I have been laughing (and occasionally grouching) with my clergy friends about all the things they should have taught us in seminary, but didn’t. Things like how to deal with tax forms, gas smells, cemetery maintenance, and sewer systems. My colleagues added leaky roofs, bailing folks out of jail, restoring computers, fixing parking lots and on and on.
Instead, we got advice from our preaching professors that we should set aside 20 hours a week for sermon writing and another professor solemnly informed us that we should have 10 hours a week for study, prayer and meditation unrelated to our sermons. Other “authorities” told us that the measure of a committed clergyperson was how many community boards one served on. I always wondered when they thought the other work (pastoral care, discipling, visitation, office work, etc.) of the church was supposed to occur?
The problem, I think, is in the chasm between our expectations and reality. Pastors are called into ministry with the vision that they are giving their lives to God’s work of transforming lives in Jesus’ name yet find themselves dealing with the pernicious minutiae of memos, reports, and cranky circuit breakers. But pastors are not alone. Doctors dream of saving lives but find themselves drowning in insurance forms, teachers want to mold young lives but are overwhelmed with meetings, reports and classroom discipline, musicians dream of great concert halls but find themselves leading fourth grade bands and so on. You know what I mean because, I suspect, you have experienced the same thing. What parent hasn’t looked at their new born with a great surge of love and a heartfelt commitment to devote their lives to that tiny child? Then a week later experienced the frustration of midnight feedings and diaperings.
I wonder what God thinks? Does God get frustrated by the gap between God’s will for humankind and the way we act? Genesis tells us how the first people were placed in a beautiful garden where their every need was supplied. Even better, the relationship between God and the first people was so close that God would visit them when God strolled through the garden in the evening. Yet, humankind broke that relationship and in our greed, violence, and indifference we have been betraying God’s intention for humankind ever since.
As I am writing this, the events and meanings of Holy Week envelope me. At its core, Holy Week makes us come nose to nose with humankind’s sinfulness and our own, personal sinfulness. Just as the people who celebrated Jesus’ arrival became, in just a short time, the crowd demanding his death so we are people with willing hearts and lofty intentions mixed with secret sinfulness. But at the end of a painful Holy Week is the inexpressible joy of Easter when the faithful proclaim, “He is Risen! He is Risen, indeed!” Easter promises that in God’s mercy and grace we have been given a way out. In Jesus, God works through the pain and suffering of this world to forgive our sins, transform our lives and to restore God’s intended loving, grace-filled relationship with his faithful for eternity.
God continues to redeem the muck of this world to point to God’s Kingdom of eternal peace, joy, and purpose. That’s good news for doctors, teachers, musicians, parents, you and me. Even pastors can take heart in the knowledge that God can work through leaky roofs, cranky computers, and clogged sewer lines. Sometimes I don’t know how, but I am excited to see just how great God continues to be.
Blessings in the Name of our Surprising Lord,
Pastor Mark
