BREAKING
OPEN THE ORDINARY
By
Sandy Prather
With
Jesus as model, our ministry is compassion
Several years ago I was driving
home one evening with our then seven-year-old granddaughter Madi. We
had spent the afternoon visiting with the extended family and it had
been a pleasure watching Madi care for her baby cousin. Our second granddaughter,
Ashley, was 18 months old and Madi had been both tender and solicitous
with her. With seemingly endless patience, Madi had carried Ashley about,
gotten her toys and sat reading books with her.
I praised Madi for her efforts.
“I am very proud of you, Madi. You were so good with Ashley.”
Madi casually shrugged her shoulders and, glancing out the window, responded
with a throwaway line. “I just do what I see you guys doing,”
she said.
I was stunned. It struck
me immediately as one of the best one-liners for discipleship that I
have ever heard. “I just do what I see you guys doing.”
Hovering in the background is the question that comes directly from
Jesus: “Do you see what I have done for you?” When the disciples
gathered around him answer, “Yes, we see,” Jesus’
response is a command, “Then go and do likewise.” Here we
touch the heart of the Christian community’s mandate for ministry.
The question, the answer
and the instruction serve as both the what and the why
of our ministry. The scene for that well-known conversation is, of course,
Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. It is the night before Jesus
is to die and he continues to do what he has always done: he takes care
of them. His ministry had always been one of service: healing, celebrating,
loving, forgiving and teaching and Jesus ends the way he began. His
penultimate gesture of loving service is undertaken with an apron, a
pitcher, a towel and a washbasin.
The what of ministry
is to continue the loving service we have experienced and seen; the
why is Jesus’ command to do so. It comes not as an external
dictate demanding to be obeyed but as an intrinsic part of being connected
to Jesus. What we have received, we are to offer to others. What we
have seen, we are to do. Ministry is not simply an option we pick up
when it suits us. To be part of the family is to share in the spirit
of the family.
Madi is our granddaughter
and as such we do not have to mandate that she be gentle with the babies
and care for them lovingly. As part of our family, gentleness and care
is what she has experienced first-hand and what she witnesses daily.
She sees us loving, enjoying and delighting in the little ones. She
is part of this community of care, our family, and we do things this
way because this is who we are.
So it is with the community
of disciples, the church. Baptism brings us into the family and “Welcome
to the family” is our mandate for ministry. As author Frank Allen
points out, ministry is not contingent upon ordination; one enters ministry
when one enters the waters of baptism. In baptism we hear Jesus say,
“Do you see what I have done for you?” and we too are mandated
to go and do likewise.
We even use the language
of family — sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, and service
and caring for one another is what a family does. “See how they
love one another” was a comment made about the early Christians
as the community of care continued, obedient to Jesus’ command,
throughout the centuries.
Thus mandated to minister, what is it that we do? With Jesus as our model, our ministry will be that of loving compassion. Our ministry will be seen in the quality of our listening and responding to a wounded world.
Prisoners still need to be
freed; the lost and homeless seek a homeland; those who wander in darkness
wait for an invitation to enter the light; the thirsty and hungry still
require food and drink; those who long for mercy wait for a gentle touch
and the ill still long to be healed. God’s people still cry out
for comfort, and the suffering for compassion. The apron, pitcher, towel
and washbasin are still needed in a hurting world.
Where will we minister? We
will be called to minister to our children, our spouses, neighbours
and friends, called to serve in our families, community and parishes.
Some will hear the call in the voice of the poor and will direct their
efforts to social justice work. Some hear the call in the need for evangelization
and will become teachers and catechists in our churches. Some will hear
the call from their children and will take parenting courses, others
will be called to care for elderly parents. The call will be as varied
as those who hear it; the ministry as diverse as the need that calls
it forth.
What remains the same is our reason for doing it: “I just do what I see you guys doing,” as through the ages, Christ’s disciples indeed do see and then go and do likewise.
Prather, BEd, MTh, teaches and facilitates in the areas of faith
and spirituality and is the director at Star of the North Retreat Centre
in St. Albert, Alta. She and her husband Bob are blessed with four children
and 10 grandchildren.
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