The Coolest Job

We feel we must be continually thanking God for you, brothers;quite rightly because your faith is growing so wonderfully and the love that you have for one another never stops increasing...
— 2 Thessalonians 1:3

    Veterinarian  Marlene Siegel joined us in October at our Blessing of the Animals before worship.  Her daughter Alyssa Harrell also stayed for Sunday school to talk about her new book, Demi of the Dolphins.  So there we were, gathered in bright Florida morning sunlight, with members and friends and our dogs and cats and lizards at hand to help us thank God for these living gifts.  After the ceremony, Marlene said to me: “You have such a cool job.”  And you know what?  I had to agree.

How many jobs give you anything like the variety of experiences you get being a pastor? In the morning I could be meeting with local business people, in the afternoon standing by a bed in an Intensive Care Unit, in the evening practicing songs with the praise band.  In between I’m praying and reading Scripture, teaching classes and playing games with the youth, helping with service projects and mission trips, planning for the future with ministry teams, carrying in food donations, praying with homeless people, and eating heavenly food at a potluck dinner.  But not all churches have so many things going.  What a privilege it is to be so wrapped up in a congregation that is so wrapped up in serving!

    And then there are those moments at that baptismal font which, like God’s cupped hands held out, enfolds a little new life with God’s grace.  And at the table each week where God works a miracle and comes down to us all, and we hand Him out in bread and drink Him in wine and a procession of hands reaches out to take Him — some old and rough, some young and glowing.  And there again at the end of life when we realize it has all been a gift, and something breaks through our sadness when we see that the person we know and loved as a friend on earth has gone on to become something more beautiful than anything we knew them as here.  And I get to be part of that, again and again.
Pastors are blessed seeing the Spirit constantly at work.  It’s so easy to see when we gather for our services, but it doesn't stop...it goes on from there, spilling out into all of life.  Tasks and events and meetings, things which can seem so routine and un-spiritual, take on a different significance when we are doing them as a community of Christ.  It’s not the business or the busy-ness, but the people that make up ministry.  Through the teamwork and the tasks, our service for Christ becomes a kind of worship in itself.  Liturgy (in Greek, leitourgia) means “work of the people.”  We are changed as we engage in it.    We see the startling way God takes a person and makes them into a disciple.  We witness the transformation that happens when the eyes of a heart are opened and one really sees how, in the midst of joy or sorrow, God’s hand has touched their life.
    Here at Atonement, people have shared amazing stories of how God has changed their life, brought them back from the brink of disaster, healed loved ones, given new direction, and brought friends and spouses to find each other.  Here at Atonement, people have worked as volunteers, coordinators, teachers and team leaders, gofers and planners, finding ways to help make ministry happen here.  Here at Atonement, people greet visitors and go out of their way to introduce themselves, connect people with new friends and make people feel at home.  Here at Atonement, people watch out for each other, checking up on people who have missed church a few times, calling on those who may need no more than a listening ear.  Here at Atonement, people put aside personal differences and work side-by-side and face-to face for the ministry of the gospel and the future God is calling us to build. 
    I guess what I’m trying to say is — you inspire me.  I get the feeling the Apostle Paul must have had when he wrote letters to the thriving young churches he helped start.  Seeing them grow in grace and understanding, welcoming new people, teaching the faith and spreading the Word about Jesus — these small, new groups of people he had shepherded were becoming strong witnesses for the Lord and beacons of hope for the world.  They were places where people could come, find acceptance, hear the truth and be saved.  I believe Atonement is that kind of place.
    Another person said to me this week, “I love how the people at our church are so real.”  A good way to put it, I thought.  You are keeping it real.  Real as a worried man and a pregnant woman, riding together far from home, seeking a place to come in out of the cold.  Real as a silent night, starlit and still, with some distant echo that sounds like angel song.  Real as the baby born that night, wrapped snugly in the best they had, watched and wondered at in the tired aftermath of birth.  Real as the hope that calls us to live each day with joy, doing what we can to get out the Good News that God is real and a child has been born for us.