On Sunday, March 11, 2014, at The Glenburn Community
Church, due to
circumstances beyond anyone’s control, the morning sermon was interrupted. For
those who have been following along in the parallel series in Samuel-Kings
(“The Kings of Israel”) and the gospel of Mark (“The Kingdom at Hand”), the
next three posts summarize the main points of that sermon from Mark 4:1-20 entitled “Thirty,
Sixty, and a Hundredfold.” To those who have expressed their concern for the
parishioner experiencing a health crisis in the midst of the sermon, please
know that they are doing well and are very thankful for the support and
encouragement they have received.
In
the previous week’s sermon we discussed three categories of individuals who
often choose to attend religious services, though without fully participating
in the life or community of faith. Some are Dilettantes, those who admire
religion, and who might dabble in some practices, but do not participate as
practitioners of “the life of faith.” Others are labeled Backsliders, who have
enthusiastically involved themselves in religion at some point, but for a
variety of reasons choose to distance themselves from “the life of faith” they
once claimed. Still others are Pretenders who want to be seen as practitioners of “the life of
faith,” but whose beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and words align only
marginally, if at all, with those of the religion they claim to follow.
My hope
in describing these categories is to assist in maintaining and enhancing the
spiritual health of devoted disciples of Jesus Christ, those who carry the vast
majority of the responsibility for any particular congregation. I also find
that it helps my mental health to admit that dealing regularly with dilettantes,
backsliders, and pretenders…well, it makes me a little crazy sometimes. So, I
recommend three distinct disciplines. I see them suggested by the difficult
realities Jesus expresses in Mark 4:1-20,
“The Parable of the Sower and the Seed.”
The first of those disciplines is to Lower
Your Expectations.
Those
who are intensely involved in serving local congregations often have the
expectation that everyone who attends, no matter how seldom, should be serving in the same way. But
is that reasonable? Scripturally, there are differences in ministries due to
variations in the passions, gifts, and experiences held of individual members. In
response, the overworked claim that others should at least “measure up” to the
investment of time, effort, money, prayer, and criticism they contribute. “And
regardless of gifts and talents,” some would add, “when it’s time to fill up
the _________ rotation, they need to take their turn!”
Others
expect everyone to serve exactly as they do, which is “barely, if at all.” This
results from a pervasive heresy: that the “ministers” of a congregation are the
paid professionals on staff, with a few “lay volunteers” assisting when
(rarely) necessary. Amazingly, this view is held even in small, rural churches
with no full-time staff. Is this reasonable? It is, if we allow for the comma
some have inserted into Ephesians 4:11-12.
One punctuation mark radically changes the perspective of “who does what” in
the local congregation. As it reads in the KJV, the reasons for employing
pastor-teachers in the church are “for the perfecting of the saints, (and) for
the work of the ministry, etc.” Markus Barth, writing on Ephesians for The Anchor Bible commentary series,
points out that the error in this matter is far too important to rest upon
whether there is a comma (as above), or whether pastor-teachers are given “for
the equipping of the saints for the work of service.” He notes the
“all-hands-on-deck” approach evident throughout the Ephesian epistle, most
notably in Ephesians 2:22.
Regarding the “holy temple” into which the “whole building” is to grow, it is
that temple “in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God
in the Spirit.”
Even
in the most broadly involved congregations, though, the percentages of those
“carrying the load” remain very low. And so, I recommend, should our
expectations also remain very low. What is our alternative? Too many are
already infected with the bitter assumption that, “though everyone should, most won’t serve, and that’s just how it’s going to be.” The bitterness
is hardly biblical. But the perception of a devoted corps of workers carrying
the load for a much larger group of dilettantes, backsliders, and pretenders
seems to fit the simply math of the parable here.
The
seed is scattered onto the roadside, the rocky ground, and the thorny ground, as
well as onto good soil. While “The Pareto Principle” routinely quotes an 80-20
division (“80% of the work is done by 20% of the people.”), Jesus holds
slightly higher hopes for us. Fully 25% of the soils result in positive
outcomes. And those outcomes are extraordinary: “thirty, sixty, and a
hundredfold.”
In
light of this, we clearly have a choice among three options.
First,
we could expect that 100% of those we serve will become fruitful disciples of
Jesus Christ. If we do, we are likely to live in constant frustration, on the
brink of despair.
Second,
we could focus our efforts on motivating, influencing, persuading, nagging, and
haranguing the 75% who respond only minimally, or temporarily, if at all. This
leaves us with a persistent sense of betrayal and bitterness.
But
if we choose the third option, to focus on the 25% who become faithful
followers of Jesus Christ, we greatly increase the possibility that we will
find satisfaction and even joy in our
service to Christ and others…even as we wade through the 75% that remain
dilettantes, backsliders, and pretenders.
But
in order to do that, we must also consider a second essential discipline—if we
are to maintain our spiritual and mental health. Let’s visit about that in the
next post.
No comments:
Post a Comment