Pastor Ryan Gaffney

A friend of mine works in the Labor and Delivery ward at a local hospital. She’s loves working with babies and new mothers and being inundated with that whole experience (the kind of thing which would make me run for the hills) And through her, I’m able to get some information about the environment in the ward from a safe distance.

“I hate it when mothers are lazy” She’ll say “I know, I know, they’ve just been through labor but seriously! They’ll ring the buzzer and say like ‘The baby needs to be changed would you change her?’ ‘Yes, but you know, You can change her, It’s been a day now’ ‘I’m tired…’ uh hu… or they’ll say ‘She isn’t taking the breast milk she needs a bottle will you feed her?’ well no, she doesn’t need a bottle, you just… you need to try a little bit… It may not feel like anything’s coming out but your breasts will produce colostrum which is really nutritious, and you don’t need much because a babies stomach is like…”

She gestured with her hand indicating about the size of a pea, but I was already distracted.

“Colostwhat?”

“Colostrum, It’s like a pre-breast milk”

“A Pre-breast milk, that’s really nutrient filled but not substantial in any way?”

“Yes exactally”

“That’s perfect!”

“Perfect for what… For babies?”

“For another theological analogy!”

She rolled her eyes

Here’s the idea though, Most churches today, in the interest of not giving their congregation more than they can chew are offering sermon after sermon on Jesus’s death and resurrection, on forgiveness, the prodigal son, God as provider, Abiding in him… basically all sermons that i would sum up as saying essentially “No seriously, Jesus Loves you” And it’s great stuff and it’s true, and very central to the heart of faith, but let’s be honest, It’s lazy, and we do it because we as pastors are already familiar with those subjects and it won’t make anyone mad or cause any problems we might have to deal with.

And we justify our laziness by quoting Paul “For you require milk, and not solid food” 1 Corinthians 3:2

but if you read the parallel passage in Hebrews you will hear Paul’s definition of milk

Hebrews 6
¹Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, ²instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. ³And God permitting, we will do so.

That’s what we call “meat” Ya’ll.

Laying the foundation of repentance for sin, that one we might have covered, but it hink there’s a lot more to it then we talk about. The subject is called Soterieology which deals with the nature and method according to which one is saved and we don’t normally say much about it other than “through God’s grace because of Jesus” Paul Just called the whole subject “Milk”

Faith in God: Once again we touch on it, but do you feel your church has equipped you the answer the question “what is faith?” of “what does it mean to have saving faith”

Instruction about baptisms: I don’t know about your church but mine has a six week adult education class for this

The laying on of hands: I have never in my life heard a pastor church willing to touch this one (outside the LDS)

The resurrection of the dead: This is the Eschatological Resurrection people, Not Christ’s Resurrection. We’re going to resurrect…seriously, If you can’t pronounce the word “Eschatological” in your head when you read it it’s probably because you’ve never heard in such a thing as the Eschatological Resurection.

Annnnd Eternal Judgement. Well that one the southern baptists have covered for all of us!

That’s MILK!

Meat is something else, Something more advanced and harder to chew that that. Which of course implies the question: If that’s Milk, What have we been preaching every sunday?

Colostrum

We have been preaching a very good very nutritious kind of nourishment that is designed to hold an infant Christian over for a couple days.

And most Christians I know have lived on the stuff for decades. They’re starving. They need meat, They’re adults, and yet half of our pastors are still choking on milk.

Lord come quickly