Whatever We Do Can Be Our Ministry

Today's message from The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:

So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.--1 Thessalonians 2:8

What is beautiful about this passage of Thessalonians is its accompaniment. What I mean is that "not only the gospel of God" is shared but also the accompaniment of the one sharing the gospel. Always, if you think about it, the gospel must be accompanied by our very selves. Good news must be accompanied by a deeper sign: the witness of our lives committed to those in need.

A Catholic priest gives an illustration of why the gospel must be accompanied by our very selves. Before the recent economic meltdown, this priest had a conversation with an international vice president and chief economist of a major automobile company.

"When I go to meetings in New York," the priest said, "I often stay at one of the our Eastern Province's parishes on the lower east side of Manhattan. As I walk there from the Delancey Street subway stop, six blocks away, I get the feeling that the thousands of people in that neighborhood don't really matter to our corporate world, especially a corporation like [yours]. Is this the case?" the priest asked the corporate executive.

"Well, Mike," he responded, "I hate to say it, but this is the only way it can be. We can't be concerned about them because they are outside our market projections."

St. Paul reminds the Thessalonian Church and the 21st century church to accompany the gospel with our very selves. The gospel can neither be abstract nor detached from ourselves. Both must accompany the other. When material resources become ends in themselves, when the goods of the earth take control over the people of the earth, there is no accompaniment. The process of turning our lives over to the power of God and coming under God's life-giving influence involves the dynamic of seeking and finding the reign of God.

Let us pray,
Almighty God our heavenly Father, you declare your glory and show forth your handiwork in the heavens and in the earth: Deliver us in our various occupations from the service of self alone, that we may do the work you give us to do in truth and beauty and for the common good; for the sake of him who came among us as one who serves, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.