Missio Dei

Many will see, and fear and put their trust in the Lord. -Psalm 40: 3b

I am putting together an order of service for my installation as the Teaching Elder at Good Samaritan Presbyterian Church.  It is my second installation.  The first was almost ten years ago in Plumville, but that seems like a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.  It is more difficult this time around, which is weird, because things like this usually get easier, but being a Pastor is a peculiar thing.  I know a lot more about what I am getting into this time around, but that actually makes picking the pieces of the service more difficult.

Fresh out of seminary, ministry was a great unknown, and I had visions of the great call stories of the Hebrew Scriptures: Abraham, Moses, David and Isaiah.  I felt the call of the Disciples and Saul's encounter on the Damascus road resonating in my soul, but as I really considered the rich variety of scripture to use in the service on March 10, 2013, I realized that none of that has very much to do with what I am really about as a Pastor.

What I have come to realize over the past ten years is that very little of this calling has to do with voices from heaven, burning bushes and visions of seraphim.  Mostly it involves confronting your own brokenness and still having the audacity to get up and preach the Word to the congregation.  Mostly it involves the constant awareness of how much God can do with the little bit that you can actually give.  Mostly it involves looking down fully expecting to see a miry pit and seeing instead a solid rock.

So, yeah, Psalm 40 is going to be the first scripture reading, I'm not sticking it off in the corner like we do with Psalms so often, I'm giving it the place it deserves.  It's going to be there instead of Moses, Elijah or Isaiah, it's going to be the prelude to the Gospel, because it is the story of my life and my ministry.

Psalm 40 was the first scripture I read after my own Damascus road encounter.  Why? Simple, because U2 sang it as a rock song (no pun intended).  I would like to tell you that my journey of faith is always intentional and well organized, but most of the time it's not.  Most of the time I just stub my toe on what God is trying to do and then do my best to act like I meant to do it.  It started with reading a Psalm, not because I was so in tune to the Spirit that I knew just where to turn, but because I thought U2 was awesome and I remembered that they sang 40 on Under a Blood Red Sky.  Deep spirituality right there.

But as it turns out, Psalm 40 is a pretty good description of my journey, my ministry and my life.  It acknowledges that I am nowhere without the Lord.  In this dance with the Spirit that we call ordained ministry, I mostly just try not to trip over my own feet.