a caricature

Larry officiated a wedding last night, and I tagged along as the uninvited guest, simply to partake in free food and drink. A true, genuine wedding crasher. The ceremony went quickly, and they bride and groom held the reception in an expensive steak restaurant in Minneapolis. An artist had come to do caricatures, and Larry and I signed our names on the dotted line. When my turn came up, I told her exactly what I wanted, and she did it perfectly (this picture is now framed, and it will hang in my office one day): 

Larry laughed and said, “You have a lot of explaining to do!” Is it everyday that a preacher wears a Hawaiian t-shirt behind the pulpit, with a Bible in one hand and a conglomeration of cigarettes and whiskey in the other? Though it would not be surprising if I did this just for the sake of going over-the-top and across-the-line, I chose this because it has a very sincere and biblical message. While I would never stand behind a pulpit smoking and drinking (though it is not too farfetched for me to find myself wearing a Hawaiian t-shirt), and even though in 1 Timothy the Apostle Paul commands teachers and leaders to be held in the highest regard, giving no one any reason to question the gospel message, I believe that this caricature holds one of the most primary and yet often overlooked, skewed, or ignored doctrines of the Christian faith, and that is the doctrine of grace. The message I want to portray is that everyone is called by God to a life of ministry, a life of serving others in love and communicating God’s gospel, advancing God’s kingdom. Yet some people are so hung up on societal sins—here personified in smoking, drinking, and not dressing proper for church—that they feel as if they could never serve God in any capacity. I’ve met many people who have had a burning desire to serve God in extreme and wonderful ways, but their own “failures” hold them back (I would never say that smoking and drinking makes someone a failure). The beautiful thing about the gospel is grace, and God calls everyone to fall in love with Him and to serve Him daily, bad habits aside (I find it interesting that some would stand up and get in an outrage over this caricature, but if a caricature showed a four-hundred-pound man standing behind the pulpit, being in far greater lack of health than a smoker and drinker, no one would find an issue with it). I want to hang this caricature in my office, and I want people to ask questions, so that I can communicate to them the beautiful truth of God’s grace and unconditional love and favor upon His children, no matter their pitfalls or ensnaring habits or what-have-you.