All Hands on Deck

All Hands On Deck--January 18, 2017

"And we urge you, beloved, to admonish the idlers, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them.  See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all." [1 Thessalonians 5:14-15]

Look, if you are on a cruise to the Caribbean, no one would expect you to take a shift washing dishes in the kitchen, comparing navigational charts on the bridge, or spending your night in the engine room keeping an eye on that number two pressure gauge.

On the other hand, if you are on a more modest craft--say a sailboat with a crew of two or three--then let me be clear: everybody is a part of the crew.  Everybody has a role (or two or three).  And everybody is needed.  And if you are a part of the crew rather than a tourist on a three-hour tour (a three-hour tour), there is no option of just putting your feet up while someone else does the work.

So here's the question, plain and simple: which are we--we followers of Jesus, we members of the Body of Christ, we who are part of God's Movement of Mercy--are we on a behemoth pleasure cruise ship with an all-night buffet, or a sloop that needs all hands on deck?

Well, if you ask the New Testament, the answer you get is rather clear: we belong to a community in which everybody has a part, and in which all are called to work shoulder to shoulder with each other.  There is no lido deck.  There is no bad Elvis impersonator or show-tune medley to watch while others keep the ship on course.  We are all called, and we all belong to the crew.

More specifically, we are all called to the specific work of living out the Kingdom-life, the way of life of the Movement of Mercy.  All of us are called to be the ones who stop to look out for the people who have been forgotten or left out.  All of us are called to be the ones who refuse to return evil for evil.  All of us are called to do good to the people around us--not just other Christians, but everybody.  And all of us are called to embody the radical grace and surprising justice of God.  This is not an option.  This is not just for church council members, committee chairs, "really religious people," pastors, missionaries, or people with lots of free time.  It is for you.  It is for me.  It is the calling of the crew, and we are all crew.

On the other hand, if we look at the actual practice of a lot of us--at least a lot of us in the relatively comfortable setting of North America--you might think that Jesus had commissioned a Disney Cruise ship after his resurrection.  We have a way of living as though the "Kingdom stuff" is for a select few--that feeding the hungry is just for churches in the inner city that (we might assume) must have greater needs than folks in suburban or small town settings.  We tend to think that actually sharing a table with a homeless family is sort of an "extra-credit" thing that only the really devout do, but that most of us just don't need to prioritized, because, well, we have to get the kids to soccer practice after all.  We have a bad habit of doing a half-decent job on the maintenance stuff in our churches and congregations (give enough money to pay the electric bill, serve on a committee when it's time to call a pastor, help out at Sunday School when your own kids are in it...) but thinking that anything beyond maintenance is optional... or for some other day.  But think about it--that's really not any more than being a guest on a cruise ship and making sure you have picked up your dirty socks off the floor when you leave your cabin in the morning... so that the housekeeping crew won't step on them when they come to tidy up.  That's not doing the work of getting us where we are going.

Of course, if you ask a vacationer on a cruise ship if they want the ship to get to its next port of call, well, sure, they'll say yes.  ("That's what I paid for, after all, right?")  But to be honest, the attitude of the customer-guests is pretty passive: yes, someone should keep the ship moving, but I'm not really supposed to get involved with any of that stuff.  Like I say, if you are actually on a literally cruise ship, fine--be a customer if you wish, and put your feet up.

But let's not pretend that the New Testament writers, nor the living Spirit of God, have that picture in mind for the disciple-community.  We are all called, not only to pick up our dirty socks off the floor in our cabins, but to work in our varying roles to actually move the ship along--to actively embody the Kingdom life toward which God is bringing all creation. And if we are just passively supportive of someone else doing the work... or suggesting that we will just coast into our destination, we may be doing greater damage than we realize.

I am reminded, especially this week, of a passage from Dr. King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail, in which he calls to task all of us "religious folks" who have not felt the urgency for action but who wanted, rather, to have a wait-and-see-if-things-get-better-on-their-own-just-give-it-a-chance attitude.  Addressing the wrongs of segregation in 1963 in Alabama, King says:

"I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."

Wow.  All of a sudden, it dawns on us that our own passive attitudes ("Sure, in theory we want to see all people fed, and no children living homeless in cars, but can't we just let someone else do that?") are part of the problem.  If I act like a customer because I am actually a paying guest on a cruise ship, that's one thing--but if I am supposed to be on the crew... and actually helping us to get where we are going... and all I do is complain about the lack of crab puffs, well, I'm hurting the rest of the crew on board who were counting on me to do my part.

For us today, we need to be clear, you and me and all of us who wear the name of Jesus--what kind of a boat do we think we are on, and what are we doing to get us where Jesus has it in mind to lead us?

And, to be really, really honest--doesn't it seem like a better adventure to be a part of the crew and actually experience the wind and the smell of the salt air while we trim the sails than to be lazy customers on a floating mall?  I think I would rather be exactly where Jesus has called us--to be members of the crew, living out the Kingdom life beyond maintenance.

Lord Jesus, call us to your side, and hand us the rope.  Let us work alongside you and your people as we seek to embody the Kingdom life you are calling us to.