The other night I headed into downtown Philly for a stroll with some friends from out of town. We walked down to Penn's Landing along the river, where there are street performers, artists, musicians. We passed a great magician who did some pretty sweet tricks like pour change out of his iPhone, and then there was a preacher. He wasn't quite as captivating as the magician. He stood on a box, yelling into a microphone, and beside him was a coffin with a fake dead body inside. He talked about how we are all going to die and go to hell if we don't know Jesus.
Some folks snickered. Some told him to shut the hell up. A couple of teenagers tried to steal the dead body in the coffin. All I could do was think to myself, I want to jump up on a box beside him and yell at the top of my lungs, "God is not a monster." Maybe next time I will.
Yeah, apparently emergents don't like ALL attempts at being hip, creative, and relevant. A guy doing cheap like illusions, no problem. A guy who may have been trying to save people'e souls, that's just unacceptable.
There was a prophet who once broke a jar to illustrate a point, and the people who saw it mocked him, and the priest who heard him had him beaten and put in prison (Jeremiah 19 and 20). Mockers are so much more sophisticated nowadays--they write articles in national magazines, mocking those who tell the people the truth, and the one they mock has no chance to respond.
Perhaps the man Claiborne holds up to mocking will never read this, but if that should happen, consider please these words the prophet spoke.
11 But the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior;
so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced;
their dishonor will never be forgotten.
12 O LORD Almighty, you who examine the righteous
and probe the heart and mind,
let me see your vengeance upon them,
for to you I have committed my cause.
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