The Divine Vocation of Irrelevance

“Why are you doing this?” I was asked by someone who was homeless as he sat down for me to wash his feet. It’s a good question. Despite the significance of Maundy Thursday in the Church calendar, what did I hope to accomplish? How does such an act work to end the burdensome issues of our city and world? The act of foot-washing placed against the background of such crushing need and dire circumstances seems well – just so irrelevant. And yet I recently reread a favorite book on Christian ministry that calls pastors to just such a vocation – irrelevance. Henri Nouwen points out that our fast paced and technologically savvy world appears to want to leave pastors behind for more competent professionals – doctors, lawyers, psychotherapist, etc. Yet, despite all this secular wonderment, success, and competence, he argues, people continue in great numbers to feel cut off from one another and God - unloved, and unknown. So many people long for success, acknowledgement and fame, because this is how one supposedly finds meaning, how one finds love in the world. In response he declares,

The Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. That is the way Jesus came to reveal God’s love. The great message that we have to carry, as minister’s of God’s Word and followers of Jesus, is that God loves us not because of what we do or accomplish, but because he has created and redeemed us in love and has chosen us to proclaim that love as the true source of all human life.

This is a good reminder as I seek to engage the wider Santa Barbara community. O how I long to be seen as helpful, successful, and respectable. But in the end, Jesus knows better. He gives me a basin, soap and towel, and asks me touch the body of one who is considered a failure in society. He asks me to listen to his stories and share my own. He measures success not by numbers served, dollars given or applause received – but by the giving and receiving of love.

Recently, I have been thinking more and more about my task in this position that the church has been so gracious to ask me to fill. Don and I have been working on an affiliation policy to help guide the church and staff members in ways that are best in keeping with following Jesus. Here are some clarifying thoughts for myself:

• I am to be God’s advocate on behalf of the church for those in need of compassion, justice and mercy (1 Peter 4:11). In short, I am to be an emissary of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am not a social worker, an activist, or a politician, but a servant of the Church whose task is to proclaim the good news and invite others to follow Jesus. This declaration means that there should be no distinction between evangelism and advocacy. My goal is not the transformation of the world per se but to help the Church live out its call faithfully in the world.
• Following Jesus may place me in questionable company and may mean that I “suffer for doing good.” (1 Peter 3:17) The Gospel accounts reveal that Jesus often associated with sinners and was reviled by religious people for just such an association. However, the issue for Jesus was the invitation of sinners to enter into God’s kingdom. In other words, get in trouble for proclaiming and enacting the gospel and avoid what distracts from it.
• Get in trouble with trustworthy and upright believers. Partnership begins (but doesn't end) in the Church rather than outside of it. (Mark 6:7) I may “participate” and “associate” with others because the gospel remains a welcome to all but “partnership” should be reserved for Church members and likeminded Christians. The intimacy of partnership demands personal commitment.

This last point has spurred me on to begin creating a Gospel Action ministry team to help facilitate the work that God has called our church to do. My recent experiences in the community and further reflection on my role, have reminded me that Jesus did not send his disciples out alone to preach the word, He sent them two by two. I have had a recent success in this area of corporate ministry by bringing together different business leaders in our church to reinstate a Benevolence Committee, which will be used to empower parishioners struggling financially by offering them practical financial and spiritual advice.

Now that I have a better sense of the myriad things that are currently going on in our community I am going to seek to bring people into partnership so that we can be faithful to the irrelevance that Jesus has called us to perform because God’s fundamental means of change remains the gospel of Jesus Christ, and God’s primary agent of change for the world is the Church.