Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church; the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's son that we will be mature in the Lord. Measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
One of the things we talk about regularly here is, at least to me, one of the signs of a healthy congregation and a healthy church. Where people who come, see themselves as priests and pastors to one another. So this idea of people up front do the stuff and people in the chairs consume the stuff is not at all what I think the Bible emphasizes. When it comes to the church or to what ministry actually is, but rather that we are priests and pastors to each other, so in that sense all of us are ordained if you will. All of us are set apart. All of us are called. All of us have gifts and all of us are to pour those things out for the sake of God.
“It is within the church, within the Ecclesia, that Jesus Christ is affecting what he wants to do in the world and that's not a small statement. You guys all know that statement, but it is only really through the church that we're going to have the Holy Spirit as one body communicating out into the world and so Ecclesia became very important. Why I decided to be ordained after that was because it is through the Gathering of the believing people that one can be raised up into service for God. It is the collective people, especially in the Baptist tradition, which you all are. It is you all who I would serve, not literally here, but serve by the consent of the believing people. So it became so apparently clear to me at that point that ordination was absolutely going to be part of who I am and you were going to be the people who I was going to approach to do that. Because no matter where else I go as a servant of God it is you people who have confirmed me and there's very good reason for that and it is because you're my people.” ~ Allison Carlos
Do I believe my life depends on hearing from God? Wow! Like we all believe that we need food for our body to survive, right? This is why a regular part of our daily life is, run around scrounging for food. We plan our day around it. We get up early to make sure we have time for breakfast. Our school or our job will actually let us stop working so that we can go and eat. We gather with friends and family for dinner, so that we can make an experience out of filling this very basic need for food. We follow a diet plan to make sure that we’re getting all the right kinds of food. We plan menus for the week ahead and on and on and on we could go talking about all the ways that our belief, our conviction, that our body needs food to keep functioning, affect how we plan and go about our days.
Do I do the same for my spirit? What can we do to put ourselves in a position to regularly hear from God? And while of course there are many different habits or spiritual disciplines that we could develop, and help us in that area, and we talk about a lot. There is one that throughout the history of the people of God has really served as the anchor, as the foundation to hearing from God.
Certainly, the Garden of Eden was not some place where Adam and Eve strolled around going, oh my gosh look how pretty that tree is, I'm so sick of looking at that! There's none of that. There's a sense of renewal and growth and they worked with their hands. They took care of things. It seems to me the future involves discovery and learning and working. The Bible calls it reigning with God. The perishable will put on the imperishable as in 1 Corinthians 15, but I don't see anything in the Bible to indicate we instantly get a brand-new character, and all the crud Gets zapped out. Again, maybe that's what happens, but since that's where we're heading it makes more sense to me to start now. And perhaps, some seem to think so, who we are becoming and who we will be when all is said and done is part of our offering of worship to God. We offer him the life that we have lived and the person that we have become. God the Holy Spirit at work in us to form his character in us is preparation for an eternity with him. Life before death matters. What we read, what we watch, how we spend our time, who we become and are becoming, life is the practice field for eternity. Heaven before we die, and Jesus is our example.
I suppose in some isolated Chambers at Nassau or Space X, gravity is not currently at work. But in nearly every other square inch of this planet, if I throw a ball up into the air it will come back down. Or if I jump out of an airplane without a parachute the fall might be fine, but the landing will be a tad messy, because gravity is present and working everywhere. And in a similar fashion God is present and working everywhere. I wonder if we believe this. Everywhere we go, every single day, every single moment of every single day, God is already there. And he's already at work bringing the reality of his Kingdom to those who inhabit those spaces. And if we are his follower then our primary vocation, if you don't like vocation insert job, if you don't like job insert calling. Our primary vocation is to be his agent and Ambassador in those spaces where we go. Verses 5 and 11 of our passage, Moses the servant of the Lord who did all those signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt. Servants are sent to do things for the one they serve and a life well-lived is one spent in service to something bigger than self, bigger than success, bigger than comfort, bigger than safety. A life well-lived is one poured out in service to God and the work of his kingdom. And of course, we still do our jobs and build our careers and go to school and raise our families and celebrate along the way as much as possible. But we do all this remembering that as followers of Jesus our primary vocation, job, calling, is to serve God and be about his kingdom work right where we are.
So, tell me, how do we look family when in the eyes of God we hold on to titles like democrat or republican or any other title to save us instead of the presence and will of God. We may look to these titles to save us but trust me every time we are met with the sinful grasp of humanity, none of these titles can save us. Only the presence of God in our own lives can do that. And I don't know about you but the Jesus I know isn't a Democrat, and he isn't a republican either. In fact, I'm not even sure Jesus is American. The Jesus I know has his own kingdom. This is why I love the kingdom of God. See the kingdom compels us to trust in God and lean on one another in community. The kingdom, both holds us accountable and holds us as beloved, within the presence of God. The kingdom isn't just a title or a label it is a living reality and it is grounded fully in what God is doing right now, right here.