''But the word of God is not fettered.

He owned a hardware store and he was a member of my church. Someone had warned me about him when I moved there. ''He's usually quiet," they said, ''but be careful." People still recalled the Sunday in 1968 when, during the middle of the sermon (the preacher's weekly diatribe against Nixon and the Vietnam war), he had stood up from where he was sitting, shook his head, and walked right out. So I always preached with one eye on my notes and the other on him. He hadn't walked out on a sermon in over ten years. Still, a preacher can never be too safe.

You can imagine my fear when one Sunday, having waited until everyone had· shaken my hand and left the narthex, he approached me, gritting his teeth and muttering something about, "I just don't see things …