I got a letter today. It's one of those letters. I keep them and read them every now again to remind myself not to take myself too seriously.
"Mark Love. You are destroying the church all for your fifty pieces of silver. Shame on you."
That was it. Unsigned. You would think someone with this kind of literary skill would want to take credit for the work.
I have some notion of where it came from. I have been informing congregations in Ontario and Eastern Michigan (at their invitation) about participating in Partnership for Missional Church, and one congregation in particular has some very dedicated members who have taken to sending me discouraging email. This person, if I am correct, has never met me, heard me speak, etc. I'm afraid if they knew me, they'd be a little disappointed.
When I receive mail like this, and I have received my share, I always wonder what they imagine my response might be. I doubt they even think about it. It's not really about me, clearly, but about whatever need they have to respond to fears of their world under siege. I imagine, though, that they might be disappointed to know that these just make me smile.
I chuckled the most with the attempt to shame at the end. I wondered whose mother they were trying to evoke, mine or theirs?
I think I'm rather impressive in this letter. I am a colossus, wrecking the church, evidently worse than even Judas himself since my pay is twenty pieces of silver greater. It makes me wonder if I'm working the wrong side of this, from a monetary point of view.
9 comments:
Ha! I just ran across your blog post on facebook. If only this person had thought things through a little more. You know... done their research about the proper number of pieces of silver, and possibly thought ahead about how convicting a REAL bag of silver would have been. 50 pieces of silver FedEx-ed to your door with this eye-opening letter would have surely changed your heart. Of course the question is: what would you spend it on?
Maybe it got sent to the wrong Mark Love...
Reminds me of that great line from The West Wing, "If they're shooting at you, you must be doing something right."
they paying you that much for selling pmc?
As Max Lucado says "Dogs don't bark at parked cars." Keep doing what you are doing!! I haven't met you and don't know you personally either so maybe my support based on your blog, Cheryl's commendation, and what I've read of your writing zeros out that person's comment! :)
I always considered you to be a colossus. And now we know.
Chelan, I like your take on this. But I have had sleepless nights wondering what 50 pieces of silver would even buy. I think it must be a lot because it is payment for the destruction of the church. Maybe I could finally get a flatscreen tv.
To bad they didn't sign it. Then you could bargain with them to leave their church alone if they actually gave you the 50 pieces of silver. Of course, this is dependent on the size of the silver pieces.
50 pieces of silver is not that much. Don't ask me how I know.
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