Ostensibly picking up on gospel notion of not being distracted by lesser concerns, preacher digs up tried and true chestnut, list of woes of rest of world compared to us, offering exercise in guilt-tripping for one of your most guilt-prone of audiences: sunday churchgoers, especially those eager beavers who show up at early mass.
It's like telling a dirty joke at Vegas, easy way to get a laugh; so here it's easy way to get attention. Cheaply. It's a double win for preacher, who fills his need (a) to get our attention and (b) to promulgate his sense of what's right and wrong with the world.
Meanwhile, as to being caught in a trap, which is the gospel message, one in which Christians are too often caught is that of self-flagellation. But the preacher prefers to see us in that trap and in fact facilitates it.
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Reader D. adds: You can't beat the Lutheran Hour (half-hour), Sundays, 6-6:30 a.m. on WGN [“began in 1930, is the world's longest-running, Christian outreach radio program”]. Often the topic is the Gospel of Sunday's Mass, plus a well-sung hymn by a decent choir and a Q & A. I consider the Lutheran Hour high church -- then I go across the street to my low [RC] church, except of course, we have the Eucharist, which is sort of checkmate.
2 comments:
Reader D: the Eucharist advantage is slight if it exists at all: Lutherans, too, believe in the real efficacy of the sacrament of communion. As you probably know, Lutherans believe in consubstantion.
So you might want to visit a Missouri Synod congregation....
The Lutheran Hour is definitely a decent broadcast, though I am more of the simpler (less sacerdotal) variety of protestant.
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