I Am Serious...

I’ve served on two different call committees, and listening to each candidate’s story taught me something about how people respond to God’s call to serve in ministry.  Being on the nominating committee this year, however, has allowed me to see the call process from a different perspective.

A new year at church typically means committees need new members and councils need new officers.  But here’s the thing: we can only pick from who’s available.  This is not to say that there isn't an abundance of wonderfully gifted people in our congregation.  We are blessed with folks with a wide variety of gifts.  We have builders, farmers, cooks, teachers, doctors, accountants, scientists, nurses, pharmacists, custodians, secretaries, musicians, writers, speakers, just to name a few.  The list goes on.

The nominating committee doesn’t assign people to open positions.  We ask.  And that is where I’ve gained a new appreciation, because sometimes they say no.  It surprises me, but it really shouldn’t. 

Why do people refuse? Sometimes they believe they aren’t qualified.  They think that there has to be someone else who could do a better job than they could do.  They decide what they have to offer isn’t good enough.  But we can’t put someone on the ballot who doesn’t say “yes,” no matter how highly regarded they are by the nominating committee.

This is going to seem like quite a stretch at first, but bear with me.  Remember the scene from the 1980 movie Airplane when Ted Striker is summoned to the cockpit because both of the pilots have become incapacitated? 

Rumack : “Can you fly this plane, and land it?” 

Striker: “Surely you can’t be serious.”

Rumack: “I am serious…and don’t call me Shirley.”

Striker tries to give some excuses about not having the right kind of experience to fly this type of aircraft, but the reality is there isn’t anyone else on that plane at that time that is better qualified.

What has that got to do with the church? When God wants something done, God calls someone in that place at that time to do it.  The bible is full of people who don’t appear to be the best candidates, but are called for a specific purpose in spite of (or maybe precisely because of) their apparent shortcomings. 

I’m not going to outline all the examples, but Mary has got to be at the top of the list. 

If God can use a teenage virgin to bear the Savior of the world, God can use you.

It's My Life. Now Let Me Be

One of our council members recently shared with the congregation how difficult it was for him to sing Here I Am, Lord and I’ll gladly second his motion.  That hymn certainly falls into the choker category for me as well, so you can be sure I didn’t include it on my list of favorites that our pastor asked us to submit.

The same goes for Take My Life and Let It Be by Frances Havergal.  I have my own version that goes more like, It’s My Life. Now Let Me Be.  Oh, sure, I have sung, “take my will and make it Thine,” plenty of times, but I knew full well that it wasn’t what I meant.  God can “take my moments and my days” when I haven’t got my own plans already.  It doesn’t matter if all I wanted to do was lie on the couch and watch Little House on the Prairie reruns; the important thing is that it was my idea.  If God had something else in mind for me, I did not want to hear it.

Dear God, I so much want to be in control. I want to be the master of my own destiny. Still I know that you are saying: “Let me take you by the hand and lead you.  Accept my love and trust that where I will bring you, the deepest desires of your heart will be fulfilled.”  Lord, open my hands to receive your gift of love. Amen.  (Nouwen 2006, 61)

So for me at least, this relationship between heart and hands is why giving is so important, not simply for the church to meet its budget, but for my own spiritual life.  An offering is only part of a larger spiritual discipline.  Each time I open my hands to release those material things (which God has given me in the first place), I practice for the more difficult task of letting go of myself.

Holding on isn’t only about maintaining control.  It's also about fear.  Henri Nouwen tells the story of an elderly woman being placed in a residential care facility.  All that she had left of her own was one coin, which she held onto it so tightly that it took two staff members to pry it out of her hand.   This woman had lost all that she felt identified who she was and feared giving up that final thing would mean the loss of herself.   While it may sound like an extreme example, it helps us to think about what we have to be afraid of.  Can there be anything that we cannot entrust to God? 

Trust was the focus of our pastor's recent stewardship article and it shows up also in Nouwen’s prayer.  When I can open my hands to God in trust, letting go of the need to control everything, I am in a position to receive and to be led.  Receive what?  Go where? How important is it to know? 

Worship is one of the ways we can practice and experience this.  Opening our hands, we receive the gift of Christ’s body and blood, strengthening our relationship with God. Opening our hands to share the peace of Christ, we strengthen relationships with each other.  Opening our hands, we offer our possessions and ourselves to be used in the service of God’s kingdom.   We pray God’s will be done.  It will be done… through our hands.

Join me in asking God to help us to trust, to open our hands and hearts to do what God has called us to do, not only as individuals, but also as Christ’s living body, the church.

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Nouwen, Henri J.M. With Open Hands. Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 2006.