A gospel lesson for any occasion — even a memorial service
Relying on the first 14 verses in John 14, the Rev. Dr. John Wilkinson leads last week’s Chapel Service
LOUISVILLE — The Rev. Dr. John Wilkinson, director of Stewardship and Funds Development in the Administrative Services Group, estimates that over 33 years of congregational ministry, he’s led 250 memorial services and a handful of funerals. About half those services included a reading from John 14:1-14, an early portion of Jesus’ Farewell Discourse and a lectionary reading for May 3.
Jesus tells his disciples his Father’s house has many dwelling places, and “if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.”
He also tells them that he’s the way, the truth and the life, and that “no one comes to the Father except through me.” Some see that as a vehicle for Christo-exclusivism, but “all of that is for another day,” Wilkinson told those worshiping online at the weekly Chapel Service.
Working for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is different at the congregational or mid council level than at the national level, Wilkinson said. “Congregational and pastoral care is baked into the DNA of the community” at the local and regional levels, he noted.
“Here it’s baked in as well, but it’s different,” he said. Staff serve in places across the country and around the globe. “While many are Presbyterians, all are not,” he said. “While many practice a faith and are members of congregational or denominational families, all do not and are not.”
“And yet, and yet, a set of values — theological affirmations, even — undergird this whole enterprise, framing this work and the community it seeks to nurture,” Wilkinson said. The Confession of 1967 affirms “that God’s sovereign love is a mystery beyond the reach of human minds” and that “God loves all humankind.” A Brief Statement of Faith “reminds us that Jesus’ business was healing the sick and binding up the brokenhearted.” That same brief statement speaks of “a broken and fearful world.”
“That’s the world all of us live in,” Wilkinson said.
The brief statement says the Spirit gives us the courage to “pray without ceasing.”
“We are a community, a human community, and bad things happen to us, to those we love and those we work with,” he said. “Colleagues struggle. Loved ones die. Cancer visits us. Depression sets in. Addiction takes over. We and those we love and care for become sick or brokenhearted.”
“Pray without ceasing.”
The church is declining in numbers, “though certainly not in faithfulness,” Wilkinson said. “Our nation is deeply conflicted. Our world is at war. Pray without ceasing.”
Wilkinson said he’s often asked about the differences between a business and the church. In some ways, the similarities are clear, he said: both have budgets to meet and finances to manage. “We both have buildings to care for, roofs to repair and Zoom meetings — lots and lots and lots of Zoom meetings.” Both have “human resources realities, strategic plans, goals and objectives. We [both] have good days and not-so-good days.”
The difference, he said, is that “how we [in the church] do all of that matters.”
“At our best, we engage the work we do with a deep level of dedication and extra measures of commitment,” Wilkinson said. “At the very same time, we do so committed to caring for one another, exhibiting care and compassion and lifting each other up — especially when any or all of us are living with troubled hearts, are living in seasons of sadness or struggling health or grief of conflict or confusion.”
It’s hard to say what Jesus had in mind when he told the disciples he was preparing a place for them, “but I do know his life and his ministry was a reflection of deep compassion and mercy, made manifest on the world’s biggest stage often to unexpected and culturally marginalized people and often made real in the intimate corners of each of our lives — and even in the lives of those with whom we work,” Wilkinson said. “As best as we can, we who follow Jesus — or who simply seek to uphold the values of this ecosystem — are invited to do the same: to work hard, effectively, professionally, and to care for those with whom we work.”
Kindness “is taking a hit in this historical moment,” he said. “Empathy is viewed as a weakness.”
“Perhaps we can be counter-revolutionaries for such a time as this,” he said, “advancing the church’s mission and ministry with notable effectiveness — all the while caring for our colleagues, who are also our fellow travelers. Amen.”
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