Toward Pentecost (28): Response

Toward Pentecost (27): Call

Never Be the Same

When I stop long enough to listen to words of new songs in church, I am usually surprised. While too much of the contemporary worship music field is made up of sappy songs that don't get to the heart of what it means to be a Christian, there are enough that do to make it worth my while to listen.

This happened at the Maundy Thursday service of footwashing and Eucharist. It is one of those discipling songs like "I, the Lord of Sea and Sky" or "Eagle's Wings." It is a hymn of calling, being summoned by God to do the work of being a Christian. It is The Summons, written by John Bell, a Church of Scotland minister and member of the Iona Community.

It grabbed me from the fourth line of the first verse and then settled-in to do a great job of renewing God's call. In the first four verses, lines two and four repeat. Each verse starts with the call of what we could do

"If I [God] but call your name"

then another action step followed by

"And never be the same."

That's the line- right there-

And never be the same.

That's not what we count on when we think about hearing the call, of course. Nothing big, earth shattering. In the modern Christian thinking that "never be the same" is usually translated into some prosperity gospel promise or the wonder of being free from sin.

But that is not what the Gospel call is all about. That whole thing about never being the same comes when we see that who and what we are can be so different when we hear the God of creation call our name through the Son. We are to go and be and make disciples- showing love, sharing The Name and let God's life grow in us.

1. Will you come and follow me
If I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know
And never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown,
Will you let my name be known,
Will you let my life be grown
In you and you in me?

When we do leave our selves behind and start serving others, like caring for the cruel and kind, we will never be the same- and never look at the world in the same way. Every person I ever went on a mission trip with said that. It is a mark of the Spirit on us.

2. Will you leave yourself behind
If I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind
And never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare
Should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer pray’r
In you and you in me?

Being a "secret disciple" the humility of being used for healing and hope, even to kissing the leper and supporting them, will not leave you unchanged- nor will it meet the standards of society either.

3. Will you let the blinded see
If I but call your name?
Will you set the pris’ners free
And never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean,
And do such as this unseen,
And admit to what I mean
In you and you in me?

There is a child of God hidden within us- as well as the things we do not like about ourselves. When God calls our name, will we never be the same and instead reshape the world. It's not about you or me- it's about the work in the world.

4. Will you love the ‘you’ you hide
If I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside
And never be the same?
Will you use the faith you’ve found
To reshape the world around,
Through my sight and touch and sound
In you and you in me?

The the fifth verse is me talking. If I have been listening to the words I have been singing, it is now my turn. As in here I am Lord, I'm ready. I am willing to never be the same again.

5. Lord, your summons echoes true
When you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you
And never be the same.
In your company I’ll go
Where your love and footsteps show.
Thus I’ll move and live and grow
In you and you in me.

It is then that I am able and willing to see even more in the Eucharist. It is then that I take the bread and cup and pray that

I will never be the same.

Thanks be to God!

Words: John L. Bell & Graham Maule, copyright © 1987 Wild Goose Resource Group/ WGRG, Iona Community, Glasgow G2 3DH, Scotland.
Melody: 'Kelvingrove', Scots traditional. Reproduced by permission.

Lent Picture A Day (42): Call

Following

I liked this poster the first time I saw it- other than the standard problems I have with most representations of a white Jesus in a robe.

Sure, it's a religious schmaltz.
Sure, it's even tacky.

But I am sure it captures the essence of what Jesus said to his first followers.

It also describes the struggle that any "follower" has. Whether it's the fishermen along the Sea of Galilee 2000 years ago or my answering a "call" to "ministry" 45 years ago, it will be a wrestling match. Such a struggle never goes away. As times change, so can our call.

Just some thoughts.

Not Just a Job

Being a pastor was never just a job. Far from it. I did what I did because I was called. That word is not about hearing voices or some vision of heaven. It is living at the center of what God has given us the gifts to do.

For thirty years it was almost entirely within the context of a local church and a larger denominational setting. It was exciting, challenging, always new, and never what I expected it to be. I was honored, blessed, and humbled day in and day out with the opportunity to walk with people in their struggles and pilgrimages. I was able to sit in sick rooms, at death's door, in times of deep tragedy. I was also able to sit at weddings and baptisms, confirmations and graduations. I was there in some way or another as myself and as a servant of the church that called me.

At the heart of the call is to trust God. As believers we listen to Jesus' call to live in a faithful way. None of us does that well, which is where grace enters the picture. We all have different ways of doing that. The call- and ALL Christians are called- will change, grow, evolve. My ministry has been outside the institution for 10 years now, working with people who, in many cases have been hurt by the church or were afraid of setting foot inside one. It is no less important than when I was in the parish.

When I was leaving the parish ministry I would speak of "leaving the ministry" since that is often how the church sees it. I never left the ministry. I finally heard God calling me to a "secular-based" ministry. (That takes another couple of pages of description.) There is no difference between the ministry within the church and outside. Ministry is ministry is ministry. We all as followers of Christ are called to do it.

Excellent- But Too Narrow

Here is a video I came across today, made by SALT for the Pension Fund of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). It is powerful and makes its point very well. A great message.





I kept wanting him to go one step further. I know it's to recruit people into the pastoral ministry, which of course keeps the pension fund financed. But I have to strongly and emphatically add a very important point.

Ordained ministry is NOT, I believe, the highest calling.

Ministry is the highest calling....

and ministry isn't just what the ordained clergy alone do.

