Category: Focus Columns

God’s Ministry Through Servant Leaders is Cosmic

January 21, 2016

By:  James L. Brewer-Calvert

“The apostles returned to Jesus,

and told him all that they had done and taught.” — Mark 6: 30

            This Sunday morning First Christian Church will be installing and commissioning servant leaders who will become new elders, deacons, and elected officers of the Church Board.  We hope you will be present at 10:30AM.  If you cannot we ask that you lift up God’s people in your prayers.

They say that a new church servant leader was talking with a hard-working woman who was a devoted follower of Christ.  She was likewise active in community service projects and present at every worship service.  She said that one day their pastor expressed thanks for her commitment to being present every Sunday.  She responded, “Yes, it is such a blessing after a hard week of work to come to church, sit down on soft pew cushions, and not think about anything.”

From the Bible we learn that disciples are sent out in pairs and small groups.  Jesus’ followers are commissioned to serve with joy and sincerity.  Like our spiritual forbearers, when we return from our adventures we are eager to tell the highlights and challenges and to hear words of affirmation and sympathy. In Calling and Character, William Willmon imagines the disciples shouting as they return to Jesus, “It works!  We are actually ministers!”[1]  The disciples return to Him with joy and a good bit of pure astonishment.  “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!”  Jesus said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightening.”  (Luke 10: 17-18)  Willimon writes, “In other words, this ministry is much more than helping people, more even than healing and preaching… God is taking back the whole cosmos through our work.”[2] Ministry in the name of Jesus is transformational, miraculous, cosmic.

The biblical model for church leadership described here guided both the first churches and later the Disciples of Christ revival movement.  This biblical model taught disciples like us how to be servant leaders:    

Ø Don’t work alone.  Do ministry in teams, working together for the greater good.

Ø  Don’t become isolated. Be, share, and serve in the context of a faith community.

Ø  Don’t be ostentatious.  Live simply, and trust in the Lord to provide for your physical and spiritual needs.

Ø  Don’t be obstinate.  When you are rejected or ignored, let go of any grudges or discontent, learn the lessons you must, and move on.

Ø Don’t neglect the disinherited. Emulate Jesus by serving to and with the marginalized, calling His people by name, and ministering with humility.

Ø  Don’t forget who or whose you are. You are a child of God!   You’ve been baptized, called and anointed to serve humbly, as one with divine authority, with “…no arrogant display of power, for [you are] the servant of God whose ministry will take [you] to the cross.”[3]

Ø  Do take your cue from God as revealed in Jesus Christ.  Look first to Jesus as God’s embodiment of messiah, mission and message.

What would you do and be and share if you knew that God would not let you fail?  If you knew that the word of God does not return unfulfilled?  If you knew that your declaration of your availability to serve is the very change the Lord has been waiting for?  What would you do if you got tired?

We do get weary; oh so weary with giving away and pouring out. We question and wonder and question some more.  That is fine.   You and I are not alone in our journeys of giving out and giving in, repeatedly seeking to be refueled and refilled with the Holy Spirit.  The love of Christ stands ready to receive us home.  And so we return and are welcomed home. We return to Jesus, to His Church, to worship, to commune, to be filled and commissioned with the Spirit of the Lord.

Nancy Brewer, my mother-in-law (mother-in-love in our family tradition) wrote the following poem, entitled “GENE POOL” (October 2011).

I’ve done my share.  I’ve paid my dues.

Volunteers needed?  Well, I refuse.

Chair a committee?  If truth be told,

I’ve chaired a-many, but I’m just too old.

Well, just take the minutes, an easy task.

No, I’ve had my turn, so please don’t ask.

No more casseroles will I bake.

No more raffle tickets will I take.

The community garden is ready to plant.

When they call for help, I’ll say “I can’t.”

 

I glance in the mirror and with shock I see

the face of my Mom, looking back at me.

 

Memories flood of how she slipped away,

With the ledger balanced for that fated day.

A bookkeeper, retired from that lifetime career,

She was some group’s treasurer, year after year.

Cake in the freezer for a Fellowship meal,

With banana bread ready for a food appeal.

February birthday cards written in advance,

Tithe checks written, nothing left to chance.

She transported “older ladies,” then a stroke

Was just a nuisance of which she rarely spoke. 

In her ninth decade, she could no longer drive,

But caring for others kept my Mom alive.

 

I glance in the mirror, and I see through a blur

my mother’s daughter, wishing it was her.

 

Her genes, her example, my habits?  I’d guess

when they call for volunteers, I’ll likely say “yes.”

 

Gracious and loving God, hear our prayer.  Send me!  Send us!  Send your people forth to be your cosmic power in the community.  We ask your blessings upon your people who say “yes,” upon those whom your church installs and commissions to serve and love in your name.   Amen!

