Serving Together

Serving Together (off lectionary sermon series on the body of Christ based upon Matthew 28:16-20, Galatians 5:16-6:2, & G-2.0101)

Good morning. If you were here last week, you know that this is week 2 of a 3 week sermon series on being the church alive in the world. But as I said last week, don’t worry if you’re not here for all of them. They stand alone nicely so even if you missed it, you won’t be lost today. But just to recap, we looked at scripture and at a passage from the book of order and talked about how Christ is the only true authority in the church. Our job is to faithfully live out Christ’s calling. So we do not stand over or under one another in our workings and callings. No one calling is more special than another. Whether it’s my calling to be a pastor or someone else’s calling to put out donuts, we are faithful together… side by side.

So this week, we are taking the next step trying to unearth what those callings might be for each of us and as a church and our scripture for the day gives us a great place to start. But much like last week, I want to weave in another nugget of wisdom from the Book of Order that we might use as an outline for our thinking today. It comes from G-2.0101 and is entitled "Christ’s Ministry." It reads:

The Church’s ministry is a gift from Jesus Christ to the whole Church. Christ alone rules, calls, teaches, and uses the Church as he wills, exercising his authority by the ministry of women and men for the establishment and extension of God’s new creation. Christ’s ministry is the foundation and standard for all ministry, the pattern of the one who came "not to be served but to serve" (Matt. 20:28). The basic form of ministry is the ministry of the whole people of God, from whose midst some are called to ordered ministries, to fulfill particular functions. Members and those in ordered ministries serve together under the mandate of Christ.

Well, given what I just read, you might be thinking "isn’t that the recap of last week’s sermon?" Well, sort of. But we are going to go deeper in to 2 of these ideas and think about "Christ’s ministry is the foundation and standard for all ministry" and "The basic form of ministry is the ministry of the whole people of God." And I think today’s scripture lessons have some guidance for our thinking.

Our scripture passages are The Great Commissioning found in Matthew where Jesus calls on his followers to go out into the world and baptize, teach, and fellowship with others while all along knowing that Christ is always with us. The second passage is about the fruits of the spirit and reminds us what living by the spirit looks like. It also calls on us to be healers of one another as we struggle to claim who and whose we are.

So we have these very big ideas and as a big picture kind of person, these are the things that ignite in me curiosity and wonder about how it will all unfold. But I realize that for more detail oriented people, these open ended visions are somewhat anxiety producing. So, we’re going deeper today to look for the practical ways of ministry and our callings within it. We are doing so because some of us are curious. Some of us find comfort in details. Others of us need reassurance.

I raise this issue of what we are each getting by our study together because it has bearing on what we will uncover. See, if it is that "Christ’s ministry is the foundation and standard for all ministry" then a great thing to recognize about the life and teachings of Jesus is that he lived and taught in ways that spoke to people the way they each needed to experience it.

We are all very different from one another. Different gifts, different personalities, different interests, different struggles, different experiences… all of which come together to make us unique and yet somehow only made whole in the body of Christ. So to reach out to such diverse groupings, Jesus used stories so that people would zero in on the parts they each needed to hear. He also shared a lot of meals and living room time where people have their guards down and true relationships are built. He used symbols and metaphors so that people would have to think and stretch themselves to understand. And no matter where he was or what was going on, his starting place was that of love for God’s special creation… people.

Over and over again, he astounded people by loving them instead of judging them because he knew that judgment is God’s and the path to true healing is that of love. He didn’t walk up to the woman at the well and call her wretched names or think judgmental thoughts about her. His starting place was that of love for who she was: a child of God with gifts and struggles that was living a life of suffering. Harsh words would have just alienated her more but love heals and transforms.

And while we’re looking at Jesus as the foundation and standard for all ministry, let’s not forget his humility. He is the one who came "not to be served but to serve." Ministry that models Christ is that of service rather than status. Born in a barn, murdered for his faith… those are extraordinary bookends to a life. But in some ways, even more extraordinary are the pages between the bookends that tell of a life of reaching out in search of God as a young child and extending the love of God as an adult. What would our lives look like if we each had such love?

