The Ushers who Show us to our Seats

Clerics are the ushers who show the children of Adam and Eve to our seats so God can put on the show. Jesus is the star of the show. The show took place in a macabre experiment on the battlefield of the Crucifixion in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) in the boondocks of space and time. We put Jesus to the test (Malachi 3:10) (Luke 4:12) (Deuteronomy 6:16) (Wisdom 2: 17-20). "Let us test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is and make trial of his forbearance" (Wisdom 2: 19). The test was done, its result was noted and the test and its result were propagated by his Church from the point and place of their obscure origin, across space and time, to the children of Adam and Eve here and now. On the battlefield of the Crucifixion, Jesus drew the sharp sword of sweet forgiveness from the scabbard of his prodigious love for us to slay the monster of the Crucifixion. Forgiveness killed the monster dead (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35 (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45). We did not deserve forgiveness but he forgave us anyway. He did not wait for our conversion to forgive us. He forgave us to bring about our conversion. Jesus was highly confident in the power of his prodigious love to induce our repentance.

Our salvation goes off the rails when the ushers think that they are the stars of the show - when they arrogate to themselves the role of God and fail to do the job that God assigned them. What is their assigned job? The job of the leadership of the Church is limited to furnishing the wedding feast with guests - both saints and sinners - both the good and the bad (Matthew 22:8-10).

Note: Clerics are the conduits through which the radical love of God passes from Jesus to them and from them to us. Clericalism is the morbid mindset that their job is something other than that of a conduit. Clerics are buckets in the bucket brigade of love. No more; no less.