YOU are called to be a deacon!`

I was invited to put my name in the hopper as a candidate for deacon in the first church we attended. I was a bit miffed. The reason for that unreasonable emotion was that a very good friend, also my age, was asked if he would be a candidate for elder. That was the important position in the church...that’s where they should have wanted my name. How shamefully misguided were my thoughts. 

Matt and I are starting a new series of podcasts about HUMANITY FOR PRISONERS. In our first session, Matt pointed out that the HFP team is made up of “deacons.” We get that profound concept from no less than theologian Dr. John Rottman, Calvin Seminary Professor who serves on the HFP Board of Directors. 

To get an idea of a deacon’s assignment, I’d like to quote from the form for the ordination of deacons, as worded by the Christian Reformed Church of North America. Deacons, we are told, are charged with leading and equipping members of the church like “awakening compassion, demonstrating mercy, seeking justice." Thanks to the leadership of deacons, we are taught to “love God, our neighbors, and the creation with acts of generous sharing, joyful hospitality, thoughtful care, and wise stewardship.” In addition, the form insists, we must "respect the dignity of all people, work to change exploitive systems, and work toward reconciliation and peacemaking." 

I think there’s a clear message here...to churches, and to HFP. But, in my humble opinion, it’s broader than that. I think that you and I are called to be deacons. 

To churches, who ordain elders and deacons, I think about a simple message offered by Rev. John Pavlovitz, of Raleigh, North Carolina. It’s not in the formal language of the CRC. It’s in blunt street language. “I’m not interested in the Scriptures you can recite or the prayers you utter out loud. Show me a working theology of empathy. Show me that you actually give a damn about people.” 

In that Dr. Rottman insists that our HFP crew is made up of deacons, regardless of our personal beliefs and theology, there’s a message to me and our team as well. In that it’s Black History Month, I’ll choose this quote from Dr. MLK, as he discussed the role of the good Samaritan. Let’s hold hands and accept this together: 

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But the good Samaritan reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"

- Martin Luther King