Ezra 7:6 “This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses…”
I know that most of you who read Glimmers are not ministers. As such, it may be difficult to relate to much of what ministers are about, especially those ministers who have the task of preaching each Sunday. But modern healthcare is acutely focused on quality and if you’ll allow, I’ll do my best to show how much you and the minister share in common.
Paul E. Scherer writes in “For We Have This Treasure” about the seriousness of the minister’s task; “It takes muscle and sweat to write a sermon. To fasten a man’s attention and challenge his respect is not done lightly, no matter how worthy your material or how exalted your theme,” (pg. 144). Quality is not done on the cheap in any profession.
This readiness is of two kinds, says Scherer. “There is the kind that begins away back in the past somewhere and continues steadily through the years,” (p. 145). “Then there is that kind of preparation which begins when the threat or promise of next Sunday falls like a shadow or a song across the week. Generalities can go hang then, something specific has to happen, (p. 146).” The minister who does not keep the spirit sharp and the mind fresh and current is doomed.
In ministry, as in healthcare or any profession really, you come to your work with your accumulated experiences and education to draw upon. You have the first kind of readiness. However, you can’t rest on your laurels. The world keeps changing and the world of healthcare is no different. If you fail to keep learning, you fail. Or if you fail to bring all of your attention to the current moment to care for the person before you, you fail. And if you fail in healthcare, the consequences can be immediately catastrophic.
At the baccalaureate service on the night before I graduated from seminary, F. J. May spoke about the Old Testament prophet Ezra, the “ready scribe.” He had a lifetime of preparation - the first kind of readiness. And he had prepared himself for that instant when he was called upon - the second kind of readiness. Dr. May, one of the best preachers I have ever heard, told a story of his own lack of readiness. While he was in seminary working on his doctorate, he was also the pastor of a busy church. He missed the due date on an assignment and offered his work as an excuse. “Professor, I’m sorry I didn’t complete my assignment. I am the pastor of a very busy church and was unable to get it done.” As best as I can remember, his professor said “Rev. May, I am not here to hear excuses on why you didn’t get your work done. I’m just here to grade the work that you do.”
Our patients come here expecting excellence. We have made ourselves ready by our education and training. We are qualified, no doubt, or we wouldn’t be here. But the people we’ll serve today will not be grading us on how well we did on our nursing boards or the cogent thoughts of our doctoral thesis. They will be grading us on how well we bring all of our expertise to bear in this present moment, this sacred moment when their need meets our loving response (Erie Chapman). They’ll be grading us on how well we care for them. Are you “ready” for that?
Blessings to you all!
Jerald
Showing posts with label Paul Scherer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul Scherer. Show all posts
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Saturday, July 23, 2011
The Problem With Hindsight
July 22, 2011
One of the things I remember from my early days of serving as a local church pastor is the sticker shock I experienced when I saw the price tag of the group health insurance for the ministers in my state. The plans would often change year to year as some new insurer took over. It turns out ministers are a high-risk group! That may seem surprising to some of you, but the reasons are not that hard to understand. Ministers often work long hours, answer phone calls at all hours of the night, walk with families through heartbreak, put a lot of themselves into their work…and often don’t take care of themselves very well. It is the last part that is the killer, literally.
In 1944 at Yale University, standing before young ministers on the cusp of their careers, Paul Scherer warned them to take care of themselves. It is an odd thing that ministers, called to be stewards of the Scripture and of the congregations they serve, are often not good stewards of themselves.
“My word to you is that you regard and treat this aspect of your ministry as fundamental. The training of the body may be of small service, as Paul says, when you compare it with training for the religious life (I Timothy 4:8); but squanderers of health are quite as culpable as any other squanderers and profligates. They will answer for it. The plain fact is that you cannot serve God as you might with an instrument that you have abused; whether from ignorance or with full knowledge, whether by harmful habits or by careless inattention makes no difference. And Life and God will some day render their account and want to know why.” (Scherer, For We Have This Treasure p. 33, 34)
I suspect ministers are not the only guilty parties here. Recently, my wife and I joined the fitness center run by the hospital. If you work here and you take a few steps, you can join it for free. FOR FREE! She has been going almost every day. I went with her to a Zumba class for the first time the other night. I don’t know if the ache in my gut afterward was from trying to copy the instructor’s moves or from laughing so hard at myself as I tried to keep up. It was a lot of fun and a great work out too.
He spoke from the hospital bed, aided by the oxygen flowing through the tubing that hung over his ears and under his nose. “If I had known I was going to live so long, I’d have taken better care of myself.” he said, half smiling and totally serious. His story was as clear an example of 20/20 hindsight as I have ever heard. But that is the problem with hindsight. It yields wisdom, to be sure, but the consequences of the lessons learned are sometimes irreversible.
Life and God will indeed render their account.
I’d rather learn from forewarning any day. You?
Blessings to you all,
Jerald
One of the things I remember from my early days of serving as a local church pastor is the sticker shock I experienced when I saw the price tag of the group health insurance for the ministers in my state. The plans would often change year to year as some new insurer took over. It turns out ministers are a high-risk group! That may seem surprising to some of you, but the reasons are not that hard to understand. Ministers often work long hours, answer phone calls at all hours of the night, walk with families through heartbreak, put a lot of themselves into their work…and often don’t take care of themselves very well. It is the last part that is the killer, literally.
