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5 - The Ministry of the Mundane |
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LESSON FIVE - “The Ministry of the Mundane”
INTRODUCTION:
If you were like me, it was probably a little disorienting to begin this chapter by reading about the three psychiatric patients with a “Messiah complex.” I wish we could say this only happens to mentally-ill people!
It is hard to admit that I have my own share of a Messiah complex. Why is it appropriate that this lesson started with addressing the sin of pride and grandiosity?
DIGGING DEEPER:
* The sin of pride and grandiosity is the oldest one known to man (Gen. 3:5). Highlight the author’s comments on page 82:
“Pride has many faces. Stubbornness is the pride that causes us to shun correction. It renders us unable to stop defending ourselves. Judgmentalism is the pride that moves us to criticize rather than to serve. Competitiveness is the pride that makes us want to be not just smart and wealthy, but smarter and wealthier than those around us. Self-centeredness is the pride that keeps us, like our three Messiah friends, living in a tiny universe where there is only room for one person.”
* Consider this statement from the reading: “Pride destroys our capacity to love. It leads us to exclude rather than embrace.”
Read Luke 18:9-14. What’s the point of the story?
What kind of people do you tend to exclude or keep at arm’s length? In what specific ways is pride at the root of that behavior?
* Jesus knew that his own followers would wrestle with the Messiah complex, so he decided to put them in a small group. And sure enough, one day they ‘argued about who was the greatest” (Mark 9:33-37).
Jesus’ disciples were painfully like us. When you are with a group of people, how do you tend to define who is the greatest in that group?
So Jesus took a little child and placed the child in their midst. Read the paragraph on page 84.
* In place of pride, Jesus invites us to a life of humility (Luke 18:14). Highlight the author’s comments on page 83:
“Humility involves a revolution of the soul, the realization that the universe does not revolve around us. In fact, it brings a kind of relief. It is an immense gift. Humility is the freedom to stop trying to be what we’re not, or pretending to be what we’re not, and accepting our “appropriate smallness.” In Martin Luther’s words, humility is the decision to ‘let God be God.’”
* Humility is one of those virtues that cannot be attained by trying hard to achieve it. Note the words of Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline:
“More than any other single way, the grace of humility is worked into our lives through the discipline of service . . . Nothing disciplines the inordinate desires of the flesh like service, and nothing transforms the desires of the flesh like serving in hiddenness. The flesh whines against service but screams against hidden service. It strains and pulls for honor and recognition.”
* Included in the author’s thoughts in the “Spiritual Exercise” section is this comment:
“As we practice the ministry of the mundane, one of the greatest spiritual disciplines is secrecy - - where we abstain from causing our good deeds to be known (see Matthew 6). In the practice of secrecy, we’re given freedom from the need to be noticed, approved of, or impressive. This week, make it your prayer to be used by God, but with a twist: ‘Use me in secret.’”
When you serve in secret, what do you learn about yourself?
* In what relationship or situation are you especially being called to the ministry of the mundane these days? What’s the most challenging aspect of that? What impact is it having on your character?
In this vein, how can we practically speaking make ourselves more “available” for ministry?
CONCLUSION:
“It turns out that the life we have always wanted - - when our wants are purified and true - - is a life of humility. We see this most clearly in Jesus himself.
There was no pride or grandiosity in Jesus at all. That is one reason that people had such a hard time recognizing him as the Messiah. Jesus was no Superman. He did not defy his enemies with hands on his hips and bullets bouncing harmlessly off his chest. The whip of the Roman soldiers drew blood, the thorns pressed real flesh, the nails caused mind-numbing pain, the cross led to actual death. And through it all, he bore with them, served them, forgave them, and loved them to the end.
God’s great, holy joke about the Messiah complex is this: Every human being who has ever lived has suffered from it – except one. And he was the Messiah.”
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