Bullhorn Preachers and Bullhorn Truckers

God is still speaking

This is an abridged version of a sermon preached at Fairview UMC on Sunday 4th August.

We recently visited the Biltmore. What a wonderful place that is. And then on Saturday we visited Asheville. We found it a really interesting place and it had the Bele Chere arts and music festival taking place.

Now I gather that Asheville has a bit of a reputation in the state as a kind of hippy, bohemian place. Well maybe deep down Anne & I are hippy bohemians, as we loved it. It reminded us of a town on the south coast of England called Brighton and we love visiting Brighton.

But one thing that fascinated me and appalled me in equal measure were the street preachers. I assumed they were there for the festival but I’ve since been told they are there most Saturdays.

One of them was preaching in front of a banner

Needless to say he had quite a crowd around him. Some fully supporting him but many not so. Those in opposition were holding up pieces of cardboard with scrawled messages on them. But a quick glance at those showed some of the messages talked about Jesus and love and forgiveness rather than sin. And in fact just round the corner an Episcopalian church has a banner on its stall saying “God loves you. No exceptions”

But the message the street preacher was proclaiming was full on damnation.

And I came away wondering what that preacher thought he had achieved in helping build God’s kingdom. No doubt that preacher thinks building God’s kingdom is about damning people for eternity. Well, this preacher thinks differently. This preacher firmly subscribes to John Wesley’s 4 Alls

All need to be saved, All can be saved, All can know they are saved, All can be saved to the uttermost.

We have to talk about sin and wrongful behaviours. We have to challenge sin. But more important is talking about God’s love and Jesus’ salvation for all. And how all can be saved from sin not damned for eternity!

I know some of you have come across a series of DVDs called Nooma. They are produced by a minister called Rob Bell who is based in Michigan. We use them a lot with our young people’s group and one we saw about 6 months ago was called “Bullhorn”

In the film Rob Bell tells the story of how he was waiting in a queue – sorry waiting in line – to enter a concert. And a man with a bullhorn comes along and starts to preach to the crowd. And the message was the same as those bullhorn guys in Asheville. A message of sin and damnation.

In the film Rob Bell says

“As he got closer, I hear the words ‘sin’ and ‘burn’ and ‘hell’ and ‘repent.’ And then I hear the word ‘Jesus.’ And he’s got all these pamphlets, and he’s quoting these Bible verses about the anger and wrath of God,
and how if I don’t repent, I’m going to pay for it for eternity, and how I might die, I might die tonight! This might be my only chance!”

Bell goes on to say:

“Bullhorn guy, I don’t think it’s working. All the yelling and the judgment and the condemnation, I don’t think it’s working. I actually think it’s making things worse. I don’t think it’s what Jesus had in mind.”

I agree. There is too much use of the Bullhorn by some Christians both here and back at home.
And I for one am fed up with the Bullhorn Christians who constantly preach hellfire and damnation and rely on selected verses in the Bible, usually in the Old Testament, to prove their point.

I really struggle with those strands of the Church who seem so sure about everything. Who believe they are infallible. Who know their stand point to be true. You know the type. Attempts to discuss with them differences of theology and biblical interpretation and biblical and church authority, can often result in comments like:

“Hey, you’re not arguing with me, you’re arguing with the Word of God.”

I struggle with those strands of the Church for they seem to think that God has only ever spoken through the Bible. And by the way he only ever spoke in the language of 17th century England found in the King James Bible. And they believe God stopped speaking when the Bible was compiled. Well that is not what I believe. That is not what John Wesley thought either. It’s clear that he felt that whilst the Bible must always be the starting point of our faith, we need to consider other things to hear God’s voice. We sometimes sum up this by the phrase the Wesleyan Quadrilateral
Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience.

For British Methodists and United Methodists, Scripture is considered the primary source and standard for Christian doctrine.

Tradition is experience and the witness of development and growth of the faith through the past centuries and in many nations and cultures.

Experience is the individual's understanding of the faith in the light of his or her own life.

Finally through Reason the individual Christian brings to bear on the Christian faith discerning and cogent thought.

These four elements taken together bring the individual Christian to a mature and fulfilling understanding of the Christian faith and the required response of worship and service.
Unfortunately Bullhorn Christians don’t seem to have heard of this and many of them certainly seem to lack “discerning and cogent thought” – in my opinion!

The United Church of Christ denomination here in the USA has as its slogan “God is still speaking.” Apparently this is taken from something the comedienne Gracie Allen wrote to George Burns “Don’t put a full stop where God has put a comma. God is still speaking”

I really like that. “God is still speaking.” In other words, God is still leading us on to understand more of him and of his truth.

In John’s Gospel (John 16:12-13) Jesus says:

12 ‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, the Spirit will guide you into all the truth;

In other words, we don’t know the whole of the Gospel – the Good News. It is constantly being revealed to us and the Holy Spirit helps us to understand God’s further revelations. Through the Bible, through Church tradition, through reason and experience the Holy Spirit helps us hear God speak today. For God is still speaking. So we should not assume that everything God said was in a book parts of which were written 4,000 years ago and that God has since shut up. Yet that is what the Bullhorn Christians would have us believe.

The point is God is still speaking. But are we listening? And how does he speak to us?

From time to time I meet Christians who God speaks to directly. They literally hear his voice. I’m not one of those Christians – though I know if God did speak to me I’m sure he’d sound something like James Earl Jones! So God speaks to me through thing I see in the media, things I read in books, through films and music and television shows. Theology is in all of these if we look and listen. And God often speaks to me through other people.

Over this last six weeks God has spoken to me a lot through you the people at Fairview UMC. Through how they act towards one another. And through things they have said to me. Perhaps after a service, perhaps during the Bible class I’ve led. Even when we’ve sat at table together and shared a meal. And God was certainly speaking in the silence of the mime communion last Monday.

Fairview has been a blessing to me and the family. And I leave to return home affirmed in my ministry. Refreshed. Invigorated. I leave with memories of happy times and with many new friendships made. But most of all I leave knowing that God is speaking to me and speaking to Fairview. And the word he speaks to each one of us is LOVE.

Post Script

After this sermon a member of the church came to me and shared a story. The man – Phil – is a long distance lorry driver. And he said a few months ago another truck driver came on the CB radio and started to berate fellow truckers in much the same as bullhorn guy. Phil, and others, started arguing with the bullhorn trucker and telling him he’d got it wrong.