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Scholarship versus Service in the Church

 
 
 
St. Augustine
 
There is a tendency in the Church to favor service oriented members and believers. The hands and feet of the Church are often cited as being the true Christ followers, that they "help the widow and orphan, and the needy." Service oriented saints are central part of the Church. For St. James said, "faith without works is dead." (James 2:14-26). But there is problem when we glorify service and shirk from scholarship. Scholarly Christians are seen as stuffy and stuck on concepts rather than striving to help the needy. However, it is because scholarly Christians like St. Paul, St. John, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and St. Eusebius that we have access to Scripture, and stores of wisdom.

The Scholarly Christian is preoccupied with compiling, writing, and accounting the history, details, miracles and so forth in the works they write. They spend time delving into volumes to find answers for the faithful and publish them accordingly. Their work is to preserve and publish the work of the Church Fathers and even add new volumes so that generations can have access to the Truth of Christ in its many centuries. For Jesus said, "heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." (Matthew 24:35). Thus this noble goal should not be labeled as complacency or lack of work, but rather it is role among many in the Church.

St. Paul said, "We are One body with many parts. The eye cannot say to the foot I have no need of you, or the foot say to eye I have no need of you." (1 Corinthians 12:20-27). Each part of the Body of Christ is needed. There are those who seek to be simple in sharing the Gospel, they stay away from ecclesiastical volumes and rhetoric. There are those who want to do tend to the necessities of feeding, clothing, and shelter those in need while sharing the Gospel; thus fulfilling what Jesus said, "I will say to them because you fed me when I was hungry, because you clothed me when I was naked, because you visited me in prison, blessed are you. For when you did it to the least of these you did it to Me." (Matthew 25:36).

Service and Scholarship can stand together in harmony. Both sides are need to reach out and to keep the record. A service saint should not lecture a scholar for not feeding the hungry and spending time pouring over books. Likewise the scholar should not demean a service member for not increasing intellect and being book learned. Then there are the bridges, those who are the scholar and the service oriented believer. They are able to read a book and be a helping hand. The point is that each deserves to be treated with dignity.

I believe are aim should be the hybrid of scholar-service saint, but some simply do not have patience or the mental ability to be a scholar. Others do not have the strength and stamina to tend to the sickly and starving. God made us all unique and we should utilize what the Lord has given us. So please do no demean the scholar for not being in the Soup Outreach or use soliloquy to rub in face of serviceman or woman that they don't know the works of St. Anthony or John Wesley.  Instead, let each person be an eye, hand, foot, and the piece of Body Christ has made them. If scholar would rather not share Gospel by treating war victims, let Him write a book or pamphlet to be used by Evangelists. If a volunteer would rather not sit and read about theological concepts and wants to share the Gospel with their helping hands and speedy feet, and compassionate heart then let them do so!

Don't put people in boxes. Remember that we each has unique and specially designed abilities to meet the needs God has for us to attend to. Let us as the Body of Christ appreciate one another. There is a great scene in "Call the Midwife," where the scholar nun is fixing her repository of knowledge and the service oriented nun opens a book and says, "I never had liking or time for books, I always wanted to help with my hands, that is what I was good at." The Service nun shows appreciate to the scholar, recognizing that they both have roles in the Kingdom.

Mother Teresa

 

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