Latest / Belin Memorial UMC / Rev. Will Malambri - "Intern for Life"
Transcript
- Belin Memorial UMC: Please remain standing as we hear the final words of Matthew's gospel from chapter twenty-eight. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but they doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Those are Jesus' last recorded words, at least Matthew's version of them. We take everything that Jesus said seriously. We know he said more than is recorded in the Bible. We also know that Matthew could have ended his gospel before or after those words. He stopped there. He wants those words ringing in your ears. Which are ringing in yours. Is it that there were eleven disciples remaining, a reminder that Judas' betrayal was painful for Jesus, painful for the other disciples, painful for the movement? Is it that when the disciples saw the resurrected Jesus, they both worshiped and doubted? Which makes it clear to us that we are not the only ones with imperfect faith? Is Jesus commissioning the disciples to go and make additional disciples of people from everywhere, baptizing them into the family of God the Father, into the mercy of God the Son, into the ongoing, activating work of God the Spirit, which turns out to be the easier part of the commissioning and the harder part, teaching them to obey everything that He commanded? It's the commissioning. What's ringing in your ears? Or is it that Jesus will be with you always? As important as what is ringing in your ears is what is not. While we gravitate to what we need to hear in the moment to miss any of that is to miss something significant from the gospel's message. Jesus being with us is what makes it possible for us to invite, baptize, teach, have faith, though imperfectly, be redeemed of our betrayals, actually care enough to want to betray less, believe more, welcome, teach, and obey faithfully. That last part is what's ringing in my ears. Believing Jesus is the Lord, the risen Lord, the way, the truth, and the life, I want to grow in my obedience to him. And I want to help others to do the same, which means I want to be one of Jesus' disciples, a lifelong intern. I'm a fan of internships, residencies, apprenticeships, trainee programs, whatever your term is for putting into practice what you've learned in books and in classrooms, doing so under the guidance of an experienced practitioner from the field. I have no interest in using the services of a mechanic. Attorney, electrician, plumber, cook, coach, banker, anyone that deals with anything of consequence in my life who has not learned from the guidance of others. I don't want a self-trained surgeon. Or a YouTube-trained ⁓ therapist. Thankfully, the professional world agrees, and so there are now internships aplenty. My formal internships included a year working for a church in Climax, North Carolina, two semesters in doing research for the North Carolina Conference, a summer as a chaplain at the Durham VA, and two semesters working at Duke Chapel. And each the goal was for me to apply in ministry settings what I was learning in the classroom, to to practice ministry under the supervision of someone who could help me avoid the worst outcomes, process my mistakes and what was challenging me, and be better prepared for when I was attempting ministry without someone right by my side. And while being an associate pastor is certainly more than a glorified internship, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge those eight years helped to shape and prepare me for greater ministry responsibilities in the years that followed. This goes better because I experienced all that. There are times now when I bump into a challenge, I remember watching one of those mentors work through something similar. I think about what they did and how that might apply well. I think about what they did and how I might not want to do it that way. Sometimes it happens without thinking about it or recognizing that they had influenced me. What what I saw them do, what I heard them say, what we Worked through together, all influences how I do what I do, even when I'm not consciously thinking about how they did it. There are other influences, of course, not always informal relationships. We are greatly influenced by what we watch and admire, those we interact with and get a sense of how they their spirit works through things. We we take note. by the example they set in word and in practice practice. We especially take note when their words and practices don't align. We know that no one is going to get it right all the time. But the more absolute someone is about what is right and what is wrong, the more troubling it is when how they treat someone seems wrong. It's not reasonable to expect anyone to perfect Jesus' ways in this life. It is reasonable to expect anyone who claims to follow Jesus to give effort to practicing Jesus' ways more perfectly. To become lifelong interns. The Gospel of Matthew is a great place to start. When I was in ministry intern, my supervisors laid out for me at the beginning of our time together their expectations. They took me around to orient me. We visited places together so I could see how they did it. I watched their example. They did not have to say, This is how you do it, for me to observe. That is how they do it. Matthew's gospel offers Jesus' expectations from the start, right there in those first chapters, chapters 5 through 7, the Sermon on the Mount. He gives us his teachings and then he gives us more teachings and more examples in the stories that follow. Matthew reports how Jesus treated people. And even though he doesn't say, This is how you do it, it is implied that Jesus' ways are to be ours because he is our ideal, he is our perfect example. Turns out we also need imperfect examples in our lives. People we can watch now, people we can listen to now, people we can be mentored by now, people we can relate to in their imperfections, and be inspired because despite their imperfections, they care enough about Jesus to care about how they live their lives for Jesus. For this to work, we need at least three things. One, a growing knowledge of who Jesus is, his teachings and his ways. Read the Gospels as part of your internship. Two, we need other knowledgeable and faithful Christians to help check our understanding so that we don't slip into creating Jesus into our image or another fallen human placing them as though Jesus were in their image. And the third thing we need is humility, the humility to know that I may not have the right understanding and I don't always act rightly even when I do. So I need grace. And I need to extend it. With those ground rules, with Jesus as our perfect model and goal, with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as our guide, we can emulate what is faithful in others, and we can be conscious about what is not. Our internship is not set up for further competition. It's not to deepen our judgmental skills. There's no need. We're so skilled at that that Jesus teaches, do not judge, so that you may not be judged. Our purpose is not to condemn others for their failing to perform their internships. Our purpose is to choose wisely which examples of our imperfect mentors that will help us perform our own mentor our own internships as well as possible. I think of a friend. Who sees no value in gathering for worship? Who thinks in a lot of ways that he's too smart for religion. I disagree with him about both. I don't emulate that about my friend. He's also one of the most generous, kind, curious, and thoughtful people I know. I do want to emulate those parts about him. Those are traits that are in line with Jesus. I have friend who is incredibly patient and empathetic with people she knows. She will listen to their stories. She will seek to understand where they are coming from. She is gracious about their imperfections. She is a loyal encourager, a good friend. She also dismisses whole groups of people she does not know. She struggles to show them compassion. It's like her definition of neighbor is limited to the people that she knows, forgetting Jesus' story about the Good Samaritan who not only helped a stranger, he helped someone who was his enemy. I can learn from how she treats the people she knows. That's Jesus like. How she thinks of those she does not know. Isn't it? I know people who reduce Christianity to moral acts. The more moral you are, the more Christian you are. I know others who speak of our faith as though it's simply about having a relationship with Jesus, as if a relationship with Jesus does not demand a relationship with others or this world that God so loves. Because I study Jesus Because I have a relationship with him, because I read the scriptures, because I engage with God and fellow Christians, I know that both of those perspectives are incomplete. I have plenty to learn from those who focus on morals and plenty to learn from those who focus on a relationship with Jesus. And I know that any version of the faith that only goes in one of those directions has plenty to learn to. Few if any get the balance right every time. But all who claim God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are obligated to try. is why we're interns for life. There's always more to learn. More to get better at because we serve the Lord who is the best, who is gracious to us in our failings, and perfect before us in his doings. Who is with us always, that we may be with him in all ways. It's worth the effort. Because he's worth the effort. May God let those words ring in our ears.