Faithful Servants
THE THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT
The Advent season is, of course, a time to consider and contemplate God's coming to his people or his Advent. It is a season that engages the soul's imagination, beckoning us to look backward to the first coming of Jesus; and, as a time to look forward to His second coming, the consummation of history in the return of Jesus Christ as both Lord and Judge. But there is a third consideration as well: primarily, Advent is about looking for God's coming now, presently, into our souls by grace to awaken, heighten, and encourage our awareness of His presence in the here and now.
Christianity demands a certain sobriety of being and an ever-increasing determination to live in the here and now against the strong urging of the soul to escape. We employ all sorts of distracting things to masque reality. Often, escape takes the form of idealized abstractions, which are the building blocks and allure of artificial things such as social media.
Through such virtual realities, we choose to opt-in and engage in conversations "out there," we make "friends" in the digital ether, engaging in "real issues," and contributing to "important conversations" in an artificial and disembodied forum. This isn't "real" reality, but a manufactured construct with semblances of reality, but it's not because it's a contrived and self-directed reality of our own making. So, on its face, it's not really real. Let's face it; life isn't virtual; it's real.
Social Media is but one of many things people turn into a vehicle of escape. Careers easily fall into this category as well. Any good thing can become a vehicle of escapism from the everyday demands and duties of applying ourselves to our diverse vocations, of taking care of ourselves, maintaining healthy and loving relationships, marriages, or doing the hard work of raising good and decent children. Even Christian ministry can become a firewall against the realities and demands of everyday life.
We all, to different degrees, fight the urge to escape reality. It's understandable: life is complicated and challenging and often feels like the deck is stacked against us. It's difficult at times to shoulder the unbearable weight of being. And, there is a cosmic tug of war between real reality and various sub-realities created by external forces or (sometimes) of our own making. And if one isn't careful, this tug of war will pull one further away from the reality of the present.
Today. Today is what matters most, for today, right now, you have breath in your lungs, and you are alive to worship and serve the living God who saved you. Yesterday is gone; tomorrow has enough concerns of its own. The present moment is always what matters most, which is why Advent, with all of its beauty and wonder, keeps the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ present in the daily readings of Morning and Evening Prayer and in the Sunday prayers Epistle, and Gospel.
Yes, Advent is a time of preparing for the future return of the Lord Jesus Christ, but this is a present concern: for know not the day or the hour of his return. In other words, the knowledge of the future must direct the course of this present life: it must awaken us to the reality of the now. Advent preparedness is a moment-by-moment readiness for God to come into the soul. For God is coming to his people, his Church, therefore we must be prepared.
As we learned last week on Bible Sunday, a prepared church builds itself daily upon the Word of God as revealed in the canon of Holy Scripture: reading, marking, learning, and inwardly digesting the sweet and nourishing word. A people built upon the Word of God find stability amidst the chaos of this world, for they have an anchor in the soul, if (as St. James writes) they "have received with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save our souls" (Js 1:21). When the rain falls, and the floods come, and the winds blow and beat on that house, it does not fall because it has been founded on the rock: Christ who is the Word.
A church built upon the Word of God finds hope for tomorrow and comfort in the present. And, if we will be more than hearers of the Word, God promises to bless our present doings, for again, St. James says, "being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing" (Js 1:25). So a church, a people, who in their respective callings and capacities, who are doing the word, or put another way, keeping the Divine commandment, is a church prepared and ready to meet her Lord when he comes again.
This is why last week on Bible Sunday, the prayers, the scriptures, and the sermon encouraged us to the fruitful labor of reading, examining, and doing what God has revealed through the Scriptures, that we may embrace and ever hold fast, the blessed hope of everlasting life given to us in our Savior Jesus Christ.
Today, on this Third Sunday in Advent, mother church is calling her ministers to preparedness as well. We clearly see this emphasis in today's Collect where we prayed, "O Lord Jesus Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee; Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way."
Just as God sent John the Baptist, a faithful minister, to prepare the way, so the ministers and stewards of the Church are to prepare and make ready the way for the Second coming of the Lord. You see, the same Lord Who has "caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning" has also "sent His messengers to turn the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just." The hope we have received as revealed in Holy Scripture is to be stewarded by faithful ministers.
The Church of our Lord Jesus Christ is to be led by faithful ministers, who, when He comes again, have prepared by their life and doctrine, a pure and spotless people without stain or wrinkle. The ministers of Christ's Church are to strive in holy imitation of St. Paul's priestly ministry, who having betrothed the Church to one husband, might present her as a "pure virgin to Christ" (2 Cor 11:1).
In today's Epistle, St. Paul tells us of the dignity and responsibility of the ministerial office (Bishops, Priests, and Deacons), which he holds as the highest of callings, first concerning Christ and then concerning its relation to other Christians. But above all, those called to minister in Christ's Church are to be faithful servants and stewards in accordance with St. Paul, who says, "Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful."
As mentioned earlier, Paul is speaking of ordained ministers in the Church. So in relation to Christ, these men are ministers. They are not their own masters but servants of Christ, they are ὑπηρέτας. Now, this is a very unusual word Paul employs here, as διάκονος would be the typical word used for a servant. Yet, Paul chooses ὑπηρέτας which literally translates to "the slave who rows on the lowest level of a boat" or an "under-rower," in the sense that someone is a rower on a big galley ship.
