P.A. Chacko

To begin with, let us turn to Ezekiel 34. ‘Because my pastors did not look after my sheep, but pastured themselves and did not pasture the sheep, because of this, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord: I swear I am coming against these shepherds. I will save my sheep, that they may no longer be food for their mouths (Ez. 34:8-10).

Ezekiel’s prophecy has perennial resonance and relevance. Pastors have, by commitment, grave task of being faithful guards at their post. The faithful are God’s chosen people for whom God has great predilection. He does not want them to get strayed, scattered, scandalized or lost by the misdeeds of their pastors. God is a jealous lover. He cares for his people with an envious and everlasting love.

Do today’s pastors realize that? Not when scandals are reported, the faithful are divided or scandalized or numbed with confusion. Be one a simple pastor or be one up the ladder of the hierarchy, all are equally accountable to the Lord as regards the duty entrusted to him or her. The greater authority you hold, the greater your responsibility and accountability to God and to His people. That is where transparency is a value every pastor in the Church is called upon to cherish and demonstrate in practice.

Today, the faithful are not just literate, but educated and discerning, and are capable of takingup responsibilities in helping to run the administration of the Church. That is where the pastors cannot and should not hide under the aura of divine authority by keeping to themselves the keys of the Kingdom.

One important and slippery field is the temporal administration where finance or property is involved. The temporal realm may overpower the spiritual realm and pastors, instead of attending to the spiritual needs of the faithful, engage themselves in temporal administration. This slippery field can swallow the integrity of God’s pastors.

The higher the Church’s steeples go up, the greater the temptation to compete with one another to show that my Church is bigger than yours. The way the faithful are fleeced by some pastors becomes not just a talking point but causes anger and frustration among the Jesus folks. Pope Francis points out that some churches have turned into shopping complexes. Everything has a fixed price.

Unfortunately, Kerala takes the cake in parading the power and material glory of the Church. That was how Europe and America prided in their high rise churches and material glory. But, unfortunately today many of those churches remain empty of their ‘sheep’ and remain as museum pieces. True or not, a recent social media message has gone viral indicating that two churches in the US have been sold to the Hindu community due to lack of the ‘sheep.’ It could be a false alarm. However, the pastors need to be extra conscious in not running after material wealth and temporal glory. Else, Ezekiel’s prophetic sanction will and should become a modern reality: Jesus with a whip in the hand among the money changers in His Church.