About five years ago, when I
first took a position on the faculty of one of our state community colleges, I
found some confusion. Many staff members had an unusual notion of getting
caught up in the community. The slogan seemed to be, "Get involved, and redeem
Waterbury." On the faculty were “Messiahs” who, very often to the
neglect of their teaching, were very much involved in the community, trying to
save the city. No one was ever quite sure - save it from what?
Additionally, there were the
“inside activists,” those who had become preoccupied with
meetings, those who seemed to enjoy going to meetings,
conducting meetings, having meetings, much more so than serving
in the classroom. Other inside activists were the “innovators.” These
were the professors who would greet their classes, people who had signed up for
a specific course, with "What do you want to do this semester?" It seems that
the students knew what they wanted to do, but the professors did not. One
course ended up being called "One Great Hour of Sharing" - with academic
credit. A very wise president of that college reminded the faculty of something
which should have been very plain to us all - we were hired primarily to teach.
The most important thing we could do for the city is to offer the best possible
instruction. All other school activities were secondary to teaching, and all of
the other concerns, very good concerns, which we as professors might have, were
to be done on our own time. Had confused teachers of this past decade read
their contracts and personnel policies, they, their students, and the public
would have had little doubt as to the nature of their jobs.
There seems to be a similar
confusion these days in the church. There are clergy whose activities have
taken them into the community with no small degree of arrogance: "I, an
ordained clergyman, am going to meet every human need - economic, health,
psychological, and moral." That, for some clergymen, has become the
whole job. It would seem that in the unspoken name of Confucius rather than of
Christ, the good society has become the focal point of his ordination.
Too, there are the “inside
activists” who have decided to specialize. One is the rector who does
“research” in his study – where he “serves” seven
hours a day - with Thomas Aquinas as his model. Another is the executive type
who specializes in office management, doing all the paperwork - that
becomes his area of expertise. An added style is the rector who wants to be the
counselor, and his whole job, his model, becomes Freud; some of these grow
beards, grab pipes, and acquire a marvelous kind of inept “wisdom”,
and yet this for them becomes their whole ministry. There are also those
rectors who are innovators. One variety wants you to release balloons in church
as a kind of celebration.
Further, there is the Cecile B.
DeMille model. One young man who was interviewed for a position seemed to carry
the whole conversation of his potential ministry along the line that he was
great at films, at making instructional movies, and in that interview, when
somebody said, "Well, where do you stand with regard to theology?", he blushed,
and his only reply was "Oh, a bit of Tillich, a little Aquinas.” Then
there are those rectors who have developed another kind of specialty which I
will irreverently call the 'Groupers.' These are the clergy who have
substituted for praying “groupy” activities in which one touches and
feels and equates that with a relationship with God. These great hours
of sharing turn out to be not so great, but instead boring and unproductive.
There are also those rectors who specialize, in being holy, claiming special
gifts from God, which unfortunately seem to be lacking in humility, and who
would seem, at least on the surface, to have substituted a kind of pious
haughtiness for love.
The final example I will give
is what could be called the Merlin focus. This is the activist who is extremely
conservative inside. And I'd like to read to you something a psychiatrist wrote
about one of these.
“I remember one tortured young clergyman whose
underlying motivation for seeking help was the growing recognition that he had
learned the tricks of a successful ministry in the absence of really
meaningful, spiritual substance. The superficial manipulative skills which have
served to make him appealing to many were growing ineffective as he began to
realize that his brand of inspirational goodness was a subtle form of evil,
that he was up to no good. The week of his first meeting with me he had dreamed
that he was a powerful warlock, casting spells. But in this dream he had found
that his magical gestures and incantations no longer forked any lightning. He
hexed impotently with his hands and muttered sorcerer's gibberish, only to
discover for the first time no one was controlled by his witchcraft. That was
the beginning of a long struggle which gradually allowed him to reclaim and
renew his faith, not through control of others, but through surrender to
himself and God.”
How many priests and rectors of
this age have attempted to find personal and vocational fulfillment by
specializing in one of these ways? How many are still in parishes, unguided,
unwatched, and unhelped as they flounder, wondering what their ministry
is? There is a clear job description as to the work of a priest. It is
clearly spelled out at the time of one's ordination. Let me read the eight
points from the examination of a priest in his ordination, those things that he
is to do, which all priests are to do.
(1) To instruct the people from
scripture; (2) to minister the doctrines, sacraments and discipline of Christ
as the Church have received the same; (3) to banish and drive erroneous and
strange doctrines contrary to God's word; (4) to use public and private
warnings and exhortations to the sick and the poor within his jurisdiction; (5)
to be diligent in prayer and in reading Holy Scriptures and in such studies as
help to the knowledge of the same, laying aside the study of the world; (6) to
frame and fashion your own self and your family according to the doctrine of
Christ and to make yourself and them as much as in you lieth wholesome examples
and patterns to the flock of Christ; (7) to maintain and set forward quietness,
peace and love among all Christian people and especially among them that are or
shall be committed to your charge; and finally, something that many of us
forget, (8) to obey your Bishop and other chief ministers who, according to the
Canons of the Church, may have charge over you.
These priestly duties are
served in many different ways. Today we're talking about serving these duties
within a parish where the work of a rector is not a specialized task. The
rector of a parish is a general practitioner, and he is not a free agent to do
his own thing, to specialize or to yield to special interests of his parish. He
is not instituted to serve himself or the parish, he is instituted to serve
God. And please notice something extremely important, he is not instituted to
serve the world, to care for the United States, Connecticut, or Easton. He is
instituted to be the shepherd of those committed to his care, the parishioners
of this parish.
I am not suggesting for one
moment that a rector retreats away from the community; I am saying that
his job is primarily with the members of his parish, which therefore implies
that the people of the parish carry out into the community the Christian
ministry, into their homes, and their jobs and the various worthwhile
committees that every community must have. I submit to you that the rector, if
he is truly doing his job with you, will not have the time or energy to serve
on a multitude of town committees or even on diocesan committees. He will be
seizing every moment to dispense the Divine Word individually and in groups,
from the pulpit, in leading devotions, in exercising the discipline of the
Church, saying “yes” and saying “no,” and in growing
himself as a child of God and a man of prayer.
My friends, for those of you
who are parishioners here, you must share in his ministry while being led by
this shepherd. You are to share, by example and deed, the day-to-day
implications of your baptism, the foundations of all Christian ministry.
My brother, the world is hungry
and needs many foods. You, as rector of this parish, cannot feed the whole
world, and you cannot feed all of Easton. You can serve as a man of God,
offering the people in this place that which you have been ordained and
instituted to do. God grant you strength and blessing to carry out this
ministry, and God grant this parish the strength to minister with him.