Excuses, Church, and Accountability

          I was talking with a lady recently and she indicated that the thought of coming to church made her feel guilty about her sin.  She said whenever she even thinks about going, she gets convicted and that she knew it would be so much worse if she actually came.  It is certainly not unusual to encounter those who think that you have got to “get your act together” before coming to church or at least that you have got to “be prepared to get your act together” before coming; because there is a good chance you might come under conviction and the unpleasantness of that feeling will gnaw away at you until you get your life right with God.

          Some people see church as somehow therapeutic and that somehow through the act of going there is a cleansing which takes place.  I cannot help but recall the line from an old song by the Bellamy Brothers “Sunday morning catch a speckled perch; been bad all week gotta go to church.”  But, I am not sure anyone’s bad behavior throughout the week has ever been counterbalanced by coming to church on Sunday, at least not in the eyes of God.

          I told this lady, whom I talked to recently, that I think many people look at church all wrong, especially those who rarely attend or do not attend at all.  I told her church is mainly a place to learn.  There is a reason why churches expect certain educational credentials of a man before they call him as pastor.  I went on to tell her that, to some extent, we can think of church like school.  You go to school to learn things you would never discipline yourself enough to learn on your own.

          There is an old comment I have heard several different variations on over the years.  But it generally goes something like this: “You must have been absent the day they taught manners in school;” Or “You must have been absent the day they taught how to count in school.”  This is always said with a wink and a smile, but think about how serious this can be if it is applied to the church.  What would you have learned your 5^th grade year if you had not attended even once?  What if you had only attended 7 days that year?  What if you had missed half the time?  Unless you were particularly self-motivated to study your school lessons on your own, you would have failed to learn all or most of what was intended for you to learn.  You would then not be ready to move to the next grade because you had not learned what was expected in the previous grade.

          Pastors lament the sad fact that they preach whole sermon series that their communities need to hear but will not.  Even sadder still is that many on their church roles never hear even one message of a multi-part series either.  Somehow, the man that most believe to have the call of God upon his life, has been equipped by God, and has been extended a call by the church, does not have much to say which they consider relevant to their lives.  Many of these same folks hardly miss ball games, school activities, community activities, senior events, plus shopping and eating in restaurants.

          When considering the realities often hiding behind the excuses, something rather humorous happened to me several years ago, which indicated to me personally that God does have a great sense of humor, seen through a series of events I experienced over a 4 day period.  On a Tuesday afternoon I visited the home of an older, yet seemingly vibrant, couple who were members of the church but only rarely attended.  As I sat in their living room the lady explained to me, at great length, how she wanted to come to church so badly, but she just could not hardly leave the house fearing a fall.  She said her bones were very brittle and that she had been strongly warned by a physician that a fall could be terribly serious to her.  Before I left the home, and as I stood on her front porch, she again emphasized how badly she wished she was able to come to church but that it could be catastrophic for her to get out and that she only rarely did so.  I had no reason to doubt what she told me, but the next day (Wednesday) I was in the local grocery store in that small town and passed her on one of the aisles, greeting one another as we passed.  The next day (Thursday) I was in the next town to the south and stopped in for lunch at a Hardees restaurant.  I walked in and setting right there, at a table near the door, were her and her husband.  I stopped at their table and made a little small talk with them before placing my order.  The next day (Friday) I was in Walmart in another town about 30 miles north of where we lived and, believe it or not there was this lady again walking straight toward me.  When she saw me I saw her mouth visibly come open and she quickly looked away and tried to turn as though she had suddenly become interested in the first product she saw.  I made a point to say, “Well hello again.”  She was extremely uncomfortable to say the least!  I have laughed many times over the years as I thought about, in particular, the look on her face when she saw me in Walmart that day!

          Sadly, the human mind often operates as a make-shift excuse factory working overtime to get us out of the things we do not want to do.  The early 20^th Century Evangelist Billy Sunday said “An excuse is the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie.”  In this world, side by side, there are those who have been told they “cannot” do something that are striving with every ounce of strength they can muster to do it anyway, while others are striving with all their strength and might to figure out an excuse to get out of doing what they can and should.  It has been said “A man who wants to do something will find a way; a man who does not will find an excuse.” (Stephen Dolley Jr.)

          The Bible teaches that for every idle word, we are going to have to give an account.  And, that certainly includes our many excuses. So, the seemingly insignificant becomes highly significant when God gets involved, particularly when the time comes for us to give that accounting for the deeds done in the flesh, including all those excuses.

In Christ,

Dr. Allen Raynor, Pastor