Got Milk?

What this episode covers

T. David Gordon, under a fatal diagnosis of cancer (25% chance of survival and two months to live), wrote some choice words for preachers in his book, Why Johnny Can’t Preach. Here’s a brief sampling of what I read as an aspiring preacher in seminary… “[T]he entering seminarian today has the faculties of a sixth- to eighth-grader sixty years ago, and the seminary curriculum cannot make this seminarian an adult by the time he graduates.” “What I care about is the average Christian family in the average pew in the average church on the average Sunday. And the problem there is not that we don’t have “great” preachers; in many circumstances we don’t even have mediocre preachers.” “Sermon length is not measured in minutes; it is measured in minutes-beyond-interest, in the amount of time the minister continues to preach after he has lost the interest of his hearers (assuming he ever kindled it in the first place).” The thought of preaching scared me to death after reading that book! However, it did serve to spark a greater interest in a mature understanding of literature and close reading of ancient texts. While the average Christian in the pew has a legitimate claim to sitting under poor preaching, that could not be said of this group of Jewish Christians who were reading the book of Hebrews for the first time. They had learned from one of the best Christian teachers in the first century. Although we do not know exactly who he was, we can tell from the quality of his Greek grammar, that he was a skilled writer and rhetorician.  They did not suffer from poor preaching, but they suffered from sluggish learning. And the author delivers that harsh truth to them in our passage this morning. But, like T. David Gordon, the author of Hebrews is not merely yelling at his readers, he’s challenging them. Yes, this passage begins another warning section. Their temptation to depart from Christ is proof that they have yet to grasp the most basic and fundamental truths of the gospel.  Lazy believers are content to do the bare minimum. They show up, when they have to, but they don’t wanna grow up. They are the Toys-R-Us kids of the Christian faith. Unfortunately, many churches establish their ministries with this target audience in mind. Everything in the worship service caters to the lowest common denominator. This is the perfect match for Johnny who can’t preach. He doesn’t really have to preach. He can simply entertain his audience for awhile. Mature believers go beyond the basic principles of the Christian faith by consistently challenging themselves. They never assume they have arrived. They are continually striving for greater maturity.  Pray & Read Hebrews 5:11-14. Are You  Lazy  With the Word? (11) Having elaborated upon Christ’s role as “a high priest after the order of Melchizedek,” the author of Hebrews confesses that he has much more to say about it, but “it is hard to explain.” The difficulty is not due to the depth of the doctrine, or his ability to articulate it well. He’s sure they are not ready to receive it. The problem is not with the light of God’s revelation, but with the darkened ability of his hearers. The same Greek word that is translated as “dull” is found in Heb 6:12 and translated “sluggish”. They have become lazy listeners, which was not always the case. This is audience understood at one point, as we will see that in verse 12. But they have apparently grown indifferent to the gospel and unaffected by its preaching. After graduating from seminary I had a desire to read books that were less technical. I wanted to read classic novels and enjoy good prose that was not so taxing on my cognitive abilities. I felt stretched to the point of tension. I think that is probably a common reaction to years of deep study. It is natural to need a break from rigorous thinking. Our brains are like rubberbands, they have a limit to the amount of stretching they can handle. We need to ease the

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