Romans in Miniature

          One of my favorite plays is “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, (Abridged).” In it, three actors rush through almost every one of the Bard’s sonnets and plays (other than Coriolanus) in two short acts.

         I’m not going to do something that ambitious today, 
but I would like to go through the high points of Romans with you all 
in a single sermon. 
Romans in miniature.

 

Prayer

         Romans in miniature.

         Paul begins by knocking down some incorrect religious assumptions.

We are not made right with God and God’s family based on: 
-our family history or family tree,
-our length of time in this or any religious community,
-sinner’s prayers said or good works done,
-being the brother or mother of a minister,
None of that.

 

         We’re made right because God acted first, 
God has already worked out our salvation, 
our relationship with God and with neighbor, 
in Jesus Christ.

         The Christian response to God’s free gift to us 
is often described in Protestant tradition as “Faith” or “Belief”.
Faith gets at a spiritual and emotive aspects of this response to God’s grace, 
and Belief gets to a doctrinal and mental aspect. 

         But try this one on for size, 
Trust.
Trust is another way of talking about this response, 
that perhaps bridges the gap between those two descriptors
—faith and belief. 
         It also uplifts the mutuality and relational aspect of grace’s effect on Christians
—we trust Jesus because Jesus is trustworthy.

         Yes, God is trustworthy, 
worthy of our trust.

 

         Imagine you’re traveled 1,000 miles by train, 
and your parents promised to pick you up at the train station. 
Are they trustworthy parents? 
If so, you expect them to be there to pick you up. 
So too the God found in Jesus Christ
—trustworthy!

 

         God is trustworthy, 
but humans are a little dodgy, 
we’re ambiguous creatures. 
We’re Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 

It is this conflict within us that Martin Luther King Junior called 
the “schizophrenia of man.”
ours is that internal conflict that author William Falkner says, 
“alone makes good writing, 
because only that is worth writing about, 
worth the agony and the sweat.”
It is this conflict that Jungian psychologists 
call the “realization of the shadow self” 
and Freudians discuss as the interaction 
between the Id and Superego.

 

         Paul describes us as perpetually enslaved to something, 
as traitorous mercenaries who belong to an occupied country…

         We’re like that guy in the Gospel, 
we’ve got debts no honest man can pay.

 

         And yet, Paul assures us the Holy Spirit acts on our behalf
—that the Spirit allows us to trust that every debt is paid. 

         That through Christ a spiritual D-day is occurring, 
and our sighing struggles and prayers 
are a sort of re-enlistment in the resistance
and an investment in the renewal of our liberated country.
         That the Spirit is our adoption papers; 
instead of enslavement to Sin, 
our relationship is that of adopted heir of God!

 

         And all of this is done in community.
-The Spirit’s acts are discerned most clearly in the Church.
-The ambiguity of being human is most apparent when worshipping with fellow sinners!
-trust in God is lived out when we bear one another’s burdens.

 

         Now, Paul is writing this letter to a very particular community
—the Churches in Rome at about the year 56.
-Seven years after all the Jews (including the Jewish Christians) 
had been expelled from Rome by the Emperor. 
-Two years after they’d been allowed to return.

 

         Paul writes his letter to the Romans for one reason—Reconciliation.

 

         In Rome, the divisions between Jewish Christian and Gentile Christian 
came out most fully at mealtime.

The Traditionalist Jewish Christians
—Paul calls them the Weak
—refused to eat Meat, 
because it had been sacrificed to Pagan Idols.

The Liberated Gentile Christians
—Called the Strong by Paul
—went ahead and ate this meat, 
assured that if there is only one God, 
then the Idols are nothing.

         These divisions may sound silly today
—but they were issues that could make or break 
the Christian community in Rome…or anywhere else. 
         Issues of Traditionalism and Liberty at tension in community
—that’s nothing new, nor something old that doesn’t happen anymore.

 

         The Weak had return to their Roman Churches in 54 or so
and find everything changed. 
         It doesn’t work like it did before. 
They lack the vision to value how the Spirit had worked among the Gentile Christians in their absence.

         So, they resort to being judgmental, 
their prejudices betray them!
They need to go back to the font of faith and recommit to trusting God, 
so that even in the world as it is, 
they will be able to see God at work, 
and join in that work.

         God has not abandoned them… 
No! God always goes on ahead of us!

         Paul encourages these Traditionalists to be curious, 
and to look carefully
at their fellow Christians and to try, really try, 
to see how they are honoring and giving thanks to God in a new way.

 

         At the same time, Paul does not pull punches 
with the so called “Liberated Ones”—the “Strong.”

