Not only ironic, but also, short-sighted. The culture of competitive, consumerist Xianity is kinda like Easau selling his birthright to fill an immediate need that he let dominate his vision for the future, while forgoing the rights and responsibilities that were his calling:

Esau said, “I’m starving! What good is a birthright if I’m dead?”

Jacob said, “First, swear to me.” And he did it. On oath Esau traded away his rights as the firstborn. Jacob gave him bread and the stew of lentils. He ate and drank, got up and left. That’s how Esau shrugged off his rights as the firstborn.

The Message, Gen. 25:32-34

Scary when you think about it.

Biblical “preaching” is putting words on struggles, questions, events, actions, social dynamics that are there, right in front of our eyes; it is framing our actual experiences so we are brought back to the salvific work of Christ, through which we partake in the Kingdom.

The thing is, we are educated and we are reading a book that provides us with tons of things to reflect upon. So, very naturally, we ask the preacher to be our guide. We don’t want to get lost in the maze. But this exercice, too often, is disconnected to our life and our ministry as a community.

I live in Montreal and I am surronded by a culture that as a deep mistrust of any public discourse, specially one coming out of institutional christianity. Good preaching simply will not do. The work is cut out for us: we need to rebuild from the ground up Christianisty’s reputation by being communities that
1) very humbly go where it hurts so as to share the pain and encourage/help those who are crushed by life.
2) celebrate life and bring life in the larger community through all the means at our disposal: the arts, hospitality (featuring our own version of slow food),
promotion of public policies that foster a sense of community, etc.
3) learn the art of carefull listening and gentle proding, so as to invite people to pay attention to the wispers of God’s Spirit that is stirring their souls.