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Voluntary
The best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired. One of the great ironies of life is this: The one who serves almost always benefits more than the one who is served.
– Gordon Hinckley
Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.
— H. Jackson Brown Jr.
It is said the strongest force in the world is volunteerism. I would argue the strongest force in the universe is love but perhaps the two are intertwined. After all, one cannot buy love, it is given freely; voluntarily. Love is conceivably at the core of volunteering, or, perhaps volunteering is an outward expression of love. Once the heart volunteers love to others, it will never be the same again.
This week, one of my closest friends, and clergy brother, The Rev. Tom Morelli, deacon extraordinaire and resident of the Diocese of San Diego, at the age of 72 has decided to step back from parish and diocesan ministry. As I reflect on his decades of service, I see his love of God through Jesus in how much he has voluntarily poured himself into the Church. Nowadays, he will be focusing his time as (volunteer) chaplain of the Coronado Island Police Department. Interestingly enough, he started as a prison chaplain and would joke that he is one of the few who voluntarily go to jail. He now ministers to a different side of the long arm of the law.
Deacon Tom would often say words similar to that of Horace Mann – Doing nothing for others is the undoing of ourselves. Tom says that whether a police officer, or Bishop, or convict, our hearts have the need to do something good for others; no matter how small or insignificant the act may seem. From my vantage point, I see Tom, even in his “retirement”, voluntarily doing service for others. I can also affirm that those who are a part of his ministry will never be the same.
The summer choir at All Angels has shown their love for God through Christ by singing every Sunday in June, July and especially August. The music ministry is in a liminal time – we are bringing in substitute musicians to help us discern who is called to serve in the wake of Dale’s retirement and passing. As we approach the conclusion (hopefully!) of our transitional/liminal time, I am overjoyed and impressed with the stick-to-it-ness of our choir. They are volunteering themselves, in the name of Jesus, to continue offering hymnody and song to our Creator and to help us all lift our hearts to God in liturgy.
Our parish administrator, Linn, has voluntarily changed her life to help her daughter and new grandbaby. She is now working remotely and will be physically with us in the office on Sundays. An appeal for office volunteers was made. The response has been overwhelming. This is our most quiet time of the year and yet folks are volunteering to serve. I couldn’t be happier.
Within the first year of Jesus’ baptism, after he fed more than five thousand people on a windswept hill near the Sea of Galilee, there was an exceedingly large crowd following him. He turned to them and said words that were troubling then and, frankly, we’re still trying to figure out what they mean today. He said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in them.” Not surprisingly, the crowd thinned out until it was just the twelve. Jesus looked at them and said, “Are you leaving too?” Peter said, “Where would we go? We have volunteered ourselves to you and are confident you are the Holy One of God.” And the world has never been the same. They showed us how to transform our hearts from seeking insatiable desires to giving our hearts voluntarily to the service of others.
And our hearts have never been the same.
- Rev. Dave
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