Readings: Psalm 19:7-14 , Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, James 5:13-20, Mark 9:38-42, 49-50
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, September 29, 2024
On September 26th, 1984, in Pembroke, United Kingdom, I was ordained as a minister of Word and Sacrament by the Presbyterian Church of Wales. I had taken on my first churches three months earlier, but because the denomination only held one ordination service a year, I had to wait before I could administer communion or baptism. Thankfully a previous minister was still around and was able to take care of the sacramental duties.
This means that I’ve been a minister within the Presbyterian Church for a little over 40 years. 40 is a significant number in scripture. David reigned on the throne for 40 years. After Noah built his big boat, it rained 40 days and 40 nights. Following His baptism Jesus was sent into the wilderness to be tempted for 40 days and nights. The Israelite's wandered in the desert under Moses leadership for 40 years before ever reaching their promised land.
Have 40 years of ministry felt like 40 years in the wilderness? Do I feel ministry has been like 40 days and 40 nights when the rain has never stopped? For sure there have probably been at least 40 days or nights when the temptation to and pursue a different occupation has seemed a most attractive proposition!
Scripture expects a lot from everybody who seeks to be in ministry. Our reading from Mark tells us we will be ‘salted with fire.’ That, like John, who gets fired up when he saw things he did not agree with, and came to Jesus saying “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us," we will encounter people who are doing stuff that just seems wrong to us.
Even with the best of intentions we will sometimes get it wrong, and our actions can cause harm rather than good. There’s a chilling warning, in Mark 9:42, "If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.”
Then there are the expectations! In the Book of James, Elijah is described as “a human being like us” yet was such a powerful prayer warrior that he could stop the rain coming and decide when it was going to fall. And though in this passage he talks about prayers that will be answered, every person of faith I have ever met is aware that they have made many prayers that don’t seem to have been so fruitfully and positively answered! Expectations. Can we ever do enough? Is all that we do ever enough? Can we ever be enough?
Today, as I recognize 40 years since my ordination, there are more than enough things I could say, but I want to reflect on just three things, that relate to expectation. The first is this.
Throughout my ministry I have never been enough.
I don’t mean that in any self-depreciating way. In our society we are encouraged to “Be all we can be” and it can sound like an admission of defeat or weakness to talk about not being enough. I make that as a statement about the nature of Christian service, and in particular, ministry.
We were given the advice in seminary to never try and please everybody. There are days when you start to question if you can please anybody! Your theology is always too far to the left or to the right. If you speak out about something, there is somebody to tell you, you should have kept quiet. If you don’t speak out there is somebody to tell you should have said something. Whatever you do, there is somebody who has the opinion that you should be doing it differently. Folk can be quick to point out your failings, but slow to recognize your achievements. It can be mentally, spiritually, and physically exhausting.
Part of the problem is that in ministry there are no measurable results. You are constantly sowing seeds and rarely get to see the harvest. A pastor colleague shared with me how his favorite thing to do was mow the grass. It was so quantifiable. There is grass that needs cutting. You cut it. A job well done with recognizable satisfactory results. Like many other similar professions, ministry does not offer that instant sense of gratification.
One of the things that has kept me going is acknowledging, from my earliest days of seeking to serve the church, that whatever I did in ministry, it would never be enough. That I, for many people, would never and could never and will never be enough.
I hope that doesn’t sound like I am being defeatist or complaining, about what really has been an amazing four decades of unexpected blessings and encounters. It is simply this. You need to know, that if you are thinking about being active in kingdom life that you are placing yourself in a situation where, to some of those you work alongside and share your life with, it will never be enough. Why do I put it that way? Think for a moment, what the bottom line of being a Christian is. A Christian is somebody who follows the teaching and example of Jesus Christ. And one thing about the ministry of Jesus, that it is crystal clear…
Throughout His ministry, Jesus was never enough.
Jesus was so ‘not enough’ for the people of His day, that the political and religious authorities demanded His execution, one of His closest followers handed Him over to their hands to do with Him whatever they wished, the crowds cried out “Crucify Him, Crucify Him,” and His closest friends and disciples denied Him and abandoned Him. For them, He wasn’t enough.
