Purpose, Posture and Prepositions: On Being Served by God (with a byword on “why Pastors?”)
Field Notes From a Religion-Less Christian
March 18, 2023 (with Notes from February 27, 2023)
Purpose, Posture and Prepositions: On Being Served By God
“So man’s (sic) humility shows itself first in the readiness to receive service from our fellow-men (sic) and supremely from God.”
“But it is the service of God, which we must above all be ready to accept….our first thought must never be, “what can I do for God?’ The answer to that is, nothing. The first thought must always be ‘what would God do for me?’”
William Temple (1881-1944)
Readings in St. John’s Gospel
This by Temple catches me, pulls me up short, because I have been thinking for some time now that the fundamental posture of the Christian is to serve God and others (serve others, and thereby, God) and not look for God to serve self (God as The Explainer and The Helper). My modus operandi is that the reason we are here, the fundamental purpose and posture for us, is to do the mission of God.
But what can be missed there, what I can miss there, is that at its core, the mission of God is to save me and all others from the tyranny of needing to make a difference, the desire and need to find identity, meaning, purpose and destiny with me as the Subject, not God.
What I can miss is that the “mission of God” is to be, has to be, played out on me, not by me. Luther’s “God doesn’t need your good works, but your neighbor does” is applied here. By participating in the mission of God to others without first participating in the mission of God to me leaves me open to every angst and anxiety, every temptation and evil.
As usual, prepositions matter, especially in theology (notice above: “played out on me, not by me”). Changing “What can I do for God?” to “What can I do with God?” can make the difference. And then, this collaboration is not of equal partners. It’s not that I am subservient or of lesser value or significance than God. In fact, God would hear nothing of that kind of humility, contrived or real. It’s simply that I am not the one capable of giving failsafe eternal and unconditional promises. What “I bring to the table,” if you will, in this partnership with the One who is Capable, are the hands and feet to deliver the goods. Not be the goods. Deliver the goods. “Need promise, not demand? Want justice and reconciliation? Let me introduce you to the One Who Is Capable” (I’m reminded here of God telling Moses that her name is “I Am Who I Am,” this very specific identifying of something and someone who is so expansive and explosive as to be beyond all boundaries and labels and definitions. See Exodus 3). This, not incidentally, is exactly why people who became the “called out ones” that were about following Jesus and the Holy Spirit of his life and death, namely “church,” decided there should be somebody formally designated to be that person tasked with making sure the promise was stated and visibly demonstrated (word and sacrament). This person is the “ordained pastor.” This person has no moral credentials, but rather simply and profoundly, specific responsibility to make sure God, that failsafe eternal and unconditional promise, is given over to all the world over.
God has a mission in and through Jesus Christ and if I am not served by God, done in, killed, defeated in my personal and corporate glory projects, I am lost to the mission, have abandoned the Cause, no good to anyone anywhere. But if, rather, Christ has put me to death and I am but His, not mine, the world opens up and not only can I rest at the end of the day though the world burns regardless of my efforts to put out its fires, but I also have the energy, call it Holy Spirit, to actually join with God in giving away the justice and reconciliation that God has given me and all, that God is and lives.
