New Testament Reading—1 Thessalonians 5: 14-22
A dramatic monologue featuring Rev. Brooks Berndt playing the role of Rev. Paddy Paddlewhompus, a revivalist.
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! I’m so happy to be with each of you today. I’ve heard from your pastor that some of you have been literally falling down in the Spirit lately. Amen, amen. Well, your pastor invited me to your church this morning because he thought you should be a part of a new revival that’s sweeping across the land. Glory, hallelujah! We’re calling it the tailwind revival. Now, I said the tailwind revival, not the tailend revival. That might get me into trouble. Mercy, mercy. Amen.
Let me tell you why we’re calling it the tailwind revival. One of your members helped me to explain it. I was talking with Brother John Fite from North Carolina yesterday. Brother John was saying that a tailwind is when the wind is going the same direction as your airplane, but a headwind is when the wind is going in the opposite direction. Mercy, mercy. Now, let me spell this out for you. Amen. I want all of you to pretend your flying your plane. Don’t poke your neighbor in the eye now, but just pretend for a second that you are up high in the sky. The clouds are all around you. Down below you can see all the little houses and cars and freeways. Glory! Almost makes me nervous!
Now, today you’re not just flying anywhere. No, no, you’re flying to your spiritual destination in life. You’re not going to Hawaii for a tan. Although some of you might think that’s your spiritual destination in life. No, you’re flying to the place where you feel most connected with God and where your life is as fulfilling and as meaningful as it can possibly be. Glory hallelujah! Now, if you were headed to such a great place, wouldn’t you rather be flying with the tailwind rather than the headwind? Amen! You’ll get to your destination a lot easier and a lot quicker with a tailwind. Praise the Lord!
Well, for a long time, ole’ revivalists like Granddaddy Paddlewhompus had us feeling like we were all flying the wrong direction in life. Heavens to betsy! They had us feeling like part of being human was to fly in the wrong direction. Oh, hear me now. They said we were all sinners. Mercy, me. Ever since Adam and Eve bit the wrong apple in paradise, all of us have been doomed to sin and death. Mercy, child, mercy. We were all fallen creatures. My, my…
But in case you fell asleep during your 8th grade biology class, let me tell you something, brothers and sisters. A guy named Darwin said there’s something called evolution. Whatcha talking about, preacher? Darwin said there never was a paradise from which we fell. Darwin said instead of being fallen creatures we’re evolving creatures. Amen, ain’t that good news. Yeah, I’d rather be evolving than falling. Amen. Then, some other thinkers came along and said, “You know us humans got the potential for good and evil. We are not destined to be sinners. Sure, we can be self-centered and greedy, but we can also be caring and sharing.” Thank you Lord! And, they said, “It’s good to have friends, family, a community, and a society that help bring that caring and sharing out of us.” Amen, amen!
Brothers and sisters, let’s not go on any more guilt trips. Amen. I know revivalists in the past like granddady liked to make the people in the pews cry with guilt over their sins. Mercy me. I know some revivalists wanted to make you feel downright bad about yourself so you would march up to the altar, join the church and put a few dollars in the plate, mercy me, but I’m here to tell you that a new wind is blowing across this land. It’s the tailwind revival. Amen, amen! It’s the revival that says deep down in this community and in each one of us there’s a great potential for goodness and righteousness. Glory hallelujah! In fact, the same spirit that was in Jesus can be in us! Glory hallelujah! We don’t need to fly into the headwind anymore. We can jump right into the tailwind! Watch out now! The Holy Spirit’s coming on through! Glory hallelujah!
Now, I know some of you might be saying, “Hmmm, brother Paddlewhompus, that tailwind sure sounds good, amen, and I would like to believe that I can have the same spirit in me that was in Jesus, but are you sure you’re not just making up your own religion here? I mean for as long as I know Christians have been saying we’re all sinners in need of salvation.”
