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Living out the
gospel in On Call is built around two simple statements:
[1] love God,
[2] love your
neighbour as yourself.
In this love,
there is no room for fostering personal prejudices, our time and
belongings cease to be our own, and the skills and talents we posses
are to be put at the disposal of everyone.
In this we become
servants of God and one another, enacting out the unconditional love
God has for each of us in our increasingly unconditional love for one
another as the Spirit, reproves, leads and teaches.
The
Ministry of Service:
The word
"servant" in Hebrew means one who does work for another or
who belongs to another like a slave. It also meant one who was
committed to another in loyal allegiance, as the soldiers or
ministers of the king. The "servant of the Lord" was a
person who lived in faithful obedience and who stood faithful to God
in worship and prayer.
What is evident
from the New Testament is that the ‘servant of the Lord’
was an important image through which the primitive Christian
community sought to understand Jesus’ identity and ministry.
The ministry of
Jesus as servant as presented in the New Testament is a combination
of service of the word and of priesthood. Yet it also transcended
both. The servant served both the Lord and his people. He served by
proclamation of the word and by himself being the word. He served by
feeding the hungry, healing the broken, suffering and dying.
Jesus’ own ministry of service was presented in the New
Testament as a primary model for the ministry of his followers.
The ministry of
the servant in the Old Testament was rooted in his relationship with
God and in the gifting of the Holy Spirit. The foundation of
Jesus’ own ministry lay in his relationship to his Father and
its manifestation in continuous personal prayer. For Jesus as for his
followers the source of ministry is not the self, but God. Ministry
is possible only insofar as the minister’s life is rooted in
deep personal relationship to God.
Jesus related to
God in a special way as son to his Father. Yet he taught his
followers also to relate to God as their Father. As children of the
same Father, he proclaimed them his own brothers and sisters.
The character of
Jesus’ own life and ministry stand as an example for his
followers. Christian life and servant ministry must fundamentally be
rooted in deep personal relationship with God. This relationship is
manifested both in prayer which is frequent and sometimes even
constant, and also in the presence and gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus was himself
a servant, and he instructed his followers also to be servants. He
ministered to the deepest needs of the people, healing their
broken-ness, satisfying their hunger and thirst for God, restoring
them to wholeness in their humanity. His own life and ministry were
grounded in his relationship to his Father and in the presence and
gifts of the Holy Spirit. Jesus called men and women to follow him
and to live and serve as he had lived and serve.
(The
above abridged
text , 'the ministry of service',
is
credited to www.womenpriests.org)
A
practical faith:
One of the most
powerful teachings of Jesus is found in Chapter 13 of John's gospel:
2
The evening meal was being served. 4 Jesus got up from the meal,
took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5
After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his
disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around
him. 12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his
clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I
have done for you?" he asked them. 14 I, your Lord and Teacher,
have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. 15 I
have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16
I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a
messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know
these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
This is a very
powerful statement - those who would call themselves Christians are
to serve with great humility and selflessness, assuming the role of
the lowly servant as Christ did.
This is reinforced
and expanded in Chapter 15:
9
"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in
my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just
as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11 I
have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may
be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved
you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life
for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I
no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his
master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything
that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did
not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear
fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you
whatever you ask in my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
It is a fabulously
rich text and it is worth reading in the light of 1 Corinthians 13.
St Paul describes further the qualities of love and these values can
be transposed into this text to great effect.
What becomes
evident is that all of these thing are not passive but require
positive action on our part, and that action is to be based in and
founded on love.
Put simply, there
are two equally balanced components that should be evident in
the daily working out of faith - love and action, just as there are
two blanced component requirements in the law, 'love God' and 'love
your neighbour'.
On Call is seeking
to restore these principles of faith in love and action within the
whole community. Anyone who approaches On Call for help should be
given help, regardless of denomination, faith background, social
standing, personal history, circumstances, gender or appearance. Help
should be given because our role is to love one another and to serve
with humility, just as we would both love and serve Christ himself.
Putting it another way:- to deny any one help is to deny Christ.
+ Ian
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