         He affirms that they’ve rode the chaos 
of the emptying of the Rome Church, 
back in 49, 
in a faithful way.
They’ve read the Spirit’s calling more faithfully 
than the Traditionalists who recently returned…

         And, he warns, getting it right doesn’t make them righteous… 
in fact, if they aren’t careful it’ll make them fools!
They must not despise or discriminate against their siblings in Christ!

         The danger of innovation and being ahead of the curve 
is that you can overload the consciences of those who aren’t there yet. 
You are obliged to be in regular discernment about your intentions
—are my intentions good? 
Will my choices be mimicked 
in ways that make a mockery 
out of the Christian faith?

         To put it plainly, Paul is saying that being right 
in such a way that you ruin someone else’s ability to trust God, 
is always wrong!

 

         He prays that the Spirit will 
transform judgment into curiosity 
and overthrow discrimination with discernment.

 

         And that’s Romans in Miniature… 
-Trusting God’s Generosity. 
-Human Ambiguity 
-The Spirit Acting.
-Reconciliation in Community.

Amen. 

Unpacking A Definition of Church

 

A while back I offered a definition of Church and then promised to unpack some of the terms I used. Here is that promised post.

The Church is a body of diverse and fallible people who are stewards of God’s grace.

That grace is found most completely in the person of Jesus Christ, who is our crucified Lord, revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.

Our acts of stewardship consist of proclaiming the good news of Jesus as both crucified and Lord in word and deed, and worshipping together in ways that allow us to continue to trust in Jesus.

 

Diverse—American Lutheranism has never been a monolith. The ELCA is a merging of multiple streams of Lutheran people from a variety of places and cultural milieus. For that matter, ELCA congregations are located in a wide variety of contexts, each with their own complexities in how ministry happens. As such local contexts matter, and how ministry is done will vary greatly from place to place.

Fallible—We are a church of both saints and sinners, and as such there needs to be gentleness and understanding for those who fall short, mechanisms in place for mutual accountability, and strong rules in place to counter abuse when it occurs at any level in this church. There ought to be ways for relationships to be restored that aren’t overly convoluted or painful (it ought to be noted Matthew 18 is in the ELCA’s current constitution). At the same time, there do need to be ways to hold people to account. Functionally, our three-fold expression of Church model can leave gaps in accountability, which seem to be there for litigious reasons.

Stewards—It ought to be foremost on our minds that the church exists only because the Holy Spirit wills us to exist. As such we are always caretakers, never sovereigns. This attitude will hopefully ensure we never allow God’s work to be hijacked by national mood or political ideology. It is God’s mission, given to us by grace. There is always a temptation to identify the Faith with whatever system or ideology is “winning” in the culture at the moment. This is the “City of God” problem, what happens when Rome falls? What happens when the Cold War ends? What happens when the Counterculture goes mainstream? What happens when the “Christian Nation” candidate loses? If the Church has remembered who our Sovereign is, none of these things will threaten us existentially.

God—Who is revealed in the canonical scriptures, affirmed in the historical creeds, reaffirmed in the Augsburg Confessions and the Book of Concord, and continually at work among us, beyond us, and ahead of us.

Jesus—Human and divine, whose ministry is witnessed to in the 4 canonical Gospels, who transformed the life trajectory of Paul of Tarsus, and whose resurrected life continues to shake people up in analogous ways to this very day.

Crucified—The way of Jesus is the way of the Cross. He relativizes all understanding of authority—he is the King who refuses the crown, the religious authority who is rejected for being inclusive. All power talk must be interpreted in light of what the powers, religious and secular, did to Jesus Christ. His one command was love, his last action before his death was washing feet. We must always look for God in the last place we would think to look, and recognize that God is concerned first and foremost for the least, last, and lost.

Lord—The type of authority Jesus practices relativizes all other ways of wielding power and exercising leadership. His Lordship is directly connected to the Kingdom of God—that is the experience of God reigning in the world as described in Jesus’ various parables on the subject. When wrongs are righted, when the small are mighty, when forgiveness and mercy are obviously paramount. We as a Church endeavor to lead like Jesus and bring about the Reign of God here on earth, even as we await its coming as we pray.

Holy Spirit—The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, “the silent sovereign” has been with the Church since Pentecost, always going ahead of the Church, always rousing us to be Christ’s body in the world whenever we would be more comfortable just being some people gathered together on occasion. In our baptisms we receive the Holy Spirit, who is most fully active in our life when we participate in moments of the Church catching up to what God is already doing in the world.

Good News—The good news is that Jesus is Crucified Lord and all that implies for the world. His life, death, and resurrection having an ongoing impact upon all that exists.

