Called to Service, Part 2

In part 1 of this series, we examined three characteristics of those who are called to service in the church. This week, we’ll look at more of what the call means. I am writing particularly to deacons, but much of this applies to any Christian.

A Call to Slavery

One of the things we see in this age is an extraordinary crisis of confidence, a lack of confidence in our religious leaders. We see this because somehow what has creeped in or sometimes just walked right in is a commitment by leadership to things that do not look like Jesus Christ.

And none of us is immune. There’s no such thing as “their” problems. We are one body. And so if any of you are taking cold comfort in the fact that somehow the scandal hit Roman Catholicism, but it hasn’t touched The Episcopal Church yet – oh, be careful. “So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). This should serve as a severe warning to any Christian leader. It is in contradiction to what it means to be a slave.

Because you see, that’s the call, the call to slavery, a very uncomfortable word. James 2:1-10, 14-17 reminds us that we are called to slavery, a slavery to the gospel of Jesus Christ and to serve all the men and women God has sent our way: children, the elderly, and the rest – everyone from the poor to the persecuted to the people in public trust, the entire panoply of humanity. This is true because that is our assignment: to let the whole world see and know, because the things which are cast down are being raised up.

That brings a kind of clarity to the job description. I’m here to be available for Jesus to use me as he so chooses, that by God’s mercy, something I might pray or say or show, might lead others in some way into the knowledge of the glory of the Son of God.

A Call to Availability

You see, without that kind of inner direction, there is among some clergy, what Stanley Hauerwas described as “this quivering mass of availability.” In other words, the idea that you are at anyone’s beck and call, and you could get a call anytime, day or night. And while yes, that is true, the fact of the matter is that you are under the direction of Jesus far more. We live in a word that desires to be profoundly loved and cared for, and it sees the church as a place for that care to be manifest.

Sometimes care looks like challenge. Sometimes care looks like an invitation to join in servanthood. And sometimes care looks like a call to sacrifice that befits the name, “slave,” which is what all of us in Corinthians are called, without exception, not just the leaders. And we who are men and women who really want to live at the beck and call of the God of convenience are always shaken up by things that feel profoundly outside of our control. We don’t like interruptions.

And yet, God is shaping and working in us a kind of profound brokenness even to our own expectations. That he might even more faithfully flow through us, that these cracked earthen vessels might be those whom God uses, so that the light might shine, so that they might see and know.

A Call to Listen

Ministry is a difficult life, because there is a real “count the cost” that is a part of this, and it is not small. You will find yourself subject to every single expectation, both in the parish as well as in society, most of which are really not appropriate. And it takes a kind of inner clarity that can only come, quite frankly, by being alone with the Scripture, letting the Word of God form you and shape you; and by listening to people who have made commitments to Jesus from whom you can learn. It’s what the Scripture calls “that which we received, the faith of the apostles,” and to learn from them, who lived in very similar circumstances, how to express the gospel in the kind of climate in which we find ourselves. It’s not easy, but it is critically important.

And here’s the wonder of it. I don’t want this to sound too bleak. Because I want you to know, I wouldn’t do anything else for the world. I have the privilege, and so will you, of being involved in some of the most tender moments that you can ever share with another human being, where they, because they trust, begin to open their hearts, sometimes to things that they’ve never told anyone. Because, even if the price is high, they hunger to hear a word that speaks forgiveness, mercy, and even vocation, purpose. And they’re trusting you to come to them and be open to them without your “agenda.” If you come instead with a willingness to genuinely hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, you get to be a part of God moving in the most phenomenal ways.

A Call to God’s Power in You

So you are appointed on the one hand, to slavery. You’re appointed to tribulation. You’re appointed to “always carrying in the body the death of Jesus” (2 Cor. 4:10a).

And you’re also appointed to the power of God touching your lips. You are appointed to God working new things in your soul. You are appointed to be raised up by him, because you are one of the ones who had been cast down. You are appointed to walk with a sense of power and purpose. Because even though your armor doesn’t always feel particularly comfortable, you are continuing to move forward, because there is something happening in you and through you that matters for all of eternity. Why would you not want to be a part of that?

So deacons: express to the rest of us this kind of servanthood, this kind of slavery. Continue to open wide the doors of the church to know that the purpose is that the whole world might see and know, rather than just us feeling better about ourselves. Let them know that somehow that even in the ordinary work of life, God is present, and he desires to do things above and beyond anything we could ever ask or imagine.

Don’t be afraid to renounce the gods of this world. Don’t be afraid to call out those parts of us that really are abandoning the gospel for something else.

It’s complicated. You need Jesus to do this. But the glory of it is, he will give you what you need. The glory of it is, the flow of the life of God is the sweetest thing you will ever know. The glory of it is, you are being changed. And God will use you to be a vessel through which others are changed as well.

So come on, let’s do this. Let’s say yes to what God is doing in our lives, not shrink back. So that at the end, we may stand up with the most profound sense of gratitude, knowing that we didn’t deserve any of it.

Thank you, God, for calling me, for saying yes to me – that I might say yes to you.

Which facet of God’s call most resonates with you? Share this blog and your response on Twitter. Please include my username, @revgregbrewer.

(This post is an adaption of Bishop Brewer’s sermon on Sept. 8, 2018, at the Cathedral of St. Luke in Orlando, Florida.)  

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.