“Ministry: We're In This Thing Together, Part 1”

Text:            Exodus 18: 1, 5-27

Date:            January 8, 2012

Prayer for Illumination: May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, for you are my Rock and my Redeemer. AMEN.

During the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, many wonderful doctrines emerged that shaped and formed who we are today as Presbyterians. One of the great doctrines that emerged during this time was “the priesthood of all believers.” Peter writes in his epistle, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peo-ple belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are a people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” All who profess Jesus as Lord -- all believers -- are priests, whether you have been called to serve God as a rancher, a school teacher, a housewife, a teaching elder, a ruling elder, a deacon, or, settled into retirement, all of us are Christ's representatives – God’s ambassadors -- in the world. The priesthood is not an exclusive club for those with seminary or bible col-lege training.

True ministry is not hierarchical either; that is, the higher up the organizational chart, if you will, then the more “spiritual” or “ministerial” you are. Further, our under-standing of the call of God for people to serve in ministry is that they are called from within our own congregations, not from without them. That is, teaching elders, such as me or ruling elders, like those of you on the Session and others, and those ordained as Deacons, are called out from local congregations, just like ours. 

And so it was with ancient Israel . . . . God called from within their own ranks, men and women to serve in leadership. You will recall that Israel had labored and toiled in bondage in Egypt for about 430 years before entering the Promised Land. When you think about it, 430 years is a long, long time, isn't it? That is a long time for Israel to  struggle under those terribly mean, cruel, heartless -- or, should I say, hard-hearted, Pha-raohs?! And yet, they always had the hope that one day, a deliverer would come a set them free from the tyranny of the evil Egyptian Empire. Well, God did send them a deliv-erer. His name was Moses. And, as you know, through a rather amazing turn of events, Moses gave up his royal claim as an heir of Pharaoh to become a leader in Egypt and returned to his rightful place as a leader of the Hebrew children. For a while, Moses had fled to Midian, across the Sinai Peninsula, where he met Zipporah, one of the daughters of Jethro, priest of Midian. There he took Zipporah as his wife and God called Moses back to Egypt to be the one to challenge Pharaoh saying, “Let my people Go.” You can almost hear Charlton Heston speaking those words, can't you? Well, in the Biblical narrative, ole Pharaoh would agree to let the people go, but, then would change his mind. But, God was with Israel and eventually delivered her from the hand of Pharaoh, through the Red Sea into freedom. But, life was not sweet, for they could not go immediately into the Promised Land. So they wandered and wandered and wandered in the region of the Sinai -- Saudi Arabia today! Even during these challenging times, God was faithful, providing water to drink and manna and quail to eat. But, the people were never satisfied and they grumbled and complained -- not too unlike some people today. Never satisfied with what they had, they complained about what they didn’t. Rather than giving thanks and praise to God for what God was doing in their midst, they chose to complain about what God wasn't doing. Rather than seek the Lord and creative alternatives for their plight, they grumbled against their leader, Moses, like he was supposed to be able to do something that would make their existence easier! Frankly, Moses was beaten down and beaten up. Though not with a rod or stones, but emotionally and spiritually. In fact, he always thought as if he was just a very short step ahead of a lynch mob. For instance, earlier in this narrative -- actually at the beginning of the 17th chapter of Exodus, we read beginning at verse 2, we read these words: “So the people grumbled and quarreled with Moses and said, 'Give us water to drink.'“

“Moses replied, 'Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test? What am I to with these people? They are almost ready to stone me. Is the Lord among us or not?” Can you hear his despair?

I don't know about you, but there are times when I know how Moses must have felt. There have been times over 30 years in full-time ministry when I’ve heard some of the same kinds of comments that Moses probably heard. People standing around, quarrel-ing and grumbling, complaining about this or that.

Anyway, Jethro came to visit his daughter Zipporah and his now famous son-in-law, Moses. Jethro was looking forward to celebrating with them what he had done for the people of Israel, how the Lord had indeed led the people out of Egypt. Moses could hardly wait for his in-laws to come for a visit! In fact, we read in Scripture that Moses ran out to meet his father-in-law, the wise priest of Midian, and bowed down on the desert road and kissed him. There was great love and respect between these two great men. To be sure, because Moses was married to his daughter and gave him 2 grand-sons; that didn’t hurt. But, also because of what the Lord had done through Moses; he was very, very proud, of his son-in-law. But, Moses was equally proud of Jethro, for when he was “down and out” for having killed the Egyptian and fled to Midian, Jethro gave him a second chance, even though at first Jethro believed Moses to be an Egyptian on the run, remember? Oh, yes, there was much history and love between these two.