Nobody had the authority and understanding and insight and discernment of Jesus. Nobody else offered such a radical transformation of ideas regarding who God was, who we are and how the world can be changed. Nobody did the miracles Jesus did. Nobody delivered people like Jesus delivered people. Nobody healed people like Jesus healed people. Nobody told stories like Jesus told stories. Nobody preached like Jesus preached. Nobody loved people like Jesus loved people. Not just His own people. Loved all people. And it wasn’t enough.
Throughout His ministry, Jesus was never enough for the world He walked through. Nor for this world we travel through. “Love your enemies.” “No thank You Jesus, we prefer hate.” “Forgive those who trespass against you. “No thank You Jesus, we need to pay them back”. “Serve one another as I have served You.” “No thank You Jesus, we are way too important for that!” “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God,” “No thank You Jesus, we have a kingdom of our own making to put first.”
As I follow a “Never enough” Jesus, I am content to say that throughout my ministry, I have never been enough. If He was never enough, after all He did and said, then it would be both arrogant and foolish to believe I could do better.
Hold on. I am looking at expectations from the human side of things. As a person of faith there is another perspective to consider. We go through our lives often overly concerned about how we look in each other’s eyes. The real question should be, “How do we seem in God’s eyes?”
If we accept what Jesus taught us, then there will be a time, when all the things we hold onto so tightly, even life itself, will be snatched from us and we will stand before God. Where is the good news, where is the gospel message that Jesus died to deliver to us, in all of this? I would state it quite simply.
In God’s eyes, we are more than enough!
The great reformation understanding is that we are saved, by grace through faith. That we can never do anything worthy of redeeming ourselves. That our only hope in this life and the next is to throw ourselves upon the mercy and forgiveness of God. We can do that with great assurance because God believes we are more than enough.
We are important enough in God’s eyes for God to send God’s only Son, to die upon a Cross, to break down the barrier of sin that we create between ourselves and God. We are forgiven. We are set free. We are blessed with eternal hope. We, who are never enough for each other, are more than enough to God!
The resurrection of Jesus assures that God’s love is a force even death cannot destroy. As we invite the Holy Spirit to transform our lives, we participate in the life of God, in the dance of the Trinity, and in the abundant life that God desires us to experience.
It is within this framework that we are freed from the worry of being enough. The little things we do become the big things. In our reading today we heard Jesus telling us “For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.”
That is what I am celebrating as I look back over the 40 years of ministry since I was ordained. I have been able to do the little things. Little things that have never and will never be enough for some people but are precious and beautiful … and enough… in God’s eyes
Never be discouraged. In God’s eyes we are more than enough for the tasks God will lead us to accomplish. Some we will do well. Others, maybe not so well. But that’s OK. We are learning how to be disciples; we are not training to be masters of the universe.
Do not be dissuaded by those who will insist that what you have to offer is not enough. Remember how in His life, after all that He did and said, Jesus was not enough for those who were blind to the light of God’s revelation. When He declared on the Cross, “It is finished” it was not a statement of defeat but a declaration that everything God had sought to accomplish through His earthly ministry had been completed.
In God’s eyes we are more than enough. We are loved. We are loved so much that God sent Jesus to die upon a cross for our salvation, that we may enjoy the abundant life of God’s Kingdom. So just keep doing the little things that remind those around you that they are also children of God that God longs to embrace.
I am so very thankful for every person who has been part of my 40-year journey since ordination. It has not been 40 years in a wilderness. Even though the rains have fallen, they have never fallen for 40 days and 40 nights. I have been tempted to pursue other paths, as Jesus was during His 40 days in the wilderness, but God has been faithful, and to prove it, 40 years after ordination, here I am Lord!
40 years that have flown by so much quicker than I could ever have anticipated. 40 years when God has provided everything I needed. 40 years that feel like they are not enough, but in fact have been spent in the loving presence of the God who wants us all to know, we are more than enough!
To God’s name be all the Glory, Honor and Praise.
To Jesus, my Lord, my Savior, my hope, my provider, be all the Glory, Honor and Praise.
To the Spirit who guides us, leads us, teaches us and feeds us, I give thanks.
To the Trinity that invites us to dance in the love of God; “I am the Lord of the dance says He, dance on, dance on till eternity.”
Amen and Amen.
To God be the Glory!
The Reverend Adrian J Pratt B.D.
No comments:
Post a Comment