Weak Clergy, Watered Down Christianity

I've said it before, I say it again. Few writers are as tough on us
clergy as Soren Kierkegaard, that melancholy Dane.  However, few writers
better remind me of the high calling to which we clergy have been
summoned.

Kierkegaard, here in his Journals, notes that in his day clergy had
moved from being powerful people in their societies to "being
controlled" by the surrounding culture.  The result was a desperate
attempt on the part of the clergy to be useful, to get a hearing, to
appear to be relevant to whatever it was that the culture wanted.  Thus
was Christianity "watered down," according to Kierkegaard.

The good news is that the situation now calls for clergy who are as
tough on ourselves as the gospel is tough on humanity.  Lacking the
former crutches and accolades of the culture, we now must get our
courage strictly from the gospel itself.  We clergy must begin by
applying the gospel to ourselves, before we apply it to others.

"Even then," says Kierkegaard, "things may go badly":

As long as the clergy were exalted, sacrosanct in the eyes of men,
Christianity continued to be preached in all its severity.  For even if
the clergy did not take it too strictly, people dared not argue with the
clergy, and they could quite well lay on the burden and dare to be
severe.

But gradually, as the nimbus faded away, the clergy got into the
position of themselves being controlled.  So there was nothing to do but
to water down Christianity.  And so they continued to water it down till
in the end they achieved perfect conformity with an ordinary worldly run
of ideas - which were proclaimed as Christianity.  That is more or less
Protestantism as it is now.

 The good thing is that it is not longer possible to be severe to others
if one is not so towards oneself.  Only someone who is really strict
with himself can dare nowadays to proclaim Christianity in its severity,
and even then things may go badly for him.

           --Kierkegaard, Journals[1]

Still, all things being considered, being a pastor is a high vocation, a
great way to expend a life.  The way of Christ is narrow and demanding,
but it is also a great gift, even "in its severity."

These are my thoughts, thinking with Kierkegaard looking over my
shoulder, as I begin this week of ministry.

Will Willimon