Crap Sunday

Today was the last service of the year. And it was the Christmas Message that was supposed to round off the Season of Advent, and usher in the new year. And maybe its because I had some higher expectations of my sunday service, that drove me to be so angry.

The passage today was Luke 2:25-35. Its about Simeon, and how he was the first to greet Jesus as the Messiah. What a great passage to be speaking on, to conclude the whole Season of Advent! That is, until my pastor somehow failed to get the memo, and seemingly missed the bigger picture.

He proceeded to give a sermon entitled "Your Time Is Now", and did nothing except deliver a Chicken Soup For The Soul session for 30 minutes. Some of his greatest hits include "Peter knew his moment had come, that's why he stepped out of the boat and walked out on to the water!". There was no scriptural referencing to the passage at all. Instead, he seemed to only have one point to make: "No manner how your life is shaping up to be, God still wants to bless and prosper you. AND YOUR TIME IS NOW. Are you willing to embrace THE MOMENT and respond to God?"

Never mind that there was neither any reference to the passage (He could have also read from the passage of Peter walking on water to deliver the same drivel), nor any reference at all to Christmas or the Advent. He seemed intent on merely stretching his one-point message as long as he could, with one out-of-context biblical example after another.

I know its Christmas, and I know he's dead tired. I should be more understanding. But I think even if he had opened up Matthew Henry's bible commentary and merely read from it, he'd have been 100% more faithful to the Word than he was this morning.

And I was musing to myself that my most likely course of action when I'm tired would be to seek out my comfort zone and count on stuff I'm good at to supplement my lack of time and energy to properly prepare. And if that was what he did, then I guess his Chicken Soup for the Soul message today only proves my point about how he doesn't really fancy the faithful exposition of the Word, but instead prefers the cosmetic exhortations that is more usually associated with more "liberal" churches.

I know I shouldn't be angry, but after all of us worked so hard to highlight the Advent, having this to end off the year leaves a very bitter taste in the mouth.