Diocesan
Life Columns
Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Bishop Paul's writes a monthly column for the Diocesan Newspaper, Diocesan
Life, edited by Communication
Minister, Bill Lewellis.
For more features from the life of our diocese, check Diocesanlife....ONLINE; and Bethlehem
News.
Volunteers discover themselves as they celebrate life and help others
By Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Diocesan Life, September 2005
I had a Sunday School 101 lesson this summer, re-learning the connection
between Christ's voluntary suffering and how each of us experiences the
evolution of our own will.
The occasion for this reflection was billed as a Hip-Hop Mass, an event full
of rap, dork dancing, busy lighting, and unimaginably loud music. Contrary
to the expectations of some of my fellow geezers, it was also thoroughly
orthodox in religious content.
It was refreshing and hopeful to encounter 1300 young people putting so much
energy into expressing their faith in the sounds and sights of their
generation. My generation had folk and Superstar, they have rap. Many young
people there had a kind of Pentecost experience, hearing good news in their
own language for the first time. I was overcome.
Then the Sunday School 101 realization came.
For the young people gathered at the Episcopal Youth Event in Berea,
Kentucky, the awesome moment was possible in part because more than a
hundred adult volunteers were putting in eight consecutive 16-hour days.
Most gave up vacations and paid their own expenses. Like Jesus, they chose
to put somebody else first.
Then came the thought that beyond that gathering, throughout the summer,
other young people have also been having life-changing experiences because
volunteers are invested in the future of our youth.
Despite our reputation for living in selfish times, IndependentSector.org
tells us that 109 million American adults volunteer 19.9 billion hours a
year without compensation. The website estimates the dollar value at $225.9
billion.
Our words have changed. We have come to think of volunteer as primarily
meaning unpaid. Its root. however, is in the willing offering of self for
another.
In that sense, Christianity is a volunteer organization - and here the
connection of Christ's choice really does teach us something about the
nature of the universe.
In my days as a musician there was a moment called the "voluntary," when the
organist chose some music that the liturgy itself did not require, and
offered it out of the love of the beauty and the circumstances. There are
many opportunities to play a voluntary.
Much of the quality of American life depends on people who volunteer.
Cultural, charitable and religious institutions rely heavily on individuals
who extend themselves for others.
Think of the people in your block and the activities and causes to which
they give themselves. It's a good corrective for cynicism.
Part of the irreducible minimum of healthy spirituality is connectedness
with the world and commitment to its wellness. For those who think in other
terms, natural selection seems to favor such a sense of connectedness and
altruism because it helps insure the survival and progress of our species.
Either way, however, the results are good for the individual and the
community. Both points of view seem correct. For those who care for others
because they have been touched by divine love, the two concerns merge in a
satisfying way.
Quietly knitting for the indigent, putting together a flyer for scouts,
working in volunteer construction crews: they are activities that vary in
noise and camaraderie, but they share a commitment to our common life,
expressing human solidarity on the most basic level. It suggests the "muscle
memory" athletes and musicians depend upon: what you do becomes part of you.
It may be interesting to speculate on what spiritual wounds would keep a
person from investing energy in others. The cure, however, may be of more
interest than the diagnosis. Web-surfing reveals studies that highlight the
mental and physical benefits of giving time and self for others.
There may also be something redemptive in taking time and giving it away, a
kind of a defiant thrust against a culture of endless busy-ness. It saves
money, too: those who shop out of boredom or addiction discover that you
can't shop and deliver meals at the same time.
An important concern in our work of evangelism is reaching for the highest
rather than the lowest common denominator among the spiritualities present
in our community. Simple summer reflection on the phenomenon of the
volunteer allows us to affirm together how working for the good of others
reflects a sense of life's basic characteristic as a gift.
It is a gift with challenges. In helping each other meet them we discover
ourselves. In responding to each other by expending time and energy, by
showing up for each other, we offer something back to the source of our life
and we are enriched.
When the ancient writer James told his readers that "true religion" meant
visiting the sick and caring for the widow and orphan, he was telling us
that the core of all faith is connectedness with others, a connectedness
learned by doing and only feebly celebrated in words such as these.
Christ's incarnation means that in him God was present in and for the world.
We voluntarily seek the transformation of our wills so that the same may be
said of Christ's church today.
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