The lingering effects of a remark my wife had made a few days earlier must have still been rankling somewhere down in the subconscious convolutions of my thinking. "You're so dogmatic," she accused. "You're always right, and no one else's opinion counts at all!"
She was wrong of course, and I told her so. "No one is less dogmatic than I am," I insisted. And that was that. She didn't follow up on her point. (I got to thinking that maybe she felt she didn't have to.)
Be that as it may, it was her accusation that immediately came to mind when I ran across this unusual phrase—the immaculate perception—in a book I was reading. At first I thought it was the usual formula. But that didn't make sense, so I went back, slowed down, and read it again. This time, I got it right. Those three words have stayed with me. Perhaps it's just the pungent pleasure of an unexpected and delightful play on words. But I'm beginning to suspect something more. My wife may have inadvertently put her finger on something significant. Could it be that I have it—the gift of the immaculate perception?
I've known a few people who made pretensions to the gift, but they were singularly obnoxious. You know the type. If you mention that you heard on the evening news that the economy of lower Bolivia has just collapsed, this individual knows all about it—knew it three weeks ago, in fact. His brother-in-law happens to be a close friend of the ambassador to that afflicted spot and has filled him in on all the not-generally known details.
We need not worry about this perversion of true immaculate perception. In its most beneficial aspects, it is a providential gift, and it seems to me that we preachers are the logical and most receptive persons for it. After all, our direct pipeline to Omniscience almost demands that we possess immaculate perception of some kind.
Some of us have been blessed with the ability to know (I mean, really know) that God sees things our way. This is immaculate perception in its purest and most effective form. When Deacon Jemson suggests in the church board meeting that a forty-five foot flashing neon sign at the entrance to the parking lot might not actually increase attendance, all you have to do is fix a pitying eye on him and announce, "Brother, the Lord has laid a burden on my heart for the last six months that we must have this sign. Would the Ajax Electric Company volunteer to install it for half price if the Lord wasn't definitely leading in this matter? I'm convinced it is His will. Hasn't He told us not to hide our lamp under a bushel?"
After such a dazzling display of immaculate perception, even Deacon Jemson will vote to erect the sign. But you don't have to hold your gift in reserve for the really crucial issues. It works equally well on almost anything, even relatively insignificant items: the color of the choir robes, whether the evangelism rally shall be on the third or fourth weekend in September, the amount of money the youth group can spend for its annual campout. The secret is never to waver in your conviction that you and the Lord see eye to eye. Why should you doubt it? Aren't the two of you working together? Didn't He call you to be the spiritual leader of this church? Don't you speak for God? Of course! You must know best.
But it hasn't been given to all to possess the gift in its pure form. Some poor pastors of weak faith have to struggle along with only a sort of "semi-immaculate perception." It's a handicap, of course, but not insurmountable. The key, here, is never to let your church members know you don't have the genuine article. You may sometimes question whether God really agrees with you in wanting the board of elders to move their meetings to Monday nights, but a true shepherd of the sheep would never let such unsettling doubts creep into the mind of his flock. (Not if he expects to get the meeting time changed!) The rule of thumb is: the greater the question mark in your mind, the greater must be the outward evidence of assurance. What kind of influence can you expect to have on your congregation if-they suspect you have only a partial gift? And there is always the possibility that in convincing your people of the total harmony between your viewpoint and God's, you may convince yourself and find your faith soaring unfettered into realms never before experienced until you know, truly know, that you, too, have immaculate perception complete and unimpaired.
I bless the chance meeting of my wife's observation and that felicitous phrase—the immaculate perception—for alerting me to my gift. It is strange that after all the years we have lived together, she should confuse my gift of immaculate perception with being dogmatic. But, then, she's often mistaken. I'll have to show her how it really is as soon as I get home tonight.—B.R.H.
