Throughout our year of focus on United Methodist beliefs, we will take a moment occasionally to focus on Christian community. In the midst of our time in the Sacraments this month, we pause midway here on the 3rd Sunday to have a moment with the idea of what it means to be in ministry together.
The subject of sacraments bring us closer to God and, hopefully, closer to one another. As we give ourselves to the Lord in the vows of our baptism, we should see that we are all sinners. No one escapes the distinction of being separated from the Glory of God because of our sin. Thus, we should see each other in a different light. It is a good place to see scripture like this bit from the Letter to the Ephesians. In the 4th chapter, Paul makes some distinguishing remarks about our Christian beliefs that help us to see the special nature of our relationship with God and each other. It is a notion that will lead us into the subject of Communion and hopefully shed some Grace into our unique spirituality in the Church.
It's a time old joke and we have heard it repeatedly. Usually three of some kind of ethically, racial stereotype walk into a bar. Stop me if you've heard it before. Tine and again people like this are the blunt edge of other people's humor. In an interesting way to turn the tide, The Guardian, an online newspaper and reporting service has tried to give people hope by turning the tide and allow people to tell their own stories. Recently, they allowed people in these people, who are usually the butt of the joke, to do a little joke telling of their own. The result was stellar.
The Reverend George Pitcher, an Anglican priest and journalist, offered a short joke the capsulizes where we are headed this morning.
I could do so much with Ephesians chapter 4. There is so much territory that we could apply this passage to and such much to tag it with; but, what we should do with it is focus on the One whom it is all about. The "all" is where we tend to get lost. "All" encompasses so much. Racial tension. Insensitivity. Lack of unity. The One brings us back to our center. I have wondered why Rev Pitcher didn't cast himself in the light of the joke he told. Why did he cast three different religions into his bit and leave himself out? In our world, it seems we like to throw matters of indifference onto other people and places and make believe it's not a problem for us. Rev Pitcher's joke does bring one problem front and center. While the other two people have issues that require some sensitive attention, we tend to not care about what others think or want. "Make me one with everything." Forget about those guys. Who cares what they need. Just think about me.
We are here in the church to focus on meeting other people's needs. That is what ministry essentially is.I won't bother posting the definition piece from Merriam-Webster today because it is rather disappointing. Traditionally, ministry has been treated as a noun. A proper place or thing. It can be possessive. The Ministry of Defense. The Minister of Perry County, Ohio. It never takes on a verb sense at all in the dictionary. There's no action put into the definition of the word. It's troubling for me to think that the predominant idea behind a word such as this suggests that it's more about place and title than actually doing something, and that for other people.
My final class in the United Methodist Course of Study (which ended for me some 8 years ago now) was a course titled, "Theology and the Practice of Ministry". It was taught by The Reverend Stan Ling who was formerly the Director of Development for the Methodist Theological School in Ohio. He has also served in different positions for The West Ohio Conference over the years. Rev. Ling had a very open mind about the needs of other people as he taught our class. It was a real game changer for me. The class is intentionally set up as your last class before you graduate the Course of Study and go forward into ministry. What is ministry? I was one of the eager beavers who raised their hand and shared that I had always heard that ministry was truly "meeting people's needs." There is much truth in those words. Much scripture can point to the idea that Jesus met other people's needs above his own. He tirelessly shared and taught and healed. Rev. Ling, however, made it even more intriguing. For him, ministry was simply "meeting people." Right away, we are taken to a moment in John 4 where Jesus meets a woman at a well. He doesn't actually do anything for her. He doesn't touch her or heal her. He just talks with her. He just "meets" her. Right where she is in that moment.
This past week I took the moment to look up Rev. Ling's contact information and gave him a call. I hadn't spoken to him since that class 8 years ago. I was curious what he was into and if his viewpoint on matters had changed at all. After our introductions on the phone, I asked him what he was doing now and what ministry looked like for him in his current context. He was amused and congratulatory about my call. The timing of such things was perfect fro where he and his wife are at right now. Currently, they are living in the Westerville area and are just "meeting people." He says his wife is really the person who spearheads this initiative. She is the outgoing one. Stan is more an introvert. Together, they simply like to go out and meet other folks. It is in this manner of ministry that they recently came to know a named Mamadu. He is a Muslim and living in the Columbus area. They haven't tried to convert him or witness to him in any formal manner. They simply got to know him on one of there visit to downtown Columbus and have become friends. Over time they have gotten to know his family. One of these visits with Mamadu revealed that his son is almost 4 and has not spoken a word in any language yet. With social disorders and subjects like Autism on the rise in our world, it triggered a serious talk about what could be done for the boy. This past week, because of the Lings intervention and relation with their new friend, they were able to help get the family admitted to Nationwide Children's for an interview that could help figure out why Mamadu's son had not spoken yet. How many of us are willing to do ministry? How many of us would be willing to simply "meet people"? It takes a desire to get involved in the messy parts of other people's lives. All the while working toward the chance to share some of God's Love with a world who needs to know. The One who is above all, and in all. Whose Grace extended outward and draws us closer.
As we move into our next sacrament on communion next week, let us remember that we are in this together. It's not about ourselves. God calls us all. God uses us all. And, The One did what he did for All.
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