As always, First Christian Church of Decatur, I am delighted to be your pastor.  Shalom, James 

[1]  William H. Willimon, Calling and Character:  Virtues of the Ordained Life, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2000), 138.

[2]  Ibid., 138.

[3] Fred Craddock, et al, Editors, Preaching the New Common Lectionary, (Nashville: Abingdon, 1986), 119.

 

“Salvation is Relational”

Day of the Epiphany, January 6, 2016

By:  James L. Brewer-Calvert

Jesus said:   “All the nations will be gathered before [the Son of Man], and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats…” (Matthew 25: 31-32)

 

When the late Huey Long was Governor of Louisiana, he traveled across the state proclaiming his share the wealth plan.  One day Long was in the bayou at a town crossroads.      As a crowd gathered, he launched into his populist message. He said that the common family was being plundered by the well-organized wealthy interests in Louisiana.  Looking out into the crowd, Long saw a man he knew.

“Brother Jones,” said Huey Long, “if you had three Cadillacs, wouldn’t you give up one of them so we could gather up the children and take them to school during the week and to church on Sunday?”  Brother Jones said, “Sure I would.” “And if you had three million dollars, wouldn’t you give up just one million so we could put a roof over somebody’s head and make sure folks had decent food to eat?” “Sure I would,” agreed Brother Jones.  Huey Long was on a roll now.  “And if you three hogs…”  “Now hold on a minute,” interrupted Brother Jones, “I’ve got three hogs.”

Now hold on a minute!  You quit preaching and got to meddling.  You are getting personal ‘cause I’ve got what someone else needs. That, too often, is the limit we set, regardless of whether we are progressive, moderate, or conservative, or consider ourselves amongst the haves, the have-nots, or the have-some-but-want-some-mores.

As the late, great Rev. Dr. Fred Craddock once shared when speaking about the Final Judgment in this church’s significant pulpit, “God grades on a curve. The only question in the final exam is, ‘How do you love your neighbor?’”

What we do with what we’ve got reveals our priorities.  What we choose to do with our daily offerings – our lives, our resources, our time and talent and treasure, our incredible capacity to love and to be loved in return – is what reveals our priorities, our faith, and our future.  It is how we love with the love we have to provide that will determine the quality of our life on earth and be the final grade upon our reception in the Kingdom of Heaven when our days on earth are done.

Are you like me, fascinated that Jesus begins the parable of the Final Judgment with, “All the nations will be gathered before the [Son of Man].”  Jesus said that “all the nations” will be called before God in order to be judged on love.  The basis for the Final Judgment is our loving response to human need.

If ever there was scriptural, spiritual evidence of God’s respect and recognition of the power of community, here it is.  We need each other to serve, to care, to love, to see Christ in the human condition.  Consequently we need each other to be saved.   Our salvation is relational.  According to the Word, we need to see the Christ in each other; serve the Christ in each other; and we need to do so together.

We tend to think of our salvation in Christ as personal, as individualistic.  Have you ever heard someone say, “Do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?”  Yes, you have a personal relationship with the Living Christ and He has one with you.  Yet here is Jesus telling a parable that foresees a Final Judgment when all the peoples of the nations are connected and bound by a common cause.

Here is both the joy and the catch:  our salvation is relational.  Those in need in our fair city and families and neighborhoods are not nameless or faceless, a vague amorphous “them” somewhere out “there”.  All the nations are called to see the beauty and speak the names of persons in need.  When we minister, let us see and cherish each soul Christ sends. Let us offer the best of ourselves.    Each of us hungers, thirsts, craves community, deserves to be respected and recognized. So, it is no stretch to affirm that our neighbors in need have hearts of gold, that they love and live and laugh, and that every child of God has a name and a face, a hope and a dream.

Surprisingly, salvation is relational.   “Both the sheep and the goats are surprised that they have so served or failed to serve Christ,” writes Fred Craddock.

Some are surprised because they served selflessly, graciously, generously, and did not know that that was Jesus in the soul of the ones to whom they ministered.  They saw people, learned names, listened to their voices, and were present and accounted for.

Some are surprised to find themselves standing with the goats, protesting that if someone had told them that Jesus was trying to get into their parties, they would have extended an invitation.

Everyone is surprised.  When we offer our lives to Christ, fully and completely, then the surprise will be that our good works, good faith, and good hope will meet a need, become a blessing, be experienced as God with skin.  What we do with what we’ve got reveals our priorities.

Surprise yourself.  This year, this month, this week, this day of the Lord try something new.  Select one (and only one!) major church ministry, pick one minor church area to support, and encourage each other in our collective efforts and energies.  Give sacrificially, give generously, give your best, give your life and your love. And you know what?  In the final analysis, we’ll all be surprised before the throne of God, together, all the nations.  Now hold on a minute, I’ve got some love to share…

As always, First Christian Church of Decatur, I am delighted to be your pastor.  Shalom, James