Reverend

On what it means to fear

Reverend has always been a difficult and reluctant title for me. It evokes a type of authority that is best represented by cathedrals and gold in some peoples minds - and to some degree my own.

Reverend is an honorific that generally means “a person to be revered or respected” but for me it has been more a description of my posture toward G-d and people.

I posess a reverent fear of G-d

I fear the mishandling of G-d and people.

I fear the misuse of powerful words with full knowledge of what sort of impact a well crafted argument with the right proof texting and emotional appeal can have on individuals under my influence.

I fear influence.

And I have some, albeit small, influence in my world.

I fear the mishandling of love and committment, so I take officiating weddings very seriously and I take my own relationship very seriously. I fear loving poorly, improperly, or carelessly.

I fear damaging people when I am called to heal them.

I fear what unforgivness means when it festers inside me.

And I have a right to my fear, my title. I've walked the wilderness, wrestled with my superior, and limp still. I bear the weight of it, I always will.

I think this is the mark of a proper Reverend, not that they recieve respect or accolades from anyone at all, but that they live in fear at their own lack of action - because the title tells the world, “I have heared the call of the Gospel, and my life shall be its example!”, there exist no serious students of The Way who do not feel the weight of that call.

In 1965 the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King wrote a letter admonishing his fellow clergymen to join in the demonstration at Selma, this only a few years after the lashing of white clergymen in the Letter from Birmingham Jail.

Some white clergymen showed up, many of whom were interviewed by TV and radio news stations…all of them were asked, “arent you afraid?”…to which they each, in their own words, say “yes, but this is what must be done”.

Many were arrested, beaten, a few murdered either during or in the events after the march.

And that, I think, is the crux of this title; that your fear of failing to heed the call of the Gospel outweighs your fear of the consequences if you do. Reverent fear.

We need more clergy who tremble in this fear, the ones who are worth a damn and take the Gospel to heart. Followers of The Way.