Word—The joint proclamation of the Kingdom of God and the Good News. This is most clearly done in the Lutheran Church via reading and interpreting the scriptures of the Hebrew Bible and Greek New Testament. This interpretation ought to be done in a way that involves “Law and Gospel,” that is, using the scriptures to test the justness of our present world and our own actions and intentions, and then also hearing it as a freeing word for us today. This is also done through study of scripture both individually and in community. Getting a handle on what the scripture meant in it’s historical and cultural context allows us to imagine more clearly what God is saying to our historical moment and culture, without this scholarly and creative interpretive movement the Word can be badly misused.

Deed—There are many and various ways to serve our neighbors in need. All of them should be done in ways that point to Jesus’ unique authority and to the reality of those Kingdom Parables. Two examples that have bore fruit are: Feeding ministries of various sorts—in fact some Synods require every congregation to participate in a ministry that feeds people, healing ministries—be it sponsoring a hospital or hosting a parish nurse. These both are in continuity with Jesus’ ministries.

Worship—As witnessed in both Luke’s Gospel and the Didache, Christians traditionally worship in a way that contains four movements: gathering together as a community, reading scriptures, sharing a thanksgiving meal, and being sent out into the world as the re-formed body of Christ. There are well thought out documents that outline best practices from both Lutheran perspectives (The Use of the Means of Grace) as well as an ecumenical ones (Baptism Eucharist Ministry). Worship is faithful when it strengthens our trust in the God we meet in Jesus.

Trust—The Christian response to God’s free gift to us is often described in Protestant tradition as “Faith” or “Belief”. Often times Faith gets at a numinous and emotive aspect of this response to God’s grace, and Belief gets to a dogmatic and cognitive aspect. Trust is another way of talking about this response, that perhaps bridges the gap between those two descriptors. It also uplifts the mutuality and relational aspect of Grace’s effect on Christians—we trust Jesus because Jesus is trustworthy.

A Community that Practices Love

          Dear friends, have you heard about the Law of Hate?

         

         The Law of Hate is like an awful dervish, 
out of which spins all kinds of ills
—betrayal, murder, theft, and greed.

         It is the anvil upon which 
every commandment is broken, 
both tablets smashed to bits.

         It is an anvil upon which 
every link between sin and evil 
is forged for our imprisonment.

         The Law of Hate has but one goal
—dividing neighbor from neighbor, 
transforming each of us 
into unrecognizable enemies.

         It makes no distinction 
between victim and perpetrator, 
sinner and the one sinned against.

         It starts so simply
—any fault you see, 
no matter how small, 
assume the worst, 
respond immediately, 
and with all the bombast you can muster.

         Don’t go to the person whom it concerns 
that might lead to reconciliation
—no, instead publicly humiliate them, 
point out their fault and sin 
to as many people as possible… 
this will breed conflict.

         Whatever you do, 
don’t back down. 
No matter what, don’t stop, 
keep picking at it, 
like your disagreement is an itchy scabbed over wound.

         There will likely be off-ramps offered, 
olive branches extended. 
Just keep your foot on the gas, no matter what! 
Blow by anything that might ameliorate the hurt.

         Push every button, 
do everything to embarrass and escalate, 
until you are both bound to hell, 
until not a single word that you breath to one another is in agreement.

         Truly, if you do these things, 
Christ will never be among us.

         This is the Law of Hate.

 

         It might sound rather stark, 
perhaps even overly dramatic, 
but it is worth spelling out 
the Law of Hate, 
in all its viciousness, 
so it is clear what we’re fighting for, 
it is clear why love matters…

         It can fell like our society’s default 
is the Law of Hate, 
that there are plenty of people and communities 
who regularly practice hate…

         That’s why we need to be 
a community that lives 
by the Law of Love, 
that practices love…

Prayer

         We need to be 
a community that lives 
by the Law of Love, 
that practices love…

         In medieval Japan, 
when a ruler would break a tea pot or bowl 
they would send it back to China for repairs… 
and the vessel would come back 
stapled together with ugly metal staples… 
so eventually the Japanese created their own form of repair
—Kintsugi, 
in which broken vessels were repaired with gold or silver
—so the broken place became the most beautiful portion of the piece.

         So too, communities can mend broken relationships well, or poorly. 
We can practice hate, or love. 
We can embrace vengeance 
or repair breaches so that they 
shine forth with the light of Christ, 
reshaped for the better.

         And the advice Jesus gives us, 
as found in Matthew, 
steers us to a loving practice, 
the golden way that repairs the breach 
and brings us closer to being a community 
that shines forth God’s love.

 

         Firstly, the initial step is one of discretion
—the sin is brought up 
one-on-one. 
Randomly embarrassing your sister or brother in Christ, 
in front of a bunch of people isn’t the point, 
but instead the point is getting them to repent, 
so you can forgive them.

