My daughter could hardly contain the smile on her face. She was getting to do what I’m confident she’d dreamed of doing for most of her life—ride a unicorn. Or maybe it was a rhino. Maybe a lion. I really can’t remember because I was too bored to pay much attention. Don’t get me wrong I was pretending to enjoy the ride, and getting a bit of joy from my daughter’s exuberant joy. But if it hadn’t been for her, I can guarantee that I wouldn’t have been riding that carousel.
My eight-year old son was a bit petulant at the thought of being seen bouncing up and down on a plastic bear. And I’m sure that given three or four more years my daughter will develop that same sour look on her face at the idea of being caught dead on this rotating circle of shame. That’s the law of diminishing return with us humans. What captivated us at 4 no longer captivates us at 14, or even at 8.
This is always why churches and preachers are foolish developing ministries centered upon the tickled ear. The human ear will eventually move on from what once tickled it. This is why Paul told Timothy that those who refuse to put up with sound doctrine will eventually wander into all sorts of endless and silly myths. Such a carousel is the only landing spot for those of the itching ear. A rotating circle of nothingness is the only option for those who reject being grounded by truth.
Sadly, some churches seem to be quite fine with tickling ears so long as we can get them to take a bath in church on occasion, show up for a few things, and continue to fill out our surveys to let us know where they are currently itching and how best we can scratch what itches. We’ll even call it success and celebrate our growing numbers. And apart from the grace of God we’ll continue down this path until the gospel is barely even recognizable.
I suppose I forgot to mention somewhere along the way that I’m not only talking about those churches that we could rightly term Six-Flags-Over-Jesus. The entertainment and attractional based church is usually who we think of (especially those in my particular tribe) when we start talking about ear-tickling. But I’m convinced you can tickle the ears of the moralist just as easily as you can tickle the ears of the entertainment based. If we aren’t careful we will set our sights on the attractional church and pat ourselves on the back for not surrendering to an entertainment mindset all the while we glory in our lame church which also horribly misses the gospel.
Any preacher who has been engaging in this preaching thing for anytime knows even before he preaches the sermon which sections could have a tendency to get a rousing “Amen”. And if he is one of those preachers who gets his ears tickled by hearing the chorus of “Amens” then he’ll be sure to pepper a few of these in his sermon. And if this preacher finds himself in a more moralistic/legalistic church he knows that when he starts going after “them” he is going to get some applause. (And it doesn’t matter if “them” happens to be those flaming liberals or those bigoted conservatives).
But this preacher is just as given to ear tickling as the guy who pastors a church which considers a few AC/DC songs a good worship set. The same goes for the pastor who knows he pastors a pragmatic congregation and so he majors on the 10 Steps to Be A Good and Successful American. It’s ear tickling. That’s all it is. I’m convinced we can even preach a gospely sounding sermon which will tickle the ears of those who’ve got a library filled with books that have gospel somewhere in the title.
I’m confident we will soon see a growing movement of those who have been booted out of Mayberry which will be gravitating to a certain type of church. I wouldn’t be shocked to see a spike in Westboro-type “churches” which want to take back America from those who stole it. And there will be churches and pastors ready to tickle their ears with a vision of a return to Mayberry. I like Mayberry just as much as the next guy, but Mayberry isn’t the New Jerusalem. And I’d prefer King Jesus to Sherriff Andy any day.
Jesus will rattle them all. The gospel isn’t bi-partisan it’s Jesus obsessed. And as such the gospel is going to tick off the moralist, the legalist, and the licentious. It’ll make everyone uncomfortable. The gospel majors on grace AND truth. We’ve got a tendency to rally around one at the expense of the other. Jesus likes to mess up the world of both of them as he proclaims a grace-filled truth and dispenses truth-saturated grace.
If you want to be a church and a preach who isn’t about the business of tickling ears then follow the old path. “Preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching”. Don’t settle for anything less. Jesus doesn’t tickle ears he transforms hearts. Don’t settle for smiley faces when the gospel delivers earth-shattering promises and changed lives.
Gospel preaching will cause the legalist and the licentious to squirm in their seat. Jesus is opposed to both and yet is also radically dedicated to rescuing sinners of every stripe. Be about Jesus and leave the ear-tickling to those who never grow out of their love for the carousel.
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