Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - June/63

Contributor - J. R. Euwema

Title - The Impatience of a Parson

Topic - Ministry

GALATHIANS 4:12-16

I do not know how you read this heated epistle, but when I read it I always get the impression that Paul was quite impatient............

The entire letter is short, sharp and at times it is biting. in this he is so different from our Lord whose only sharp, biting words were reserved for those who acted and lived in hypocrisy. Paul calls the Galatian Christians "foolish" (insensate), he refers to Peter as "insincere" and his friend Barnabas as one who dared not stand on his own feet, but followed the insincerity of Peter. In none of his other letters is he so sharp and caustic.

So this looks to me as though Paul is impatient, and at times he is exceedingly impatient, now with his fellow Christian leaders and then with those who were under his pastoral care. If, as one of the old Scottish theologians has so aptly said, "there is a nor, west side to the Christ", it is very evident that Paul here shows his nor'west side too. The calmness and the love which he exhibits in his other letters seems to be lacking in this one.

The reason for this impatience is really not difficult to find. To Paul there was but one center for faith and life, and that was and is as far as he was concerned ever was to remain, the CROSS of the CHRIST in which he gloried. We know of course about his conversion and the implications of it in his life and in his thinking too. He was completely loosed from the Judaic legalism. It was the Cross of Christ which brought about this break. Now anything that smacked of Judaism and its casuistry was "anathema" to him. It belittled the Christ, and it belied His Cross. Hence his impatience.

May I say here too that this is probably the only legitimate impatience which any parson can

and should exhibit? When the Name and the honour, or the worth of the Christ is challenged the parson should start to bristle, for the very heart and the life of the Christian religion is challenged. Paul says in his epistle to the Romans that he was willing to be an outcast if only the Christ might be honoured. Romans 9: 3. That too is the spirit in which he wrote the Galatian letter. He, himself was of little consequence, the Christ was to be "all-in-all".

The impatience which we exhibit.

First of all, and here I want to include myself, we are impatient for our own cause and our own ideals. Some of us have laboured in Canada for a number of years and our tasks have not been easy, the burdens at times have been heavy. Of course our tasks here are probably no different basically than the tasks of other parsons elsewhere. One of the ideals which any true parson of the Lord sets before himself is to unify the congregation into the love of the Christ. Almost any Home Missions project is an attempt to bring about, by the help of the Holy Spirit, a solidly unity in the Christ. Out of a widely divergent series of backgrounds, the parson seeks to make Christ thoroughly real in their lives. This means that some of the so-called backgrounds must be shoved aside and only the Christ honoured as central in all of life.

It is in situations as these that we, the parsons, are liable to become somewhat impatient. There is not the response that we so eagerly desire, the "backgrounds" are so apt to creep in and put the brakes on our holy aims and ideals. This means that many of our ideals and goals are sidetracked and maybe even negated. These goals are daily before us, calling us, challenging us, but nothing really ever happens. We see our congregations dabbling in the self-same material and temporal matters from year to year. So we become impatient and we may even become irritable. We want things to go so much more rapidly than we see them go. These spiritual goals and purposes seem to travel at a snail's pace, and we expect them to proceed with the speed of a race horse.

There are usually two attitudes which begin to show themselves : the parson either becomes so impatient that he throws up his hands in despair and says, "what's the use ?". It is then that we just let things remain, we have lost our vision and have lost our enthusiasm too. So we plod along as best we can. We have lost our interest in the hopes we have set before us when we started. It is then that we just walk in circles and of course we are pretty sure to get nowhere fast. The other result is liable to come to some others of us, we are apt to become ecclesiastical "scolds" and upraid the people of God for their slowness of heart. Either of these attitudes is prone to make it even more difficult for the parson. If he has lost his vision, both he and the congregation perish, and of course the parson gets the blame. If he becomes a scold his influence begins to wane and though there may be some who say, "well, we deserved it", they nevertheless become resentful. This too is detrimental to the parson. He usually gets the blame for all that transpires in the congregation. Pity the parson

In almost any and every church of Jesus Christ there are people of different temperaments. Some are coldly intellectual, we would almost say that they are basically rationalists. There are also some who are emotional and "high strung". Their hope is that every time they attend the worship services they will have their hearts warmed. If they have not "felt" anything the whole service has been useless and amounted to nothing as far as they were concerned. Then too there are those who have the volitional phase of their life predominant. The ideal for them is to act, and when there is no action on the part of the congregation, they are liable to become dissatisfied. The parson has to face all of these types constantly and repeatedly. Of course the parson who knows his congregation will seek to satisfy all of these three types at various times, though not all at once.

But now we also know that if there are these various types of people in any given congregation, these are also evident in the ministry and in the consistory. Here is one parson whose soul craves for the emotional expressions of the religious life, or another who seeks to become instructive and intellectual in his messages, while a third type may just thrust the volitional aspects constantly to the parson's call is to minister to these various and varying types of personality. Since he too may fit into one of these categories he is tempted at times to become impatient with those who are not 01 ills own spiritual outlook and he is liable also to show it. Since impatience too is a phase of emotional expression the parson may become emotionally upset because of the lack of response of this or that group of members. Emotions are good, beneficial and wholesome, but they must not become dominant in the life of the parson. By this I mean to say, impatience is wholesome and beneficial, but it should not show on the outside, that is it should not run riot in our lives and activities.

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