Return to Vocal Ministry
Return to Vocal Ministry
Jay W. Marshall, Dean
Providence Friends Meeting
at the Celebration of Charles Adam's
40th year of ministry,
August 28, 2005
Ephesians 4:1-16
It is a great day to be with you here at Providence Meeting. Marking 40 years in ministry is an occasion not to be missed. Though, I can't help but comment that the number 40 in the bible is usually connected with the termination of a trying time-think Noah and 40 days of flooding; Israel and 40 years in the wilderness; Jesus and 40 days of temptation. So 40 years is definitely worth marking, and we can only hope that they weren't all trying years for Charlie or those he served. The fact that the man of the hour is a graduate of ESR, and the first ESR grad from North Carolina, makes this a more memorable occasion for me personally. Nothing makes a case for our school the way that successful grads do. So thank you for the invitation to join you on this day of celebration.
I want to give you an image to help us with today's message. One of the world's most wondrous creations isn't the product of the technology age, though each newer version of the cellphone is a bit more attractive than the last one! One of the most wondrous creations, and the image I want you to latch on to, is the pyramid. Stones weighing tons, quarried, moved, lifted, slid perfectly into position. With angles and calculations so baffling that some resort to an explanation of an advanced "space alien" mastermind behind their planning and construction. Whatever their origin, they are magnificent creations, with each stone crucial to the stability and magnificence of the structure.
The great minds of Egypt may have coined the pyramid idea, but it took Amway to perfect it! Our image of pyramids is not limited to those colossal architectural wonders. They are also used as a means of organizational structure. One person recruits two others, or perhaps four. Likewise, those new recruits bring new converts into the fold, and so on and so on until a huge pyramid-like sales force is built. The sales, and profits, all flow upwards to the top of the pyramid.
Several years ago, someone tried to interest me in an imported milk substitute. Once word got out in the states, sales would go through the roof. If you were on top of the pyramid, you'd be rich. There are scores of these offers available.
I don't know about you, but I'm a fine print kind of guy. In looking through the material of one of these companies, I found an astounding statistic. On one of the color brochures packed margin to margin with million dollar success stories, at the bottom in hardly visible print, was a disclaimer that wealth would vary. Not only would it vary, but the average participant in this program earned approximate $42 per year. You don't
even have to take your shoes off to know that there is a huge gap between $1,000,000 earnings and $42. But that was the rest of the story.
There is still more to this image of pyramid. I recall a fad somewhere along the time of high school or college of building human pyramids. It begins with a row of people on their hands and knees side by side. Their backs were climbed upon and mounted by a second row or people. And so it continued until there was room for only one person at the top of the crowd. And you know what happens. Eventually, the weight of each successive row and the strain of muscles remaining taut and rigid leads first to quiver, then to a shake, and often to a collapse of bodies. Where once a triumphant pyramid stood, there is nothing but a pile of flesh complete with elbows in another person's back, or a foot or arm in someone else's face. But they were a lot of fun.
Pyramids, both architectural and organizational, are impressive and successful only when all parts of the pyramid fulfill their place in the structure. Each stone, each salesperson, each human, plays an essential role. Their parts are interlocking. The futures are interdependent. Each level needs the one beneath it for support. One stone needs the ones beside it to bear the weight of the level above. Otherwise, it crumbles. With any of these types of pyramids, for the structure to endure, each part must participate in the corporate task of being a pyramid.
Keep the image of the pyramid in mind today--not because of awesome size, or because of sales, schemes or scams, or layers of human bodies. Keep the concept in mind because of the interconnectedness and interdependence of the parts as we celebrate the ministry of this Friend among Friends. As we celebrate the ministry of one, let us also acknowledge the interconnected parts of God's Spirit with meetings and communities that help ministry to happen at all.
Listen to this passage of Scripture from Ephesians, giving special attention to the first verse. (READ)
Often when we read this passage, we focus on the Body of Christ imagery. It is not unlike a pyramid in terms of the connectedness of the parts. Usually when reading this we give some attention to gifts that are primarily oriented toward public teaching or proclamation. If we feel any of those are ours, we may begin to practice and live those gifts. If we believe these gifts do not apply to us, we may feel relieved from taking the idea of ministry seriously. I urge us to look at this text in a deeper manner today. The Ephesians, and I would contend we, are urged first of all to "live a life worthy of the calling you have received" Ministry begins that simply--by living a life worthy of the calling.
Paul uses body imagery to describe our interconnectedness and the fact that we all have roles to play in a healthy system. I'm adding the pyramid image to that today-not because it is better, but because I want to give extra emphasis to the way each part helps support the other, and the weight of the task.
For someone to live a life worthy of their calling, a few things have to happen. First, there has to be a community of faith that understands what it means to be in a dynamic relationship with a living God. For it is in and through that relationship and the experience of the living God that God calls people to ministry. That provides the foundation of the pyramid-or more importantly, the context for spiritual formation and discernment of God's call.
Second, people who hear their call must identify their place in the pyramid (or body) and fulfill their role. When we do that, we create a stable, supported system that can stand strong as a church. It creates a system where people live their faith, demonstrating its power as they identify with the purpose and mission of the church.
