The Divine Crash

Last night I was watching one of my favorite crime dramas, this episode involved a man on death row. In the moments before he was going to be executed and on the walk to the injection chamber there was a chaplain with him.   The entire time the chaplain was praying with him, reading the bible and offering words of grace and asking the man if his soul was at peace.  I could do that guys job.

I could do that chaplains job. It would be easy, the person I am speaking to isn’t going anywhere, they know they are a sinner (they were convicted by a court of their peers to be a sinner) and they know they are about to die.  It would be easy to share the gospel with them to tell them that Jesus loves them no matter what and that even know the end of this life is near they can have peace in the next life.

However, that isn’t where I preach.  I don’t serve death row inmates.  My parishioners can leave, most of the time they don’t know the moment they will die, and they are not surrounded by armed guards 24/7

Does that mean it is any different? Does that make one any easier than another?

My parishioners are still going to die, we just don’t know when. They still need to feel peace because of their past actions in this life and the next. I still need to comfort them and tell them about the risen Jesus all the way until the end.

So maybe being a pastor isn’t that different from being a prison chaplain? Maybe it is exactly the same just in different places and contexts because being a death row pastor is still hard because they have to watch people die and sometimes they don’t have peace and don’t know Jesus, sometimes the same thing happens in the church.

Sometimes death row pastors have to deal with inmates who are aggressive and fight back against what the pastor has to say, sometimes this happens in the church.  In other words sheep have teeth.

So maybe it isn’t that I could do that guys job.  It is that I am doing that job just in a different place.

Or maybe not?

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Random Thoughts by RevBT