Devotional Notes: Dan Schwerin
Circuit Leader Training Event - Green Lake - May 2004

Praying the Scripture's Promises     Luke 24:44-53

This is Luke's account of the departure of Jesus. The Spirit moves from equipping to blessing to joy.

Last summer a pastor called for coffee. There was chit-chat, the kids, the church, then, finally, the question.

"I'm working as hard as I can. I look around and I'm surrounded by good pastors working as hard as they can. My church is in decline; their churches are in decline. I can lead worship, counsel, teach, and shovel sidewalks, but the insurance keeps going up, my apportionments went up, and I'm feeling pressure: how can I turn this church around?"

"You're the witnesses. What comes next is very important: I am sending what my Father promised to you, so stay until God arrives, until you're equipped from on high."

Equipment from on high comes with a staying and seeing. For me it came from staying, seeing the multiplicity of human need, the enormity of the possibilities, and that these are God's things. Refugees looking for a home, families seeking stability of God's equipment, the scores and scores of people who feel invisible, and while they learn a language, unheard. Equipment comes when we see God's possibilities. In every one of my ministry settings I learned how much I had to learn, discern, and pray for equipment. In this ministry, God keeps nudging me to top-notch teams, to team with spiritual leaders, to equip those player coaches, and find those who want to learn together. May we pray the scripture's promise of equipment...

Often our last memory of someone characterizes our entire appreciation of them. I don't remember Hank Aaron's performance over his last games. I recall him signing a baseball and smiling at me. The way Luke tells it, Jesus went out blessing. He led them out of the city and over to Bethany. He raised his hands and blessed them. Their last memory is the presence of Jesus blessing.

I hope, as I grow more perfect in love, that I don't go out with instructions or compulsive questions: "Did we turn the stove off?" "Is this curling iron supposed to be on?" Not only do I want to go out blessing, I avidly, passionately wish to be among others whose community blesses. (Don't you want to be in that kind of circle?) If I can locate blessing in ministry, it is when the two guys out my office window on Thursday—the one with the plastic bags around his neck and the guy with the silk tie around his neck—both find their place in a circle of blessing—men and women, all people, all creation.

I thank God for those who years ago, when I was new to ministry, provided community that enhanced my development. They offered me their stories, their questions, challenge, patience, learning and reflection on the practice of ministry—the Jim Rowlettes, Jim Christensens, Tom Dunhams, and many others. When I go out, I think I'll still have my fastball if my communities are circles of blessing.

"Raising his hands he blessed them, and while blessing them he took his leave..."

May we pray the scripture's promise of blessing.

They worshipped and "returned to Jerusalem bursting with joy." It's an amazing thing these disciples—that human flesh, well-acquainted with grief, politics, poverty, oppression, fear and anxiety—that we can also bear joy is a blooming miracle. The fruits of God's Spirit are available even in grief, change, and uncertainty because God's Spirit is abundant.

I was accosted last year at our South Side Hispanic ministry during a potluck. I had my plate heaped with Mexican and Cuban and Puerto Rican fare. One of those plates with no boundaries, and like a good American, I was going to eat the global village. A woman came up to me and said, "I want you to know what this church means to me—what Jesus means. I was addicted and I was a prostitute, and this church loved me. It loved my family and witnessed and helped and cried and now I'm free. I have joy. I want you to meet my children. I have plenty of problems, but I have joy."

Friends, it is possible, with God's help, to return to Jerusalem—the here and now—Gillett or Janesville or Johnson Creek with joy.

May we pray the scripture's promise of joy.