Ministry and withdrawal, ministry and moving out

Here is my reflection from today's Choral Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

There are two patterns to the ministry of Jesus in these verses (Luke 4. 38 - 44) and we will do well to take note of them in relation to our own lives and ministries.

The first pattern that we see in this story is the balance been ministry and spirituality. The first few verses of the story describe an intense period of ministry. Jesus returns from the synagogue where he has just healed a man to find that Simon’s mother-in-law is unwell. He heals her and then spends the evening healing and delivering many others. We know how busy and exhausted we can often feel through the ministry we do in our workplaces, homes, community and here at St Martin’s. We can imagine how Jesus would have felt following his day of ministry.

In the morning, everyone is again looking for Jesus but he is nowhere to be found. Long before daylight he had got up, left the town and gone to a lonely place where he could pray. In order to pray effectively and well to needed to get away from the demands of ministry and away from his disciples. He needed to be alone with God in order to recharge his batteries for further ministry and that was Jesus’ pattern throughout his ministry; active mission combined with withdrawal for prayer and recuperation.

This needs to be our pattern too. The busyness of ministry here at St Martin’s and in our weekday lives cannot be sustained if it is not fed by regular times of withdrawal for prayer and recuperation. The two are clearly separated in Jesus’ live and ministry and he is prepared to disappoint people, as in this story, in order to ensure that he has the times of prayer and recuperation that he needs in our to sustain his active ministry. This is why we prioritise prayer and spirituality here at St Martin’s, with our range of services, times of contemplative prayer, opportunities for compassionate action, and annual retreats. It is why we have introduced a time of prayer ministry after the 10.00am service on Sundays. It is also one of the reasons why those of us in the staff team may not always be around in the building, because we too need that time and space for prayer and recuperation.

The second pattern that we find in this story is that of ministry and moving on. Jesus has this time of active ministry in Capernaum and then he moves on to preach in the other villages around this town and indeed across the whole of Galilee. The people don’t want him to go. The disciples tell Jesus that everyone is looking for him. They want more of what he has already given them. But he refuses them and moves on to preach to others.

There are two aspects to the pattern of Jesus’ ministry here. First, is his concern for all to hear. That is why he has come, he says, that he should bring God’s message to all. We need that same motivation. The message of salvation cannot stay wrapped up inside this building or our congregation but must go out from here. That is the why St Martin’s has always been a place that has created new initiatives. These initiatives show that Christians have something to say and something to contribute to the concerns that people have and, ultimately, that what we have to say and show is the love of God for all. It is vital that the message and the love of God does not stay cooped up in here but is expressed out there in our community.

That also needs to happen for our own growth and development. We grow as Christians not by staying where we are and being ministered to but by getting up and following in Jesus’ footsteps ourselves; by becoming active ministers of the Gospel ourselves. That is why Jesus constantly challenges his hearers to take up their cross and follow him. William Temple famously said, “The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.” What he meant is that the Church is not about us members getting our needs and wants satisfied; it is instead about equipping and motivating us, the members, to bless others in the love of Christ. That is what Jesus sought to achieve by moving from town to town, village to village and challenging his disciples to travel with him.

We need to mirror these patterns of ministry and withdrawal, ministry and moving out in our lives and our Church. That is why St Martin’s seeks to be a society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members. As we follow Christ, we cannot simply be about getting our needs and wants satisfied but need to be about being equipped by God through times of prayer and recuperation to be signs of Christ outside of this building, outside of our congregation, out where it makes a difference, out in our community and workplaces.

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Taize - Wait For The Lord.

Ready, steady, slow

Ready, steady, slow. Hit the ground kneeling. Do nothing to change your life. Discovering what happens when you stop. These are all titles or phrases from publications by our Bishop, Stephen Cottrell, in which he asks questions such as, when was the last time you had a real day off? Ditched the 'to do' lists? Switched off the phone? Had a lie-in? Sat in the bath until the water went cold?

Most of us live at break-neck speed. Busy lives - work, family, friends, endless tasks - leave us with little time to sleep, never mind stopping and reflecting. We urgently need to stop imagining everything is so urgent. We need to learn to slow down, Bishop Stephen writes, and stop ... and breathe. I could certainly do with taking that message on board, although it is easier said than done. Even Bishops, given their busy schedules, could benefit from the practice and not just the theory!

August is one point in the year when it may seem slightly easier to stop and reflect, although school holidays and holidays per se are not without their stresses and strains. What a good holiday should do, however, is take us out of our usual routine and away from the constant notification of new tasks that characterizes our working lives. Even this is becoming more difficult to achieve as mobiles and the internet enable us to be contacted virtually wherever we happen to be.

Isaiah 30.15 - "In returning and rest you shall be saved" – is one passage that Bishop Stephen quotes. What kind of rest will you experience this summer and will it save you? The letter to the Hebrews suggests that we are made for rest; that the purpose of salvation is to enter into the experience that God had of resting on the seventh day: “… there still remains for God’s people a rest like God’s resting on the seventh day. For those who receive that rest which God promised will rest from their own work, just as God rested from his. Let us, then, do our best to receive that rest, so that no one of us will fail …” (Hebrews 4. 9-11)

Our summer breaks can be pointers to or reminders of this greater (eternal) rest that we can experience in God, perhaps as we trust him more fully with our lives or ultimately as we enter eternity. In an article for our parish magazine, I've asked the folk at St John's Seven Kings to reflect on how we can be saved by rest as they (hopefully) take some kind of well-earned summer break? Although that is the pot calling the kettle black, I will try to as well. It may even be that we can learn to manage our busyness and business differently in future as a result.

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The Kinks - Sunny Afternoon.