Alligator Lessons
By The Ranting Reverend
Matthew 5:11 "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.
Pastors lovingly, or not so lovingly often refer to their problem parishioners as “alligators.”
Alligators are usually marked by their lack of kindness to their pastors which manifests itself in rude and terse behavior. This behavior is most often born out of one of two things, either the view that a pastor is an employee, (which is a miserable understanding of what a pastor is and the doctrine of the Divine Call to the office of ministry), or the fact that a pastor has had to make a stand for truth in the face of felt needs.
Some alligators will be public and mount a full frontal attack on their pastors and some work behind the scenes and attack through the gossip mill sowing seeds of destruction and poisoning the well, as it were.
Alligators cause pastors great consternation and grief and sometimes the alligators are victorious over the pastor and either beat him to death or they drive him out.
But wait, didn’t God create alligators for a reason? After all, all of God’s creation serves some purpose and we know that what man means for evil, God will work for good.
Alligators serve several good purposes for pastors because alligators are good teachers.
First, let us agree together that pastor’s are called by God to serve His church. The pastor is the under-shepherd in Christ. He is called to serve God’s people with God’s Word and Sacraments. The pastor is to be the voice and hands of Jesus to God’s people, he is the steward of the mysteries of God, and sometimes, he must also serve as a theological bouncer when people are causing division in the body.
Alligators nip and plot and scheme to overthrow and devour the pastors by either treating pastors like mere employees or they decry them as unloving because a pastor said “NO” to something their sinful desires cry crocodile tears for.
This is where the pastor can become a student of the alligators for in the same way these alligators treat their pastor, we find it is the same way that all of God’s people treat Jesus.
The alligator who treats the pastor like an employee who should be here to work for them and be accountable to them and act as though the pastor is here only for them and their individual wants shows the pastor (and all Christians) exactly what our behavior is like toward Jesus.
We all carry on something fierce when things do not go our way and we often act as though the Lord has something to answer for. We try to call God on the carpet for not doing our bidding. We behave as though Jesus should be here to make us happy and cater to our wants and desires (which are usually sinful and or foolish).
What have the alligators taught us here? We are as snobby to God (which we have no reason or right to be), even as parishioners are toward their pastors whom God has given them.
The other sort of alligator treats the pastor with utter contempt because the pastor has had to make a stand which is not popular with the parishioner. This is a situation which revolves around ignorance of God’s word, ignorance of doctrine, ignorance of circumstances and plain old pride.
How do we treat God in this way? We in our pride and arrogance become angry and carry on something fierce when we ask God for something and He says, “NO.”
When God decides that our wants might harm us or others and that they are not in our best interest or sinful, we carry on against God and act as though He no longer loves us or cares about us, but could it be that He is trying to protect us from harming ourselves?
We, like this alligator leer at God and remain distant and think God to be so unfair.
How fair is it that Jesus, who is God, came to this earth and lived as a man? How fair is it that He was born in a barn and laid to sleep in a trough as an infant? How fair is it that He was attacked constantly through His public ministry? How fair is it that He died to atone for the sins of wretched sinful people like you and me?
Who are we to complain against God? Who are we to call our creator on the carpet for the way He treats us, when all that He wants for us is our salvation? All God wants from us is our company at the Feast which has no end and we treat Him with distain and wretchedness with our sin that we hold in His face.
What have the alligators taught me? They have taught me that all of the hate they have for me is nothing compared to the way I am before God.
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