Defined by God not by our role.

Defined by God not by our role

After nearly two years I shared in leading an act of worship. Appropriately it was the Sunday during  the week of prayer for Christian unity. So as a Methodist minister now worshipping in an Anglican church with the local Methodist church present I preached. I was in two minds if I should bother with clerical shirt and dog collar, I did find one eventually!! It raises the point that for all these months I have not worn one, mind you as I came towards the end of my ministry I tended only to wear one for Sunday, hospital visits etc, so why wear one now as its doesn't change who I am or does it? What is it that really defines us?

When I was training for ministry back in the early 1980’s I had opportunity to work with the industrial mission team in Birmingham. It was a period of great upheaval in the work place.  Growing numbers of people in traditionally safe jobs were becoming unemployed. I helped to  organise an event in the cathedral in the light of these changes to highlight the challenges. 

Setting aside the political and economic background it became clear that many men in particular found the loss of their job extremely hard to come to terms with. I recognise that what I am about to write maybe a generalisation, but it seemed to me that many men understood themselves in the light of their job. They defined themselves by their job. Take that away and what were they left with? The role had defined them. They thought they had jobs for life and were able to provide for their families. They worked hard, often in physically tough jobs. When those jobs went, so went for many their sense of worth. They no longer were able to provide for their families. No longer were they a car worker, mine worker, or steel worker. They were now defined by being unemployed and a sense of failure and anger. 

While women were not immune from redundancies it appeared through conversations that their sense of worth lay more than in a particular job. Many men at that time felt it acceptable for women to have a job, but they still expected them to be the wife, mother, home maker etc which of course meant women carried out a series of roles. With mass male unemployment it was as if the lack of a male hinterland of roles meant men were left floundering. 

Through the years in ministry, especially in the first couple of decades, when I made the visit following a death, I discovered stories of many men who when they stopped working almost came to a stand still. In trying to tease out what they did after their paid employment came to an end, many appeared to have sat and done nothing. Now I know that couldn’t be entirely true, but I did pick up a sense of how some had lost a sense of purpose and direction to life. This sense of how a role defines people was very strong. Over the years this has changed as many men have reimagined their lives and have developed a larger hinterland of roles.

Being twenty months into my retirement it seems appropriate to look afresh at what defines us. This has been assisted by reading three books ‘Do I stay Christian’ by Brian McLaren, Richard Rohr’s ‘Jesus’ Alternative Plan’ and 'The world, the flesh and the devil." All are excellent books and well worth a read. 

It often made me smile before retiring when many people indicated they couldn’t see me not working. That I would find it hard not to be leading worship and preaching. They assumed that ministry is a vocation which is for life. I made it very clear that this would not be an issue. This was because I saw stepping back from being an active Methodist minister, as the opportunity to return to what for any Christian must be their underlying vocation, which is to be a disciple. 

This means for me I have had and continue to have opportunity to explore what God might be asking me to do or not to do. 

In having this period of recreation with time to stop, think, and of course to read, there is another level of understanding that  needs to be recognised. This is the knowledge revealed to us in Jesus that we are loved by God. This comes first. It is unconditional inclusive Love. I believe this is what ultimately defines us.

God lays out before us a dream of what is possible. That we and all creation can and will be transformed and are able to live the life of God’s kingdom now. 

There is no need to be frightened into the kingdom. No need to live a life of guilt because we can’t always stay faithful. God goes on loving us through our faithfulness and unfaithfulness. God understands and loves us for our uniqueness. God knows we will falter and mess up, after all God has given us the freedom to do so. We are not condemned rather we just keep encountering forgiveness, unbelievable mercy.

So who we are is defined by God not by the role or roles we live out. Our sense of worth is defined by God and we find God believes we are worthy. This I believe is liberating as in turn it gives hope that I, and hopefully others, stop defining people by their roles, their status, their wealth. I know I have and will continue to fall into the trap of making judgements about others. Hopefully that becomes less of a thing as I mature in faith. This is necessary because I know that God thinks everyone else is worthy, or 'God loves everyone without exception'

So being defined by God confirms that faith can never be some individual thing, I'm saved so its okay!!! Certain parts of the Christian church make great play of personal salvation and of course go on about peoples sins, usually around sex, but strangely not about money , Jesus has little to say about the former and a lot to say about the latter. Strange that!!

Being defined by God highlights it's rather about the social, community thing which is why Jesus challenges the behaviour of groups, institutions, economics, materialism, consumerism all of which do not fit with the Kingdom of God. These are the areas Christians are called to challenge and live differently within. The fact that the church has colluded with power, wealth and status just means we have not arrived at the place God desires us to be. We find ourselves tainted because we like a good life, good food, clothes, home, holidays etc. Yet mercy is still there because why we are not brilliant  at being faithful over these things God's purpose is still being worked out moving towards redemption of humanity and creation. So God remains forgiving.

So I don't need a role I just need to learn more about how to be in relationship with God and as a consequence everyone else. 

So I am not going back onto the Methodist preaching plan rather I am choosing to lead some acts of worship in specific settings. The focus will be on getting others to do the reflecting that they might find refreshment in worship. To enhance their sense of being loved by God. So that together we might constantly recall that who I am and who they are is defined by God. This in turn will define how we relate to others and discover afresh what kind of community the church is called to be. 

This way of being I see as healthy and removes all sense of ‘being responsible'. For my worth is not to be found in a job, a role, status etc. It is to be found in the fact I am loved by God my creator from whom I came and ultimately will return to.