MINISTRY

A while back during the announcement time one of our members, Ted Popovich, reported on traveling to Selma, Alabama, with a group of people who re-enacted part of the march led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. many years ago. Ted said something to the effect that while this march was led by other ministers and he was not a minister, he felt privileged to be able to take part.

In my off-the-cuff thanks to Ted for telling us about this adventure, I corrected him by telling him that he was indeed a minister in no less a way than those who had been officially ordained by their various denominations. Afterwards Ted thanked me for saying that even as he still felt humbled both by what I said and by his ability to take part in the march.

The truth is that we are all ministers, whether we are ordained or not. Ministry comes from our baptism and the promises made for us when we were baptized and which we renew at every baptism. And, yet, our ministry is even more fundamental. It arises from our basic humanness. Ministry, very simply, is the participation of we human beings in the work of God in this world – no more and no less.

What that means is that we, all of us both individually and collectively, are the vehicles of God in this world. We are God’s hands and hearts. Yes, there are times when God, in some miraculous way, intervenes and does what needs to be done, but not always and not as a rule. That is our job, our ministry. When we think about that, it can seem like a rather frightening responsibility.

It is but it does not have to be such. To be God’s ministers in this world we, first of all, have to know our God. That means we have to be in relationship with God. That demands a good prayer-life. It means that we have to be in contact with our God in no less a way than we are in contact with one another. No, we cannot see God as we see others; but we can still see our God with the eyes of our faith. That is not always easy but it is certainly easier when we keep in touch with God through thought and prayer.

When we think about our participation in God’s work in this world, as frightening and overwhelming as that may seem at times, we need to step back and remember the past and those who were God’s ministers and how they shaped and even changed the world for the better – Dr. King and those who marched and even gave their lives to right the injustices that racial prejudice allowed and fostered. God always works though God’s children to get God’s work in this world accomplished.

Each of us has a place in this world and in accomplishing God’s work in this world, a very unique place. We have to find that place, that ministry, a place and a ministry which no one else can fulfill. For most of us, perhaps for all of us, that ministry may seem mundane and trivial, but it is not. There are very few Martin Luther Kings and a whole lot of marchers-along. But without those marchers there would be no movement and God’s work would not be done.