A significant part of the repeating rhythm of a pastor’s life is a phone call or a conversation, when someone contacts me and makes me aware of a situation of need or a person in need of some kind of compassion and care. Many times it’s accompanied by a specific set of instructions about what I should do about it!

It happens all the time. I guess that’s a part of the cross we bear as pastors, somehow discerning and sorting out all the expectations that are placed upon us. But I also must say that we pastor types often bring it upon ourselves, by fostering the illusion that we are indispensable and the only authentic spiritual guides who always know exactly what to do and how to respond in every situation. Yes, we have had a bunch of training and education, and most of us display an impressive set of degrees and certificates on our office walls. But we have also kept it a carefully guarded secret that we, just like you, often feel insecure and frequently "make it up as we go." Just ask the two Julie’s on our staff how many times I consult them with the leading question, "What do you think I should do in this or that situation?"

I wonder what would happen if for one month, every time someone contacted me with an expectation of this nature I would simply say, "I tell you what, you take care of it this time." Of course, I really don’t have to speculate much about what would happen.

It wouldn’t take many instances like that and the phone of the council president would ring off the hook about my irresponsible behavior. "What’s with the pastor? Have you heard what he’s been doing? He’s been telling people to take care of the needs of others themselves? He’s shirking his responsibility? What are we paying him for anyway?"

If you think my scenario is a little far fetched or unreasonable, then reread the gospel for this morning because that’s exactly what happened. It was late, the disciples were tired, and the crowds who had followed Jesus were hungry, so the disciples went to Jesus with their agenda and said, "(Lord) …send them away so they may go to the villages and find something to eat." Jesus responded by saying, "No, no, they need not go away; you guys give them something to eat."

"Say what?" - "You heard me. You give them something to eat." Jesus simply doesn't let them off the hook that easily by allowing them to transfer their agenda over to him. His pointed command, "…you give them something to eat," forced them to confront their deepest fear; that they would be found out; that they would exposed for what inadequate people they truly were. The threat of being exposed as inadequate is one of the things, I believe, we fear the most; and exerts profound influence over us.

I suppose a part of the reason for it is that we live in a world of specialization. If you need surgery you don’t go to a general practitioner, you go to the appropriate surgeon who specializes in your condition.

If you are having legal tax problems you don’t go to an attorney who practices family law, but to a tax attorney.

If you want to learn how to swing a golf club you don’t ask your neighbor who has a 22 handicap, but you get lessons from a professional golf teacher.

If you desire to play the piano, you don’t ask someone who plays only the guitar, but you find a good piano teacher.

So naturally, when a need arises in the community of faith, in the face our personal inadequacies, we run to the professional to minister to the person in need. But this does two negative things. First, it allows you to not really deal with your inadequacy, getting you off the hook, transferring your agenda to someone else. And secondly, it weakens the community of faith; hinders the strengthening and building up of this community of faith of which we all are a part.

In the face of our own inadequacies we often abdicate becoming paralyzed by our fear and often end up doing nothing; making excuses or rationalizations to help us cope with our inadequacies; deferring to the specialist; the professional Christian; the pastor; the qualified staff person.

If find yourself caving in to your inadequacies causing you to withhold yourself, you are in esteemed biblical company:

- When God told Abraham and Sarah they were going to have a baby, they insisted they were inadequate – too old they said.

- When God called Moses to be a liberator of the slaves in Egypt Moses insisted he was inadequate – offering four reasons why he was unqualified to fill the position.

- When God called Isaiah to be his man Isaiah insisted he was inadequate – too sinful.

- When God put the finger on Jeremiah he said he was inadequate – too young.

- At our Thursday evening Bible study in the Book of Acts we looked at Ananias who the Lord told in a dream go visit Saul, the one whom the Lord had struck blind on the road to Damascus. He told Ananias to lay his hands on Saul in prayer so Saul might regain his sight. Ananias insisted he was inadequate: "Lord, are we talking about the same Saul here, you know, the head henchman for the Sanhedrin who’s trying to put all the Christians in jail? No way, I’m not your man."

I wonder how many opportunities for the love of God to touch someone’s life have been forfeited just by the people represented in this room this morning because we caved to our sense of inadequacy.

Sometimes people say some rather strange things to me; if they only could hear themselves? "I don’t go to the Bible study because I don’t know much about the Bible and feel I inadequate." Is that meant to be joke? Isn’t that a good reason to go?

"I didn’t call someone after their loss because I didn’t know what to say in the face of their grief." Don’t say anything, just show up and give them a hug.

"I didn’t get involved in the service project, or mentoring program (or whatever hundred other things we’ve got going around here) because I just don’t feel qualified." "We’ll give you some training." "But I’ll be embarrassed by how little I know." "That’s why we have training."

Ask yourself, what are the real reasons you often withhold yourself from commitment, service or involvement in the community of faith? I bet ranking right up there at the top is a sense of inadequacy.

I will share with you a personal secret. One of the situations with which I have always felt a pervasive sense of inadequacy is when there has been an untimely death, someone dying or being killed "before their time" as we might say: a younger person, a child due to circumstances that seem grossly unfair and unjust. I feel very inadequate in the face of such situations.

Last Monday a friend of mine from Alaska was one of the four scout leaders electrocuted setting up a tent at the Nat’l Jamboree in Williamsburg, Virginia. I baptized his four boys, and I knew him, and I know his family very well. He was incredibly involved at the church, and we spent many hours discussing issues of faith together. On Wednesday morning I called his wife. As the phone was ringing, I suddenly felt that profound sense of inadequacy well up within me: "What do I say in the face of such a terrible and profound loss?" When Kris came to the phone, she said to me through her tears, "Joe, it is just a miracle that you would call right at this minute. The boys and I were going through a box of photos and we just pinned the photo of you baptizing them on a bulletin board we are making. I thought of you and how I needed to hear from you and then the phone rang, and it was you!" For her that little episode was not coincidence, but a sign that God’s presence is very much with them in their profound sorrow. For me that little episode was not coincidence, but once again for the umpteenth time, a sign that God works through me (and you) even with all our inadequacies.

"We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish," answered the disciples when Jesus told them to feed the great throng of people. "Bring them here to me," Jesus commanded. He took the meager and inadequate sustenance, blessed it and it fed "five thousand men, besides women and children." You can do the math. That’s probably 8000 – 12,000 people. No matter how you slice it, that’s a lot of lunch; and there were 12 baskets full left over to boot!

A week or month hardly goes by where something doesn’t present itself in the face of which I feel inadequate and ill equipped. But more times than not when I all I can do is humbly surrender myself, with all my inadequacies, to the blessing and power of God, I have experienced God doing miraculous and incredible things, multiplying things in ways that are far beyond my wildest expectations. I don’t know how many times it will take for me (and for you) to finally get it and trust it and no longer cave in to the temptation to withhold myself, but instead trust God.

I may have coined a new phrase this week: "Be inadequate for Christ!" It’s totally opposite of the way we normally think. Everywhere else in life we are told we need to be adequate before we can do anything. But the reality is that we often do feel, and may in fact be, inadequate in the face of so many of life needs and circumstances. But that’s no excuse for withholding ourselves, especially when the Lord says "give them something to eat." All the disciples had was five loaves and two fish, but placed in the hands of the Lord Jesus it was more than enough to multiply the kingdom of God.