One more quote from H. Beecher Hicks Jnr’s Preaching through the Storm. (See previous entry).
“The reason the society at large wants to silence the preacher may well be because the preacher is under orders to speak a word about morality. The preacher is under orders to preach to the issues of institutional iniquity, governmental greed, personal perversion, and societal sin. Nobody wants to hear the preacher say, ‘Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.’ Nobody wants to hear the preacher say, ‘The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life.’ The culture wants a preacher it can control. The culture does not want a preacher of power. It wants a preacher who will be victimized by his own vacillation, compromised by his own compromises; they want a willy-nilly, foot-pattin’ head-scratchin’, chicken-eatin’ preacher whose ethics will always be in conflict with his appetite, just so they can tell him, ‘Preacher, shut your mouth!’” (p 46).
Love it!
Paul’s words to Timothy come to mind:
“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” (2 Timothy 4:1-2).