 

         If that fails, 
the second step is to get a few people to help you confront them about the sin
—and this is important
—this 2 or 3 witnesses business, is legal language 
that fellow Rabbis of Jesus’ day would understand, 
the question is, “do they have a case?”

         After all, sometimes a trivial thing can be blown out of proportion 
and it takes a few faithful friends to say, 
“Hey, they didn’t mean that the way you took it.”

         You are not trying to make your brother or sister in Christ 
walk on eggshells around you, 
because you’re too sensitive, 
you’re getting them to repent, 
so you can forgive them.

 

         If that too fails, 
the whole church gets involved
—this is to make sure those two or three you’ve gathered 
were not lackeys
—that you weren’t trying to triangulate this accusation of sin.

         You know what triangulation is, right? 
It’s the worst form of passive aggression
—you remain passive while someone else does the aggression, 
keeping your hands clean.

         Well, if the whole church is involved 
that kind of deceit becomes much less likely, and that’s good, 
because you aren’t trying to sabotage your sibling, 
you are getting them to repent, 
so you can forgive them!

 

         Finally, if all else fails, 
the person who has sinned against you ought to be treated like a tax collector or Gentile
—that is to say, as outside the community, but still welcome
—after all Jesus is constantly shamed 
for welcoming tax collectors and Gentiles into the fold. 
This breaking of community, 
alongside welcoming back to community, 
is done so the sinner might repent and receive forgiveness.

 

         In case you’re not getting the pattern here, 
the point of Matthew’s advice to the Church, 
found on Jesus’ lips, 
is that when someone hurts us, 
we ought to let them know 
in a way that allows them to repent, so we can forgive them.

         That’s what makes the Church, 
this group gathered together glistening golden 
with our breaks and tears, 
so amazing.

         In the face of the Law of Hate, 
practiced so easily, 
we struggle 
to be a community that lives by the Law of Love, 
we yearn, 
and sometimes even succeed to be 
a people that practices love…

A+A

The Emptying of the Church

There was recently an Atlantic article entitled, “The Misunderstood Reason Millions of Americans Stopped going to Church” that was making its rounds. It kind of hit a nerve with folk. At base the article noted that 40 million Americans have dropped out of congregational life in the last 25 years. Some folk stopped attending due to the ongoing scandals of clergy abuse and misconduct. Similarly folk are staying away due to a general sense that the Church is corrupt.

              But, the largest barrier between people and pews is Workism. If you work 60-70 hours a week, your primary drive for life outside of work is finding a little sabbath and alone time, not community and the work of the church. Essentially, modern capitalism has exhausted people to the point that they experience Church as too much for them. And here is the kicker in this article, the Church isn’t seen as offering anything counter to Workism.

Counterintuitively, the Church isn’t asking enough of these exhausted people. If church is just a place you have to commute to on a Sunday and sit in a pew for an hour and then commute home—that’s not compelling (even if it is “easy”). But if it is a place that affirms that you have dignity outside of your hustle, where you are upheld in community, where you find rest for your weary soul, where other people really need you, it might be worth it.

The examples of church working well as a counterforce to Workism that the article cites are Christian Communes and International Living situations. As someone who has been involved in communities like that, I can say they are amazing and lifegiving, even as there have been moments where they’ve been stifling. Also, with very few exceptions, Intentional Christian Communities are a young person’s game. Essentially, we’re out of the house and jazzed about the open possibilities of life, let’s combine our possessions and live together like Jesus or monks, or better yet both!

I have my own assessment of the forces that are shaping the North American Church, namely the 3 D’s, Disestablishment, Decentralization, and Demographic Shift. That said, I do think the article captures something worth lifting up.

1. I’ve seen parishioners plug into ministries they find meaningful, for example: interesting bible studies, small groups that have become something more, food pantry, etc. and there is a draw that goes beyond duty or expectation, they really do experience good news in community.

2. Recapturing the fervor and possibility of 20-something Christians in community is an exciting prospect.

God and Moses

 

         There are few stranger relationships between God and a human, than that between Moses and his God. 
-One gives the commandments, the other smashes them. 
-Their time together transforms Moses so greatly that his face is veiled to mortals. 
-They even have a Snicker’s commercial moment together
—God rushes out to burn up all the Israelites, 
and Moses essentially hand’s God a candy bar to calm God down, 
because God has a tendency to get a little hangry in the books of Moses.

 

         This relationship is on full displace today at their first meeting. 
These verses are structured in such a way that Moses and God swirl around God’s central act in the Exodus story
—I have come down to deliver you, to bring you up out of the land to a good land
—These two reveal themselves to one another
—they act off one another, and we get to know them not only for who they are, but who they shall be.

