Several years ago at my previous congregation I remember a discussion I had with the church council. It was very revealing of the kind of distorted vision of ministry that is very much afoot in the church these days.

I had a sudden change in my vacation plans and was going to have to be out of town for a Sunday that I had not planned on. I was having great difficulty finding another pastor to fill the pulpit. It was the summer. Many pastors are already on vacation and those who are available for pulpit supply were already booked. I suggested to the council that, if we continued to have a problem, we could call on one of several very capable lay people in the congregation, perhaps even one of them, to handle the preaching in my absence.

At first I think they thought I was joking, as a nervous laughter circulated around the room. But after a few moments, when it became obvious that I was serious and not joking, it got very quiet. The council members were visibly nervous. Everyone was avoiding eye contact with me for fear that I would ask one of them to do it. It was clear that none of them wanted to have any part of preaching. After all, preaching is for preachers and not lay people. That's my job, not theirs.

Eventually I was able to find a substitute, but this nervous crisis on the church council revealed a problem that afflicts Christian congregations everywhere. We have trouble understanding not only the nature of preaching but also the nature of the entire ministry of the church. I suspect that most think that ministry is only for the highly trained, for the seminary educated, called and ordained professional pastors. When we speak of being "called to the ministry," we usually think of the full-time professional ministry where people are salaried and paid by the church. Ministry is really not for the "lay" people, who by definition are only "amateurs." That is why they hire "professionals" -- not only to do ministry on behalf of them but to do it better, because they are so highly skilled. If lay people do ministry, it must be "church" related work -- like teaching Sunday school, singing in the choir, serving on the Council, volunteering to cut the grass or clean the sanctuary.

Most people have a difficult time seeing how they can possibly be "ministers" out there in the world of their everyday lives. If anything is to resemble ministry, then it had better resemble something which the "professional" minister gets paid to do. And that only seems to happen for lay people when we dress them up like pastors and they wear robes and help lead worship services. Or maybe when they "preach" or "witness" to some unbeliever. And since most lay people feel that they are not good at doing such things, since they do not have all the education and training of a pastor, they either feel guilty for not being better ministers or completely excuse themselves from having anything to do with the ministry of the church, except for supporting it financially, as they pay someone else to do it "for them." The ministry -- preaching and teaching and counseling and talking about Jesus and raising money and running meetings -- that's what the pastor is supposed to do for them. "After all, isn't that what we pay him for?"

During the last ten years the newly-formed Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has been wrestling with this problem of what is ministry and what isn't. Prior to the merger and the creation of this new denomination, several of its predecessor church bodies had very different understandings of what is "professional" ministry. One body recognized Christian day school teachers, deacons and deaconesses, ministers of music and education, along with ordained clergy as part of the one ministry of the church. Other bodies only recognized ordained, full-time clergy in a congregation. The recent Study on Mission attempted to resolve some of these differences. The recent controversy over "full communion" with the Episcopal Church is not only about the nature of the "historic episcopate" but is also about the nature of "ministry" in the church.

The question still has not been resolved, as revealed by the confusion that still exists in many congregations concerning who can preach and just who exactly is a minister and who is not. Is the ministry something reserved only for those who are rostered professionals, certified and approved by the church? Or is ministry more than that? Couldn't it be something given to all of God's people? And if so, just what is ministry and what is not? Is the ministry only something at which the laity can only hope to be good "amateurs" at best, especially when compared to the ordained "professionals" and "experts"? Today's scripture readings offer some help in answering these questions.

In today's Gospel, John, one of the innermost circle of Jesus' disciples, complains about a man who was casting out demons in the name of Jesus but was not one of Jesus' select group of twelve disciples. Today we might say that he was not on a clergy roster or a properly seminary-trained and certified professional church worker. Such breaking of official channels and institutional sanctions could not be tolerated. A similar incident is reported in today's First Lesson. Seventy elders were appointed to help Moses lead the Israelites in the wilderness. It had become too much for Moses to do by himself. But then we hear the complaints about two young men who were prophesying and were not among the seventy officially authorized elders.

Both Jesus and Moses respond in the same way and in a way which is remarkably unconcerned with following institutional sanctions. Both say that such unauthorized activity is okay! God doesn't always do his work though officially approved channels. Moses is elated that Eldad and Medad are prophesying and he wishes that more people in Israel were doing it. Jesus too is elated. This man who casts out demons in Jesus' name can't be all bad. In fact, what this man is doing is as important and as legitimate as what the select group of twelve were doing.

