One day I was warned. I can’t recall if I read the warning or if
someone said it to me. The warning is: “Christians working for social justice
should stop trying to save the world.
Jesus already did that.”
I thought, at the time, that the
warning was equal parts catchy zinger and deep philosophy but I now realize
that I did not let it sink in to convict me.
One of the dangers that people involved in the sort of work that the
folks like my colleagues and I do is trying to do everything all the time. In my first post I wrote about the importance
of partnership in ministry. In my second
post I wrote about the importance of humility in ministry. Today I want to write about the importance of
rest in ministry.
God is the primary actor in
ministry. Everyone else is his body,
ministering on his behalf and bearing his image. The fact that God lets people minister with
him and lets people bear his image is significant so I do not want to belittle the
high and very good role God gives to people.
God only gives us the high role, however. He does not give us the ultimate role.
Rest acknowledges God’s
preeminence and our sub-ordinance. When we
rest we are implicitly leaving things in God’s hands, acknowledging that he is
the actor who does the saving and that it is his grace that allows us to join
in this work. At the end of Sabbath or a
longer period of time, such as vacation, the world is still here and we still
have a role in it. God does not say,
“Hold up folks. One of my disciples is
on vacation. Looks like we have a few
days where nothing is going to get done.”
Instead he continues his mission using his body, ministering on his
behalf and bearing his image.
When I don’t take a break I am
implicitly saying that it is my job to save the world, not God’s. Putting myself in the role of savior is a
constant temptation, which I expect that others face as well. It is hard to look at the need we witness
daily and say, “I am not called to meet this particular need at this particular
moment. That is for another member of
the body.”
Practicing Sabbath is a gentle
shout that we place our hope in the resurrection. This is hard to do. Despite the birth we will celebrate in two
weeks’ time and despite the resurrection we will rejoice in a few months later,
the world can seem pretty dark. It is
not always obvious that God has saved it.
The instinct is to help God out a bit, to shout not so gently that we
are in control and we can fix things for God.
Sabbath counters this instinct because it takes us completely out of the
equation for a short period of time. It
says that his ability to save is more powerful than our ability to save. It acknowledges he is ultimate.
God has a lot of disciples joining
his mission. Rest well. We are in good hands.
Tony Dickinson
Tony Dickinson
