On the 100th birthday of the city of Pasadena California, All Saints Episcopal Church gave the city a gift, which was a lengthy, detailed document identifying the needs of the city. All Saints is a parish with several thousand members. It is wealthy and politically powerful. To create this document the church fielded a team of social workers who interviewed every agency, school, and social service in the city for a year. From that work between the church and the city, a number of large and very successful social programs were launched. Some have delivered services to the community for over three decades since then.
As commendable and helpful as these programs are, I wonder if individuals and churches are called to be in the business of meeting social needs? Even more, I wonder if in the process of meeting needs – even when doing a fantastic job like All Saints – can that activity get in the way of our ability to respond to our true calling? I wonder.
John has been living by the Jordan River baptizing people for repentance of their sins for quite some time. He has been waiting for the one who is to come. Jesus gets in line with everyone else waiting to be baptized. John sees Jesus and gasps, “I need to be baptized by you.” Jesus answers him, “No, you will baptize me. It is part of God’s plan that you do not see right now. We must do all that the Father asks us to do.”
The word “obey” comes from two words ab-audio. It literally means to go towards the hearing. Jesus is certainly obedient towards his Father’s Word. I wonder if this enigmatic phrase “to fulfill all righteousness” might mean something like “to obey God” or “to do everything that God calls us to do.”
John could have insisted that Jesus baptize him. That would have been the easy thing to do. John obviously recognized Jesus’ status. John’s needs would have been met and Jesus would have received the proper social recognition of being the superior to John. If that had happened, do you think the heavens would have opened up and the Spirit descended with God’s voice saying, “This is the one with whom I am well pleased”? Did Jesus need the human social thing where the baptizer is superior to the baptized? Of course not.
Jesus heard God guiding him to stand in line like everyone else and he obeys. What is about to happen will demonstrate once and for all that Jesus is BOTH human and of God. He is human because he stands in line and is baptized just like anyone else. But when he comes up out of the water God will convert this ordinary scene to demonstrate that this is God’s son. The next time we hear about the heavens opening up is at the crucifixion when the temple curtains are torn and the heavens open up. For God to act, Jesus must do the unusual, the unexpected, and the unnatural thing. That is true for individuals and for churches as well.
I am not here to downplay meeting social needs or the church’s role in ministering to “the least of these” in our community. But sometimes we can confuse means and ends. Meeting the needs of the poor and the vulnerable in our community are a means for us to understand the nature of God’s compassion. Sometimes we can become so comfortable with our programs that we think that programs and meeting needs is all God wants us to do. Sometimes with the best of intentions while we do good work in our community, we simply quit listening to God.
Sometimes we need to look closely at what Jesus does and try to follow his lead. Sometimes we need to do the unusual, the unexpected, and the unnatural thing – just like Jesus. Sometimes what we think is the right or righteous thing to do may not be what God wants at all. Obedience to God requires that, first of all, we are able to hear God against the noisy background and distractions of our lives. Let’s consider hearing God and discerning God’s plan for a minute.
God does NOT tell us what we want to hear. God is not in the business of granting wishes and fulfilling personal agendas. For example, in our capital campaign we hoped to raise $2M for the renovation of this facility. It now looks like with some borrowing and a general appeal to the congregation, we can get to about $1.7M. You should know that my constant prayer through all this is for the funds we raise and for the buildings we renovate to be blessings for GOD’S PLAN and not for our plans. If we follow God’s plans for Grace Church, then there is no such thing as “failure” or “coming up short.” We must listen constantly. We must pray without ceasing. And we must be ready to do unusual, unexpected, and unnatural things.
As individuals and as a church we must seek out those times when we can be quiet and listen. If we are constantly distracted and constantly busy, we will very likely miss the still small voice that we need to hear.
Finally, we must try new things – and trying new things demands a willingness to look silly sometimes or even to fail. The outcome of our new ventures is part of our discernment process and guides how we go forward. Our new service Thursday night is an example of trying something new. I want to thank everyone for their help in making our first new service a tremendous success.
Individuals sometimes hear God telling them impossible things. For example, when Abraham and Sarah were very old, God told them they would have a son. Sarah laughed at the news. Of course they did have a son and named him Isaac, which means “He will laugh.”
The next time you experience this strange mixture of a new challenge coupled with a sense that it is crazy or beyond your capabilities, you need to pay close attention. It could change your life.