The message is clear. God will not be bound and his work will not be limited to "official channels." He is free to do what he wills where he wills. His Spirit blows freely and cannot be manipulated by our human connivances. Ministry, the work that God has given his people to do, can be carried out by a great variety of people. Ministry, the casting out of demons, the proclamation of God's Word, the giving of a cup of water to the parched and thirsty, is not something bequeathed to only a select few of God's people. Ministry, the mighty works done in the name of Jesus, cannot be controlled or limited by officialdom, church bureaucracies, congregational church councils, or even the pastor. Ministry is God's work. He gives it to whom he chooses. And the recipients of the responsibility may include those who we thought were least qualified.

What does this mean for you? The ministry is not just mine. It is not just something which is controlled by the officials of the church. This ministry is something which belongs to the whole people of God, all baptized Christians -- and that means you! God has called you to be his servants in the world. He has given you time, talents, abilities, and money. The work you do on the job, in the community, in your homes, in the voting booth, that is God's work! By seeking to be faithful in your vocations, to do what is right and just and true, you are doing God's work. You are his servants and ministers.

But even more than this, it is through you out there in the world, outside the walls of this place, that the kingdom of Christ begins to take root in this world. As you give a cup of water to the thirsty, as you clothe the naked and feed the hungry, as you care for the welfare of a neighbor or a co-worker or even a rival, even at the expense of your own interests and well-being, as you forgive the wrongdoer and love your enemy, you begin to embody the sacrificial love of Christ to this world. You become the salt of the world, the seasoning of the earth. You begin to make a difference in this world, and the world begins to sit up and take notice.

I may be the pastor of this congregation, but you are the ministers of this congregation. My influence is confined to this small group of people. It is through your lives, through your influence, through your jobs, through your families, that this congregation most dramatically and most significantly impacts this community. Not through me! I am only one person -- but you are hundreds! It is through you that God ministers to and heals the world.

But I suspect that a lot of you see this as only a lot of idealistic talk, some pie-in-the-sky dreaming. Real life just isn't this way. So much of your work in life seems like just that -- work. Your work easily becomes just a job, a drudgery, just a means to make a living. So much of it seems meaningless and purposeless and only does any good insofar as it puts food in your stomachs and roofs over your heads. To speak of work on the job, cleaning the diapers, disciplining the children, shuffling the papers in the office, putting patients on the bedpan, staring into a computer screen for hours as Christian ministry, as the work of God healing the world, seems utterly off the wall!

In a world where you must constantly deal with competitors and rivals, where advancement and promotion are all that seem to matter, where it seems that you had better look out for your own neck because no one else will, speaking of taking time out to give a cup of water to someone who is thirsty seems foolish, an inefficient use of time, even dangerous. In this world where everyone seems to be guarding his or her own turf, just like John in today's Gospel or Joshua in the First Lesson, you have got to look out for the upstarts who seem to pop up out of nowhere and threaten to infringe on that which you thought was yours and yours alone. After all, everyone for himself or herself -- right?

Wrong! You may have thought you were on your own, slugging it out by yourself in this competitive world. You may even have wanted to be on your own without the thought of God complicating your plans. But you are not on your own! God won't let you alone. When you realize that you are accountable not just to yourself or those you want to impress but also to God, it makes you nervous. As you realize that the embarrassments and mistakes you may have wanted to keep out of sight cannot be hidden from God, that ought to make you nervous!

Or just when you thought you were most alone, when the demons and powers of the world have you most backed into a corner, when your lives seem most desperate and endangered, you ought to be looking for rescue!

And then surprisingly, in a way that you never anticipated, God comes to you through that unexpected visitor bearing that cup of water offering to quench your thirst, to salve your desperation. And likewise God comes to do his rescuing "in the name of Jesus" -- in the waters of the font, in the eating and drinking of the table, in the tender touch, husky hug, and assuring words of an unauthorized minister. God comes to remind you that regardless of what the world might insinuate about you, regardless of how you might be accused by your own conscience or God's own holy presence, you are nevertheless his beloved children, his very own people, the apples of his eye -- and yes, dare we say it? -- his very own ministers, his chosen servants, his people sent to heal the world with a cup of water, with the love of God in Jesus Christ.

And there is absolutely nothing in this world that can take that promise away from you!

You can do it. Because you are salt. Because you are leaven. And because of who you are, you can make a difference in this world. You can be the ones who offer the cup of water to those who thirst. God is with you. God is in you. God is using you (you of all people!) to be his ministers.