The Pacifier Sermon

FROM TIME TO time in church, I’ll look out in the audience as we are conducting our services and notice a mother who has a baby in her arms. Many times she’s sitting toward the back of the sanctuary so that she can get to one of the cry rooms if the need arises. When the baby starts whimpering a little bit, I’ve noticed that the mother will try first to pull out a pacifier and give it to the baby.

That’s fake food. It’s a piece of rubber designed to trick the kid. It’s designed to make the kid feel like he’s getting something and subsequently quiet down. So the kid will start sucking and gradually begin to suck harder because he realizes that nothing is happening Now, I know this kid’s a baby and hasn’t lived long, but he’s not crazy.

That baby quickly comes to realize that the pacifier is not food and that his mother is trying to temporarily distract him from his real craving. That baby really wants milk—the real deal. The mother normally realizes that she has two options at this point. She can reach into her bag and pull out a bottle or she can go somewhere private and pull out something else.

She can try to hold the baby off as long as possible, but eventually the baby will start whimpering, and then start crying, and then start screaming because he’s hungry and tired of fake food. He’s tired of being pacified. He’s hungry for the real thing, not for a substitute. Many people come to church on Sunday and they’re satisfied with a pacifier sermon and a pacifier song because it makes them feel good, only to discover later that they’re still hungry.

The soul demands righteousness or else the soul goes hungry.