The Freedom Of Being A Messenger | Lessons from the Last 15
An influencer tweets on Saturday night, “If your pastor doesn’t at least mention __________ today, you might want to find a new church!” A YouTube Religotician (religious politician), or is it Poligionist (political religionist), confidently proclaims that your pastor must lack necessary courage if they don’t share the same mask protocol. You might want to find a new church because the only thing standing between us and the slippery slope to socialism is a truly patriotic pastor.
What do the influencers think I should say? What do the people want to hear? What will the left or the right think? Optics!
In Henri Nouwen’s little book, In the Name of Jesus, he writes persuasively about the minister’s temptation to be relevant. He points out that Jesus’ temptation to turn stones into bread was about relevance (Matthew 4). There is freedom in being a messenger. Messengers receive a message from someone and deliver it as-it-is to someone else. Their faithfulness as a messenger is measured by how consistent the message they give is to the message they received. Changing it, making it up, nuancing it, massaging it, replacing it for something more relevant is abdication.
“The message is entrusted to us, like a precious love note en route from the Lover to the beloved. ”
If Paul had given the Corinthian Church a survey about what they thought the next message series should be, I bet they wouldn’t have chosen either of the epistles we have from Paul to them. Those things are so full of law, it would make the most pious tremble. They are also so full of gospel, it would assure the lousiest sinner that they are indeed saints by grace.
Paul doesn’t give them a message he invented, but one God would have him deliver, “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5.19-20). The message is entrusted to us, like a precious love note en route from the Lover to the beloved. We are ambassadors, not coming in our own name and authority, but in the name and by the authority of the Great King. God is appealing to his recipient through us. “Be reconciled to God.” Can you imagine the moxie you would need to go back to the Message-Giver and say, “I improved it. It needed updating—nuance. Blah, blah, blah. You were talking about reconciliation with yourself, but they are struggling with a slouch toward socialism (or immorality or whatever else is the outrage du jour), so I thought you would understand how I would set your message aside and deliver something a little more relevant.”
“With many voices wanting to shape the message, I have learned a great freedom in being an ordinary messenger, bearing the authorized message from the Great King. ”
Nouwen finishes, “The leaders of the future will be those who dare to claim their irrelevance in the contemporary world as a divine vocation that allows them to enter into a deep solidarity with the anguish underlying the glitter of success, and to bring the light of Jesus there” (Nouwen, 35). With many voices wanting to shape the message, I have learned a great freedom in being an ordinary messenger, bearing the authorized message from the Great King.
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns” (Isaiah 52.7).
Messenger, you are free from all the voices! The King has given you orders and a message. Deliver it.
Lessons from the Last 15 is a series of articles from Pastor Nathan Hoff on the occasion of his 15th year in ministry at Trinity San Pedro.
“It seems like they need me,” I said pretentiously to a dear family I was visiting in the first congregation I served. Just shy of three years at that Call, I broke the news about our upcoming relocation to Southern California. It was the Fall of 2005, and I had recently received and accepted a new Call to Trinity Lutheran in San Pedro, California. How that family managed not to roll their eyes is more impressive as the years go by. I had a lot to learn.
October 31st will mark the 15th anniversary of my installation as pastor at Trinity San Pedro. They didn’t “need” me in the way I thought they might need me. They did need the Gospel, and I needed it too—as desperately as anyone else. I still do and they still do. We are a good match.