Prayer

 

         Moses—a rootless man, 
who might know of the God of his ancestors
—but was raised in Pharaoh’s house 
and only knows his people from a distance. 
Even his lips reveal longing and separation
—he isn’t a native speaker of Hebrew, like his brother Aaron, 
who will mediate between him and his people, 
even as Moses will mediate between God and God’s people.

 

         Moses—who has at least one thing going for him—curiosity. 
He turns and sees this sight
—a bush burning but not burnt.

         Some commentators propose that 
this bush had been burning forever, 
up until that time,
but no one before Moses had looked up to notice it. 
Only observant Moses makes the effort to look up and to see… 

         Sometimes God is acting, 
and we just have to look up and see, right!

The mundane is miraculous if you only stop to see
—to take a moment to consider how astonishing every moment is!

 

         Moses! Moses!
—He is called twice, and responds, “Here I am.”
The same words as Abraham, Jacob, Joseph
—those ancestors he longs for,
He is cut from the same cloth, despite it all.

         Called not because he is ready or perfect, 
but because God works 
through roles, responsibilities, and relationships, 
to reach out to the world.

         And make no mistake! 
Callings aren’t something stuck 
between the pages of a bible, like a book mark, 
nor are they for Pastors, Deacons, and Bishops only.
         No. Every one of us is called to be faithful where we are at, 
and also called out into a wider world to be faithful there too!

 

         Moses who wonders, 
“Who am I” to confront Pharaoh? 
Yet, isn’t he the only Israelite 
who has been more than a slave, 
in Pharaoh’s eyes?
Isn’t he uniquely qualified, 
an adopted grandson to the Egyptian court.
         Imagine a person so capable and fortunate, 
stepping back from their responsibility, 
even as God steps in behind him to fill the gap.

 

         Moses, unshod, 
so that he might honor this profound fire he’s seen, 
a fire that points to God
         God—like a fire… 
and like a fire that does not consume. 
Simultaneously Awe inspiring and Awful.

         Hide your face!
Fear the face of God.
         Even as you encounter Holiness
—literally Other than, 
separate from
Strange
Weird
And set apart.

 

         Such a God announces: “I have come down to deliver you, to bring you up out of the land to a good land.”

 

         God who is Holy. 
Who is worthy of worship,
Who these enslaved people find to be good and trustworthy, 
their Liberator.

Different from themselves, and different from the gods of Egypt
Yet in relationship with them.

         Sacred in a way that priests 
will purify themselves in preparation to come before the altar, 
and yet birds will make nests upon that same altar of God.

 

         God who is the I AM. 
         God who is ineffable, like fire.
Who some theologians call the ground of all being, 
creation’s root.
Others call the prime mover or first principle.
Creator not creature
—outside the created order because God ordered creation.

God who has no ancestors, even as God is the God of the ancestors.
God who is beyond history, even as God is the God of history.
God who can say “I Am” and put a period behind it.

 

         God who hears. 
         Hears the cry of Abel’s blood from the ground
—slaughtered by his brother Cain, 
and hears a similar cry out of Egypt… 

         Cries coming out of so many nations 
where violence, oppression, and bloodshed abound
—God hears these cries 
and calls and sends people out, to bring the people in. 
         God calls—accompanies, every individual out doing right
—even when the cost is great.

 

         God who sees… 
who saw Hagar abandoned in the wilderness
—who sees the Egyptians pile misery upon misery.

         Imagine if we believed, in our bones, that God sees.

         I say this, not to pick up that gross trope so many preachers employ, 
“God sees you,” 
and really the preacher is acting like voyeur 
imaging the secret sins of his parish.
—God as a creepy Santa Claus.

         No. Imagine! 
God sees you in those terror inducing moments 
when fight and flight explode in your brain. 
When you’re lost and forgotten. 
When you are in the arena and crushed, and can go no more... 
God sees you, and knows you, and loves you.

 

         God—The God who was, is, and will be, faithful. 
Faithful to Moses’ ancestor, even the ones he does not know
—even the unremembered ones, are remembered by God.
         Faithful too, to those yet to come
—perhaps even to we so lately born, so geographically and culturally different.

 

         God promises to Moses and his people, “I have come down to deliver you, to bring you up out of the land to a good land.”

Amen.

The tasks of the laity

 

              There’s a joke. Two Pastors get together and start describing the congregations they serve. At the end of the description the one pastor says to the other, “It’s a great church, if it wasn’t for the people.”

