Clergy Meology, Continuum

Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)

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If you're wanting some stoles, it's too late.

They're gone - shipped to a seminarian who will keep what he wants/needs and then sell the rest to other seminarians headed to ornamental churches with proceeds going to the poor.

I like that guy!

Actually, I have five left for weddings, funerals, and other occasions demanding me to look, uh, pretty for pictures: a purple one that Paul wore before he fell off a mountain on 8/17/1994 and went home to Jesus, another purple one from a pastor who loved now hates me, a green one that I'm wearing in the portrait that my wife demanded to be removed from our bedroom but has been claimed by my youngest, a white one for weddings that was made for me by a sister-in-law who will remain related by the grace of God, and a really neat one that sports the smiling faces of rainbow-colored children that Rosalie gave to me before she died and I urge you to read about her in Fifteen Secrets which I will send to you for postage or not.

But, really, you can have them if you ask.

Jesus told me to give away what...

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I've got this really ridiculous-looking doctor's hat with a gold tassle that I'm supposed to wear at academic shindigs that you can have along with masters and doctors hoods with colors irrelevant to any university because nobody real really cares just like they don't really care when you use Hebrew or Greek to prove something that nobody really cares about either.

They're in great, great, great shape because I've only worn the hat about a dozen times and never wore the masters hood because I got the doctors one before I needed stuff like...

I used to have lots of books too because, you know, that's how you impress people with...

Even if you're not smart, people think you're smart if you have lots of books...and smoke a pipe with one of 'em opened on your...

Well, I gave tons of 'em to a NT Ph.D. candidate and seminary library not too long ago; but I've still got some sets that I don't need except for impressing people who are impressed by that kinda nonsense.

Parenthetically, what I need from 'em is already in the noodle or google or...

You can get sets by Schaff on Christendom's history and creeds with the latter being especially irrelevant 'cause who knows what most churches believe anymore, a set of Barclay's DSB, three gargantuan concordances, four multiple-set Bible dictionaries that repeat each other but still daunt the dumb, 60 volumes of McGee's ramblings that are even more tedious than anything ever written by Spurgeon, Durant's boring study of Western Civilization, 20 centuries of boring preaching, more study Bibles than necessary, Jerome, Dake, boxes of unsold books by moi, and...

You can have 'em all!

Jesus told me to give away what...

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Jackets.

Big ones.

How many blue blazers do I need?

One.

Ties; or, as originally intended, gravy rags.

Really, really, really expensive ones.

How many ties does...?

About as many as...

I've even got a neat traveling case for vestments that I don't wear apart from occasions demanding me to look pretty for pictures!

Please take 'em!

Jesus told me to give away what...

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I used to think that getting/storing/stocking/hoarding stuff was the way to personal peace.

Then I started taking Jesus seriously; including His commanding counsel about giving away what's not needed to those who really need it.

And the more that I give away, the more I seem to get closer to Him which is so much more pleasurable than anything else that I ever got/stored/stocked/hoarded.

It's like Schwartz lyricized in Pippin:

I know the parables
Told in the Holy Book
I keep close on my shelf
God's wisdom teaches me
When I help others
I'm really helping myself
And if we all could spread a little sunshine
All could lend a helping hand
We all would be a little closer
To the promised land

And the more that I give away all of those former symbols of safety/security/pseudo-serenity, the more I feel...

Jesus told me to give away what...

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Jerry was one of those mentors who I ignored along the way.

He'd always say, "If you don't know what to do, just do what God tells you to do in the Bible."

Buuuuuuut...

No buts...

Just do's...

Let me put it another way.

We can be whole, happy, joyful, and secure right now.

We don't have to wait until...

O.K., if you're ready for that/Him, read Matthew 19:16-30; and don't stop at what you recall.

Read all of it!

I know it's hard for imperial clergy to get into it/Him.

It's like rich folks who are just too rich to tithe.

But Jesus told us to give away what...

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Do you ever wonder why so many with so much are so miserable?

Like Americans?

Like...?

Jesus told us to give away what...

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Matthew 5:1-12.

Psalm 62.

Matthew 6:19-34.

For starters.



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I'm not saying I've got it/Him.

I still think and do and wanna think and do lots of bad stuff.

I will never outgrow my need for Lord Jesus as Savior.

It's just that the more I pray and try to follow Him more precisely, the more personal peace comes my...

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Blessings and Love!