Anyway, the second day of Jethro's visit, he sort of sat back and watched as Moses served as judge for the people. But, what he observed, caused him great concern. Over time, all the work had fallen upon Moses' shoulders -- and, Jethro saw that it was not good. So, Jethro, asked a couple of questions, then the wise old Midian priest offered some “fatherly, priestly advice,” which Moses received graciously.  “Moses, what you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. You, and the people are tired -- dead tired. My son, the work is too great for you to do alone. You cannot handle it by yourself. You must be the people's representative before God and bring their disputes to him. Teach them the decrees and laws, and show them the way to live and the duties they are to perform. But select capable people from all the people, trustworthy people who hate dishonest gain, and appoint them as officials over thou-sands, hundreds, fifties and tens....That will make your load lighter because they will share it with you (Exodus 18:17-22).”

From out of the chaos that Jethro observed, there are a number principles for establishing a shared approach to ministry. In the time remaining, I am going to comment on just three of them very briefly.

First of all, verse 19 says, “Moses, you must be the people's representative before God and bring their disputes to him.” Through intercessory prayer, Moses was to bring the disputes and problems of the people before God; but, Moses wasn't to do it alone. The leaders of the people were to do the same thing, maybe on a slightly different scale. You see, prayer precedes advice . . . . We want to cut-to-the-chase and jump right to the advice step don't we? If I'm honest, I sure have to admit that's what I do . . . some of the time . . . most of the time.  Jethro told Moses -- and, therefore, the other leaders -- begin with prayer. Do you want to be effective in your leadership? Begin with prayer.... pray for those folks whom you like and with whom you get along, and pray for those that cause you difficulty or those who are a challenge to you. Prayer is something ALL of us can do. We are in this thing together; only our roles may be slightly different, but, before God, as his ambassadors, we are all on equal footing – especially when we are on our knees.

Secondly, verse 20 shows us that Moses is to “teach the people the decrees and laws” of God. We need to be taught the ways of the Lord; we need to learn about redemp-tion, salvation, covenant, grace, forgiveness, prayer, and the list goes on and on. All of us need to be “trained and prepared for the works of service so that the Body of Christ may be built up, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ,” as the Apostle Paul writes to us in Ephesians.  It means we need to be in Bible Study, we need to be attending Adult Education and Sunday school classes, we need to attend training workshops and events when they are offered so we can prepare ourselves for the work God has for us in the marketplace and in the workplace; on the home front and in our worship space -- and this applies to young and old alike! Why? Because you see…..we are in this thing -- this ministry -- together, and if we are to make a difference in our church, our community, our families, yes, even the world, then we must be equipped for the journey.

Thirdly, our work together is a shared work. Notice at the beginning of the pas-sage, verse 13 says, “The next day Moses took his seat as judge for the people, and they all stood around from morning till evening.” Moses was tired, doing everything himself. All the people did was “stand around, grumbling and complaining.” So, what did Moses do? He put them to work. He selected capable people and he let them share in the work. Why? Because they were all in this thing together! Jethro said to Moses,“If you do this, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people will go to their home in peace,” or as the NIV says, “satisfied.” I believe Matthews Memorial Presbyterian Church has a lot to offer the folks in the Big Country -- this is part of what they call, the “Big Country, isn’t it? Anyway, to be sure, this is a very active church and yet there's plenty for everyone to do! Sometimes, people think that when you have an interim pastor, everything kind of goes on hold; that nothing of substance or consequence will or an really happen until your “real” pastor shows up. It doesn’t have to be that way. I believe that we can accomplish a great deal as the Holy Spirit guides and directs and as we are open to that movement and direction. Do you realize that within the next month, greater than 33% of your leadership will, “turn over” That is, some will be be stepping down from their installed positions and a full ⅓ of the leadership will be stepping up to begin their new service. In the not too distant future, we will be involved in a Mission Study as a congregation, to evaluate the past and present with an eye toward our future ministry. This will assist you in determining the kind of pastor you will want to call to serve this church. As of right now, no one has any idea of the kind of pastor that will best meet the needs and fit in this community of faith. All of this is to say, there is plenty of work to do; plenty of opportunities to serve. Maybe we should consider setting a goal that every member and friend of MMPC should find a place to serve somewhere in the life and work of this congregation. There is a place for you to serve -- all of you to serve -- because this is your church.  It will be become what you make of it -- not what I make it, not just what your Session makes it, but what you make it. Do you want it to become a place that is loving and caring? Be loving and caring yourself. I’ve already experienced a bit of this first hand. Do you want it to be a place that centers and focuses on on the love and grace of Jesus Christ?  Then we need to center and focus ourselves on Jesus Christ. Do you want it to be a place where strangers are feel welcome? Welcome a stranger. Do you want it to be a place where you can experience forgiveness and grace? Extend for-giveness and grace to another. When we work together in this ministry, we discover like ancient Israel, that the ministry in which we are all a part, begins to run more smoothly and we are more effective in our service. Why? Because we put our faith into action, liv-ing as a “chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God,”  and we remember that , we're all in this thing together. Let us pray:

Gracious God, all of us, as your representatives, has a place in the life and work of this church. Guide us, O Lord, by your Spirit, that we may find a place to serve, to lighten the load of others, to provide needed resources to give to your service and your glory. We are in this thing -- this ministry -- together, O Lord. Guide us and direct us. This I pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.