Heart of a Helper
No matter how busy or bored you may be, there’s work to be done, and we’re the ones to do it.
Sermon preached at Church of the Good Shepherd, Federal Way, WA
www.goodshepherdfw.org
by the Rev. Josh Hosler, Rector
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 21B), September 29, 2024
Numbers 11:4-6,10-16,24-29 ;
Psalm 19:7-14 ;
James 5:13-20 ;
Mark 9:38-50
“I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me.” Truer words have rarely been spoken by any leader in any human situation. And as a priest, I feel reassured that I have a spiritual ancestor as important as Moses who felt the same way that I sometimes do.
The scale of unmet human needs in our world is overwhelming. I was just talking the other day with someone who noticed that for most of human history, we could only care about those in our immediate sphere of influence. There were situations we couldn’t control, like the weather, or the presence of a foreign army at our gates. But from day to day, people in Egypt didn’t hear about floods in China or revolution in Argentina. That all changed in the 19th and 20th centuries. And in the 21st, we’re so aware of other people’s troubles that many of us shut down, not even marshaling our energy for situations where we actually can help.
Yet there are always people among us who are hardwired to be helpers, and thank God for them. You can bet that Moses counted many of them among his first 70 elders. God’s spirit comes down on the elders and gives them power to act in God’s name. But there’s a twist: two others, Eldad and Medad, who were not among the 70 appointed, also receive God’s spirit. How dare they do God’s work without the approval of the religious hierarchy?
Ah, but that’s the thing: we don’t control who wants to help. We can only choose whether to accept the help that is offered.
It's not hard to see why this Old Testament reading was chosen to be paired with this gospel reading in the lectionary. John the disciple says, “Hey! Who does that guy think he is, casting out demons in Jesus’ name? We don’t even know him!” But Jesus calls John up short, urging him to look not at the person’s formal place in the structure, but on the good work the person is actually doing.
Formal structures exist for good reasons, but not for their own sake. When we elevate the structure above the work, we get in God’s way. Jesus reserves some of his harshest words for those who would prevent helpers from being helpful, believers from believing, worshipers from worshiping.
As a priest, I am inevitably tied into the formal structures of the church. It can be far too easy for me to expect everybody to understand those structures and work within them. So understand that your priest doesn’t “do church for you.” Your priest only gathers the people and convenes our gatherings, helping serve as a window into God’s action within the church.
Well, you know what a deacon does? A deacon serves as a window into God’s action in the rest of the world.
Deacons go all the way back to the Acts of the Apostles in the first few years of the church. Someone complained that the widows in the church weren’t receiving the food they needed. The structures weren’t working well enough, and it was too much for the original twelve apostles to carry: the text literally says, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables.” So they appointed seven deacons to help them.
Yesterday our own Anna Lynn became the newest deacon in the world, following in this nearly two-thousand-year-old tradition. She has spent several years engaged in study through our diocesan Iona School, and she has done field work among us for over two years, working within the church’s structures to get to this point. A great many people in the church needed to get on board to make Anna a deacon. And I most certainly see the Holy Spirit resting on her today!
So what will Anna do as a deacon? She’ll do what she’s been doing all along—the very things that helped the church identify her gifts in the first place. Anna is the kind of helper who notices the scale of human need in our own sphere of influence and mediates it to the church. It’s the deacon’s job to go out from the church, find where the trouble is, and bring the trouble right back to the church’s front doors.
It’s also the deacon’s job to notice where the Holy Spirit is moving outside of the usual channels of the Church. Deacons identify Eldad and Medad and help equip them for ministry. Deacons proclaim the gospel and call us to prayer and confession. Deacons visit the sick, like we hear about in the Letter of James. Deacons set the table for our weekly feast.
And on top of all this, deacons are not paid for their work. They have their own careers. Anna runs her own valet business, which is why she’s not with us every Sunday. Far more than I, Anna has to be very careful how she manages her time and what she says yes to.
Deacons prevent the church from becoming insular. But they also understand well the demands of life and work and family on the lives of lay people. I am Good Shepherd’s only full-time employee, so it’s easy for me to feel as if Good Shepherd stands or falls on my efforts. That’s never been the case, and Anna is here to remind me of that. I don’t do church for you; the church is all of us.
Here's another thing you may not realize: Anna is now our deacon at Good Shepherd, but I am not her boss. Anna answers directly to Bishop Phil, who decides where to deploy deacons throughout our diocese. We have Anna among us for now, and hopefully for a good long time to come. But Good Shepherd doesn’t own Anna in any way.
For over two years now, I have found Anna to be an able partner in ministry. She has organized our Eucharistic visitors and frequently brings Holy Communion to people herself, in homes and in hospitals. She has worked with our Saturday community meal and offered helpful feedback for its continual improvement. She has gotten to know by name the folks who frequent that meal, and she understands their situations. And of course, Anna is a very gifted preacher.
My hope for this next chapter of Good Shepherd’s life—with me serving as your priest and Anna as your deacon—is that all of us will continue to grow more deeply in our understanding of ourselves as ministers. Everyone here who is baptized is a minister; the Episcopal Church doesn’t reserve that word for the ordained. All together, we have a mission to the world, even if we also have full-time jobs, and even when we find that we can no longer do what we used to do.
Just last week I was talking to a member of Good Shepherd who has made it his mission to reach out to lonely people in his retirement community and befriend them. It’s not what he always used to do, but he has the heart of a helper, and this is the work the Holy Spirit is offering him today.
What work is the Holy Spirit offering you?
Today we will celebrate Anna’s ordination with a party in Seaman Hall following the service. When you go down there you’ll see on the wall a rack of colorful cards that we’re calling Ministry Cards. They explain some of the ministries of Good Shepherd, why we do them, and how you can help with their work. These cards are there for you to take for your own reference, but they’re also there so that when you notice gifts in someone else, you can give them one of these cards and say, “I think I see gifts in you for this particular work.” We have printed twelve different cards for now, but there are far more than twelve ministries at Good Shepherd. More cards will follow.
There’s another card you should know about, which you’ll receive in the mail in the coming week: a pledge card you can use to commit your financial support to Good Shepherd in 2025. But more about that later.
And after the party downstairs, we’ll all troop back up here for one more very important thing: a meeting hosted by the Buildings & Grounds Task Force. For two years, they have been working on the question of whether we will renovate this building, not only for the good of the formal structure of our church, but to become less insular. Any renovation we undertake must also make this building a better tool for befriending the community beyond our doors and walls. I pray that you’ll all attend and bring with you the heart of a helper.
No matter how busy or bored you may be, there’s work to be done, and we’re the ones to do it. If you’re one of the busier folks, it may well be that your paid work is your ministry. If you’re feeling a little adrift right now, this may be a good time for prayerful listening, and for noticing your own sphere of influence.
As a priest, I’m here to be a window for you into God’s action in the church.
As a deacon, Anna is here to be a window for you into God’s action in the world.
As lay people, the rest of you are being invited to move back and forth between the church and the world, mediating them to one another, guided by your helping hearts, where, through your baptism, the Holy Spirit has taken up residence. Some of this work happens within formal structures, while other work just happens because God wants it to happen. Nobody has to carry it all alone, for indeed, it is too much for any of us.
In the coming week, ponder and pray about the work you do in the church and in the world. Are you listening? Do you hear the Holy Spirit tugging you in a new direction? Where will you put your helping heart next?
