Word and Sacrament Ministry?

I was told once that a pastor’s only job is “Word and Sacrament.” Fair enough. I mean, that is what they taught us at the Seminary after all. A pastor is called by the congregation to preach Law and Gospel in the Word, to shepherd his flock by the Word, and to properly administer the Sacraments (the Lord’s Supper and Baptism) through the Word. But is it his “only job?”

Stories circulate in the city fairly quick. It’s one of my favorite things about being an inner-city pastor. It can also be one of the more frustrating things. This particular story was about a pastor who, when asked if he would take a young man that had just been released from a year and a half long hiatus in prison to get a haircut, he refused to take him. He had to make sure his Bible study slides for that night, that he had a week to prepare by the way, were properly worded. He was asked later why he didn’t take the young man, desiring a fresh start from prison, to get his hair cut. His response? “Well, that’s not Word and Sacrament ministry.”

Not everything is as it seems.

I have the pleasure of working with a senior pastor that has been at Family of God for over fifteen years, a deacon that has been serving for at least five, and a pre-seminary student that has been with us for the last six months. Each one of them have the call (or will soon be called to) to do “Word and Sacrament.” In the last week, I witnessed some magnificently beautiful and (to be frank) rather unexciting things out of each of them that might not fit their “job description.”

Pastor Hill helped in the kitchen to prepare Thursday night’s meal by putting food in trays and helping to bag them up. John helped move the furniture of one of our people to their new home. Alex, atop an eight-foot ladder, sealed a leaky air vent with plastic. I pondered these things as I shoveled snow and salted the sidewalks preparing for people to come into God’s house yesterday. “This isn’t Word and Sacrament ministry.”

Or is it?

John writes that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory full of grace and truth (John 1:14). The Word, of course, we know is Jesus. The Jesus that we have the pleasure of preaching from the pulpit to eager listeners. The Jesus that we have the joy of giving at the Lord’s table to restless beggars. The Jesus that we serve when we prepare food for our neighbors, or help move furniture, or seal an icy air vent, or shovel the sidewalks, or yes, even drive someone to get a haircut.

Word and Sacrament ministry is not cut and dry. Well, maybe it is. Jesus, the Word made flesh, is willing to dwell among his people, eat and hang out with sinners, to wash his disciples’ feet, to feed the hungry. Why? “Word ministry.” He is willing to ascend Mt. Calvary to the place of the skull and be crucified for these same people. Why? “Sacrament ministry.” In his service to others, we see his glory full of grace and truth. Because the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve others (Matthew 20:28).

Serving others is Word and Sacrament ministry. And while a pastor may be called to preach, teach, and administer the Sacrament at the Lord’s Table and the Baptismal font, we are ALL called to Word and Sacrament ministry. We are called to serve our neighbors in love and in grace. To be imitators of Christ, walking in his footsteps. We are called to forgive which is the very foundation of “Word and Sacrament ministry.”

In the new mandate on the night Jesus was betrayed and institutes to the Lord’s Supper (a means of grace), he implores us: “Love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34).