Offer rather than impose
Every believer is called on to serve his church and his contemporaries. But sometimes we tend to impose our own ideas on others to the point of seeking to dominate rather than to serve. Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider addressed this aspect in a recent divine service.
Some 430 members had gathered for the divine service in Hannover-List in Germany on 28 December. The Chief Apostle based his sermon on Luke 12: 36-37: “… and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them.”
Jesus, a model of humility
The Chief Apostle put the focus on the image of Christ the Servant and made reference to Matthew 20: 28: “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve …” What makes Christ a servant? What makes Him so humble? The Chief Apostle’s answer, “He does not use His omnipotence to force people, but respects their free will.”
The function of the Apostle ministry
Jesus has sent Apostles through whom He serves. Although they have been equipped with special authority, they remain servants of the Lord: “They are not free to do or say what they want.” They are totally dependent on Christ, the Chief Apostle said. “They can only say what the Lord has told them. They can only do what He asks of them.”
Just like Jesus has come to serve mankind, so the Apostles serve the church: “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5: 20). This, the Chief Apostle said, is what constitutes the humbleness of the Apostle ministry: offering mankind salvation through word and sacrament. “Implore out of love. Don’t wield power!”
The office of Peter in the church
Also the Chief Apostle performs a service, albeit a special one: it is his task to discharge the office of Peter. According to the Catechism, one of the central functions of the Chief Apostle ministry is to keep the doctrine pure. “The point is not what people want and what the Chief Apostle thinks,” the Chief Apostle said, “what matters is the will of God. The Chief Apostle cannot proclaim anything else. It is essential that his connection to God is in order so that the teaching of the Master is proclaimed, and nothing else.”
The Chief Apostle underlined that he has to keep in mind all the brothers and sisters. “I am responsible to God that everyone will be there to take part in the day of the Lord, not just one group or a particular group.” It is his job, the Chief Apostle went on, to make sure that everyone can come along. “That has nothing to do with exercising power. What it comes down to is serving the congregation.”
Serving the development of the church
Finally, the members in the congregation are there to serve each other, he said. To illustrate this point he referred to the dispute about ritual purity mentioned in Romans chapter 14. According to Romans, there was a group in Rome who neither drank wine nor ate meat. “We keep the purity regulations, we are the good ones,” one group maintained. The other group had a completely different opinion. “And that is when one group begins to look down on the other. Apostle Paul had to intervene.” He wasted no time in telling both groups that they were right, the Chief Apostle explained. Instead he told both that they were both wrong because each one wanted to impose his views on the other.
In the New Apostolic congregations there are many different theories on any number of topics: “Music, floral decorations, how to spend your spare time, homosexuality, or the ecumenical movement,” the Chief Apostle mentioned. “Some see it one way, others see it another way. That is all very well. But when we get to the point where one group wants to impose its views on the other, then I must warn you. Paul said that those who do that destroy the work of God.”
Regardless of who is right or wrong, what matters is the building up of the church. “We can think what we like. But we have to make sure that we do not impose our way of thinking on others.” Because, “if the almighty God ‘forces’ Himself to serve us and leaves us our free will in the process, how can we come along and force our opinion on someone else and say: ‘That is the way it has to be!’” For the Chief Apostle there is no doubt about it: When it comes to salvation, not our will is decisive, but the will of God.
Photo: Michael Voigt
