Here are pictures of our annual Advent Day apart for pastors in the Heartland North district at the great United Methodist conference center and camp called Wilderness in our district. We had 18 attend this year; Arlin Renfrow and Ginger Pudenz led a great Bible study and reflection on the life of John the Baptist. These events provide folks a chance to focus on the season (we do one in Lent, too) and to talk with each other about important things in a way that we might not have a chance to otherwise.
One of the learnings/new thoughts that I received during the day was when folks talked over the passage about John being jailed, and asking his disciples to go find out if Jesus really was the Messiah or was there another coming. Several pastors identified with John's ministry at this point--there are times for all of us when after experiencing an especially futile time in our ministry, we wonder if what we believed to be true when we first answered our call is really true. For John (although there are many different schools of thoughts about this) he seemed pretty certain that he believed Jesus to be the Messiah at the time of his baptism and in the gospel of John where he points out Jesus to his disciples and says, "behold, the Lamb of God." But by the time of his jailing, he had been at this proclaiming and calling to repentance ministry quite a long time. The Romans were still in charge (did John the Baptist believe that the Messiah would be the conquering son that so many Jewish folk were hoping for as they lived under occupation?); Jesus had not made a move to overthrow the government and now John was jailed. Someone remarked at the retreat that John wanted to make sure before he was killed that what he had been saying really was true--that Jesus was the chosen one, the promised one, who would redeem Israel. Jesus's reaction to John's disciples is not to tell them to buck up and have more faith in him; or to chastise John for his uneasiness. He simply told John's disciples to "go and tell John what you see and hear"...that the blind see, and the lame walk---signs that the Messiah had come.
I think that part of what the pastors were saying is that sometimes, especially in those times when your ministry in a church is not going well--perhaps the change you so very much want to see happen is rejected; or the church is so entrenched in doing things one way and are so resistance that you don't see how anything can happen that is new; or when someone in the church decides everything you do is wrong; or when you yourself have really messed something up and you cry with Paul "Wretched person that I am...!--- you do question your call, and the mission of your ministry of which you were once so sure. And this passage about John asking questions about Jesus's identity, and Jesus's response tell us that what we need to do, too, is to go straight to the source, in prayer, and ask...is what I am doing going to really make any difference in the end? Is it all a big fairy tale? How in the world could a person like me, who disappoints others and disappoints myself, ever do any real good for the kingdom...when we ask those questions of our God, most of the time what we will hear is the rest of that quotation from Paul: but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. We wait this Advent for Jesus Christ, and we unlike John, live on the other side of the mysteries of the atonement and resurrection and we know in whom we believe and are persuaded that he is able to keep what we have committed unto him against that day. Jesus will answer our questioning prayers and honor them with the love for us and the affirmation with which he answered John. Hang in there, one and all...Jesus is acomin' again.
BTW, on the entry earlier in the week on Dressing the House, I have now put lyrics on for the carol I mention that I hop are more easily readable. Thanks for all who helped me to realize the need to change it.
No comments:
Post a Comment