The True Parable of Clergy With Sticks: A Warning Against Superficial Christianity

I'm not sure if you've seen this video or read about this in the news, but this is both priceless (the SNL skit writes itself) and tragic.  Recently Areminian clergy and Greek Orthodox clergy fought with brooms in the middle of the Church of the Nativity which is believed to be built over the birthplace of Jesus.  So here we are in the Christmas season in which we celebrate the incarnation of our Lord and the clergy of these two Christian traditions are fighting over jurisdiction issues inside the church.

At first I thought this was a parody, only to find out that its true.





I post this because this Sunday we will be discussing the Parable of the Soils in which Jesus describes the superficial Christian and I couldn't help but think about church hoppers, those who are easily offended, high maintenance believers, and those who cause divisions in the church. This is what we look like.  Unfortunately, Christians seem to have a habit of devouring and destroying one another.

Superficial Christians, as we'll discuss Sunday, care about their wants, demands, and desires instead of caring about the others around them.  Superficiality is a cancer in our churches and it leads to complacency, complaining, and divisiveness.   But the gospel is better than that.  The gospel calls us to crucify our pride and our superficiality and to pick up our cross and to follow Christ outside the camp.

We need more Christians who are willing to die to themselves and live to Christ rather than continue to crucify Christ so we can live for ourselves.


Telegraph - Clergymen fight with brooms at Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem 


For more:
GBC - MacArthur on the Lessons of the Parable of the Soils
GBC - Things of This World - dc Talk
Sermon - November 8, 2009 - "God Be Merciful To Me a Sinner": The Gospel in 7 Words
GBC - Matthew Thus Far: Matthew 1-5
GBC - The Sermon on The Mount Series
GBC - Matthew 8-12 - The King Has Come: The Gospel According to Matthew Series
GBC - The Last Week of Jesus: From Triumphal Entry to Triumphal Grave Series
GBC - Fruitie-Tales: Living By the Fruit of the Spirit Series