Ignorance

A few years ago in a village in a neighboring country, a preacher got annoyed at something he thought was disorderly and asked rhetorically if the congregation (including himself) were pigs and dogs or people. Every last person got up and walked out.

Last Sunday I heard an interesting sermon. The preacher saw three things in the story of Demetrius the silversmith (the guy that started a riot in Ephesus over Paul’s teaching - Acts 19:23ff). He said it showed him three things that can hinder us from knowing God: 1) love of money. Demetrius made silver statues of the goddess and was losing business. 2) Reputation, valuing the world’s standards more than God’s. 3) Ignorance. Most of the people gathered at the theater for the riot didn’t even know why they were there. Although it seems rather doubtful that the author really intended to teach that in that passage, my knowledge of people tells me that those three things probably DO keep people from God.

But then the “application”. Are you ready? Whoever didn’t sign up for the church’s 5-minutes a day Bible reading program is IGNORANT! He shouted a great, loud, pew-shaking IGNORANT about three times. Never mind that most people in that audience are already reading their Bibles. Never mind that many are spending a lot more than 5 minutes a day doing it. We are all IGNORANT because we didn’t sign up. Proof? Because most of those rioters in Ephesus long ago didn’t know why they were there.

Get it? Neither do I. Probably because I am so ignorant.

Shouting at people and calling them ignorant is a rather insulting thing to do in this part of the world. So I thought it was interesting that nobody in the congregation walked out. In fact one lady told me a few days later that the shouting didn't pierce her heart at all, she just brushed it off as she has a lot of things to read already.

Hmmm...