You only had to do one job!

It's Wednesday morning and outside it's a balmy three degrees below zero: The world is a cold place indeed and yet where there is an absence of something, however small, where that missing thing is to found, that little being made real makes a difference.

I am increasing finding myself hearing the phrase, "You only had one job . . ."
Which continues by pointing out the missed opportunity to do that 'one job'.
Perhaps it was merely done inefficiently, or it could be that the task before was missed completely.

Depending on who it is using the phrase and the context, this is one of the funniest or most damning comments I know. It can be a response to a messed up attempt to do something and raises a smile in speaker and recipient of the words - it can also bring pain as are reminded of the fact that the one task we had we failed to do! I often struggle with the image of standing before Jesus and having Him use it with regard to His Church, but don't think I am creating harsh and critical Jesus here because that's neither the intention of the reality, but I am sure He will be having a 'bit of a chat' with some of us when the whistle blows :-(

Everywhere I go these days I'm encountering Christian who tell me how kind, loving and affirming Jesus is - and that is so very true - but they then continue and try to take me to a place where Jesus applauds and affirms us all in our inactivity and in the botched, half-hearted, attempts at that 'one job' He has left us to do.

But what is this 'one job'?

When asked what the greatest commandment was (Matt 22 // Mk 12 // Lk10) Jesus responds with the words:
" 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
 This is the first and greatest commandment.
 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Perhaps this is the 'one job'; but if it is then how are we doing with it and what does it look like to have us loving God with all that we are?
How are we loving our neighbours 'as ourselves?'
What And what would the world look like if we were doing this 'one job' to the best of our abilities?

In conversation recently I discovered that the same person who gave a token gift (because giving is something we have to do) each week as their offering had recently bought themselves a massive gift to support their hobby. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking them; how can I when I am as guilty as the next person when faced with the choice of sticking all my money on the plate or buying something I want. We don't stop and think, "Ooh, I want that but the Church needs the money more!"
Do we?

Consider these questions:
Have you ever seen someone who has a need and chosen to go a different route rather than engage with them and it?
Have you ever avoided bumping in to someone rather than be called upon to offer a helping hand or a lift or something that draws upon your time and effort?

I bet you have because I have have; it is part of our fallen and flawed human condition!
The problem is that we think about where we need to be or what we want to be doing and don't think, "There's a neighbour, what would I want someone to do for me if I was them?"

Do we?

Perhaps the 'one job' is to be found in the 'Great Commission' as found in Matthew 28 (// Lk 16):\\: "Then Jesus came to them and said,
'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,
  baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.' ”

What if this is the 'one job'?
How are we, as individuals doing? How as we, collectively, as Church, getting on with this? Are we standing in the authority we have in Christ and making a difference; Are we making disciples or merely looking to boost our Sunday attendance numbers and by so doing increase the money in the plate?

I can only ask these questions and seek to answer them for myself.
I'm not trying to put you on the spot, merely asking you to stand next to me!

Are we seeking to make obedient disciples or merely recruit committed members of a club which affirms all that we do and tells us that all will be well?

Do we speak of giving in the model Jesus, the Christ, gave us (that means sacrificial) or are we happy to leave it at paying our parish share and the other bills?

One last contestant for the position of being that 'one job' comes in the shape of the 'misseo dei'; the 'mission of God'

God has acted to reconcile us to Himself through the coming of Jesus (fully man, fully God) and His death on a cross for us. There He paid the price of our sins that we might be in relationship with God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and, being born again - that is 'made a new creation' - might live new lives here on earth and spend eternity with Him.

What if this 'one job' is to be in step with Jesus and to be out there blessing what He is doing in our cities, towns and villages?

How are we doing this 'one job'?

To do this we need to be praying and using our spiritual eyes to see where God is doing stuff and get in step with Him.

Here we are, the first week of Advent and preparing ourselves for His first Advent whilst looking for His second. What is that 'one job' we need to be doing to ensure that when He returns (and I am convinced that He will, aren't you?) he fist words from His lips won't be, "You only had one job . . .

pax

So what is my Job? - Modelling

Part the second of my surrejoinder to the comments below focuses on the issue of 'modelling'.

