Why Some Days I Wish I Could Be Chris Rock

One of my favorite stand up comedian/actors is Chris Rock. As a Senior Pastor of a church I do a sort of stand up too when I preach. “Stand up, stand up for Jesus!” but stand up nevertheless. I stand up for 30 -45 minutes every week and say thus sayeth the Lord. This can be extremely difficult and easier said than done. I have to say what the Bible says and study hard beforehand to figure out what God’s plans are for His people for these words and lay it on them and their lives and issues in His way.

This is frustrating cause I want to have a word in too. I want to speak my mind too. I have some interesting comic and stand up insight too. In this way I envy Chris Rock and the likes of Richard Pryor; great commentators and wordsmiths on life, done with comedy and edginess and profane passion. I got passion. I got anger. I can find some profane words if necessary. Sometimes I want to be “Bigger and Blacker” too.  I want to let loose and be loved and hated for saying what I am not allowed to say but just want to say. I want to be able to entertain people with my funny and intelligent rhetoric too.

Now, I am not claiming to be as skilled and gifted at making people laugh as these guys, but I  believe I have the crazy mind and just enough narcissistic confidence to get up there and go for the laughs and the oohs and awes.

But I regress and come back to my senses and sense of call as a preacher of God’s word.  And though I admire the art of what they do, I cannot ignore, as I hope you won’t either,  the edgier, more profane and bold nature of having God speak through and to you. Edgy, because the Creator of the Universe is bringing words of eternal life to human beings. Profane, because by far the gospel of Jesus Christ is the most offensive message known to brokenly proud human beings. Bold and vulgar because there is nothing about any of us that the Lord, in His word will not challenge, change, bring out, or call into question.

Maybe wanting to be Chris Rock doing stand up is attractive because hearing from and speaking from God’s word can be brutally, profanely and “blessing you out” honest and true.  With God’s word though, after hearing from it and then being compelled to preach its raw unadulterated truth, I can never strut with a confident smile and declare I’m “Never Scared!!”  Because the truth is, His words can be too honest to laugh at.  Hear Paul’s words for I Corinthians 2:1-6:

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.