In 1944 at Yale University, standing before young ministers on the cusp of their careers, Paul Scherer warned them to take care of themselves. It is an odd thing that ministers, called to be stewards of the Scripture and of the congregations they serve, are often not good stewards of themselves.
“My word to you is that you regard and treat this aspect of your ministry as fundamental. The training of the body may be of small service, as Paul says, when you compare it with training for the religious life (I Timothy 4:8); but squanderers of health are quite as culpable as any other squanderers and profligates. They will answer for it. The plain fact is that you cannot serve God as you might with an instrument that you have abused; whether from ignorance or with full knowledge, whether by harmful habits or by careless inattention makes no difference. And Life and God will some day render their account and want to know why.” (Scherer, For We Have This Treasure p. 33, 34)
I suspect ministers are not the only guilty parties here. Recently, my wife and I joined the fitness center run by the hospital. If you work here and you take a few steps, you can join it for free. FOR FREE! She has been going almost every day. I went with her to a Zumba class for the first time the other night. I don’t know if the ache in my gut afterward was from trying to copy the instructor’s moves or from laughing so hard at myself as I tried to keep up. It was a lot of fun and a great work out too.
He spoke from the hospital bed, aided by the oxygen flowing through the tubing that hung over his ears and under his nose. “If I had known I was going to live so long, I’d have taken better care of myself.” he said, half smiling and totally serious. His story was as clear an example of 20/20 hindsight as I have ever heard. But that is the problem with hindsight. It yields wisdom, to be sure, but the consequences of the lessons learned are sometimes irreversible.
Life and God will indeed render their account.
I’d rather learn from forewarning any day. You?
Blessings to you all,
Jerald
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Buried Treasure
July 11, 2011
I found the treasure buried in plain sight on my office bookcase. I have had it in my possession for over twenty years. I don’t recall when or where I purchased it. It must have caught my eye as being something of possible value as a young preacher learning his craft. I remember reading it with the cursory kind of attention the young often give to the wisdom of the aged and experienced and was not then particularly impressed.
Now as I read it, what riches I find! Paul E. Scherer’s book For We Have This Treasure is a truly a gold mine. It dates back to 1944, to dark days in American history. The Great Depression had given way to the Great Madness of WWII and it seemed as if there was no end to the evils a human could perpetrate on another and the world was all but overwhelmed with a purposeless dread. At that moment, Paul Scherer stepped into a lecture hall at Yale University to address young ministers on the importance of their calling. Some of what he said applies uniquely to ministry, of course. But, whether you believe it or not, preachers are people too and much of what he said applies to all of us.
One of the temptations common to ministers and everyone else I suspect, is the temptation to think that somehow God left something out or made a mistake with us. We compare ourselves to someone else who we may think looks better or sings better or speaks better and wish we were anyone else but the person that God made us to be. If that speaks to you as it does me, then listen to this: In preaching, he says, the one thing that is unique that you bring to the table is yourself. “The human heart is not new, the need is not new, the truth is not new, the method is not new. You are new. You are a bit of God’s unrepeated handiwork; and what he means to accomplish by you, he must accomplish through you.” (Scherer, p. 38)
Sure, we ought to be good stewards of our bodies and our minds and be the best us that we can be. But to strive so hard and to be filled with such frustration that we are not like someone else we think is better in some way is to belittle ourselves and God.
You have your unique fingerprints, your unique iris pattern, and your unique self ..."a bit of God's unrepeated handiwork" to offer to God and the world for a reason. It would be a sad thing to go through life and only offer an imitation, even a good imitation, of a somebody that has already been tried.
Blessings to you all,
Jerald
I found the treasure buried in plain sight on my office bookcase. I have had it in my possession for over twenty years. I don’t recall when or where I purchased it. It must have caught my eye as being something of possible value as a young preacher learning his craft. I remember reading it with the cursory kind of attention the young often give to the wisdom of the aged and experienced and was not then particularly impressed.
Now as I read it, what riches I find! Paul E. Scherer’s book For We Have This Treasure is a truly a gold mine. It dates back to 1944, to dark days in American history. The Great Depression had given way to the Great Madness of WWII and it seemed as if there was no end to the evils a human could perpetrate on another and the world was all but overwhelmed with a purposeless dread. At that moment, Paul Scherer stepped into a lecture hall at Yale University to address young ministers on the importance of their calling. Some of what he said applies uniquely to ministry, of course. But, whether you believe it or not, preachers are people too and much of what he said applies to all of us.
One of the temptations common to ministers and everyone else I suspect, is the temptation to think that somehow God left something out or made a mistake with us. We compare ourselves to someone else who we may think looks better or sings better or speaks better and wish we were anyone else but the person that God made us to be. If that speaks to you as it does me, then listen to this: In preaching, he says, the one thing that is unique that you bring to the table is yourself. “The human heart is not new, the need is not new, the truth is not new, the method is not new. You are new. You are a bit of God’s unrepeated handiwork; and what he means to accomplish by you, he must accomplish through you.” (Scherer, p. 38)
Sure, we ought to be good stewards of our bodies and our minds and be the best us that we can be. But to strive so hard and to be filled with such frustration that we are not like someone else we think is better in some way is to belittle ourselves and God.
You have your unique fingerprints, your unique iris pattern, and your unique self ..."a bit of God's unrepeated handiwork" to offer to God and the world for a reason. It would be a sad thing to go through life and only offer an imitation, even a good imitation, of a somebody that has already been tried.
Blessings to you all,
Jerald
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