The Ministry of Presence

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another." ~John 13:34

Did you know that we were created to need each other?  

We were created that way.  We are created to need air.  We are created to need water.  We are created to need food.  We are created to need shelter or protection from the elements.  And we are created to need relationships.  This makes sense when you stop to think about our Creator.  God, as the triune Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have been in an eternal relationship and it was the mutual decision and work of the God-head to create us and invite us into the relationship.  We were created out of relationship and for relationship.  Furthermore, we are created in the image of God.  This isn’t a physical representation as much as it is a spiritual-social representation.  God is creative, therefore we are creative.  God is relational, therefore we are relational. 

But like most of what happened to creation due to sin, our relationships are often times broken.  Our ability to relate to others gets broken.  Our desire to relate to others gets broken.  Part of the redemption of Christ is to restore these broken pieces of relationship.  That’s why we hear words like “adoption” or “family” or “covenant” repeated in Scripture so much.  God created us for relationship and the purpose of Jesus coming to save us was to restore us to relationship. 

But can we agree that relationships are messy.  All of them.  Good ones.  Bad ones.  Long ones.  New ones.  Relationships with one person.  Relationships with nations.  They are messy.  That’s because my brokenness gets tangled with your brokenness.  Messy, messy, messy.  This messiness perpetuates our isolation.  We avoid authenticity.  We act superficially.  We dodge, we smile, we say, “I’m fine, how are you?”  Those are our nice behaviors.  We lie.  We gossip.  We manipulate.  We abuse.  We wreck relationships.  We do that because they are hard, and sometimes the pressure gets to us and we just implode or explode. 

Jesus said, “you must love each other, just as I have loved you.”  (John 13:34).  I don’t think he was being hyperbolic or even situationally specific.  I think he meant it that simply.  <I’ve shown you what love looks like.  Now, love one another.>  And of course when his contemporary listeners were tempted to split hairs with him, Jesus got real: love your enemy, love your neighbor, love the household of God.  There isn’t a lot of wiggle room in those categories for me. 

Most of these blogs have been about going and doing throughout the community.  And all acts of love, I hope.  But on several occasions as I set out to go and do, along the way I was stopped.  I was called to be present with someone not on my agenda.  They were not being demanding, they just had not planned their current tragedy. 

“My mother has died.  Will you preach her funeral?” 

“My grandmother is dying.  Will you come pray with us.” 

“My child is sick.  Will you come see us in the hospital?” 

“My husband is leaving.  Will you come sit with me?” 

In every phone call someone is saying, “my relationship is breaking. Can you help?” 

And so I go to bring the ministry of presence.  I’ve only seen one child come back from the brink of death in my ministry.  I have fortunately witnessed the resurrection of many marriages.  But I have preached many more funerals than I have seen miraculous healings.  I can’t always facilitate the healing of the relationship that is breaking.  But I can always bring the Healer into the room.  I become witness to what God can do with broken relationships that are submitted to Divine care.  God doesn’t just heal them for today.  God heals them for eternity. 

As important as all the serving, feeding, clothing, teaching, and healing is, being present with one another really is the key.    Jesus always went to the hurt.  I’m highly convinced that he didn’t hang out in the temple 8-10 hours a day because he knew he would have missed the marginalized people there.  In theory, he could have set up an office, had a system in which the disciples discovered the needs in and around Galilee and Jerusalem and let him know, then he could send out his power to save! (see Mark 7:24-30, Luke 7:1-10, and John 4:46-54)   People would have been healed, maybe even more people since Jesus didn’t have to walk so many places.  But people would not have known Jesus.  They wouldn’t have seen the compassion in his eyes or felt the tenderness of his touch.  They wouldn’t have the memory of their name on his lips.  Their testimony would be of healing, but not of a Healer.

Jesus then initiated his disciples into this incredibly inefficient system of bringing the Kingdom…one person at a time, one mile at a time, one relationship at a time.  (no wonder we’re still here…)  But I’m so glad that I was introduced to a person, not a religion.  I appreciate Christianity.  I adhere, agree with, and teach Christianity.  But I love Jesus…because Jesus loves me.

So, I’m off again.  Not sure if I’ll make it all the way to the appointment I’ve set, or not.  The Holy Spirit urged me to put two extra business cards in my pocket before I left the house, so I suspect…not.