Concerning Christ, Ministers are under Him (in every way), rowing at the tempo and command of a superior. Enslaved to hard galley labor requiring stamina and strength, sent to do His business in the world, and not their own and to Him alone are they answerable. They are not ministers of congregations but ministers of Christ and people for Christ's sake.
This truth rebukes those who unduly magnify or depreciate the ministerial office. Friends, your vicar is only a minister; therefore, he is not to be thought of beyond his due; but he is Christ's minister, and therefore not to be despised, for this galley slave has a Master who stands above and behind him.
Now, In relation to Christ's people, Ministers are Stewards, entrusted with Divine treasure and called to faithfully dispense "the mysteries of God." What are the "mysteries of God?" Mystery, or in the Greek, mysterion, is translated in Latin as Sacramentum, from which we derive the English word Sacrament. So the early Church received these words of Paul as an exhortation for ordained ministers to rightly and duly administer the sacraments or the mysteries of the Church, being baptism and Holy Communion.
This understanding of the mysteries makes sense, but it's only one aspect of what the apostle has in mind. For Paul, "the mysteries of God" are the Divine revelations that reveal or uncover the kingdom of God. These are wonderful and magnificent matters that- in former times- were completely concealed from men (even Angels long to see these things). These mysteries were only made known at the appointed time and by Divine communication.
Such is the meaning of the word "mystery" in the New Testament—not, as in common parlance: something impossible to figure out but rather, mystery in Holy Scripture is something which, being beyond the reach of man's intelligence, has now been made known to him in some special Divine way.
In the third chapter of Ephesians, St. Paul reveals this wondrous mystery of the Gospel writing:
"For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel" (Eph 3:1-6).
Through the first Advent of the Son, by his incarnation, perfect life, suffering, death, resurrection, and annunciation: salvation has mercifully flowed over from Israel to the nations of the world. This is the Good News beloved, the Divine mystery entrusted to Paul and all of the Apostles. And this mystery is entrusted to me, your vicar, which I am to faithfully minister and steward in the name of Christ and for the good of his people.
So, whether a Bishop, priest, or deacon, a minister must perpetually be prepared, like the wise virgin whose lamp is full of oil (Mt 25). In the words of Christ himself, they are to "stay dressed for action and keep their lamps burning, and to be like men who are waiting for their Master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants (Doulos), those slaves whom the Master finds awake when he comes" (Luke 12:35-38).
Paul says, "But with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified; but he that judgeth me is the Lord." It is a minister’s duty to keep their conscience clear and "to know nothing against themselves," because the final arbiter in these matters is not the conscience, but Christ himself. We are, therefore, "to judge nothing before the time until the Lord come." Instead, we stay rooted in the present moment, for the work of the clergy is not only to prepare others for the Advent of Christ but themselves to be prepared and to heed their own message.
Now, it would be convenient to think that when St. Paul writes, "let a man so account of us," that he is speaking only of himself and a few of his companions. And certainly, life would be simpler for everyone if St. Paul had only himself and a small number of ministers in mind: but he doesn't.
It's tempting to dismiss or escape from Paul's words and not open and apply them to the rest of the Church. But here's a dose of reality: at no time and in no place does the Christian Faith, as God has given it in the Scriptures, allow us to choose a handful of men to be religious on our behalf. We are all priests of the Most High God, are we not?
For, in the words of St. Peter, we are "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that [we] may proclaim the excellencies of him who called [us] out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Pt 2:9)" The Word of God by which we were called was an election into the priesthood of Christ. We, the Church, are the ministers of Christ and the stewards of the mysteries of God.
Ours is a ministry of preparation, preparing, and making ready the way of Christ in the world around us. To steward the mystery of God is to embrace the ministry of reconciliation; each one of us walking, talking, proclaiming, and exemplifying the Good News of the Gospel for the sole purpose of reconciling a lost world back to its loving Father. This, in St. Paul's words, is the ministry of reconciliation for those baptized into Christ, listen:
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself... and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us" (2 Cor 5:11-21).
Turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, this is the priestly ministry; this is under-rowers work.
As a chosen people, as priestly ministers of God and as stewards of his mysteries, we have to know, study and learn them from holy scripture. Our lives must be built upon the mysteries of God as revealed in Christ Jesus and upon his commandments. We need to admit our sins when we live or act otherwise than as God commands, embrace repentance and reformation.
We must preserve the scriptures, the worship, and the teachings of the faith, keeping this faith alive in our own lives and our homes, teaching it to our children. We must protect and keep intact the Christian faith; the Good News dispensed in the teachings and worship of holy mother church, or else, we'll have no medicine for the healing of the nations. Thus, we are always preparing.
We have the same calling. We are to be faithful ministers. When Jesus Christ returns on the Last Day, it is our duty that he should find the life and doctrine of his church alive and well. But we can only fulfill this calling if we are willing to do the hard labor of getting our hands dirty in service to others: doing the work of an under-rower. Amen+
