Noël Coward eventually became a very famous playwright. But at one of his early plays, the audience thought it so bad that they began to mock and to throw their scrunched-up programmes onto the stage. Never one to take himself too seriously, he later said, “I didn’t want to look out of place, so I joined the crowd in their mockery. Then I turned to the man sitting next to me on the balcony and said, “Who do you think wrote that rubbish?”
Whatever was wrong with the play did not matter to the audience. Unlikely to receive a refund, they did the next best thing—they got their money’s worth at the play’s expense.
Though church must never be a place of entertainment, it must not descend into a place of boredom either. Trying to lift tedium with novel ideas may bring smiles to our faces, but it is only in a quest for spiritual understanding that we will find satisfaction for our souls.
The Hebrew writer wanted to launch into a deep discourse on the Priesthood of Melchizedek but acknowledged its futility due to the spiritual immaturity of the Hebrew Christians. He wasn’t subtle in his criticism. He chided:
“Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing” (Heb.5:11).
Throughout the Book of Hebrews, the writer constantly taught and encouraged the Christians in their struggles against temptation and persecution. However, the one thing that he could not do was to “make them want to understand.” In fact, he told them plainly, “You have become dull of hearing.”
The lesson for our congregations is equally plain: A congregation armed with the resolve to understand the deeper things of faith will eventually begin to fathom the mysteries of Christ.
John Staiger
0 Comments