And that’s the question of the day. Christ modeled what ministry looks like and we are called to minister to the "whole people of God." So what would our lives look like if we each had such love? What does ministering to the "whole people of God" look like?

Last week we read scripture that talks about the body of Christ and the different callings. This week we see in Galatians different gifts that we are given by the Spirit. And all along we have Christ telling us to go out and do something with these callings and gifts.

So what does it look like? Well, it starts by taking the time to find out who God made us to be. Jesus invited us to look into ourselves to know and honor this special creation of God. Searching ourselves is critical to knowing how we can serve. God asked Moses to live beyond his skills and God still asks the same of us today but we can’t go farther if we don’t know where to start.

So we each need to consider what our personality is, what our interests are, and what we have to offer as we look to see how we each may minister in the body of Christ. For example, you wouldn’t want me to sing in the choir but thanks be for those that can and we welcome them back this year. And I would be pretty bad at serving on the budget committee because I get overwhelmed with all the numbers. But you know what? I love the bible and I love people so one thing I can do is weave those two together into sermons and worship leadership.

See, it’s pretty much as simple as that. We start with who we are and what God has given us and ask "where can God use me?" Lend a Hand Day, teaching Sunday School, greeting, serving on committees, and all those other forms of stewardship are servant ministry. And even talking and sharing with one another is servant ministry because we are building up the body of Christ as we extend ourselves to one another in fellowship. 

But ministry is about far more than what happens inside these walls. The real work of Christ is out there in the world. So again, let’s ask the question, what would our lives look like if we each had such love as Christ? What is our ministry in the world? When we look at our gifts and skills, how do we serve in the body of Christ beyond these walls?

The answer to those questions are as varied as can be. But I think our scripture can guide us. Galatians 6:1 reads, "My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness." What does that have to do with our servant ministry? Well, most of our work both inside these walls and beyond is about healing. Almost everything we experience boils down to the brokenness we encounter within ourselves and around us. So much of our ministry and ministering is about being conduits of peace, healing, and reconciliation through the love of Christ.

Our charge is to heal with a spirit of gentleness. When we see wrong doings, we’re not called to judge, we’re called to restore. Sisters and brothers, each and every one of us struggle. When we think about the things we do wrong, we see a chain of events where we didn’t set out to hurt anyone but it all made sense at the time. As Paul said, "why is it I do what I don’t what to do?" As parents, as teachers, as ministers, as friends, as business people… we all struggle because we all have broken places in us and all need the grace of God and the love of Christ. The surest path to healing is not by wagging a finger at ourselves or others. Changing our behavior out of guilt isn’t really living in the Spirit. Healing comes by modeling Christ and loving the wounds away.

So if our lives are at the intersection of brokenness and love, who are we each called to be in the world? For the person who’s a little shy but always watching, maybe part of their calling is to be the one who always extends a kind smile. For the one gifted with leadership skills, maybe servant ministry looks like being a business person of respect who looks out for how employees are treated. For the ones with a mind for numbers, maybe it’s being a beacon of integrity so that wealth is not used to corrupt or squash others. For those who cook well, maybe it’s offering a meal to someone struggling or bringing the cookies to a meeting that reminds us of what’s important. Perhaps for those of us with old wounds that have been healed, it’s about sharing our path with those in need. If one of our blessings is extra time, maybe servant ministry is about volunteering.

And when the big stuff like 9/11 happens we still see the same things. Firefighters being firefighters and caring about people, even at the risk of losing their lives. Everyday folks dropping everything to clear debris because it serves and restores hope. People far away donating money, blood, and other resources because they love enough to want to be a part of the healing.

See, we get caught up in thinking of our daily lives as work, chores, and strife but if we look deeper we’ll see the way we are functioning as the body of Christ and honor that. And when we look deeper, we might even see new and different ways of sharing our gifts and callings. And that’s what we’ll talk about next week.

But for now, Christ invites us to see who God made us to be and offer that back to creation. As we go from here this week, may we look more deeply at who we are and what we can be in the body of Christ. And most importantly, may we live that calling each and every day. Amen.