To Help Them See Grace
I have a special concern for you church leaders. I know what it’s like to be a leader, in on Christ’s sufferings as well as the coming glory. Here’s my concern: that you care for God’s flock with all the diligence of a shepherd. Not because you have to, but because you want to please God. Not calculating what you can get out of it, but acting spontaneously. Not bossily telling others what to do, but tenderly showing them the way. 1 Peter 5:1-3, The Message
These are the words of the Apostle Peter, one of those in the inner circle of Jesus’ twelve disciples. And as he speaks to pastors, some of his most important instruction is this:
“…tenderly showing them the way.” One wonders exactly what might be bound up in that.
One of my favorite shepherds and pastors over the years has been Eugene Peterson. His counsel to other shepherds and pastors like myself has been invaluable, for his counsel is based on a pursuit of God, a soul saturated in the Scriptures, and long decades of wisdom and experience following Jesus.
Near the end of each year, I often look to Peterson to provide some pastoral wisdom for a new year of pursing my own calling to “care for God’s flock with all the diligence of a shepherd…tenderly showing them the way.” This year that meant pulling The Contemplative Pastor off the shelf, where I read this proposal from Peterson, which I think just may help us understand what Peter was on about:
My job is not to solve people's problems or make them happy, but to help them see the grace operating in their lives. It's hard to do, because our whole culture is going the other direction, saying that if you're smart enough and get the right kind of help, you can solve all your problems. The truth is, there aren't very many happy people in the Bible. But there are people who are experiencing joy, peace, and the meaning of Christ's suffering in their lives.
The work of spirituality is to recognize where we are — the particular circumstances of our lives — to recognize grace and say, "Do you suppose God wants to be with me in a way that does not involve changing my spouse or getting rid of my spouse or my kids, but in changing me, and doing something in my life that maybe I could never experience without this pain and this suffering?"
Sometimes I think all I do as pastor is speak the word "God" in a situation in which it hasn't been said before, where people haven't recognized his presence. Joy is the capacity to hear the name and to recognize that God is here. There's a kind of exhilaration because God is doing something and, even in a little way, it's enough at the moment.
Huh.
Peterson proposes that my job (and is this not the “job” of every Christian?) is not to solve people’s problems or make them happy, but to help them see the grace operating in their lives. And he says that’s hard to do. I’ll say!
I think so often that so many of us pastors think our job is exactly what Peterson says it isn’t. We feel this expectation that we’ll solve the problem, bring happiness with our counsel. And every so often that may actually happen. But the far more important work is to help another person see the grace of God operating in their lives in the midst of the problems and unhappiness. To see that there’s something in all the circumstances of our lives that is changing us for the better, under God’s direction.
And even more importantly — to sit with someone and just say, “God.” To draw attention to the fact that he is present. I wonder if we’re all willing to believe the power that is present in that simple statement of belief, that declaration of the reality of our Father. And that because he’s present, he’s doing something. For his glory, and our joy.
Always.
If you’re a pastor reading this, trust this brother. This is your calling.
And if you’re a member of a church, trust this also. That this is the calling of your shepherd. And that as he pursues his calling in this way, he is, in fact, caring for you with all the diligence of a shepherd, tenderly showing you the way of Jesus.
