WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2010 - TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME
1 CORINTHIANS 3:1-9
Brothers
and sisters, I could not talk to you as spiritual people, but as fleshly people,
as infants in Christ. I fed you milk, not solid food, because you were unable to
take it. Indeed, you are still not able, even now, for you are still of the
flesh. While there is jealousy and rivalry among you, are you not of the flesh,
and walking according to the manner of man? Whenever someone says, “I belong to
Paul7 and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely men?
What is Apollos, after all, and what is
Paul? Ministers through whom you became believers, just as the Lord assigned
each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. Therefore,
neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who
causes the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will
receive wages in proportion to his labor. For we are God’s co-workers; you are
God’s field, God’s building.
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LUKE 4:38-44
After
Jesus left the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon. Simon’s mother-in-law
was afflicted with a severe fever, and they interceded with him about her. He
stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up immediately and
waited on them.
At sunset, all who had people sick with
various diseases brought them to him. He laid his hands on each of them and
cured them. And demons also came out from many, shouting, “You are the Son of
God?" But he rebuked them and did not allow them to speak because they knew
that he was the Christ.
At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a
deserted place. The crowds went looking for him, and when they came to him, they
tried to prevent him from leaving them. But he said to them, “To the other towns
also I must proclaim the good news of the
Kingdom of
God, because for this purpose I have been sent?" And he was preaching in the
synagogues of
Judea.
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An interesting thing happened when I scanned the Gospel reading into the message box for this meditation. The word 'sent' in the second to last sentence of the reading was capitalized. I thought it was one of those misreads in scanning and corrected it. But then I thought about the word sent, and what difference does that word make in this reading and in our lives as disciples. Jesus says he was sent. He did not just go he was sent. This is an important difference.
First, perhaps, I should tell you about my own understanding of being sent that I have arrived at over the past few years. In some of the reading I have done over that time and in my spiritual direction I have thought about the difference between being sent and going. When we go we often choose where we are going. When we are sent we do not do the choosing. Six years ago I was sent to a new job, a new ministry. In a budget cut my job was eliminated at the parish where I worked. I was not out of work even two weeks, and had not started looking for work, when I was called and asked to consider a new ministry. As I said above, I had been contemplating the difference between being sent and going. I had prayed that I would be sent in my new ministry. I prayed over this request to consider this new ministry and truly believed that God was sending me there. My ministry now is directing a food warehouse for our local Council of Churches that provides food for 30 congregational food pantries as well as over 40 soup kitchens and other agencies that serve free hot meals to the needy. It somehow seems a perfect diaconal ministry. It took on even more significance four summers ago after our severe flooding in late June. Our program was given the responsibility in our community wide recovery effort to provide food for flood victims and relief workers. We distributed over two hundred thousand pounds of food for flood relief over the next two years. This year we have embarked on a new project in hunger relief, the CHOW Farm, where we will grow our own fresh fruits and vegetables to give to the needy. We planted an orchard that we won on an online national voting contest. Farming is something I always wanted to do and now I am doing it for the poor. Feeding the hungry and being intimately involved in responding to victims of a natural disaster have heightened my sense of being sent to my present job. It doesn't necessarily mean that I will always be there, that I will not be sent to another ministry. I have stopped thinking that God is finished with sending me places.
So what is the difference in being sent as opposed to going? As Fr. Richard Rohr writes in his book on the Diaconate, when we are sent the Sprit provides all we need to accomplish the task at hand. When we go we are on our own. We go because we choose to go. When we are sent we accept the direction of the Holy Spirit and so are gifted for the ministry we undertake.
This is important, I believe, for each of us as we pray for the Spirit to reveal to us our giftedness for the Kingdom. If we choose what we are comfortable doing we often close ourselves the moving of the Spirit. When we choose what we want to do in ministry in our parishes we are on our own. When we open ourselves to the direction of the Holy Spirit we may be very surprised by what the Spirit appears to be leading us towards. But if we are truly sent by the Holy Spirit into a ministry, we can be assured that the same Holy Spirit will provide us with every gift we need to fulfill the mission.
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Lord Jesus, fill me with the gift of your Holy Spirit. Reveal to me the ministry you want to send me into for the building of your Kingdom. Fill me with the gifts I will need to fulfill the worked you have sent me to do.
Deacon Ed