Boldness? Courage? Or something else?

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I sent an email to my pastor today about his sermon this past Sunday morning. I sent a copy of it to all the elders on the Session. One person I respect said that it took a lot of guts to do what I did. Funny. I did more thinking about how to say what I did than whether to say it. I've gotten a belly full, is all.

Here's what I said:

"Dean;

I have some objections to your sermon last Sunday morning that I would like to address.

1. I think you used the scripture passage inappropriately. You used Jesus' statement "...Let us go to another town to preach, for that is why I came out…" as a basis for saying that Jesus' primary reason for coming to earth was to preach the gospel. I do not see how that statement can be used as a support for your stance. It seems obvious to me that Jesus had "come out" to pray early in the morning. I think it is a stretch to use it as a basis for His coming to earth.

2. You stated that Jesus' primary purpose in life was to preach the gospel. I object to that statement strenuously! Jesus' primary purpose was to save us from our sins by living a perfect life, atoning for our sins, and rising from the dead. I know you understand this already. However, I object to you saying that His primary purpose in life was to preach the gospel for a couple of reasons:
a. It's incorrect.
b. There are people in our congregation who are young in their faith and not as able to distinguish between an act of Jesus' ministry and His purpose in coming.

3. It is my opinion you used your point to make a legalistic application—if preaching the gospel were Jesus' primary purpose in life, so should it be our primary purpose in life. I object to this application. My primary purpose in life is not to preach the gospel, rather to serve the Lord in all ways out of gratitude for my salvation.

4. I object to the speculations you made as to the content of Jesus' prayer, because I do not think they were based on the scripture passage or any other biblical account of Jesus' prayers.

5. I object to the fact that you emphasized how the leper disobeyed Christ in telling others about his healing; that he sinned in his disobedience. You ignored an opportunity to use the cleansing of the leper to illustrate the power of Christ to cleanse us from our sins."

I will be curious to see what kind of response I get. The thing is that I know I'm not the only one who felt this way. Thank goodness! At least I'm not out there on my own.

On another note, my mom is back at my house after having been at my sister's house and then back here for some doctor's appointments. I don't know when she is leaving but I know it won't be tomorrow. Makes me laugh because I'm just letting her do what she wants to do. I just can't worry about it--as long as she gives me my space at night we're doing okay. So far so good, but it's day one. No, she isn't that bad--she's gotten better able to just "be" around me instead of trying to remake me in her mold.

So I don't know if what I did today was really courage or not... it could have been just plain ole cussidness.