dust off my feet and moving on. But I don’t want to just ignore it, because who knows who their next target will be? I’d heard of stuff like this happening, but this was one of the first times it has happened to me with such violence.
When my son asked me about it later (yes, he saw it happening, as did my daughter and several other people), I explained that it made those people angry when I said, “God loves everybody.”
My son replied, “That’s sad.”
That’s about right. Thanks for the perspective, son.
Andy Bryan
