Monday Meditation
two things necessary
Ken Tanner is the Priest at Holy Redeemer Church in Rochester Hills, Michigan. I appreciate his comments on theology and pastoral practice in contemporary culture. He is especially concerned, as I am, with uncritical pronouncements that amount to performative virtue. In the commentary below he speaks about the political gestures that undermines the pastoral vocation.
"To come on Facebook or X or some other platform and communicate this or similar messages, “Unless your pastor says this tomorrow, you should walk out of that church” or “Unless your pastor addresses this on Sunday, you should leave” is to reduce the irreducible act of being a pastor.
”And please do not misunderstand me, I see “conservatives” and “progressives” alike come on these platforms with exactly this kind of noise.
”Pastors are meant to be with people in hardship and death, to stay with people in dark places—the end of a marriage, the death of a child, the end of a dream—to offer forgiveness to the unforgivable, to always protect victims from harm, to never abandon any shamed or imprisoned person, to hear the last words of the condemned, to accompany people through all kinds of horrors, to be in solidarity with every human as Jesus shows us by going down into the waters of baptism, drawing near to all.
”Yes, it’s important to be courageous, to sometimes say what no one else will say, but often the most courageous things to say are things like “love your enemies,” or “pray for those who do evil.”
”Many of us pastors should also try on “I have no clue what to think about this” or “I do not know what the right choice is, but I will never leave you nor forsake you, no matter what you say or do.”
”Every person has something called a conscience and pastors need to be deeply careful about directing anyone else’s but their own. And I won’t let mine be violated by someone who tells me I must say this or that about whatever is happening in the moment. This freedom also belongs to you, reader.
”And I do not need direction in this from anyone who does not have skin in the game of being a pastor.
”I know where I am relative to the persons I serve, and my conscience is clear. Every Sunday I feel it’s most important for me to do two things: to preach the Scriptures for that Sunday and invite everyone to the table."
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I was reading Tanner while visiting family in Maine, where the common loons are abundant.
