Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.
Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

• Titus 2:1-5

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

• Matthew 25:37-40

“The petition, then, is not merely that I may patiently suffer God’s will but that I may vigorously do it … ‘Thy will be done-by me-now’ brings one back to brass tacks.”

• C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer

So, the church, any church, has pastors who do pastoral care, lay people who visit the shut-ins, and a caring team of lay people who visit those in the hospital and the elderly.  The least that I can do is pray for these people.  You know, the leaders, both staff and church officers, and the people needing pastoral care.  Right?

But then, you read what C. S. Lewis says about it, it puts a different viewpoint on it.

Anyone can buy some pastries for the caring team to distribute, considering dietary restrictions, but why not bake your Grandmother’s famous hummingbird cake, or was it red velvet?

You do not have to be a church officer to hand out water at the parade.

I was upset that some of the things that the pastor did in my youth and the church officers did was no longer being done, but when I read Titus 2, I had to look in the mirror.

The Bible talks of the fatherless and widows in the Old Testament, and the widows and orphans in the New Testament (difference in language).  God is concerned for those people.  He cares for them, but Titus 2 speaks to all of us, not the leaders of the church.  Let us all help in “doing” God’s will.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.