Calling: 24-7

For most of us, doing the work of the Kingdom is like a part-time job.  We go somewhere or do something once a week, once a month or several times a year.  In between it may feel that we have a lot of down time.  Lately, I have been asking the question, “what if I want do to Kingdom work today or right now?”

A friend the other day told me of some who seem to have an identity of a minister.  They may or not have an official title or station within the church, but they are always sharing Christ’s love and care with others.  For them, pastoral care is not something that they can just pick up and put down again when they retire.  It reaches the chore of their identity.

Perhaps what I am wrestling with is an idea of vocation.  Unfortunately, in most of the churches I have been in, vocation is limited to a few people on the church staff.  Furthermore, many of those staff members experienced their work as more of a job than a vocation.

Every once in a while, there comes along someone like St. Francis, whose sense of vocation changes the world and creates a new category of calling.  Wisely, the church affirmed this vocation, but it could have just as easily gone the other way.  What would the world be like without the Franciscan family today?

Perhaps the church needs to be a little more creative in this idea of personal vocation.  I wonder how many times the church has missed the opportunity to come along beside someone on whom the Spirit has his hands.  What if, instead of the church’s asking where someone could fit into their plan they asked, "where is the Holy Spirit already working in this person?"  What if most churches felt free to create new categories of vocation?

Creating these categories of vocation would necessitate empowering those to do the work to which they are called.  These new ministers may need new tools.  Our old manuals may have to be supplemented.  Professional clergy would have to be willing to share the work and the blessings. 

I can almost see a church with many orders: orders of artists; orders on hospital pastoral care givers; orders of teachers; and orders of sages.

Blessing the End of Life

For the third time in three weeks, I find myself walking through the end of life with someone I know.  In all three cases, a close relative, a close friend and a new friend, I have been faced with the question of how I could be a blessing to the dying and others in this moment. 

We as a culture do not handle death well.  We avoid it as long as possible.  Great sensitivity must be taken in not naming it too soon.  Modern medicine doesn’t help by teaching us that death is in all cases the enemy.  It fights it and refuses to acknowledge the rightness of a respectful end of life.  I find that there is often a sense of relief when we finally name it.  We can then begin the mourning process.  We can deal with it straight on in a gentile and loving way.

I find that the church needs a better way to bless this final stage of life.  We need to have a way of commemorating this transition.  It should be a dignified time.  A sacred time.  We have the Ministration at the Time of Death, but what about the day or two before an eminent death, which may for a lay minister be the last visit that they have with the person?  Is there some way that we could speak a blessing that could acknowledge an impending passing?  Unfortunately, we avoid it until it is too late, and ministry opportunities are missed.

Disappointments

I recently faced a disappointment.  I had made plans, invested a great deal of time, and it seemed to vanish overnight.  I was flooded with many emotions from anger to defensiveness to sorrow.  I had many questions.  Was this really God’s will?  Was there a human mistake?  Are the two mutually exclusive?  Where am I to go now?

I was reminded by a friend that disappointments can be places of transformation.  It requires us to check our plans against God’s.  It reminds us that it is not all up to us.  I was asked to look for places where God could meet me in this situation.  I was also reminded that God is not boxed in by our expectations.  He is much more expansive than the little categories that we make.

Disappointments are sure to come.  It is a part of our being broken people living in a broken world.  But if we turn these misfortunes into places of worship, they may be powerful moments of growth.  Often, it is not on the mountaintop where we encounter Christ, but in the wilderness.