So, we understand what it means to be community of faith, and we identify and fill our place within it. Third, as we do that, together we support one another. The meeting/pyramid becomes a place where people support one another as they listen to and respond to Christ's abiding presence. We create the kind of place where one can hear and respond to Christ-where one can actually choose to live a life worthy of their calling and to know they will not make that journey alone.
"Live a life worthy of your calling . . ." Paul says. Some of Scripture's most encouraging and meaningful stories start with a call to ministry. In fact, the results that warm our hearts and lift our spirits are often possible only because someone recognized God's call on their lives and chose to live accordingly.
We celebrate the formation of Israel as a people of the covenant. That began because Abraham was called-called to leave his home, his family, his familiar surroundings, and go to a land where he, as best we can tell, lived a semi-nomadic existence-a bit like an itinerant minister only more wealthy and powerful! His obedience set in motion processes that allowed the formation of the covenant and the creation of people who identified themselves as chosen.
We celebrate the liberation of Israel from Egypt. That happened when Moses was called to stop hiding behind his mumbling and bashfulness and to lead what proved to be a fickle, cantankerous group to the promised land. His obedience led to a journey that was filled with challenges he did not want, and led to a conclusion he did not expect. But it also brought his people to the door of the promised land.
We celebrate Israel's successful settlement in the Promised Land. That began when people like Deborah were called to rise up and led Israel in times of chaos and crisis when enemies and opposition threatened the future of God's people. Through her obedience, and others like her, she organized and inspired the masses while looking to God for a deliverance that lay beyond their own capabilities.
We celebrate the prophetic witness of Scripture. That is possible because prophetic call. For example, Isaiah was called in a majestic vision in which he saw the overwhelming holiness of God and felt himself transformed through the recognition of his own limitations. Through obedience to that call, he brought the word of the Lord to many nations, calling them repent.
We celebrate salvation through Jesus Christ. Though we can argue this was planned from the beginning, Scripture contains moments when Jesus struggled with this call before proceeding along the path that led to his death and resurrection.
We celebrate the ministry of twelve disciples whose ministry changed the world. Those ministries started when they were called to leave their homes and follow one who did not choose the path of least resistance. Some, and I suspect all, were broken along the way as they re-learned what it meant to lead within God's work. God's Spirit upsets paradigms and stands our neatly ordered structures on their heads-letting the last be first and first be last, expecting childlike faith to be sufficient, not respecting traditional positions of power, and daring to say "as you've done it to the least of these, you've done it unto me."
Paul, bless his heart, was called despite his certainty he had already answered. Rounding up and persecuting Christians like an out-of-control bounty hunter, a flash of light sent him to his knees and he heard new call that re-framed his faith and his zeal. His obedience helped open the door to Gentiles in the church so that one day folks like us to gather to worship as though we'd always had the right to do so.
We celebrate the call of Charles Adams. Perhaps Charlie's call was not a dramatic Isaiah's or Paul's (or maybe it was?), though for awhile, like Abraham he did have to leave his home state and journey to Hoosier land for seminary. If there was no smoke or flash of light with his call, there was, none the less, a call to choose a particular path-a path of ministry. We celebrate his obedience to that call and the decision to live a life worthy of his calling.
Lives lived worthy of their calling will invariably lead to ministry that touches a broken world and directs them toward the love of God that heals our greatest needs. I find that when I talk about call and ministry, it is often necessary to define the word ministry, even for people who have participated in the life a congregation for years. For Friends, ministry is not the same as ordination. Fox and Barclay made it very clear that ordination and/or education were not equivalent to ministry. However, in our generation it is not uncommon for the concept of ministry to be confined to a professional class or vocation. We need to reverse that trend of thought.
If we turn to the Greek language of the NT for guidance on the subject, we discover the word for ministry is diakonia., meaning "service, contribution, or help." By definition, ministry is not about status or pedestals. It is not about being holier than thou, but about giving help to thou as an act of obedience to God who called us through Christ Jesus.
Ministry as acts of help, service and contribution is not limited to duties performed by professionals or clergy or even those whose gifts have been recorded among Friends. But the concept of service does help us begin to know when a life is being lived worthy of their calling.
Here are some examples:
One of the simplest ways to be about ministry in everyday life is to listen for the leadings of the Spirit who show opportunities to us. Another is to make an effort to respond to people and situations you meet in the course of the day as if they were issuing a personal appeal to you for help or offering you a gift. Listen with an open mind and heart. Look with a careful eye. What is being silently asked of you when your co-worker tells you about his daughter's drug habit. Or when a person serving on a committee with you shares that her operation for cancer was not successful.
If you were asked to describe "living a life worthy of the calling," what would it look like? How would it sound? Does the concept of ministry as a grace-filled, Spirit-led help, service, or contribution have a place in it all? How does that make you feel--to know that you have a service, or help or contribution--a ministry that is yours to offer the world in some fashion? Understanding that a pyramid needs every stone or sales rep or human body firmly in place if it is stand strong and persevere over time, is the pyramid of God's ministry intact at your position?
This day we celebrate 40 years of ministry by Charles Adams. We celebrate that so long as God calls people to ministry we can expect that God is at work among us through them. So this day, we also celebrate that God is moving among Friends. And, let us also celebrate the potential of ministry that is yet to be revealed as each one of us here learns to live a life worthy of our calling.