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Why Do You Think Vicars Are Boring?
Are Christians not allowed to enjoy themselves like everyone else?
When I see adverts for clergy appointments, I often laugh out loud. They usually require someone to have all the credentials of the Archangel Michael, possess the ability to be in two places at once and also have a higher degree in business management. I’m fairly sure that God didn’t expect that — even of his top archangel.
For a lot of people this is not an issue. But it represents how anyone who professes to be Christian is regarded. We are expected to morph into grey-faced and very serious people, who never swear, never drink or smoke, and always act in the purest of ways.
Clergy have a representative, social position, so there are clear standards of behaviour which you would expect in any profession. But the expectations I am talking about go much deeper than just professional standards. They apply to all those who call themselves Christian. In a sense, we are all ‘professionals’ when we take Christ into our lives and that’s how people see us and expect us to think and act. “Professing” a set of beliefs means living those beliefs for all to see. Christians have to accept that picking up the cross of Christ involves, among other things, the burden of expectation on their way of living.