Some time ago, I was seated in worship, listening as the lay readers read the scripture lesson. I was struck as I listened. The words took on a new meaning. It may have been the translation the reader chose. It may have been the way the reader used her voice giving certain phrases emphasis. I may have been particularly open to hearing God still speaking. For whatever reason, I found myself saying: “Yes, that’s why God has called me to ministry. Yes, that’s what I believe – about myself, about the church, about ministry. That is what I have been trying to say throughout my life.”
I invite you to read the passage as I heard it that Sunday morning*. Read it slowly … carefully … asking yourself what there is in these words that I find so compelling.
The Secret Plan of God
1 This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. 2 I take it that you're familiar with the part I was given in God's plan for including everybody. 3 I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief.
4 As you read over what I have written to you, you'll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. 5 None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God's Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. 6 The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I've been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.
7 This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. 8 When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God's way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.
And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. 9 My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. 10 Through Christians like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!
11 All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. 12 When we trust in him, we're free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go.
Like Paul, I believe God is calling me to take “up the cause of … outsiders, so-called.” (v. 1) Our world is too often filled with outsiders and insiders. Insiders have access to things that are excluded from those on the outside. I believe this is a deep and genuine tragedy when our desire to define who’s in and who’s out ends up drawing lines and barriers around the love and grace of God. Like Paul, I believe God in Christ has torn down those barriers and that the church is called to share God’s blessings extravagantly, abundantly, and without drawing lines between insiders and outcasts. You see, Jesus told a story of a farmer who went out to sew seed (Matthew 13,) and this farmer planted seeds where no one would expect them to grow and bear fruit. Yet, God’s extravagance is like this. Seeds are sown on highways, rocky soil, barren deserts, amid thriving weeds that would strangle God’s love. Every time the people of God seek to draw a line, God redraws that line so that those who were “outsiders” become “insiders.
“You can be sure that [my ministerial gifts and skills have] nothing to do with my natural abilities.” (v. 8) Rather, in 30 years of ministry, God has seen to it that I have gained skills, abilities, insights, and experience for ministry. All of this is about “things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of God.” (v. 8) I believe I have particular skill and experience in working with conflicted situations, providing pastoral care to persons and congregations in crisis, working with congregations and church agencies as they discern God’s vocation and then organize, strategize and plan their response.
Like Paul, I proclaim God’s extravagant grace as “my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message.” (v. 7) As a minister, I believe “my task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God … has been doing … all along.” (v. 9) Indeed, this is a fundamental task of all ministry – discerning God’s involvement in the lives of people, churches, community and the world, bringing God’s activity out into the open, and then mobilizing the people of God to join in that activity.
“Through Christians like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about.” (v. 10) This work of bringing God’s love out into the light is the work of the whole people of God. As a minister, my role is to “equip the saints for building up the Body of Christ (Eph 4:12).” It is not my ministry or mission to do alone, but in community with countless others who comprise the Body of Christ.