The ministry we perform when not ordained, the ministry we receive from the non-ordained matters as much. The highest calling is that we are all to be ministers. THAT is what truly matters. Ten years ago I heard the call to change my place of ministry from the institution to beyond it. It was a move from doing the ordination ministry to a non-ordained ministry. Have you ever noticed how difficult it is to say these things? The assumption is that ministry done by or in non-ordained-type settings is less important than what happens in the church. Many years ago this even applied to some type of less-than-traditional ministry. What s shame.

In September it will be 40 years since my ordination and ministry has mattered in and out of the institution in my life. For the past ten years I have done a ministry that does not require ordination. Most people who do the ministry are not ordained. It is not in a "religious" setting. It is a health-care setting and I am not there as a chaplain. It took me a number of years to accept the call from God that I felt. It was taking me out of the church where ministry happens. But it has given me the incredible opportunity of doing "ministry" in the very best and broadest sense of the word with people who we don't often find in the church. Exciting is too narrow a word to describe it.

Yes, I need my pastor(s) but the ministry is not just located in the ordained. The church needs its clergy, I think. But it is not the highest calling. I am just as "called" today as I was 40 years ago.

Take a look at the video again. Listen as he describes ministry.

Then let's go do it- all of us- who dare call ourselves by Jesus Name.

An Ending....

As this is scheduled to post around 5:00 pm Central time, I will have ended my adult, full-time working career, whatever that means. In practice it means that by the time you are reading this I will be semi-retired, working only part-time. I have talked about this before here on the blog so if you are one of the regulars, you already know about this. But it is a time of mixed emotions and reflections.

It was 1974 when I started as a full-time pastor of a church. I did that for 30 years, going on a leave of absence ten years ago the end of this month. That was to move into my 2nd career full time. In the previous ten years I had also worked part-time as an addictions counselor so it was time to do that full-time. As I once described it to a group I was training with, at that point I finally paid attention to God's call to do ministry outside the institution of the church. Secular ministry I called it (and still do, even though I do not like the term.) For the past 10 years I have worked full-time in the addictions field working first with middle school youth, then young adults and finally with adults in residential and outpatient settings.

What a ride it has been. In the midst of all that I had some amazing adventures, met and worked with many amazing people. I have loved my work and never felt that I was in the wrong vocation or calling. The call changed, but it was always ministry in the very best, broadest and most profound sense of that much abused word. I like being on the front-lines; that quote over there in the sidebar has never wavered: I want to live and work within a few yards of the gates of hell. One of these days I will write on here about what that has meant to me. But for today, I am semi-leaving part of that behind to begin my third career.

Tomorrow I will talk about that. For today, it feels as if I have taken another important step, led by God's grace and calling. Ministry is not a church-based, church-owned, or even church-defined activity. It is where God calls you. The leading of these past 40 years has been amazing, humbling, always exciting, sometimes frustrating since God doesn't usually do what I want God to do in spite of my prayers and petitions to the contrary. The key is in the 11th step of Alcoholics Anonymous:

Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him, praying ONLY [emph. added] for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry it out.

I have tried to do that to the best of my ability and I have always found the empowerment needed.

I have no doubt about that empowerment and direction into the future.

What Do You Do?

Listening to part of the TED Hour on NPR over the weekend I was a little confused. It was a session on "success" and jobs and the speaker talked about how we often ask others the question of this post:

What do you do?

I wasn't following the whole idea of the talk but he seemed to be saying that this idea that our identity is found in what we do is a modern idea. He talked about how it used to be that you were identified by where you were from.

My first reaction was:

Hmmm. That's interesting.

Then I stopped. I remembered people I've known with names like:

• Miller
• Cooper
• Farmer
• Smith

These are a few of the ones we know from English. My last name is an occupational one from German- a feudal serf or tenant farmer.

Yes, there are also many surnames for places. There are also others that were adopted for different reasons. Many names are simply John's son, etc. One of the dangers in making the kind of all-encompassing statements the speaker made is that they are often wrong.

The differences today, I think, include the fact that we have "free-time" or leisure to do more than just be a miller or farmer. Today we can be more than what we do. We also have the physical ability to live beyond the years of "work" or occupation.

Perhaps today we have to ask what others do because they don't carry it in their name or clothing or the condition of their hands. Perhaps we are now in a post-occupational world where what we do is only part of who we are and in reality no longer defines us.

Which can get confusing.

I have felt that before. First when I went on leave of absence from the church's pastoral ministry and then "retired" from the pastoral ministry. That which defined me for 30 years was done.

Now, 10 years later I am again leaving a full-time occupation behind as I near retirement. As I commented the other day, the grief of that is real. Again, some of my personal definition is changing.

On the other hand I am not sure what it means to answer the title question, What do you do? with:

Nothing. I'm retired.

I find that as incongruous as the old question of asking a "housewife" whether she worked or not? But at the same time answering with some Zen-like comment:

I'm a human being, not a human doing.

is also pretty silly. What do I do? What will I do? As an occupation? As a way of life? As a lifestyle? As a mission? As a vocation? An avocation?

Sure, in the end I am me, but that is also a cop-out for I am me in relation to my family and friends, co-workers and what I do. These all define me. I am not defined in a vacuum. My name, inherited through the centuries from some unknown German serf who needed a last name, does not describe me. Never did.

In the end I guess we each have to make our own name and see where it goes.