My heart bleeds and breaks for clergy. Ever since I was a child, I saw how embattled this group of people were, how isolated, how somewhat arrogant they could become, because people often worshipped them instead of worshiping God.

Israel did this to Moses, instead of walking together to the mountain to listen to God’s voice for themselves, they delegated Moses, who had weaknesses and struggles just like they all did. And soon they began to elevate Moses’ ways over God’s.

Somewhere along the way, clergy began to be trained to teach of this vengeful genie god, fashioned after Moses’ error. For thousands of years, Moses’ error has plagued us. And now, many of our loving leaders who are called to guide to love, have turned to worship themselves, in the face of the truth of the false genie god. They are losing faith, thankfully, in this false god, and because they have been taught that the misconception in which they have been solidly trained is truth, they often stop short of looking for the truth of I AM, Who Is Love, and they worship themselves as they have been worshipped. They become humanists.

Several years ago, I sat with a fellow mom, among a group of seminarians, in a workshop taught by a retired theologian with a passion for building community in small groups. I cannot recall his name. He took us out of theory into practice as he guided us through a simulated small group Bible study using John 7:53-8:11, the story of the woman taken in adultery, as the focus.

We read through the passage, and we listened to each person speak of the light that they had gleaned as they listened to or read that story in scripture. I find the whys and the underlying original cultural context and language, the hermeneutics of the stories, fascinating. It was delightful to listen to these fresh excited seminarians discuss their newly gained knowledge, and listen to them each take a turn to use that knowledge to unpack the treasure buried in the Word.

Then one of them, a fine young brother, looked around at the sister momma and me, and said “It must be so hard for you to sit here among a group of seminarians”. I smiled. His slightly inflated ego ran headlong into my slightly bruised ego, but thankfully I was in the thick of an incredible journey of love with the I AMs, so I smiled.

The facilitator then asked me if I had anything to contribute from our reading. I shared that for the first time, I noted that Jesus allowed all the accusers the opportunity to speak, and He listened without interruption, while positioning Himself to be with the woman in a place of both support and protection. I shared that for the first time I saw how He cared for the hearts of everyone involved, speaking truth quietly, clearly, and closely to every heart while protecting them. The facilitator noted that in all his years of study he had never seen that. Neither had I. The Spirit of God, present with us in our common passion to see deeper truth, had revealed that to us.

So, dear clergy, as you delve into the Word through the lens of the ancient Hebrew and Greek, be humbly grateful for the role that you play in bringing light to the human search for the Redeemer. Be certain that you guide your congregants to close personal interaction with the Spirit of God, and may we together crush the idol of ego, as we look with gratitude to the God of all-encompassing love.