Monday, March 17, 2014

A Wider Ministry

"And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth." 
 
--Acts 1:8b, New Revised Standard Version


We are not there yet.  We are still in Lent.  We are in the wilderness.  We are nowhere near Ascension Day; and yet, we are always there at the place where the Holy Spirit takes us to people and to places we had not imagined that we would ever go.

I just came home from Cleveland on Saturday evening.  I had been in Cleveland for most of last week, participating in meetings of the General Synod 30 Program & Planning Committee and the United Church of Christ Board of Directors.  My ministry, guided by the power of the Holy Spirit, has taken me to places of services in the wider church. 

Some of my colleagues contend that every Conference Minister's call should stipulate that at least twenty-percent of the ministry be lived in the wider circles of the United Church of Christ or in ecumenical or environmental ministries.  I am not convinced that such wider ministry can or should be legislated by a call agreement; but I do know that one cannot make one's calling body the exclusive focus of her/his ministry.  There are always wider concentric circles to which Christ calls us.  We must utilize our gifts for the upbuilding of the whole Church.

When I was ordained, I had no interest in the New Hampshire Conference.  I was quite content to be a parish pastor along the Mississippi River in a farming community in rural Missouri.  But I served on several Association and Conference committees during those initial eleven years.  My spirit was stretched greatly when it was time to move.  God's Spirit pulled me to a place I had never been--to California, Missouri--a very conservative community both theologically and politically.  I went reluctantly and found there a home and grew to see Christ in my congregants.  I loved my churches deeply.  Service on Association and Conference committees continued during those thirteen years.  The local churches were my calling bodies, but they were always part of something bigger.  The Spirit stirred me into wider ministry in the concentric circles.

In 2006, I was stretched yet again.  I heard and accepted a call to a ministry beyond the local parish.  As the Conference Minister of the New Hampshire Conference, United Church of Christ, I remember with deep appreciation the local churches where I once served.  They inspire me to hope for the best for the churches in the New Hampshire Conference.  I pray for the Spirit to engage us in ministry with people in places where we had not expected to go.  I have traveled to India and Zimbabwe in this ministry.  I have gone to Cleveland many times and to other places where the mission and ministry of the church is first and foremost in people's hearts and minds.  The call of Christ still propels me to a wider ministry.

On Sunday, I will go to Manchester, where I have been invited to speak about the death penalty and my own support of its repeal and abolition in New Hampshire.  The Spirit has taken this quiet, introverted kid from the country and called him to be a witness in God's big, wide world.  It is truly an amazing thing!  I am grateful for every opportunity to serve. 

O Lord Jesus Christ, may I never settle for a narrow ministry.  Continue to open me to sense the stirrings of your Spirit.  Make me fit for service in the wider settings of your church.  Help me to hear the cries and the see the faces of those who need me to minister with integrity and love.  Take me even to Samaria, to the wilderness, to the valley of deepest darkness--and may I follow you there.  Come, Holy Spirit, come!  Amen.
 

Monday, March 3, 2014

Let the Fasting Begin!

Is not this the fast that I choose:
     to loose the bonds of injustice,
     to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppress go free,
     and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
     and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
     and to not hide yourself from your own kin?

--Isaiah 58:6-7, New Revised Standard Version

We are on the threshold of Lent, a gateway to the wilderness.  Who wants to go there?  Who wants a gray and gritty smudge to remind us of our need for repentance, a mark of our individual and collective mortality?  Lent is the season to reorient ourselves to God's will and hope for us.  All we like sheep have strayed away (Is. 56:6).  In Lent we hear Christ's call, to come back to the fold and to fast together.

The fasting to which God summons us in Isaiah 58 reminds me of Jesus' parable in Matthew 25.  In the latter, both the righteous and the unrighteous ask, "When did we see you, and . . .?"  Lenten fasting requires that we have eyes to really see the prisoners who are oppressed, the hungry, the naked, and our own kindred.  Such seeing requires putting aside the lenses through which we typically view the scripture and our world--to see anew, to look upon the trouble around and within us, and to respond with prayerful attentiveness and compassion.  When we really see, we may discern God's justice and find the courage to respond.

The United Church of Christ's "March Forth" initiative is an invitation to this kind of fasting on Shrove Tuesday (March 4)--the day before Lent begins this year.  Rather than indulge ourselves in fatness, it will be good to begin the fast a day early.  It will be important to see those who need our company during the 40 days in the Lenten wilderness:  those on death row, workers whose wages are so low that they cannot sustain their life (maybe it is time to consider clergy compensation too), those who already experience the deadly effects of climate change, children who must grow up too fast and fend for themselves far too early, addicts of every kind, those who have no "kinfolks," and those who die before their time.

As I step through the doorway to Lent, I will spend more time in fasting, seeking that which is the true Bread from heaven.  I will spend more time in prayer and quiet reflection.  I will immerse myself in the holy scriptures.  I will try to see more clearly--with my eyes and with my heart--those who really need me to keep this fast with them, that--at the last--all may feast on the joy and glory that God intends for all of us and all creation.

O God, may Lent not be a time for the same old business as usual.  Stir my heart toward silence.  Help me to fast more deeply and completely.  Guide me, by your Spirit, to see those who struggle and suffer, and grant me the courage to engage with them for Jesus' sake.  Amen.