              And if you’ve been reading my recent blog posts about the church you might think I’m saying the same thing. After all, you might notice I’ve defined church and have taken a few stabs at the Pastoral task, but not the task of the ordinary Christian.

              In my pastoral reflection I did intimate that I see a difference between my ordained vocation and my baptismal vocation. Particularly I named prayer and intentional sacred reading as actions I take as a lay person, not as part of my “job” as Pastor. Well, let’s fill that out a little bit.

 

              Perhaps we start with our baptismal promises, we are to: “...live among God’s faithful people; hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s Supper; proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed; serve all people following the example of Jesus; and strive for justice and peace in all the earth.” That’s a pretty good list: Community, Word and Sacrament, Witness, Service, and Justice Work.

Here is another attempt at it, using the Seven Central Things as a starting point. The work of layfolk is to live what they practice in worship: Gathering, Baptism, Confession and Forgiveness, Word, Thanksgiving, Meal, and Sending. It is in those actions that we are aware of God’s work in the world. We are practicing seeing God, like Moses being aware enough that he can turn and see and be transformed.

 

To put those two lists together, a suitable description of the lay Christian life might be as follows:

Gather in community around Word and Sacraments.

Cultivate hearts of forgiveness, thanksgiving, and generosity.

Go out in Christ’s name to witness, do justice, and serve your neighbor.

A brief follow up to "What is Church? How should we reconstitute it?"

 

I just wanted to put all the pieces I'd gather in this post together in a simple definition of Church. I'll unpack the terms in a follow up post.

The Church is a body of diverse and fallible people who are stewards of God’s grace.

That grace is found most completely in the person of Jesus Christ, who is crucified Lord, revealed by the Holy Spirit.

Our acts of stewardship of this gift consist of proclaiming the good news of Jesus as both crucified and Lord in word and deed, and worshipping together in ways that allow us to continue to trust in Jesus.

Being a Pastor: 12 years on

The 12^th anniversary of my ordination and my 40^th birthday are both coming up next month. I served in two different contexts through a pandemic, I’m heading into the 3^rd year at my second call, and am also finishing up a 14-month Vice Pastorship. 

With all that, I am feeling a bit reflective regarding ministry these days. I recently remembered a post I wrote two years into my first call, back when I thought I had it all figured out. It was titled: To Do: A barebones list of the pastor’s task as I understand it and it is quite good, well worth a read. I thought, with an extra decade of experience, I might offer a similar post. This post looks at the pastoral task with a wider scope, less a week-to-week list and more long-term themes of ministry. Less about doing and more about being.

Name the core of your ministry, at least for yourself:

                  This job is weird; you are writing up a report for the council one minute, sitting with someone who is dying the next, choosing between two or three seemingly identical copiers, interpreting a 2000-year-old document in a way that is faithful to its original meaning and relevant to today, and then pushing carts full of food to people’s cars at the food pantry. I think of this experience as Ministerial Whiplash. On top of experiencing the variety of ministerial tasks, there is perception of these tasks. There are literally hundreds of people (both in the congregation and outside it) who have assumptions and definitions of what your job as pastor is and ideas about how you ought to do your job. Because this job can be so multifaceted, almost all of their definitions are at least a little true. 

Even the standard definition of Ordained Ministry in my denomination—Word, Sacrament, and Other Duties as Assigned, falls apart when it comes to that third part. Duty is broad and the question of who is doing the assigning is awkward, to say the least.

                  So, every 3 to 6 months, take stock of what you understand faithful ministry to be, and keep that definition close at hand, perhaps review it once a week. For example, the current iteration of what I understand ministry to be is: Receive God’s Grace, Share Agape, Spread the Gospel. That might sound too simple to be useful, but it is the lens I try to look at all the ministry tasks that come across my desk. It keeps me grounded when the weight of ministry starts to grind me down or blow me off course.

Be clear about time use:

                  This is a two-fold task. 

On one hand, have a system in place to process all the things you need to get done in a week. I use an eclectic hybrid of Getting Things Done, How to Squeeze Blood from a Turnip, and Sunday Comes Every Week. 

Additionally, I create a weekly chart with each day cut into thirds. I prioritize by day all my known tasks for the week and order the week for myself in a way that I have a third of a day that isn’t work each day, and one day off a week.

For example:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Morning	X	X		X	X		X
Afternoon	X		X	X	X		X
Evening		X	X

If you don’t control the parts of ministry that are in your power, you have no chance of riding the unexpected parts of ministry to a faithful place.

                  On the other hand, it is important to define what is and isn’t work for you—so define what you understand to be your pastoral vocation. For example, for me, morning prayer, edifying Christian reading (even when it leans in a continuing education or bible study preparation direction), and evening devotional bible reading are not work, not part of my vocation as an ordained person. Instead, they are part of my vocation as a baptized Child of God.

