John Claypool, The First to Follow: The Apostles of Jesus
(Morehouse Publishing, 2008).

~~

John Claypool – pastor extraordinaire, author, ‘progressive’ theologian (in the Southern Baptist tribe they’re called ‘moderates’) – is my favorite preaching writer (or writing preacher). I’ve read more of his sermons than anyone else’s. When a busy pastor at Blackburn Baptist Church in the 1970s his monthly postings caused me to stop everything to read them. When we met and chatted at the Baptist World Alliance gathering in Stockholm 1975 he wanted to know how we Australian Baptists managed to free up women for leadership in some of our churches…

He was pastor of five Baptist congregations in Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, and Mississippi, and was then ordained an Episcopal priest in 1986.  (When you read him you’ll easily guess why he wasn’t a good ‘fit’ among Southern Baptists).

John Claypool authored 11 books, including The Hopeful Heart, God the Ingenious Alchemist, and Tracks of a Fellow Struggler (sermons while his 10-year-old daughter was dying of leukemia). 

The First to Follow was edited by his widow Ann Wilkinson Claypool. This little (148 page) pocket-book is a classic collection of well-researched scholarly and pastoral homilies.

Claypool was a master of the 2-3 line cryptic sentence, which got your attention in such a way that you missed the next couple of spoken or read paragraphs. Like:

• ‘All the wickedness in the world which [humans] do or think is no more to the mercy of God than a live coal dropped into the sea’ (quote from Piers Plowman)
• ‘We came into this world with absolutely nothing, receive everything we have in this life, and are going to give back everything at the end of our lives in history. This should give us our best clue as to what is really important in this life’
• ‘When it comes to knowing the truth, desire is often a greater problem than ignorance. Eventually we have to adjust to reality because reality will not adjust to us. Truth is absolutely supreme’
• ‘I have always wondered why clergy who believe in predestination preach sermons to influence others if they really believe that our human choices in life have already been made for us’
• ‘Creation was that moment when God ceased to be everything, so that we could become something’ (Simone Weil)
• ‘The opposite of love is not hate but indifference’
• And finally Claypool’s God is ‘the One who loves each of us as if there were none other in all the world and who loves all as he loves each’.

One of the most challenging questions we face when studying Jesus’ earliest followers is why our Lord would choose two (or three? or even four?) radical zealots among them. ‘Jesus had a very different vision of what was of ultimate value and taught that love is the essence of reality’. Well, I won’t spoil it for you. Order it from The Book Depository (I got mine for $AUD 17.60 including postage and it was in my letter-box in five days) and read it through in 12 days before you give it to your favorite preacher!

** For some samples of his sermons put his name into the search facility of jmm.org.au and also see

http://day1.org/193-the_rev_dr_john_claypool

 

Rowland Croucher

jmm.org.au

December 2011