Commentary: The lesson of Smokin’ Sam and the Sour Old Sisters
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Bishop Ray W. Chamberlain Jr. |
| Bishop Ray W. Chamberlain Jr. |
May 26, 2004 A UMNS Commentary
By Bishop Ray W. Chamberlain Jr.* Smokin’
Sam was a pew man, and I was the preacher. Sam smoked cigarettes. In
fact, Sam smoked a lot. And I didn’t like it one bit. I don’t believe in
smoking. I’m against it. It seems obvious to me that good Christian
folk value their “sacred temples” too much to puff. When
I went to this particular parish, Smokin’ Sam was chair of the
administrative board. He was a leader in the church. I was terribly
bothered by this and didn’t know whether to tolerate his puffing or get
him kicked out of office (legally or illegally). What
compounded this problem for me was that Sam was one of the most
dedicated Christian men I had ever met. He bore all the fruits of
Christian discipleship. His commitment to Christ through the means of
grace and deeds of mercy convicted me. He lived a powerful witness of
grace, but he was a puffer! We
also had two SOSs (sour old sisters) in that congregation. Now, they
didn’t smoke. In fact, they felt the way I did about smoking. They were
against it. And against him. Oh, they said they loved him and only hated
his smoking, but believe me, their attitude was full of negativity. What
troubled me was that they were also faithful to the church. They never
missed a single meeting (though at times I prayed we could have just one
board meeting without them because they always fussed about something).
So I began to wonder if I could get rid of these SOSs who didn’t like
our youth eating hot dogs in the fellowship hall since the aroma of
onions drifted into the sanctuary during Sunday evening worship. Well,
all of this really got to stressing me out. Part of me was convinced
these women really did love God. Maybe they suffered a personality
defect rather than a character defect. Then I got to thinking that maybe
Smokin’ Sam had a great personality but a character defect. Why, I got
to spending more and more energy trying to figure out who had religion
and who didn’t. It was really getting through to me. This judging stuff
was hard work. Then
one day, the good Lord led me to the Scripture passage about the wheat
and tares growing together. Jesus suggested to the disciples it was a
waste of time trying to distinguish between the wheat and the tares and a
greater waste of time to separate them. Jesus offered that God
would finally separate the good wheat from the chaff. What a relief! That
day I gave up the judging business. I have no idea who has faith and
who doesn’t. I don’t need to know — couldn’t know if I wanted to. I
leave all of this in God’s hands. I
figure if God can get the sun up every morning, then God can figure out
the rest. I can’t even get a firecracker to go very high. I have a
terrible record of hanging out stars. In fact, I trust God so much, I
just leave General Conference and all the conflicting opinions and
differing perspectives for him to sort out. In the meantime, I’ve got my work cut out for me. I still have the Smokin’ Sams and SOSs to embrace without judgment. *Chamberlain is bishop of the United Methodist Church’s Holston Area, which includes parts of Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia. News media can contact Tim Tanton (615) 742-5470 or e-mail newsdesk@umcom.org.
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