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(This article reports the remarks of Brother Barnhard at the
opening quorum session at World Conference 2002, The Temple, Independence MO,
USA, April 6, 2002.) I have chosen to spend this brief time with
you this morning emphasizing your importance to the church as high priests. As a
young boy, I witnessed firsthand the high priestly ministry of my grandfather.
Many young people who are now more mature in years still speak of his leadership
as their pastor and remember their relationship with him as a mentor. His
investment in me has equipped me to embrace new opportunities that have come to
me for ministry.
The leadership team has worked diligently to create a focus for high priests
that is aligned with the path of the disciple and the challenge to deepen and
enrich our own ministry as followers of Christ. For those of you who have had an
opportunity to attend one of the high priest conferences, you will recall the
activity at the closing commitment service of placing a dot on the wedge on one
of the following areas where you have chosen to provide your ministry.
- Honoring the Past; Visioning the Future
- Bridging Cultures and People
- Enhancing Leadership Effectiveness
- Standing for Peace and Justice
- Fostering Spiritual Growth and Wholeness
- Building Support Systems
Let’s understand where these paths can lead us. For those of you who have not
yet had that opportunity, think about where your gifts and graces lie and where
you will place your dot and pledge your ministry. We no longer need to ask the
question “What is a high priest to do?” The question is rather “How willing am I
to follow the example of Jesus and stand in the breech for my sisters and
brothers?”
We could say with justification that we can never be completely like Christ.
That is true, but it is important for us to try. It is important for the sake of
others. It is important because the more we develop our own spiritual base, the
more effective we will be. I know a young man by the name of Andrew. Andrew is a
tremendous young man: an honor student, all conference football player, all
state baseball honors, and an accomplished pianist. I first met Andrew in the
chapel at a reunion. I heard someone playing the keyboard in a way that made me
want to go and see who was producing such beautiful music. He continued to play
with no sheet music, as we talked. For the rest of the week, Andrew graced our
services with his gift. In my conversation with him at various times over the
years now, I have asked him how he keeps motivated to continue developing his
gifts. He said, “I take lessons from a master; he gives me all the attention I
ask for. I practice all the time, so that in the future you will not be able to
tell the difference between his performance and mine. ”We will never be exactly
like the Christ, but we are called to practice his teachings every day. So going
deeper into our ministry is, like Andrew, practicing to be as good as the master
teacher.
Your ordination as high priest was not because of your administrative ability
alone, but more importantly because of your ministerial sensitivity and basic
love of God demonstrated through servant ministry. A renewal of vision becomes
very clear when looking at the ministry of Jesus with the woman at the well, the
man at the pool of Bethesda, the leper, the children, and those who were always
overlooked. When we freshen our vision and align that vision with our own gifts
and graces, we have an outline for personal ministry. For me the beauty of this
is that “the responsibility rests with the disciple,” as Ruth Ann Wood said to
me recently.
God didn’t call you to wait, or look for someone to tell you what to do, but
rather because you have demonstrated the spiritual sensitivity to be a servant
and friend in time of need. In the next two years, the leadership team will be
encouraging individuals who have the interest and time to be engaged in
congregational consulting, mentoring, and building support teams. If these areas
of emphasis do not seem to fit, remember where you placed your dot on the wedge,
and find ways to carry out your ministry in creative ways.
We hope our time together this week will be informative and provide
opportunities for you to consider your personal responsibility as a high priest.
It was not possible for us to choose the time we live in, but we can choose the
way we spend our time. In the movie Lord of the Rings I kept hearing a theme,
and this is my interpretation: I heard that we can allow things to happen to us
and blame others for life’s conditions, or we can be pro-active and influence
change in a positive holistic way. We are called to influence positive change.
Our relationships are critical. We are the Community of Christ, and good
relationships create the opportunity for community. I have been taken by the
African people and their idea of community. I have picked up on three words that
seem to describe how people work toward community. The words are UMBUNTO,
CERITI and UMPAGARTY.
None of these words are directly translatable into English, but here is the
essence of their meaning and how they fit in achieving our ministry in the
community where we live.
UMBUNTO is the word for story. Every person has a story. According to
some African people, a man or woman is not a person except in the context of
other people and their relationships. Knowing someone’s story and understanding
why they act the way they do helps you deal with their actions, sift through
their junk, and come to know the inner person. Our stories and who we are only
have meaning in relation to other people. We need to create opportunities for
others to tell their stories and then find ways to share ours through example
and testimony.
This is where the word CERITI comes in. CERITI is the word for
shadow. Each one of us casts a shadow. When they come together, the African
people rejoice because their shadows overlap and the goodness of each is shared.
They also recognize each other’s differences and that each person’s shadow is
different. The people rejoice because each person has a different gift that
makes all of the community better. We need to know more about the shadows of
others that do not blend with ours. A professional of one type or another may
make quilts or furniture, to create work/life balance. A journeyman electrician
maybe an accomplished oil painter in his/her spare time. Discovering the whole
person helps us appreciate Christ’s shadow, and the shadow of others.
When you put all of this together, you have UMPAGARTY or community. It
is impossible to have privacy in some African villages. Pathways lead literally
through each other’s homes. If they haven’t seen you for a while, they will just
walk in and check on you. That would create a racing heartbeat for some of us.
But they check on each other. They make their daily tasks into community
activities: the strong help the weak, they share in each other’s problems, and
they care for each other. Cooking and working, gardening and teaching, and on
and on, and UMPAGARTY or community is experienced in many ways. We often
covet our private time and space, but we need to travel to each others’ homes,
care for each others needs in unusual ways, to apply the balm of Giliad and work
for unity throughout the world. It’s only when we stand in the light of Christ
that we cast shadows. Our shadows create great opportunities to build
relationships and communities that demonstrate Christ-like living.
In the movie Hearts in Atlantis, a young boy named Danny and his mother are
living alone after the father had died, struggling to make ends meet. An older
man named Ted moves in upstairs. Ted was losing his sight and could not read, so
he hired Danny to read the paper to him every day. They became good friends. Ted
was grandfatherly and served as a surrogate father for Danny. As the story
continues, Danny and Ted become separated. Later, as Danny returns to his
boyhood home, he recounts his memories of Ted. Danny’s closing thoughts about
his short time with Ted made me think of my relationship with those who have
allowed themselves to be influenced by Christ. Danny said that Ted “opened his
eyes and let the future in.” As “Ministers of Vision,” our eyes must be open to
the future and we must be willing to share our gifts with others so they, too,
will see the future, and respond to God’s call. |
