...And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

And now you know where the strange sermon title comes from. True enough, the church often DOES provoke us in the wrong way. You may have heard me tell of my father's response when, years ago, I asked him what the hardest part of being a minister was. I had posed the question just after he had conducted the funeral of one of the great saints of his congregation and thought he would respond with something such as that experience. Not at all. He said the toughest part of being a minister is going to a board or committee meeting, watching people behave in a manner absolutely contrary to…