The Minister & The Promise

As I was preparing for tonight's bible study time, I was struck by Moses' prayer in Numbers 14:13-23. In the prayer, Moses reminds God of God's steadfast love and how God was able to repair the broken covenant earlier in Exodus. He reminds of God of God's promise and by doing so God pardons Israel and does not wipe them out as God had earlier proposed. Of course God's response of pardon is followed by judgment or what Bruggemann calls glory. God's steadfast love is for the sake of Israel and God's glory is for God's sake. Leading to a whole host of questions that eventually lead us to God's promise of pardoning Israel by pardoning Caleb and what that means as connection to the older generation who will not see the land and to the new generation who will inherit the land. But that's not the point of this post. The point of my post, the point of me taking a time out and writing this down is to remind myself of my own promise.

I believe my baptism and my ordination is my promise. I see the two as one in the same. My baptism is my promise to God to remain a faithful follower who is ready to hear and obey. My ordination is my promise to the church to love and serve them faithfully. I have promised to neither abandon God or abandon the church. Those promises are important to me. They sustain me in ministry. They help me love both God and God's people. They help me remain faithful to my call and stay true to my call.

I am not sure why this thought has come into my mind again. I know it has been in the back of my mind of late as I read post after post of how the church has wrong and will eventually die out unless it either does this or does that. Both sides require change of the church and if the church doesn't change as they believe it should the church will cease to exist. Those thoughts remind me of my promise. They remind me to say, “The church will not die because of God's promise. The church will not die because of my promise.”

I do not presuppose that the church's vitality or existence rests solely on my shoulders. I know it doesn't. I may have an ego but my ego isn't big enough to support that ludicrous idea. No church is about one person and no church lives and dies with one person. But I do presuppose that the promise ministers make to the church through their ordination is a promise to intercede on their behalf both to God and to the public. It is a promise to stay faithful to the church even in times of frustration. If ministers abandon the church during these times, if they leave because they are angry or they are hurt, if they abandon the promise of their ordination then what does that say about the church? What does that same about the ministers? What does that say about God?

I believe in the church. I have seen us get a lot of things wrong in the past. I have seen us get a lot things right. I believe in a God who's glory and steadfast love are unmatched. I believe in my baptism and my ordination. I believe in the promise I've made. The reason I believe we will get it right one day is because I am willing to give my life to see it done.

Whoa...dude...a little dramatic there.

In the recent trailer of The Dark Knight Rises, Catwoman says, “You don't owe these people nothing. You've given them everything.” Batman responds, “Not everything. Not yet.” Batman knows that the promise he's made to his parents' spirit is a promise that will require his life. The measure of greatness, the measure of resolve, the measure of strength is not in how powerful one is. It is measured in the honoring and keeping of their promise no matter the personal cost.

It is hard to honor a promise when to do so will cost you something. It's hard to hold to that promise when your job, your livelihood, your family, all that really matters to you is at risk. But are those not gifts? Are they not given to us by the one who has promised a greater reward? Do they not belong to the one whose faithfulness is beyond measure? And are we not promised to be cared for and sustained by the one of steadfast love? Did we not ask ourselves that question before the hands were laid on our head?

My promise will require my life. I've always believed that. Isn't that what a promise requires? Is that not what we've promised as we kneeled before others and the hands of the church were laid upon us? Is it not until death does us part?

Maybe this is me being over dramatic and a result of having watched way too many superhero movies.