This division might seem pedantic, but one of the dangers of the ministry is to simply be a “professional Christian” instead of a Christian called out of community to administer Word and Sacrament. This danger is two-fold: 1. the laity of the community can never measure up to your “expert Christian” doings and 2. you can become so professional that you cease to be Christian, the ordination rite supersedes the Baptismal sacrament—The road to hell is paved with the bones of bishops and the skulls of priests.

Protect the vulnerable:

                  This is a hard one to write about. Without saying too much, there are abusers and predators out there, both ordained and lay, who see the Church as a place to misuse power and its ministries as existing for their personal gratification. You will encounter theft and graft, physical, mental, and sexual abuse, power plays and hurt people hurting people.

You are the fluffy sheepdog among the flock who puts the wolves on notice. Your job is to be the “bad guy” who asks the right questions, notifies the right authorities, and stands between the predator and the victim.

I say that you’re the “bad guy,” because doing the right thing often means conflict and consequences, and most people really don’t like either of those things.

The cavalry isn’t coming, but colleagues care:

                  One of my naivetés early on in ministry was an assumption that a Presiding Bishop or a Seminary Professor figure would swoop in and save me if things got really bad. It took me a frightening ER visit with chest pains that turned out to “just” be a panic attack to realize that, as a solo Pastor, no one else will take care of you. There are no training wheels; this is a live fire exercise. The buck stops with you, especially when it comes to your own health and safety.

                  There is a saying attributed to Luther, “The Pastor is the Bishop of their congregation.” Now some folk cling to this quote because they think that makes them the answer person in their congregation, or it allows them to boss people around, or what have you. But this quote is getting at the buck-stops-here-ness of being a Pastor. You are the most responsible person in your ministry context. 

                  That said, there are colleagues out there who will have your back. Go to Synod things, be active in your cluster/district/whatever they call a grouping smaller than a Synod where you are, do what you can keep those connections fresh; relationships take practice. Ministry done alone is just asking for the devil to swoop in and poison all you’ve done.

Partner with everyone, as long as they play nice:

                  There has always been a Pentecost sort of ideal in the Christian faith, that diverse communities sharing their unique gifts with one another as partners is good and holy. Sadly, for most of Christian history denominations and congregations were too well off to live into that ideal—this period of self-sufficiency and relying on a variety of props rather than the Gospel and the Spirit, is often called Christendom. Well, as Christendom is rightly humiliated for its sins, Christianity may now be in a place where we HAVE to live into that ideal.

As such, connecting with communities and organizations around you who do parallel good works is paramount. Be interested in what ecumenical partners are up to and consider how you can be faithful together. Consider too the ways secular organizations might be doing Gospel work unaware and see if you can join them in it!

That said, the humiliation of Christendom doesn’t always goad congregations to the Christian ideal of healthy partnership, and secular organizations don’t always get the church. Sometimes potential partners are unhealthy or even predatory. Secular organizations can see your membership roll as a donor list. Unhealthy congregations can see another congregation as a thing to be cannibalize for spare parts, offers of Christian partnership can be taken as a thing to be consumed in the hopes of returning to the ill-gotten riches of Christendom.

So, as with most things in ministry, be open, but also trust and verify. Discernment is key. 

Summary:

                  Between my initial more granular take on ministry and my current crop, there are 15 bits of advice. Some overlap and some contradict. The earlier seem a little more optimistic and surer, the latter more tentative and cautious. I’m writing them down as an exercise for myself—externalizing my ruminations, but maybe some of them will be helpful for other people in ministry as well.

I can’t wait to see where I am at in defining my pastoral task in another decade’s time! What wisdom will more years of ministry and more grey hair in my beard lend to me?

Silence

 

Silence
-Uncomfortable and restorative. 
-Maddening and reflective. 
-The Devil’s workshop and the presence of God.

-

         Elijah took an incredible journey to get to Horeb.

         Elijah confronted the prophets of Ba’al, 
ran at an impossible super-hero pace, 
was fed by angels under a broom tree, 
and then hides himself in a cave at Mount Horeb… 
more commonly known as Mt. Sinai, 
where Moses too encountered God.

         And God is kind of confused by Elijah’s presence there. 
“What are you doing here, Elijah?” God asks.

         And Elijah gets defensive, “I’m being super zealous, on your behalf.” 
“I alone am still faithful.”

 

         Elijah is understandably overwhelmed by the loud and devastating power of his King and Queen, 
the whole jangling royal court 
are arrayed against him.

