A Deacon’s Life, Part 2: Uncommon

Among other truths, we learned a couple of weeks ago that the deacon’s call is not a call to a comfortable life. And because that’s the case, there’s a kind of death that happens, and it’s meant to be that way. We know Bonhoeffer’s famous line, “When Jesus Christ calls a man, he calls him to come and die.” 

Uncommon Servanthood

It is exactly within the context of servanthood that death winds up being expressed as a way of life. As a deacon, you’re learning how to die to the necessity of personal convenience, to the desire just to hang out with people who like you, to live in places that could cause genuine financial straits in the life of you and your family. And therefore the desire to somehow live a comfortable life becomes more and more remote.

The call to be a deacon, you see, is not a call to a comfortable life. In your heart of hearts, with the burdens that you bear, in the constant rise and fall of crises after crises, the things that are going on, it’s anything but comfortable. But it is the place of service to which the calling has been manifested.  

And if you’ve already said yes to the call of a deacon, my hunch is that God has already been at work in you, showing you places in your life that you wish weren’t there, where you are, in fact, more self-centered than you could ever imagine, and where all of a sudden you’re finding yourself saying things like, “Gosh, did I really mean it when I said that?” Through times like this, you feel chastened by the Holy Spirit, even as the Holy Spirit invites you into a deeper place of self-sacrifice, and as a result, holiness. For it says in Hebrews that the Lord chastens those whom he loves, that we might partake in his holiness (see Heb. 12:5-10).

Uncommon Generosity

This is not an easy life, just the opposite. It is the method that God has chosen to work in you the kind of “I am crucified with Christ” (see Gal. 2:20) life. In other words, the venue for God’s chastening work, the venue for God teaching you how to serve in the inconvenient places, the avenue by which that happens is that of ordination as a deacon. 

Different people have different paths into this path of transformation and holiness, but if you’re living In the grace of God, no one escapes it. It’s just the way that God chooses, as it were, to manifest in your life. But lest you get the idea that somehow what you’re being invited to is a horrible sort of death, I also want to reassure you that the invitation to serve produces in you the opportunity to get a front-row seat to see God at work. You will see miracles that others in their own self-preoccupation will never really notice. You will hear the tender heart of God speaking to you, as somehow something begins to happen in you to give you the capacity to see and serve an individual that you’d actually rather not be with. And yet what God is doing is literally creating within you the space to be able to do that willingly and know that he’s at work in this process. 

Because sometimes, you have to pray, “Lord, I know you love this person very much. I can’t see it. Help me, Lord, to see what you see that you find so extraordinarily lovable.” And the glory of it is, often that happens. It can be just a little flash of sadness in the eyes, a certain movement or the way they speak, that opens a door that allows you to see something about it –it’s called discernment – that you never actually would have noticed otherwise, that enlarges your heart. That in fact allows you to be uncommonly generous.

Uncommon Grace

You can only do this if you know that God has been the one who’s called you to do it. Particularly with everything in our culture, and often everything in our church, says that if you’re really doing well, you’re living a life of ease, or at least convenience, if not ease. And this is not that. But it is worth it. Because uncommon servanthood is the fruit of uncommon grace, and uncommon grace yields the intimacy of the presence of God, the insights into his word, times in prayer that you could never imagine in a way that causes your heart to be changed if you’re willing to live into the grace that he gives you. I’d rather have that than anything. 

So: You’re going to be troublemakers. You’re going to be extraordinarily generous. You’re going to be misunderstood. You’re going to have to learn how to turn the other cheek and forgive even when you feel like it’s not warranted, just because Jesus says so. You’re going to have the capacity to see into hearts and look at circumstances in a way that allows you to be able to move forward, because God is showing you exactly what to do. 

All of that and more is yours as you continue to say yes to him. Because in the end, you’re his deacon. You’re under his leadership and authority. It is to him to whom you must answer, and it  is also to him that you owe all you know about the love and the mercy and the power of God. 

If you’re called to be a deacon, know that you are a gift to the church, an expansion of the ministry of Christ in our midst. You will, by virtue of the diaconal call, blaze new trails, open doors that we don’t presently see, cause us to look at people differently and pay more attention to the needs of the world than we would normally, because you’re the one speaking up and saying the inconvenient things that the rest of us would rather not hear.

Uncommon Challenge:

So my word to you is this: Go for it. Make the time to pray, be built up in the Holy Spirit and begin to give and see what God will do. We need you. The temptation to complacency is far too great. And we all wrestle with the same tendency to want things to go easily for us. So, it is an inconvenient ministry to which you are called, but more necessary than you will ever imagine. Step up, and let’s see what God will do. 

How do you see a deacon’s life as uncommon? Share this blog and your response on Twitter. Please include my username, @revgregbrewer. 

(This post is an adaption of Bishop Brewer’s sermon at the ordination of deacons for the Diocese of Central Florida on Jan. 27, 2020, at The Cathedral Church of St. Luke’s, Orlando.)

 

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.