Happy July everyone. That means there is officially one month left of my sabbatical. It’s been an interesting experience for me as I’m sure its been an interesting experience for you all. During this last month, I am dedicating time to “re-entry” meaning some reflection and planning for when I’m back to ministering full time again. As I begin that reflection, one thing has become clear to me over the past two months: you don’t need me.
Sure, that’s something that you and I knew before, but it’s been something that we’ve been able to prove over the last couple of months in a significant way. Sure, there are certainly some things that are made easier with me around, there are other things that might not get done when I’m not around – but overall, ministry still happens. I’m technically unnecessary.
That is actually something that makes me extremely grateful for the fact that I get to serve as your called pastor. It could be anyone, but in God’s orchestration, it gets to be me. Not to put myself on a pedestal here, but it was the same way for other people that God called: Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, Elijah, Peter, Paul….the list goes on. All people who were unnecessary to the job, but who got called into it because of God’s grace.
As God said to Paul in 2 Corinthians 19, “my grace is sufficient for you.” Everything else is unnecessary.
This means that we have to grapple with what it means to be unnecessary. For me to say that I’m “unnecessary” at first sounds like a negative thing, like it takes away from what I do. But there are other words for unnecessary. Those words are words like “bonus,” like “extravagant,” “lavish,” “exorbitant”, “ornate,” “gaudy”,’ and “bountiful”.
As I think about reentering the full time nature of ministry after this sabbatical, it is my prayer that I will be all the more unnecessary, which will mean that I get to be a part of God’s extravagant, exorbitant, ornate, gaudy, and bountiful grace given to you as His congregation, centered around His Son to read Scripture, to test our faith, and to show grace to others.