         But God needs Elijah to know that he is not alone
—always God is with him…

         And more than that, while Lord and King, 
Not to mention words like Almighty and All-powerful 
–might be ways to talk about God, 
they do not get at God’s essence
—these descriptors and experiences, are not God.

         Elijah encounters God, 
but God is not in the tattered flapping and harsh tearing, 
of a terrible wind.

         Elijah encounters God, 
but God is not in the calamitous clangor and world spinning shaking of the earthquake.

 

         Elijah encounters God, 

but God is not in the roaring lapping of flame and fire
—you’ve seen Hawaii burning this week
—while insurance companies might call that an act of God
—that is not how God acts… 
God is not in the flame!

         Elijah encounters God in 
a still small voice, 
sheer silence, 
the sound of fine silence.

         The God who is the God of Sinai, 
the God of the Prophets, 
the God of Wisdom, 
the God who we can honestly call God… 
is encountered in tender quiet. 

 

         That is the God who asks a second time, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

         “I alone am left.”

         But you aren’t alone Elijah, 
there are the 7,000, 
and other prophets, 
and even other kings both foreign and domestic… 
You see one, but there are 7,000.

 

         Now I can appreciate how Elijah is feeling
—this week I helped 42 people as Pastor of Spruce Run…
I say that not to brag, 
but instead to remind myself!
when I fixate on the 2 people I was unable to help this week.

         The noise of those two failures is loud enough to drown out those 42 successes.

         The noise of 1 prophet escaped from death, 
can drown out 7,000 faithful colleagues and friends.

         In the silence of this cave in Horeb
—where the commands of God were received by Moses, 
Elijah encounters God as God is, 
and is sent out to find fellowship among the other faithful.

 

Silence

-

         Jesus has been seeking silence, 
a quiet place to be in prayer, 
communion with his father and our Father. 
He’s been going nonstop since his cousin, John, was killed.

         He tried to escape to a deserted place, and instead fed 5,000.

         He finally takes a moment, praying until evening
—a little time away.

 

         It’s worth repeating what I just said. 
Jesus, 
God’s beloved Son, Our Lord, 
took time to rest and pray, 
to mourn for John,
to be by himself, 
so that he is with the LORD.

         If rest is good enough for Jesus… 
it is certainly good enough for us
Be gentle with yourself, as the Lord was gentle with himself.

 

Silence

-

         Then there is Peter
—always doing the faith two step
—forward and back, 
all in followed by “Hey! Wait a minute!”

         Peter's faith is shaken by a strong wind.

         Shaken by the terror of it.

         Shaken because walking on water isn’t a natural kind of thing.

 

         So, if your faith is shaken. 
If you find yourself sinking or scared, 

The weight of the world is heavy on your shoulders
life has given you plenty of body blows and it is too much,
know that you’re in good company…
Peter, the Rock of the Faithful, the Apostle par excellence 

Can do nothing other than shout, “Lord, save me!”
         Peter’s grand devotion
“command me to walk on water!”
Shrinks to a manageable, 
“Lord! ‘elp me!”

 

         And that’s enough, 
enough for him 
and enough for us.

         After all, we’re in Matthew’s Gospel
—the Mustard Seed Gospel
—the Gospel that can’t let go of that parable of Jesus
—the Gospel that rides the image of that small weed welcoming a flock of birds into a farmer’s field 
Rides that parable, for all 28 chapters!
–that parable is fused into Matthew’s DNA.

 

         If a small faith is all that you can muster
—and for most of us it is… 
that’s enough!

         God doesn’t ask us to walk on water or save the world.

         No, that’s Jesus’ job. 
He’s here with us in the storm.

Dragging us into the boat like we’re drowned kittens, 
still wet from baptism.

Drags us into the silence of a storm ceased…

         Our Lord is present with us.

 

         Present with us, 
and presenting us with a promise—the Gospel!

         You see, Matthew has done something clever with his account of Jesus walking on water. 
He’s retold the Gospel
—Death and Resurrection. 
         -Jesus prays alone on the mountain—like Calvary.
         -Jesus disappears at evening, leaving the Disciples fending for themselves, afraid.
         -Early the next morning, he comes among them—like Emmaus or the Sea Shore.
         -They think him a ghost, but then their fears are silenced and they call him Lord, and worship him.

 

Silence

-

         The God of the Still Small Voice, always reminding us we’re not alone.

         The God who embraces us in our mourning and is rest for our weary bones.

         The God of a mustard seed and resurrection from the dead.

         That God is present with us and:
-the little, are mighty, 
-there is faith, in the midst of doubt,
-Save me, Lord! becomes a confession,
-The Sinking, are uplifted,
-The lonely faithful, find a multitude.

Amen.