Now, brothers and sisters, that’s a good question, and I will confess that part of me has always wanted to start a Paddlewhompus religion, but before I get carried away, let’s open our Bibles to 1 Thessalonians. Amen, amen. Did you know that 1 Thessalonians is the oldest book in the New Testament? Yeah, it’s the first written record we have of Jesus. Brother Paul wrote it around the year 50. The gospel of Mark wasn’t written for at least another 15 years, and the gospel of John wasn’t written for at least another 40 years. My, my. Well, in this first writing about Jesus, Paul says early on that Jesus was a man of the spirit and that the spirit continued on through the early believers. Then, later, at the end of the letter, Chapter 5, verse 19, Paul says, “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.”
Now, wait a second, did Paul say we’re supposed to test everything, even what the prophets say? Mercy me. We’re not just supposed to believe it all hook line and sinker? Mercy, mercy. I thought part of being Christian was believing the unbelievable. Mercy, mercy…Has Brother Paddlewhompus gone crazy? Now, let’s ponder over this for a sec. Why would Paul say such a thing? Paul had been talking about how we need to keep the spirit alive. It seems like to me Paul is saying that the spirit is not going to stay alive if every Tom, Dick, and Harry and every Sally, Cindy, and Susie are running around with an uncritical faith.
Did you know that Paul at first believed the second coming of Christ would be in his life? Mercy, me. Later, he had to change his mind on that. Thank you Lord. I’m glad Christians sometimes change their mind. We would be the laughing stock of religion if we kept saying the end of the world is about to come. That would get old after 2000 years. Yeah, Christianity has had to evolve. Amen, thanks be to God. We don’t need to be backwards bobbies and betsies anymore. Amen! And, let me tell you brothers and sisters Christianity still needs to evolve. Outside these walls, there is a growing number of church alumni. These alumni are people who once went to church but believe they have graduated from it and moved on to bigger and better things. Some of these alumni don’t go to church because they hear too many things they don’t believe.[i] Mercy, me. Well, Paul knew that a good faith is an evolving faith. You need to test things out. Amen, amen. Then, you hang on to what’s good, amen, but you put the rest in the compost heap. Mercy, me. We’re ecologically sound here.
Our airplanes might not always fly in the right direction, but that’s why we test things out. That’s why we occasionally need to adjust our wings and rudders so we can get back in the tailwind, glory hallelujah! Let’s steer this baby back into the Holy Spirit. Glory hallelujah! Now, I know what some of you might be saying, “Brother Paddlewhompus, aren’t you kind of embarrassed by Paul? I mean why would you want to be a Christian when someone so important to your faith can get things so wrong.”
Oh, I think that’s why we need to remember that evolving and growing is part of what it means to be human.. Why should we be embarrassed about it? Paul evolved, Christians evolve, everyone and every religion evolves whether they like to admit it or not. Instead, we should be glad to be part of an evolving faith that is honest about what it means to be human. Amen, amen. Honesty will help keep the Spirit alive. Amen. I know I want to be on a plane flown by a pilot who’s honest. I want to know when we are getting low on fuel, so I can start putting on my parachute. I want to know when we’re flying in the wrong direction. Don’t tell me we’re in Maui when we haven’t left Kansas. Mercy me!
Even though preachers like Granddaddy Paddlewhompus got some things wrong, they also got some things right. Something I always liked was when granddaddy came to the end of his sermons, he would say, “Oh, brothers and sisters, I can see my pilot now! He’s going to the promised land! Raise your hands if you want to go to the promised land! He’s got room for any and all! He’s got room for you and for me. He’s got room for plenty and more. Glory hallelujah! It’s the tailwind express! I can see it now. It’s headed toward the runway. (Rev. Paddlewhompus stretches his arms out like an airplane and heads to the center aisle). Oh, but it’s going to need some Holy Spirit power. Can you clap your hands for me? Can you stomp your feet for me? (Rev. Paddlewhompus runs down the center aisle with his arms stretched out as he yells, “Glory Hallelujah!”)
[i] Many of the ideas in this sermon about church alumni as well as the theological ideas come from John Shelby Spong, Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speaks to Believers in Exile, (San Francisco: HaperCollins, 1998).