I wrote:

'Those who are happy to come to the show and sing the happy songs and have their ears tickled - the day is coming when the battle will be engaged and you will find yourself 'not fit for purpose' - time to 'man up Church!

To which I received this response:

'How much more emotional manipulation are you going to employ on your site to get people to be doing what you, Vic, think people should be doing?

This isn't your job, Vic - your job is to seek after God and put yourself at his disposal.  Be loved by him and then love others as you are loved.

Your job is not to guilt-trip, embarrass or intimidate people into conforming to your ideology... this is the fast-track to burn-out.

Come back to me on this one, and tell me why I'm wrong.'

So I am doing exactly that.

The words, 'Your job is to seek after God and put yourself at his disposal. Be loved by him and then love others as you are loved,' are spot on and if each of us assume that were we to do this, all would be sweetness and light

.As a Christian, what you have described is the bedrock of my baptismal calling. What you have described is also correctly described as 'my job' in that, as a minister of the Gospel, this is indeed a part of my job too! This Leviticus 19 passage:

‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord.'

Is someing in which we find the way of peaceful co-existence with others, for if we treat others as we treat ourselves then all will be well, won't it? Well it should be but this is often a one-sided transaction (but that still doesn't stop us, does it?) and the very act of trying to live in such a way is, at times, regarded as aggressive, arrogant or condemnatory; and if the way we treat ourselves and the 'love' we endow upon ourselves is 'different' to that which others consider to be love ( for instance 'permissive' or 'disciplined') then it become the path of conflict rather than peace.

For me, the tension becomes more marked, and demanding, when we unite those words with Deuteronomy 6 (something we often do in our Eucharist):

'Hear, O Israel:The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.'

For what we have now is an 'In, Out and Up' situation: Ourselves - Others - God

So I would answer to the call my critic makes regarding Leviticus 19 is that it is but the starting point not the pinnacle and with Deuteronomic utterances added, is something transformational and amazing. And my role is to model this and to live as a disciple in such a way that others can see me (warts and all) and hopefully in that point towards Him whom I (we) serve.

You see the reality is that my personal call, and responsibility, is to live out the realities about in such a way that others see this 'difference' and it challenges them to ask, 'How can I have that?' As I model the life (and attitudes) of a 'God lover' I model the life and attitudes of Him whom I follow, Jesus, and as I love - I encourage others to love in the same way for the same reason.

I am called to love the LORD (YHWH) with all my being - mental, emotional, spiritual and physical - and it is this that leads me to do more than just be happy. More than just be content to consume, for as my critic implies, the loving of others is an active, being out there part of the Christian life.

Unlike some of the advert's that tug at the heartstrings, we do not employ emotional manipulation (unless if course you think the cross and crucifixion is such) and we do not beat people into submission (verbally or physically) but rather we 'model' Christ. As I encounter those of no particular (and sometimes none) faith, I often hear them utter the words, 'I wish I could have your faith,' or the equally sad, 'I wish I could do what you do!' The reality is that they can have both and even if they don't embrace my faith, can still make the latter theirs (for non-theists do good stuff too!).

So I consider that I have not only a right, but a responsibility, to tell others that their life choices are not the best open to them. I also consider that this right demands that I practice what I preach, for there is no room for hypocrites in the Church, and model what is the right way in exactly the same way Jesus modelled it in NewTestament times.

If my thinking is right then, unless we consider Jesus to have used guilt-trips or intimidation that embarrased people (and I'm sure He never did that!), then I'm speaking the truth in love - another essential piece of modelling in a time when we so often neither live or speak truth, choosing merely to issue spin and deviance!

My call as Christian, and pastor, is therefore to model - and to do this in the manner, and in the footsteps, of Jesus - and I happen to think that this is what my words are doing.

Let those who have ears, let them listen - and for those who won't, or don't?

To quote Don McLean (Vincent):

'They would not listen, they're not listening still'

ps. It's no accident that I have kept this in the Old Testament - for it underpins the New and needs to be used as it deserves and demands. We are based on, and reside in, the whole word. Once we edit or re-invent we head for a world of potential self-justification rather than willing obedience :-)