Do you want to have your ears tickled?

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 2 Timothy 4:1-8

This passage is referring to preaching the Word of God even when doing so is unpopular, dangerous or seemingly futile. Preaching the Word of God today, to those who do not believe it or want to hear it, is all of the three things I named above. The truth is that we just don’t want to have someone reorder our life’s priorities or even attempt to do so. If we have chosen not to believe their “report” it is easy to discard what they have to say. Click the mouse, change the channel, shut it out. We tend set a course for smooth sailing. We don’t want our lives upset or our ‘worldview’ changed.  With dire warnings of dirty bombs, pandemic influenza, peak oil, rising crime, earthquakes, hurricanes, wars and rumors of war, beating at our ears and hearts the urge to bury our head in the sand or to listen to those tickling our ears is very great. It is easy to look at all these things as myths and false warnings….or even throw up our hands in futility. We think that we need less stress in our already stressful lives. We have been taught that stress is bad. Not all stress is bad and not all pressure weakens us.

The Bible verse that I have quoted is, I believe, referring to a time when the name of Jesus Christ and his love letter written in blood on the cross at Calvary becomes watered down and less of a focus. When the preaching is less about hellfire and damnation and more about love, goodwill, peace, and other things that soothe the soul; a time when we don’t want to be troubled, a time when we don’t want the waters stirred. Is this that time? We speak about a ‘love revolution’ and yes this is good but the reason that we can have a ‘love revolution’ is because of Jesus Christ and his death on the cross.

We are all so concerned about living the pleasant life, free of stress, free of worry. I understand that the role of doomsayer is not going to fill a doctor’s waiting room, fill a church, or win someone any friends. We all push that responsibility onto someone else….and it is because having our ears tweaked or pinched is so unpleasant that these days we turn away or tune it out altogether.

The truth is we even name our churches what is pleasant, what will draw people in, rather than name them based on the bedrock of our faith.

We don’t want to hear about our responsibilities as individuals especially from people who we have placed on pedestals and who have fallen hard from their lofty perches. Who can we trust to speak the truth? Whose report can we believe? And deep down inside we sometimes say to ourselves ‘if I cannot believe my leaders in church or in government who can I believe?’ The Bible verse above, written almost 2000 years ago, speaks of this time that we are living in now. Words written so long ago that we can apply to our lives today give me hope.

So I say prepare. What am I really saying?

I am saying that we can prepare for the turbulent times ahead. That deep preparation is needed. Noah prepared in his time and his preparation was ridiculed too. I am saying that his preparation had real world application and pointed to something spiritual for us too. Jesus Christ is our spiritual ark. Does this mean that we should ignore the physical application? At a moments notice, in the twinkling of an eye, all things could change – will change. I am saying that in the space of a heartbeat any one of us could die, or many of us could die. Once dead the choices that we have made become irrevocable and that there will be consequences for those we leave behind. If I do not prepare now and my death comes without warning will I leave behind loved ones who know what to do? Will I leave behind loved ones who do not understand what has happened? Will they have what they need to endure to the end? Will they know where to go for answers?

So while I too want my ears to be tickled I know that what I have to do now is to put such childish things away – trouble is coming – who and what is your ark?

Like Noah will you prepare it so others can see and get ready?