"Practical" is Impractical

Why Our Practical Sermons Are Impractical

It's quite simple, because we are trying to base our "practicality" on an illusion, not on the reality of Christ Jesus as is witnessed in the Scriptures.

Practicality ONLY works if the underlying reality is understood. What is practical in seamanship is ludicrous in quantum chromodynamics. They are two COMPLETELY different things, and applying one to the other is just a ministration of frustration.

So we as Christians, as we sit in our pews and love to hear practical applications, we are always begging for the practical, BUT what good is the practical when the entire ground in which you wish to delve is foreign.

• It would be like the Andean Inca's principles applied to Aborigine in Australia --
• It is like mapping a 3D object onto a 2D object -- distortions are rampant.
• It is like comparing helicopter flight with a centipedal motion.
• It is like comparing a good cup of coffee with good tuckpointing.

Sidenote: The "practical" is not about the metaphoric, it is about the actual, the techniques, the methodology. A good story may allow you to see, but when we talk practicality people are screaming for what they need to do (but what if the whole point is that when they see then they will know what and how to do).

If you do not see and understand the reality in which you really inhabit, in which the Scriptures are a witness of, then practicality is the LAST thing you need from your teacher.

An example (thank you wikipedia). Let's look at practicality in the absurd (forgive me physicists if I'm out of place here). Let's say you want "practical applications" for the use of Lagrangian mechanics for Nambu-Goto action. Well, what the HECK does that mean? Even if one could give you a "practical" application -- what good would it be? Ok, this is apparently the basics of string theory, what do we learn here? Getting a practical application means zilch if you do not understand the underlying reality.

Okay, let's boil it down simply. The practical natural has NO BEARING on the practical supernatural. And what do we often get from the pulpits? The practical natural. And how do we try to apply WHATEVER we learn, the practical natural, of course. What is the reality in which we ACTUALLY live in Christ Jesus? The supernatural.

You see the practical is the common sense. Does what you witness in the Scriptures make much common sense? No! Not to the natural mind it certainly doesn't. To the natural mind relying on God, waiting on Him, etc... makes no sense. You must strike out; you must use the abilities God has given you; God helps those who help themselves; you must do it FOR God... and on and on. But to the spiritual mind, the Scripture's downright obvious.

So practicality means nothing to the Christian when it's practical natural, because that's not the reality you've been baptized, dipped, ushered, brought, included, born, dwell into. Without seeing that reality you'll find more failing and frustration, because the two are like oil and water, they see the other as phantoms that barely interact with the world around.

Here's the rub...we cannot force our way into truly seeing. It has to be revealed and received. Well how do we get Him to reveal? Other than asking, I know not -- unless He's already done it and we refuse to see.