View From the Manse 2.0 - February 2024
Our church session makes a point of
spending some extra time together at the beginning of each year. We call it a
retreat, but the last few years we have been using the church building as our
meeting place. During this time, we study important passages on the work of an
elder (usually 1 Peter 5), we list the joys and disappointments of the previous
year, we pray together, we eat together, we play a game together, and we talk
about the work of discipleship. APC’s motto is, “Making disciples who make a
difference,” and I want to start our year talking about that task. The book
that we have been leaning into for many of our meetings as we think about
discipleship over the past year is Pete Scazzero’s, Emotionally Healthy
Discipleship.
Almost
every Sunday I begin our worship service by referencing Jesus’ invitation from Matthew 11, “Come to me, all who labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn
from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your
souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew
11:28-30) But what does it mean to receive rest from Jesus?
We
are all busy. We don’t have enough time. And the Sunday
morning church service doesn’t happen by itself. People have to come early and
make sure the heat is on and the building is unlocked. Others make sure that
the sound system is up and running. The praise team runs through their songs
again. The fellowship team starts coffee and sets out cookies. The greeters
stand ready to handout worship guides, smiles, and directions (if needed).
Sunday morning doesn’t happen unless congregants work. (Note that I have
made no mention of all the work that goes on throughout the week). Do only some
get the gift of rest? What if you volunteer so much that you feel ‘to pooped to
participate’?
During
our retreat, the session read Scazzero’s
chapter on the gift of limits. For those of us who experience FOMO (the fear of
missing out) or are always on the move with something to do, this might sound
strange. How can our limits be a gift? Scazzero suggests that our limits are a
good reminder that we are dependent upon God and that He is at work. This is a
gift. And sometimes when we say, “no” we are protecting other things that are
more important or we are clearing the way for others to serve. This is a gift.
2024
might be the year that you and I think about Jesus’ gift of rest- his gift of limits. We come away from the
busyness and distractions that surround us with intentionality; to be with the
Lord and to be reminded that we are His and He delights in us. We listen to Him
as he tells us that before we do anything, we are loved by Jesus.
It
is possible to be uninvolved and yet not be resting, but to be complacent or
lazy. It is possible to say, “No”, not out
of an acknowledgement of limits, but from a desire to have our own way. Or to
refuse to volunteer because we don’t believe that God could use us. “We don’t
have what it takes to do that,” we tell ourselves. And maybe that’s true or
maybe we have not asked the Lord how he wants us to serve in the local body.
Receiving
rest in Jesus doesn’t mean quitting everything. It means
setting aside time to be with Him, to be ministered to by Him, and to step back
into our work knowing that it is only by the Holy Spirit that our work can bear
fruit. After all, Jesus said, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot
bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you
abide in me.” (John 15:4).
Bryan Fitzgerald,
Pastor
(bryan@argylepresbyterian.org)
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