Borrowed Light

A pipe busts in your house. You call the local plumber. He comes by, looks at the pipe, and bluntly says, “I’m not going to fix that for you. I don’t think you’ve properly cared for your pipes. And I’m not going to put another one in. That’ll be $80 for the house call.”

You’re pretty livid, right?

Plumbers fix pipes (usually for an exorbitant amount). You’re a plumber. Fix my pipes!!!

A dying man requests to receive the Lord’s Supper from a local Anglican clergyman. The pastor comes to his house, speaks to him for a bit, and rather uncomfortably informs the man that he cannot in good conscience administer the sacrament.

Isn’t this your job? How dare he refuse to give this solace to a dying man!?!?! Do your job!

That’s an actual historical situation, by the way. In 1765, John Newton (who had only been a curate for a year) was uneasy about administering the sacrament to Thomas Abbott. Abbott was a wealthy lace-maker and landowner and from what Newton says in his diary he “wants smoother doctrine than I can give him”.

We don’t know many more details but Newton refused to give him communion. Less than a week later, Mr. Abbott found another pastor to give him communion. The pastor was paid handsomely (for doing such a great job, I’m sure). As for Newton, he wrote in his diary that he was thankful to “the Lord that he enabled me to act according to my judgment and conscience in this business.” (Newton’s Diary, 1765, Oct 22)

What Would You Say You Do Here?

Now, the Book of Common Prayer does say that Newton had every right to refuse communion if he had good reason. In that regard Newton was not in any dereliction of duty. And more importantly, Scripture would be on his side. But this introduces an important discussion concerning the pastor’s duty. What does faithfulness look like?

We know that the work of a plumber can be important for human flourishing, as is also true of a pastor. None of this is to demean the work of a plumber or unduly elevate the work of the pastor. But it’s to acknowledge that it has a different shape, and when we fail to recognize this pastor and parishioner alike miss the mark.

Pastors aren’t being hired to do a service. In his book, Working the Angles, Eugene Peterson reflects upon the difference between the calling and “what people are asking me to do”. He reflects upon all of the things which he has done pastorally,

“…solely because people asked me to do it and it didn’t seem at the time that it would do any harm and who knows it might do some good. Besides I think there is a pastor down the street who would do anything asked of him but whose theology was so wretched that he would probably do active harm in the process. My theology, at least, was evangelical and orthodox.” –Eugene Peterson, Working the Angles, 13)

What is the job of the pastor? Do the directives come from the people or from another quarter? Some questions are easy to answer in theory, but more difficult in practice.

The Temptation and It’s Deliverance

It can be an ever present temptation for the pastor to give the people what they want. It’ll provide not only a good amount of job security but also a fair share of accolades. You’ll be seen as faithful, available, helpful, solid, loving, and all those other adjectives we pastors strive to have attached to our identity.

But some day, if we’re given the grace to get out of the mess, we wake up and realize that much of what we are doing on a daily basis could be done with only minimal interaction with the living God. Peterson asks an important question,

How do I keep the line sharp? How do I maintain a sense of pastoral vocation in the middle of a community of people who are hiring me to do religious jobs? How do I keep a sense of professional integrity in the midst of a people who are long practiced in comparative shopping and who don’t get overly exercised on the fine points of pastoral integrity? (Peterson, 13)

These are difficult questions. We’re not called to refuse people simply for the sake of holding a line. We are called to be servants. But fundamentally servants of the living God. (And that’s not exclusive to pastors). And God has given us the contours of our pastoral duty.

One of the best answers I’ve found to this question comes from Diane Langberg. I’ll close with her words:

It is not only his work to do with him, but it is his work done for him. You are not working for the ones suffering. You are not working for anyone else looking for their approval or certain status in the church or your community. You are his worker. If you work as if it is for the suffering, then you will be governed by them. Their needs will be your ruler and you will end up in their noise and chaos. They are considered and they must be understood, but the work is done in their life but for your God. He says this, not that; these limits, not those; this response, not that one. The needs of others are not the call nor are they your governance. If their suffering rules you, then the outcome is simply double of the problem. The call is from God, the governance is God’s alone, and from that place in him you enter into the suffering of another. (Langberg, 116)