A prophet or a menace

Encounters with the inspired

Dear H,

This week I met a woman who asked me if I knew Jesus. I lied to her and said that I did — a lie because I know of Jesus, and I'm banking on Him, but I haven’t met Him in person, and I don’t claim to speak to Him directly. And I’m certainly not like Him.

Still the other option wouldn’t do. If someone asks you if you know Jesus and you say no it gets you in a whole other conversation — one you’ve heard a thousand times about how He loves you even though you're a scoundrel and you need to repent and believe. Or you need to believe and repent. Either way you know this, and hearing it again is awkward, and takes time, and doesn't get you further than you were before. So you lie and say yes and then you feel like a clown until they leave.

Still this lady was different from the others because she didn’t stop at that. She began with a hyper-condensed version of her life story: that she was pimped from the age of five through her early teens, and hooked on drugs on purpose, and escaped and ended up in prison, and died one day and met Jesus. Personally — in heaven. And she says she was there a long, long time.

She said she spent time communing with God Himself and when she came back to earth she was totally cleaned of her need for drugs or for vengeance; and that she went to the front doors of all her rapists and told them she forgave them — and that she meant it. She asked me if I knew I had to do this to my enemies in order for God to forgive me. I said, that's what the Bible says, or something equally evasive; and then she blessed me and we parted ways.

But before she left she told me about her church and invited me to it. And I was surprised to find she was the pastor — especially because, despite the glow in her eyes and her words, she looked like she’d had a hard life. But I was surprised even more that despite Paul's statements in 1 Timothy 2, and the fact that most women pastors I’ve seen are horrible corndogs and libtards, it didn’t really matter to me. When a woman tells you she’s met God face-to-face, you have to treat her like a prophet or a lunatic. When she says something Jesus said, you accept her authority on whether God said it or He didn’t. And you judge her based on whether she actually knows Him or she doesn’t — which means, on some level, by the joy in her eyes, and the sheer light of her message. Both of which she had.

But I'll tell you what you don't do. When you run into someone with a story and a message like this, the most dangerous thing to do is to judge her based on 1 Timothy 2*.

Yours,

-J

P.S. So? The big question here: do I treat her like a prophet or a lunatic?

I have no idea. There’s no way for me to verify whether she met God other than watching her behavior for a long time — something which probably isn't going to happen, and leaves her whole existence a giant question mark. But if I see her again I’ll be addressing her as pastor just in case; and if she says something that lines up with what Jesus said I’m making it a priority for the rest of the day — which is about all I'm capable of. A man of little faith has to take little steps or he won’t take any.

And am I worse than the Apostles? The last paragraph of Matthew says that after they saw Christ die they met Him on a mountaintop and worshiped Him. And Matthew says that still, even with Him right in front of them, some of them doubted.

I submit to you that my case, right here, right now, with this woman, is scaffolded with weaker stuff.

*Am I saying we should accept women as pastors?

No — and in the overwhelming majority of cases I think Paul was right. I'm just saying that what people need more than Paul’s rules is God’s vibe — and that the people who show God’s light are just as important (if not more) as the people God hires as administrators. These are two different jobs entirely, and to judge a woman who has light because she’s running an admin job is just as bad as putting somebody in an admin job when they don't have any light — something we can see every day, and which is responsible for making church an embarrassment and a drag.